The Hubby, The Heartburn & Other Things

Oh my gracious! It's 2 a.m. & here I sit staring at this page....partly it's my own bodily betrayal. I have wicked heartburn. I must be getting older, because except for during my gestational period with our oldest pea, I get heartburn once in a blue moon & never bad enough to take an antacid for it. This is about the 4th time in the last few months though I've been accosted by the flames in my throat & had to break out something to help douse the fire. It by no means puts it out though. I never understood why it's called heartburn when my stomach sorta hurts & it's my the soft spot in the front of my throat that feels like I swallowed Ben-Gay.

Partly though, it's the husband's snoring, wheezing, snorting & snarfling. Yep, our children shared the cold germ with him. Usually he avoids it, but this time I guess we're all in for our turn. Oh, and thank goodness that he usually avoids it! I tried to explain to him earlier that I hate it when he's sick. Not only because he feels bad & I care about him & all, but every time he gets a cough & cold he starts sounding like an old, old, emphysematic man. I don't know which is harder to do, sleep in the same bed as someone who is sick, or try to sleep when you're sick yourself. I hope I'm not the only one who wakes themselves snorting for air, feels like their head had a plunger stuck to their ear when you roll over, or who has the drip, drip, drip of the faucet nose. I find myself grabbing tissues the first few nights of a cold & wiping constantly. So constant in fact, I'm afraid I'll drip on my pillow, so I keep one in my hand while I doze off. Then I wake frantically a half hour later searching for my tissue. IF I find it, it's all smashed & sweaty, so I start all over again. Generally, however, I don't find it until I'm trying to change the sheets....eewww.....and I'll end up finding what I swear will be an entire box of Kleenex between the headboard & the mattress. Well, anyway, although I was trying to share, I think I just stuck my foot in my mouth...pretty sure I was tasting some shoe leather anyway.

Speaking of shoes reminds me of the floors in our new house & what I have learned the hard way about hardwood floors. I've always wanted hardwood in a house. Not only are they pretty, but easy to take care of, or so I thought. HAHAHA! Let me tell you something. Carpet has gotten a bad rap. I understand now why it was a status symbol to have wall to wall carpet. All the floors in this new house are hardwood, linoleum, or concrete. That is a good thing from the standpoint of it will cut down on allergies, it's easier to clean up a liquid spill, I don't have to drag around the vacuum or steamer, I won't burn up belts or rollers (and that can add up quickly with my long hair) & furniture moves easily. It's a negative from the view of children sliding everywhere, it offers no sound muffling, and furniture moves easily. I was so so wrong when I thought they were easy to take care of. I went from having a vacuum & steamer (a broom & mop & little sweeper for 2 small areas) to having those mentioned previously plus another dust broom, another mop with a different head, a Swiffer & a Swiffer Wet-Jet (for those quick kid messes). The floor is still dirty. My feet are constantly black. No one told me after you swept everything would try to run away from the dustpan. How do you get dust bunnies on hardwood?!? I have a rug down over where one of the floors wasn't properly finished. That rug serves as a catchall for the random gunk that keeps coming from nowhere. I need to vacuum it. It could probably use a good steaming too. There's none of this, oh, we have a visitor coming over, they're 20 minutes away, grab the vacuum & let's get this floor to look decent. Nope. You've gotta plan it out at least 3 days in advance, because it takes a day to sweep, a day to mop and day to dry, and then a day to mop up all the foot prints everyone left in the wetness. Oh, and I don't even want to get started on how your poor feet take a pounding. It's so nice to go into our church because they have extra thick, squishy, plush, wonderful, soothing carpet! So, right now I'm in a love/hate relationship with the floors of this house, leaning more toward hate at the time being.

OH, and if anyone has suggestions on getting rid of old sticky gum, repairing scratches, or getting gunk (like cat litter) out from in between the floorboards...I'm all ears.