Winter dry skin itchy-s

Everyone I know is complaining about this winter, myself included.  And, I know we're all tired of hearing about it even though it's all we can talk about.  I mean, it's wicked cold out there today.  As I type, the wind chill is -21 degrees.  Seriously.

So, how about a different slant?

I feel like I am on a constant battle against winter dry skin with the girls' and I (Matt's on his own!), and I was wondering what everyone else does about it.

Here is what we use/do:

(I know everyone had their favorite brands, this is just what I use.)  

I use a daily facial moisturizer everyday.  I have been using it for longer than I can remember and now it feels weird if I don't use it.  I just keep that up through the winter, too.  It has a sunscreen in it, which I like.  I also included in my picture a daily leave-in for mine and the girls' hair.  Just another thing to keep things healthy.

Especially, for winter, we use a basic lotion immediately after bath/shower so it soaks in easily.  The whole body gets it.  Arms, legs, torso.  I like Jergens because it's light and not too greasy.  Also, not too expensive.  We don't lotion up after every bath, but maybe once a week or so.

One of the girls struggles with eczema, so I usually mix in her medicated cream to the lotion in my hand and then lather in on.  Then, we're taking care of it all.  It's much easier to keep her eczema under control if her skin stays moisturized.

As for hands, I can't recommend enough this Aveeno Hand Cream:  Intense Moisture.  Truly.  It's awesome.  It holds up through hand washing.  I found it when I was still teaching and it is the ONLY thing that I have found that really helps with dry hands.  Matt used to keep a bottle of it in his car when he was a rep. and in his car all day.  I keep a bottle by my kitchen sink during the winter.

This year we tried it with Abby's hands because every winter she has major issue with the soap at school, and after 2 years of issues, we finally have it under control.  No more trips to the nurse or taking special soap into school.  Buy some.  Now.  Aveeno Hand Cream:  Intense Moisture.

So, that's our dry skin regime.  Do you do anything to fight the dry skin itchy-s?

Our most recent asthma adventure

We were on a good roll through the beginning of winter with Lily's asthma, and I thought we might have it all under control (cold weather is an asthma trigger).  Until this week.  She had a little episode earlier this week, where in her words, she couldn't get her yawn out.  Her rescue inhaler took care of it and we just moved on.  Fast forward to Thursday night and she again had a flare up, but this time nothing was helping.  And, of course, it always seems to happen at night or on a weekend.  

We got her started on an oral steroid, but she still sounded bad in the morning, so we had an appointment first thing.  Our pediatrician ordered a chest x-ray, and she got a breathing treatment while she was there.  The breathing treatment helped quite a bit, so I requested a nebulizer at home (up until now, we have just used an inhaler with spacer).  Here's Lily doing a breathing treatment at home:

The chest x-ray came back clear.  Our doctor thinks that maybe she has something else (bronchitis or sinus infection, etc.) brewing in there in combination with her asthma, and wanted to double check and makes sure nothing else was going on in her lungs.

So, from here, we are just on the mend.  I think we're on the upswing.  She's playing and doing well, though I wouldn't let her go outside to do some stuff with Matt and Abby this morning because I didn't want her in the cold, dry air.  It makes her asthma worse.

The girls are in full-on play mode today....

Banana Muffins the day after the snow...

Good Morning!

Right now it is officially -10 degrees F outside, without windchill.  Delightful.  

To give our furnace a little help this morning, we thought we'd bake our breakfast, and I thought I'd share my recipe.

Now, I know everyone has a banana bread/muffin recipe, but this one is particularly good.  I think it is because it doesn't use white sugar, only brown; and it has a lot of vanilla in it so it a much richer tasting banana bread.

I'm trying to link up a google doc with the recipe on it.  Hoping it works.  Click here for the Banana Bread Recipe.  I always make it as mini-muffins because they are loved here.  

I think our snow totals yesterday were about 10 inches.  Now, all the talk is just of cold, because it is seriously dangerously cold and windy.  EVERYTHING is closed here. 

Yesterday, Matt and I decided to give the driveway a second go of shoveling late in the afternoon.  Unfortunately, I had "just" given Lily a bath, so she couldn't go outside to play because she had wet hair, so, only Abby could go outside to play.  It wasn't all bad, though, because Abby got some good "big kid" playing time with the girls next door.  

They built the cutest snowman ever:

...and sledded off the mound created by the plow in the cul-de-sac.  He really created a big one right between our houses!

(Also, check out the really cool snowman that the high school boys created at the house in the background.  

It's huge and really cool!)

When I opened the blinds this morning, I found some tree limbs down in our back yard VERY close to the house.  Part of me wants to go outside and check the roof, but I'm not sure what I would do right now if there was a limb up there.

Stay warm everyone!

More snow, really?

This post is more for my non-local friends and family...  You local peeps know all this.  :)

So far, this has been the winter of a lot of snow.  Every winter here is a little different.  We get snow every year, but some years we get more ice, some years we get an inch at a time.  This year we just keep getting it and getting it.

It's pretty at first.  I grew up with it, so I get some of it, and the city knows how to clear the roads.  It doesn't slow us down very long before the roads are clear.  However.  That doesn't mean I love it.  It is cold. It is messy.  And it is a pain in the butt to clear your driveway over and over and over again.  A snowblower is on our list for our new house.  Our driveway is much wider that our old one and it feels huge when you are shoveling.  I think it's time for us to invest.  :)

As I type, we are expecting 8-10 inches today.  Tomorrow temperatures are supposed to drop to ten to twenty degrees below zero.  BELOW.  -and with wind chill factored in it will feel like 25-46 below.  Not fun.

All the kids are supposed to go back to school from winter break tomorrow and everyone is talking cancellations.  No one has cancelled yet, but we are all anticipating...

The girls did get to play outside on Friday when we had some fresh snow.  After they'd been out for a little bit, the neighbor girls came out and they played even more.  They had soooo much fun.

The Chronicles of Narnia Movies

One of the things our family loves to do the most is watch movies. 

Over break, I caught the first of the Narnia movies, the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; thinking the girls might be old enough for it now, and recorded it.  There were a few times that I worried it might be a bit much for the girls, but they ended up loving it.  (but take this as a word of warning if you have sensitive kids)  Plus the religious undertones are quite wonderful, and they were able to understand them with some prompting.

So, since they loved it so much, we found the second movie, Prince Caspian, on iTunes and watched it this week (with my cool new present Apple TV).  The girls got so into the battle scenes (above), that at one point Lily actually yelled, "Finish him!"  It was pretty funny.

Tonight we will be watching the third installment, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  They can't wait.

I read online that there is a fourth movie in the works:  The Silver Chair.

I will say that this is one time we didn't read the books first, but eventually they can, and maybe we will read the Magician's Nephew, which is in the series and is about how Narnia came to be.  I loved that book.  It's actually the only one I've read in the series.  

Have you seen the movies?  Have your kids?  Do you have to always read the book first?  Have you read this series?