A Government Employee Who Is Careful About Spreading Germs!

Today I took my 16-year-old daughter to get her driver's license. After waiting for a very long time for our number to be called, we finally went up to the counter to take care of business. The lady that was helping us felt a sneeze coming on and quickly grabbed a tissue to sneeze into. She covered the sneeze really well with the tissue. After throwing the tissue away, she rubbed some hand sanitizer on her hands before touching anything else. How refreshing!! It's rare but wonderful to find someone who is actually careful about spreading germs around! I thanked her for what she did. It made my day!!

My son ate dirt! Should I be worried?

I was outside this evening pulling weeds in my garden yet again (a never-ending battle). My 20-month-old son was outside playing with his 5-year-old sister. I wasn't paying much attention to them other than looking up ocassionally to see where they were. When I finished, I noticed that my son had a ring of dirt around his mouth. Apparently, he must of eaten some dirt. Ewww! Should I be worried about him? What's done is done and I can't reverse it. I'm choosing not to worry about it. It's good for him to build up some immunities. I would not intentionally expose him to germs, but it's impossible to avoid all germs.

All babies that are in the crawling stage put everything they find in their mouth. My son still puts things in his mouth sometimes, but not as much as he used to. I have a family of 8 people tracking dirt in from outside. While I do now have a vacuum cleaner that sanitizes, I'm sure there are still plenty of germs on my floor. I don't freak out if my son picks something up and puts it in his mouth. If it's something he might choke on, I will go dig it out of his mouth. Otherwise, I don't worry about it. Maybe it's because he's the 6th child and I'm not as uptight as I was with the first.

What about scary germs like H1N1? Again, I would never intentionally expose my son or any of my kids to germs. When the swine flu was circulating last year, I was extra cautious when out in public. I am generally cautious in public anyway. I watch out for people who are coughing and stay away from them. I try to avoid touching things as much as possible. I sanitize my hands and my kids hands often. As soon as the H1N1 vaccine became available to everyone, I had my whole family vaccinated. I know someone who almost died from swine flu, and I don't want to take any chances with that. My family also had an experience with MRSA that I absolutely never want to deal with again! That is another big reason that I am very cautious about germs. I am a germophobe and proud of it!

Do adults still need to build up immunities? My opinion is no. I have had enough colds, stomach bugs, food poisoning, etc. I prefer to avoid germs and build up my immune system through diet, supplements and exercise. I plan to stay healthy! Go to my website, http://www.howtobeagermophobe.com/ and sign up for a free report: "How To Boost Your Immune System."

Spaghettios and Marie Callender's Food Recalls

Three varieties of "Spaghettios" with meatballs are being voluntarily recalled due to possible under-processing. According to CBS News the under-processing is due to a malfunctioning cooker that was not getting hot enough. There have been no illnesses reported so far and much of the recalled product has probably already been consumed.

ConAgra Foods has also issued a recall on Marie Callender's Cheesy Chicken & Rice frozen dinners after a salmonella breakout in 14 states involving 29 people. "While there is no definitive link between the recalled product and any illness, the company is proactively recalling the product after being informed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of a possible association between the product and eight people in the U.S. who have been diagnosed with salmonellosis linked to Salmonella Chester."

It is important to stay informed the best you can about the safety of available food. Never eat anything that doesn't appear to be right. If a canned food item is bulging, don't even bother to open it. Just throw it away. If pre-packaged food has any strange, unusual odors either return it to the store for a refund or throw it away. Always cook meat very thoroughly, especially ground beef. I always remember the phrase "when in doubt, throw it out." It's better to throw food away than it is to get sick from eating spoiled food.

Buying Clothes From Yard Sales or Thrift Stores

I am not above buying clothes from yard sales or thrift stores if they are in really good condition. It is much more budget friendly than buying new most of the time. I recently went to a local thrift store and bought a few items including the dress pictured to the left. My daughter loves to dress like a princess. She found this dress and couldn't be talked out of it. It had some light yellow stains down the front and I tried to convince her to get something else. She is a very stubborn child and wouldn't change her mind, so I bought it for her to play in. I took it home, put some laundry stain remover on it and washed it. The yellow spots actually came out! This leads me to the purpose of this post. When you are buying from thrift stores or yard sales, you don't know if the clothes are actually clean or not. I never try used clothes on. I just take my chances and hope they fit. I look for the right size and hope for the best. I found a pair of denim capris at my last visit to the thrift store that were new with the manufacturer's tags still on them. I still didn't try them on. I don't know where they've been. All secondhand clothing that I buy is washed before I will try them on or allow my kids to try them on. If I do get the wrong size, I just give the item back to the thrift store. It's for a good cause anyway. Most of the time they do fit.

Hands Free Soap Dispenser: A Great Idea For The Home!!

