An Underwear Wrap

It just occurred to me, whilst sitting here looking at the screen blankly, that I failed to write a post about the Underwear Drive, and the end results!  Back in the first week of January (we're almost at February people!!!  How did that even happen?), bushfire season started with way too much of a bang, in the beautiful state of Tasmania.  We had just returned from a week there, we left the day after the fires began, and I entertained the idea of doing another Undies Drive.  I ran one back in 2011 for those affected by the devastating Queensland floods, and thought I would be able to get a box or two together to send to Tassie......

The difference between 2011 and now is that I have a much more viewed FB page, with lots of charitable people it seems!  I set up Events on both my personal and business pages and before I knew it, had parcels arriving on my doorstep, people I had never met before knocking on my door and strangers trusting me enough to deposit cash donations for me to purchase underwear on their behalf.  K-mart became my second home and I became accustomed to strange stares in the underwear department as I filled trolleys and baskets with a varied and interesting array of knickers, socks and bras!

The best plans can sometimes stumble, and when my hope for how it would all be delivered fell through, I went searching.  I found a fabulous page on FB that a lovely gal called Mel had started called  - "Tassie Fires - We Can Help".  I found a post from a lovely lady in Melbourne called Tess, who was taking a 3 tonne truck down on the ship to Tassie, and would be happy to take any Melbourne donations.  I got straight on the phone, and before I knew it, had a way of getting it all there!  I also messaged Mel to find out who I could donate the underwear to, and she pointed me to Foodbank Tasmania.

I was astonished and very proud at the end of the ten day drive to tally everything up.  The Queensland drive delivered just over 400 pieces of underwear.  The Tassie drive?

225 mens jocks, 102 bras, 528 ladies undies & 49 camisoles, 89 pairs boys socks & 6 singlets, 107 pairs mens socks & 6 singlets, 151 pairs ladies socks, stockings, 94 pairs girls socks & 19 singlets, 350 girls undies, 303 boys jocks, 4 schools bags, 6 lunch boxes, 2 drink bottles, 15 hand knitted jumpers & cardi's, 2 bags of school supplies and odds & ends!

That is a ridiculous 2029 pieces of underwear!!!

My house was taken over by bags, boxes and coat hangers.  My kids got used to strangers dropping undies at our door.  And I was overwhelmed with the kindness of people all over our beautiful country!

All the boxes piled up during sorting.

Waiting for more boxes...

All sorted and ready to go!  15 boxes FULL of brand new underwear!

I'm happy to say they were all delivered to Tess on Saturday the 19th of January, and they were to be delivered to Foodbank soon thereafter.

So a big THANK YOU to everyone who participated, spread the word and eagerly helped out!  I'm sure that all the recipients of your generosity would thank you too if given the chance.

And as our country continues to be ravaged by Summer storms, I would urge you to help out a little more if you can.  The Red Cross have appeals set up for bushfires, floods, everything!  You can find details HERE.

On a slightly different but same note, I was just reading over at Edenland, and Eden asked why her readers read her blog?  Amongst other things, Eden gave me a gentle nudge the push I needed to become more charitable last year.  I'm planning to continue.  Do you have plans to be charitable this year?

Ps - Giveaway finishes TONIGHT!

A Chicken Pox Survival Guide - According to Me

I am hoping and praying (as I'm sure you are!) that this will be my last EVER post on chicken pox!  The past 20 days has taught me soooo much about the pox I thought I should share.  If you ever have the joyful absolutely painful task of dealing with THREE poxy children in as many weeks, you too will write your own survival guide - if in fact you survive!  So here goes:

1. When your child shows you a spot, and another one the next day - don't dismiss them as sand fly bites.

2.  Plan your chicken pox outbreak AROUND public holidays.  New Years Day in rural Tasmania is not the perfect timing for medicinal needs.

