Nausea, Hartburn, Indigestion, Upset Stomach, Diarrhea

That's not an ad. Those are the symptoms of whatever our clan has had for the past two weeks. Not fun.

Originally, I thought we'd all gotten sick because of some bio-hazardous material we found in the girl's room. It was moldy cottage cheese, if anyone's wondering. Disgusting, I know. You may be thinking, "What kind of parent lets their kids have cottage cheese in their room long enough for it to spoil?" Well, the kind who doesn't know it's in there because of all the clothes and dolls and stuffed animals constantly covering the floor. And now you may ask, "What kind parent doesn't make their kids clean their rooms, or do it for them?" My response would be, the kind who doesn't want to be a warden or a maid. Both my husband an I have tried to get the kids to be more tidy. We've tried bribing, punishing, rewarding for periods of cleanliness, and even a few unorthodox methods. Nothing. Our kids are slobs. They'll either grow out of it, or, well, I'm not sure what the alternative is. And frankly, I don't want to think about it.

At any rate, it turns out this illness has been going around, and it's not directly related to the putrid finding. The idea that it could have been, however, disturbs me and I believe it may be time to take some drastic measures. In the meantime, we've been drinking lots and lots of water and eating relatively bland foods. This too shall pass...

Updates on our stratagem will be posted in future blogs.

*note: As I was typing this, my husband was taking out the trash (to the dump, we live in the woods). He'd asked the boy to put new liners in the garbage drums. Instead, and I shit you not, both kids decided to climb into them and put the lids on. Oy vey.