Lysol has recently come out with a hands free, motion sensing hand soap dispenser. I think this is great! It is priced reasonably well at about $20. This is something that I plan to put in my kitchen for sure. Often times, when preparing a meal, I end up handling raw meat or raw eggs. I am hesitant to touch the hand soap pump knowing that I am putting germs on it as I touch it but I really have no other choice. I do put the pump in the dishwasher from time to time to be sanitized. ONLY the pump can go in the dishwasher. I put the bottom part that holds the soap in the dishwasher once and it melted. That part has to be washed by hand.

If you are concerned about germs on the faucet handle, it should be sanitized at least weekly if not more often. If you have a handle that can be turned on with your arm when your hands are dirty, then do that. If you don't, then either ask someone to turn the water on for you or get a paper towel or napkin out before you get your hands dirty. Then you can use it to turn the water on and then throw it away.

My bathroom faucets can also be turned on with my wrist or arm. If you have to use your hands, you can always grab a small piece of toilet paper to turn the water on. Again, faucet handles should be sanitized often anyway.

Gardening Is Hard Work!!

When Adam partook of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, God said to him "...cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field..."  --Genesis 3:17-18
Isn't that the truth? My garden is already producing an abundance of weeds, including the nasty, prickly one in the picture. Don't get me wrong. I am thankful for the choice that Adam and Eve made. We wouldn't be here otherwise. While gardening is hard work, I find satisfaction in providing safe food for my family. Not having to worry about food recalls is worth it.

The good news is I do have some little sprouts coming up. The picture to the right is corn, I also have some squash and lettuce sprouts coming up. Last year, I didn't do a very good job of weeding. I think we had more weeds than vegetables. Part of the problem was that I wasn't sure which ones were weeds and which ones were plants. I marked the rows that I planted better this year and now I am more familiar with what the weeds look like. As I've said before, I'm learning as I go.

My Garden

I finally finished planting my garden last Monday. It has been so cold and rainy here, I haven't been able to get any seeds planted. I started last Friday since the weather had been dry for a couple days. I planted six rows of corn and some serrano peppers for my husband before it started raining again. I was in Salt Lake City all day Saturday, so I finished planting on Monday since the weather was dry again. This is only my second garden ever. I actually enjoy going outside and working in the dirt. I just make sure to wash my hands thoroughly when I am done, including under my fingernails. This year, I'm growing sweet corn, blue corn, red potatoes, carrots, spaghetti squash, zucchini, pumpkins, tomatoes, lettuce, serrano peppers and jalapeno peppers (my husband likes to torture himself with the hot stuff). I also planted strawberries in my flower bed. Last year I planted watermelon seeds but, like this year, it was cold and rainy well into June. Watermelon needs heat and sunlight (which I didn't know last year) so it didn't come up at all. I am going to try again this year, so I'm waiting for warm weather before I plant those seeds. Again, I am a total amatuer at this. I'm learning as I go. I will be happy with whatever survives and provides me with food. At least I won't have to worry about recalls due to e-coli or salmonella contamination on the food I grow.

My Eventful Saturday

My husband and I along with two of our kids spent the day in Salt Lake City on Saturday. First of all, we dropped my mom off at the airport. It was nice to have her visit. I told her to read the travel tips page of my website before getting on an airplane to come visit us. She didn't, but I told her about it while she was here. She made it home safely and, hopefully, germ free.

My dad also flew out here with my mom, but he had to leave a few days before she did for work. He had a cold during his visit and I had to tell him to stop coughing on his hand and touching everything. He has a copy of my book, so I thought he would know better. He was a good sport about it. I did take a sanitizing wipe and wipe all the light switches, doorknobs, etc.

After we left the airport, my husband wanted to test drive this car that he found online that is located in Salt Lake. Since it is an older car and was rather dirty inside, we sanitized our hands really well after the test drive. If he ends up buying this car, it will be thoroughly cleaned inside.

The next thing on the agenda was lunch. It was around 2:00 in the afternoon and we were hungry. We decided the best place to go was a local all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant since we were headed for the Real Salt Lake soccer game at 7:00. This normally wouldn't be my first choice but we wanted a rather large meal to tide us over until after the game. The food was okay. I was a little disappointed because they don't have any of my favorite dishes anymore. I was happy to see hand sanitizer placed around all of the serving areas.

After we pigged out on food, we hung around a mall until time to go to the game. We found our seats and I noticed a lady sitting in the next section cleaning her seat off with a wipe. I love it when I see a fellow germaphobe. It warms my heart. I must confess, I don't wipe seats unless they are really gross. Instead, I change my clothes when I get home and wash the clothes I was wearing. The game was really fun. Real Salt Lake won 4 to 1. I have a lot of fun watching sports when I'm there in person, but watching it on TV gets boring for me.