3.  Keep note of the date your first child comes out in pox.  Then mark on your calendar precisely two weeks from that date.  Put an alert in your phone, something along the lines of "MASS POX HYSTERIA" to remind you that the remaining children will ALL come out in pox that day.

4.  Keep all supplies from the first child's pox episode.  You will need them - and more.

5.  Buy shares in all late night pharmacies NOW.

6.  Make friends with your local Naturopathic/Health Food store.

7.  Don't make the mistake of thinking because your child has been immunised, that they are immune!

In all seriousness though, here are the products and procedures we used that benefitted the kids the most:

* Pinetarsol - It's bright green and has a most peculiar smell that lingers weeks after use.  BUT it's quite effective in warding off the itches.  It now comes in a host of different forms, but we bought (thankfully) a decent sized pump pack of Gel.  Just work into a lather and cover poxy child in it, leave a couple of minutes and rinse off.  Can be used to wash their hair and soothe poxy scalps too.

Source

*  Solosite Gel - Comes in a tube from the pharmacy and was recommended to lessen the scarring caused by pox.  Tubes are not big enough for masses of pox - so buy a few!  It is a little annoying for the patient as it gets flakey as it dries, but seems to be working well so far.

Source

*  Calendula Tea - This mix of dried flowers can be made up as a brewed tea.  Soak face washers in cooled tea to use as cold compresses.  Reduces redness, heat, itchiness and swelling.  Can also use in the bath for soaking in.

*  Chickweed Gel - When the pox have dried out completely and the itching is driving them crazy, the Chickweed Gel worked quite well!  It has Aloe Vera and Tea Tree oil in it, so smells yummy!

Source

*  PHENERGAN - This is THE MOST essential item on the list!  Get a bottle (or two/three depending how many kids you've got) for the kids, and the tablet form for yourself!  You can use the lowest dose during the day to help with the itchiness, and the highest sedative dose at night to help the kids sleep.  My sleep cycle was completely thrown out, so the tablets over three nights got me back in to gear!

Source

*  The Ocean - If you are within walking or driving distance to a beach, make the trip there once the pox have dried up and are no longer contagious.  Whilst in Tassie we were a walk away, and it made a huge difference to Cadyn's sores.  And I took the girls last week two days in a row, and saw a HUGE improvement!  Salt water is a great, natural antibiotic and healing tool.

*  But the best thing possible to get through Chicken Pox?  Patience and a sense of humour.  If you don't laugh - you will definitely cry!  I can honestly say I have never been as cool, calm and collected as I have the past 20 days.  For some unknown and crazy reason, I just accepted that there was nothing AT ALL that could change the situation I was in, and I had to let go of ALL control.  Which, if you know me well, you would realise is a very hard thing for me to do!

All six of us have survived, with smiles intact.  I came home from work today to find that my nine year old Chelsea (who copped THE worst case of all) had returned in all her whinging, whining, sooking glory!  She's back!  Fingers crossed this is the end and we can all return to our regular routines.

Post Beach Happiness!

Have you had to deal with a trail of Pox?  How did you manage?

Another Pox Post

We made it home from holidays.  Usually not a news worthy statement, but it was a bit touch and go there for a while!  If you read my New Year's Day post, you would know that Murphy's Law ascended on us and gave my eight year old son a good, decent, solid case of the chicken pox.  It knocked the poor kid for an absolute six.  What was most unusual about this scenario was that I remained strangely calm and relaxed during it all!  I'm still rather confused as to why I was, but also very impressed with myself....

Once we could get to a pharmacy, the day AFTER the pox arrived, and spent a small fortune stocking up on Pinetarsol (that shit stinks), Sol Site gel (expensive little tube of scar healing gel) and Phenerghan (GOLD), my poor little man just slept off the pox.  He also became a beautiful, darling little child, who actually came to me for a hug and let me look after him.  So, basically the complete opposite to what he would normally allow me to do!  Cadyn is a Daddy's boy..... Well, he was - until Daddy pushed him in to the ocean for some salt water therapy.  I think the other beach going families thought we were attempting some sort of strange baptism.  I went forth and explained to one of the families that we weren't in fact trying to kill him, but that he had chicken pox and we were trying to heal him.

