Band, lice and the common cold

Band season is going to kill me. This is my daughter’s 2nd year in marching band – two more years to go.  I know I will grieve deeply when there are no more 6 am rehearsals or sectionals until 9 pm, to deliver her to or pick her up from….no more trips to the music store for repairs, reeds, or special socks…it’s just right now, sitting in a football stadium on a hot early fall night is the last place I want to be. Especially since I’m under the weather.
In actuality it’s not the bakes sales, the shuttling back and forth this time. It’s a cold. The kind that makes your nose drip and your husband cough all night so you don’t sleep kind of cold. My throat is so raw it hurts to breathe and I can barely speak yet everyone keeps asking me questions. Like “do you still have kids with lice in the preschool?” Where did this plague come from that has infected all the family members except Josiah? The Band. The kids had it last week and Ken brought that along with a sign up sheet for Competition day home from a Band Boosters meeting last week. First the kids all had it, then the Boosters got it and now the Boosters of the Boosters have it.  I’m trying to keep it together but now that I’m dizzy it’s getting hard I’m counting the hours until the weekend. Josiah quipped to his afterschool teacher “My mom’s sick and she still went to work.” Great. It’s a little like saying, “Mom had to crawl out of the garbage compacter room from Star Wars”. I can see me collapsing of Friday at 5:30. “She only lasted five days. But the sea monster with the huge tentacles stuck it out.”

I love that Hannah Rose is very enthusiastic and involved in band.  Often all Band Geeks talk about is band, band, and more band. She dreams about band, all her friends are in band, and she can't wait for the next school day so that she can play in band again.  The rest of the family, we’re just a back drop for The Band.  Like the night The Husband brought home The Crud. He went to pick up HR and was gone for 3 hours. I was livid. I was mad for 2 days while this Band Bug formed in his lungs and made him sick. However last Friday he came home from working late really sick so I hurried make him soup and a hot toddy. Argh.

First since Kennie and Hannah Rose had it I went into Nurse Mode. I pulled out all the over the counter meds, soup recipes and a full case of Sprite. How many people clean out their medicine cabinet/storage/cardboard box of medicines regularly?  I do.  Twice a year, usually at the fall and spring time changes.  Keep those snide anti “Martha Stewart” comments to yourself.  This certainly is important. I was ready. Until I got it. And I reached for the box of Dayquil and it was put back into the cabinet. Empty. There is only ONE person in my house who would do such a thing and that’s the same person who has been coughing half the night. The Husband.

So here I was “sick as a dog” only to find that the flu/cold medicine and worse yet, that the Pepto Bismol had separated into two murky looking halves in one bottle. Desperate I grabbed some Nyquil and set off for work. Yes, fearless fans, I got behind the wheel. I was smart enough to just take a half dose but still I  found the medication I took did not work and found myself sicker than when I took it.

 Yet I am at work. Things are not going well but it’s better than the DOL investigation. We had a horrible week at the preschool and I have had a teacher out for 2 weeks with back problems. We also had a child infested with lice and when her grandmother discovered she had them it was somehow my entire fault personally. I was on the phone with her for hours over the first few days of the week and as the children one at a time showed up with them, I had to finally remove the class from the room and have the carpets cleaned, the class fumigated and took everything fabric to the Laundromat to have it sent through twice. Our washer/dryer broke down and the teacher who has the unit in her closet is walking around mad too like I came in during the night, tore up the machine and waited to see just how furious she’d get. Yes, for this I get up at 6 AM and work 10 hour days. To make other people unhappy. The teacher with the health problems will not be allowed to return so I start the interview process all over again. Today I’m interviewing a research assistant from the Physics Dept. from a local university. It shows how disparate we both are. Without even meeting her I know she’s not qualified and I’m sure she does as well. I just hope I don’t sneeze or cough on her, I’m afraid I’ll make her sick too.

In the meantime I have a crockpot of soup waiting for me at home.

Creamy Chicken 'n' Wild Rice Soup

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup uncooked wild rice
• 2/3 cup chopped onion
• 2/3 cup grated carrot
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 6 cups homemade chicken broth
• 2 medium potatoes diced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 3 cups shredded cooked chicken breast
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup half-and-half

Directions

• Cook rice according to package directions.* Meanwhile, in a large saucepan with a dab of butter, cook onion and carrot in butter for 2 minutes, until soft. Stir in the broth, potatoes, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Check and cook 3-7 minutes longer or until potatoes are tender.
• Drain rice if necessary; fluff with a fork. Stir chicken and rice into potato mixture; heat through. In a small bowl, combine flour and half-and-half until smooth. Gradually stir into soup. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. 

*If you’re going to use the crock pot all day put the rice in uncooked. Skip the cooking rice bit and add it to the crock pot with the other prepared ingredients.