Author Archives: Tabetha Gedeon

About Tabetha Gedeon

Co-founder of Kdari Virtual Partners and The Kdari Network

No More Cold Medicine?!

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The other day I asked the doctor how much cough medicine to give Bethany for a night-time cough. I was shocked when she told me that the FDA no longer recommends giving cold medications to children under 6 years old! She told me to give Bethany warm juice with honey in it. I left the doctor’s office with raised eyebrows thinking “warm juice with honey…this is going to be a long night!”

I try not to give my children too many fluids at bedtime and am not big on giving them something to drink when they wake up at night. But with no other option, I tried it, expecting to have to give her more several times throughout the night. Amazingly enough, I did not hear a single cough that night!! I guess these old remedies work better than I thought!

To read more about the FDA’s decisions regarding cold medication for children read this article.

Almost an Artist

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Drawing is something I never considered myself able to do. It was probably due to the fact that I tend to be a perfectionist, and my older sister was a great artist. What I drew could not compare with what she could, so I didn’t even try.

Several months ago, Luke suggested we, as a family, draw flags of every country and make a game out of memorizing them (he did this as a child). I agreed as long as I didn’t have to draw them. It soon became quite evident that, although Luke did a great job, he couldn’t keep up with 3 “colorers.” So I volunteered to make some of the more simple cards, like Japan, which only has a circle in the center. 🙂

We finally came to a section that contained no “easy” flags, so I took one a little more difficult. It surprised me when Luke could actually look at the picture and tell what I had drawn when I attempted to draw a dragon!

Since then, I have become a little bolder, and in the process, have realized that I’m not a wonderful artist, but what I draw can at least be recognized.

Luke and I have discovered that he does things with curves, like birds, better than me, and I do straight lines, like stars, better than he does. So sometimes, we each will draw what we can do the best and then pass the card off to the other. And as we had already discovered years ago, we make a better team than we ever could individually. 🙂

Short Term Toy

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The other day Anna found a zip tie on the floor at Wal-Mart and picked it up to play with. (Funny how such simple things are fun to play with when nothing else is available).

Toward the end of the shopping trip, I pushed the cart and jerked Anna with it. I looked at her a little baffled only to see her embarrassed look as she pointed out that she had zip-tied her belt loop to the shopping cart. I couldn’t help laughing, and she took it well and laughed along.

I had absolutely nothing to use to set her free, but there happened to be a friendly-looking employee close by. I kindly asked him if he has scissors or a knife, and he apologetically shook his head. After pointing out our situation, he remembered his box opener and set her free. We had a good laugh over it, and I think Anna was quite relieved not to have to walk across the store tied very tightly to the shopping cart!

Mystery Word

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Today after lunch, I said, “Bethany, it’s time to take a nap.” She raised her voice and yelled out something that sounded like, “Byes.” I was totally boggled. It was obvious that she wasn’t raising her voice at me, but I couldn’t figure out what she was saying. When I figured it out, I couldn’t help but laugh. She was saying, “Boys.”

Whenever it is nap-time, I call the boys and let them know they need to get anything they want to play with out of their room, so they can keep playing while Bethany is napping. She associated nap-time with calling the boys, and it was so absolutely cute!! After that was taken care of Bethany willingly crawled onto her bed and settled in for a nap, satisfied with her ability to communicate (and make me laugh)!

Reading is Fun!!

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Anna has finally become a fluent reader! She loves to read fiction or non-fiction! If she isn’t doing school, there’s a good chance she is reading somewhere! The boys are loving it because she can read to them when Mommy or Daddy can’t.

The other day we went to the library, and she got to check out her first 2 chapter books. I told her I would have to look over the books first to make sure they were okay for her to read. After a quick look-over, I gave her permission to read one but still planned to finish it before her. Yesterday I took a few minutes to read several pages to get a good head start on Anna. Later that day I found her almost at the end of the book! So much for my head start!! Guess I’ll have to take more than a few minutes next time. So for the record, Anna’s first chapter book from the library is from the Cobble Street Cousins series and is entitled, A Little Shopping by Cynthia Rylant.

In Everything, Give Thanks

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Today, while helping me do coin-op laundry, Anna dropped a quarter between 2 dryers. At first I gave up and considered the quarter lost, but then I decided to try pushing one of the dryers over to see if the quarter could be reached. It worked, and Anna was able to use her thinner arms to get it out for me. I continued doing laundry and thought nothing else of it.

Later, as went to put my clothes in the dryer, someone else had clothes in the only available dryer. I set to work folding their clothes (because I don’t like to have my fresh-dried clothes stuffed in a basket in an “I don’t care” manner). While I was folding, I discovered that some of her clothes did not get very dry. About half way through my folding, an Asian woman walked in and motioned that she owned the not-so-dry clothes. I showed her that some of her clothes were still damp and stepped back to let her take over.

As I began removing my clothes from the washing machine, she just stood there staring at her clothes like she didn’t know what to do. You can’t just put a quarter in these dryers and have 6 minutes of dry time. You have to put the whole $1.75 in and get a full 62 minutes. All I knew to do was tell her I was sorry this was happening to her, and follow her suggestion not to use that dryer for my load.

When I went to pull my final load, her clothes were still sitting there waiting to finish drying. My load was dry and still had 7 minutes left on the timer. These dryers will let you add extra quarters once you have begun the cycle, but she wasn’t there, and I didn’t have a single quarter with me. I put her clothes in anyway, thinking 7 minutes was better than nothing.

Then I remembered my earlier experience with dropping a quarter between the dryers and almost giving up. Maybe someone else had dropped a quarter back there and left it. I went over to the washers and pulled one over a bit, and sure enough there was one single quarter laying on the floor. I grabbed it and stuck it in her dryer, bringing her minutes up to 14! I think that was probably enough to finish drying her clothes! I was so excited to be able to help and, oddly enough, thankful for dropping a quarter between 2 dryers!

Harvest Party 2007

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Last Sunday, our church got together for a harvest party. We had a cookout, roasted marshmallows, a pinata, and pie baking contest. One very exciting thing is that I WON THE PIE BAKING CONTEST (thanks Mom & Rebekah for the recipe), and my friend Christy got 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places! Go Christy!!

There were 2 pinatas. Anna was in the older group, and Peter, Phillip, and Bethany were in the younger group. I didn’t figure Bethany would get much candy, but I gave her a bag anyway. I was shocked to see her picking it up by the hand full! It was so funny! She got more candy than the boys did!!

At one point I walked in the kitchen to find our pastor’s 11 year old daughter standing in the kitchen licking a mounded plate of whipped cream. Luke walked up and said, “I’ve wanted to do this to someone all my life,” and hit the bottom of the plate right into her face. She laughed and turned bright red. It was hilarious! By the way, this is the same girl Anna partnered with in a 3 legged race at the party. They made an interesting pair because there is about a foot and a half difference in their heights. Amazingly, they won! Anna tells me they practiced by walking around the house together. 🙂

We had fun at the Harvest party and came home with fuller stomachs than we probably should have! Wish you could have been there!! If you weren’t there, take a look at some pictures.

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Anna Can Type!!

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A year or two ago, we began teaching Anna how to type. Actually, we found a free computer program that taught her. We told her that for now, we would like for her to type as fast as her age, with an eventual goal of 20 words per minute. She is finally to the point that she can type without looking at the keys with an average error rate of 17%! And guess what!!! Today she scored 20 words per minute with a 15% error rate!! She is so excited!!!  Before long, she’ll be typing papers for college students! 🙂 Way to go, Anna!!