Anyway, a couple of days later, and our cheerful lad returned in all his smart-arse glory.  Straight back to annoying his sisters and non-stop commentating of sporting events.

I called our airline to check what I needed to ensure that we could get on the plane home in a few day's time.  I spoke to Marg from the airlines, and was directed to get a letter from a Doctor to say he was fit for travel.  That's it.  So I made an appointment at the nearest GP, 20 minutes away in Beaconsfield (yep, the Beaconsfield that is unfortunately famous for the mining disaster) and when we presented there the day before travel, a hippy like looking GP wearing boardshorts and a check shirt with a leather necklace wrote me a little medical certificate to say we were A OK to get on a plane and not infect everyone with the pox.....

We spent our last 24 hours in Tassie at the beach and also having lunch at the marina, then headed to the airport.  And this my friends is where my calm, relaxed facade instantly disappeared......

Our family of six lugged all our shit to the start of the line and when called went to the check in desk.  I presented our booking forms and then proceeded to explain our son's predicament and gave her the medical form.  Airline lady looked momentarily perplexed as she looked from the medical form then to Cadyn and back again.  She then got out a small folder and flicked through, clearly not having any idea what to do.  Next step was heading over to another older airline lady and asking her advice.  Young airline lady disappeared and older airline lady headed towards us stating that the medical certificate was not enough and that young airline lady was going to consult their nurse.

WHAT THE F*CK!?!?!?!!?

Right about then was when my cool disappeared and my ranty pants returned.  I managed to rant without expletives, which in itself is a miracle.  I felt Andrew's hand on my shoulder as he tried to calm me down, but I was so frustrated at the thought of doing all I was told to do, and then possibly being stuck in Tassie whilst half our family left....

My cool returned whilst we stood waiting patiently shitty as hell for around ten minutes.  We'd sent the four kids away to sit together in case Andrew had to lose his shit upon airline lady's return.  We also now had a very captive audience of fellow traveller's who were becoming increasingly restless with the wait.  Airline lady appeared with folder in hand and asked to see Cadyn.  So we called him over so he could be inspected in front of everyone, and she asked if his spots were all scabbed over (fuck I hate that word)?  Well, you're looking at him lady??  Then, in all her wisdom, she declared he was able to fly!

HOORAH!

So we got our tribe home, relatively happy and healthy and I'm just biding the time waiting for both girls to present pox like symptoms so that the school holidays can just be that little bit more FUN!

I have a couple of lessons for you in this post - 

1.  Do not think that just because your child is immunised against chicken pox that they won't get it.  And don't think that if they do get it, it will necessarily be a mild case.   A friend asked me why we couldn't just get on the plane without saying anything?

My point made....only a balaclava would have made getting on to the plane easier.....

2.  Don't trust an airline phone operator with a Malaysian accent called Marg.  

3.  DO GO TO TASSIE FOR A HOLIDAY!  You may or may not be aware that they are currently going through a terrible bushfire season.  100's of homes lost and no respite just yet.  This was our second holiday to the Apple Isle, and I can highly recommend it for a great place to visit.  I am planning on running an Underwear Drive to aid those who have lost everything (including their undies), and have contacted Foodbank Tasmania, to be recipients of any donations.  If you would like to contribute to the underwear drive, please email me msmidge1@bigpond.com and I will forward details.  If you can't donate underwear, you can donate to The Red Cross Tasmanian Bushfires 2013 Appeal.  If you can spare a few dollars, they will make sure it goes a long way.

Beautiful Green's Beach, Tasmania.

Amazing Cataract Gorge, Tasmania.

So - how are you getting through these holidays?


****  Edited to say that I will in fact be running the Underwear Drive!