What to Do About the Flu?

The winter seasons can be a time of great joy, beauty, and of course, coughing, sneezing, and a runny nose. Oh yes, the green mucus and scratchy throats. The ginger ale and DayQuil. The whole flu-season shebang.   Though the flu probably isn’t your favorite part of this time of the year, it does play a big role during this season. Here are some facts you probably didn’t know:

 

-It’s suggested by the CDC (Centers of Disease Control and Prevention) that Americans get their Flu shot as early as October. October is the first “peak season” for the flu, the next peak happens in late January early February.

 

 

-Approximately 22 million missed school days are caused by the flu.

-It’s estimated that 5% to 20% of American’s get the flu every year. This causes nearly 200,000 hospitalizations.

-The flu virus can last up to 72 hours on surfaces, including “Hot Spots” such as door knobs, phones, and remote controls.

-Adults are contagious one day before symptoms are shown and then 3 to seven day after the first symptom. Unfortunately, children are contagious even longer.

-Antibiotics only help with kill bacteria, and the flu is a virus. The best medication for the flu is rest and hydration.  

** For More information, see these websites…

1.For illness prevention

2.Clorox Flu Facts

3.CDC, if you get sick...

 The most important thing to do during this season is WASH YOU HANDS!! Warm water is the best way to keep contagious viruses, such and the flu or even the common cold, from making you sick. Be sure to not touch your face, including picking your teeth, rubbing your eyes, and yes, picking your nose (if you feel the inclination, wash your hands first!). Maintaining a strong immune system will help you stay healthy, taking a little extra vitamin C, drinking plenty of water, and getting extra sleep will help with this.

 

If you are part of the statistic that gets sick with the flu this year, do yourself, and everyone around you, a favor and STAY HOME. Being out and about when you are sick will make you miserable, and can but others at risk of becoming ill. Though work and school seem like the highest priority, your health comes before both of these things. So stay home, drink plenty of water, catch up on your favorite Netflix series, take vitamin play online solitaire, sleep, start a new Pinterest board, or what every make you happy, comfortable, and puts you on the right track to being healthy again!

Oh, Christmas Tree (PB)

Christmas is a time of great joy and family. One of the most significant items found in every Christmas-home is the Christmas tree. How can such a little tree be so important during a season filled with so many other things?

Well first, the Christmas tree in your house is unique to you and your family traditions. For example, my Christmas tree is covered in ornaments that represent our family. A Raiders bulb for my father. A hand-stitched ornament made by my mother.  A babies first Christmas picture-ornament for myself. A Bone ornament for our dog, Chloe. And many, many more. Christmas trees are the centerpiece of the season because they create a picturesque image of your family.

In my house, my mom and I are Christmas-impassioned (My father calls in obsessed, but oh well), so we put up our tree on the day before thanksgiving, and then  we take it down sometime near the end of January. Why would we want a large, plastic tree in our living room window for over two months? Well, before I answer this question, let me ask you this; have you ever just sat and admired your Christmas tree? It might sounds strange, but you’ll be surprised by how happy looking at a tree clad in lights and ornaments can make you.

Therefore my mom and I have made the executive decision to keep the tree up for as long as possible, because looking at the all of the memories of past Christmas's and ornaments that represent family make us happy. I mean, how can you not be filled with the joy when you're looking at an ornament that your 4-year-old cousin made just for you? How can you not be a little sappy when you see your reflection in a glass ornament that once hung in your great-grandmother house?

So, for all those Christmas fanatics reading this, there is a lot of DIY all-year Christmas trees that you might be intrested in investing in (our family is going to be getting one soon!). For the rest of you, who think that Christmas time should be incased into a single week, or that a Christmas tree is just a piece of plastic or a messy, dying plant, I challenge you to think back to a Christmas-past, or to look at pictures from a Christmas when you were little, and see how important that shiny, sparkly tree is in the backround.