Happy 6 Birthday, Jonah!

Parents and grandparents beware. The year between ages five and six is transforming!

I was shocked with how much more quickly my first grandson, Elliott, matured the year between ages five and six. So I was better prepared when it happened with my second grandson, Jonah. But I am no less sadden by the loss of our "little" boy.

Jonah at his 5 birthday party.

"Big" boy Jonah celebrating birthday 6 today.
Notice how much his face matured
in just one year.

Within the last month, I now suddenly have a 10-year-old grandson and six-year-old grandson. Life is amazing!

Allergic Reaction

Last Thursday I used the last of my Murad face cleanser. Instead of ordering more, I went to Target and bought a Pacifica face cleanser. Big mistake!

On Saturday afternoon, I noticed some weird bumps on my forehead. I just figured it was from sweating while cleaning out dad's basement. But the bumps were still there Sunday and, after using the cleanser for a third time that night, my face turned red and started swelling. I woke up at 6:00 A.M. Monday to find my entire face severely swollen. I toke two Benadryl and tried to go back to sleep. But around 7:00 A.M. I decide to call hubby to let him know what was going on in case things got worse. He immediately came home from work and took me to the doctor's office.

Since I was not having problems anywhere else on my body and my vitals were normal, the doctor agreed it was probably an allergic reaction to something in the Pacifica face cleanser. So I've been on a regimen of Benadryl and steroids for three days now.

My face has improved but there's still quite a bit of swelling, mostly around my eyes. It's really getting me down. The Benadryl is making me tired. And I'm starting to feel "off" from the steroids as the doctor warned.

Every night I pray it'll be over in the morning. What a nightmare!

Daylight Savings Hater

I just realized we'll be "springing forward" a week from Sunday. I know I'm not the only one, because I've met others, but I'm not a fan of longer days and daylight seeping into evening.

I'm a homebody and love being in my PJs. I enjoy my home and love every minute I'm in it. During the long winter nights, I don't feel guilty at all about dressing for bed at 6:00 P.M. and settling in by the fireplace. But when the sun stays out later and weather is warmer, I feel pressured to get outside and enjoy nature and my personal time is shortened.

It will be nice to shed heavy coats. And I'll enjoy airing out my house for a few hours. And I do like experiencing four seasons. It's just that, for me, a perfect year would include six months of fall weather. Yep, that would be bliss.

Trip Update

After Birdman won Best Film last year, Spotlight won this year, and Mad Max: Fury Road won numerous awards last night, I just don't understand the Academy's thinking. Nevertheless, bottom line, a good variety of excellent films were released in 2015 and I look forward to seeing more of them.

On another subject, we booked our spring 2016 trip to Eastern Europe last September and now it's finally less than three months away. Yesterday Globus released the list of optional excursions and I was able to book all of them.

So our upcoming once-in-a-lifetime trip is feeling more real now. I'm excited and pray daily it actually happens. That hubby and I maintain our current level of wellbeing. That all family members, specifically my 85-year-old dad and pregnant daughter-in-law, stay well.

I wish I could be carefree, but I'm not and never have been. So I'll continue to be both excited and anxious until we're actually on the Lufthansa flight to Munich. Nevertheless, over the weekend we took another step forward and that's a good thing.