97.7

If you haven't been overly worried about your temperature of late, you might not have been paying attention to COVID-19, the Coronavirus, the pandemic, or as it's un-lovingly called, "these challenging times."   If you go to a doctor's office or other office locations you may have your temperature checked upon arrival.   If you or your children are in any way, shape, or form feeling anything other than one hundred percent, you might have taken their temperature.   Just in case.  Just to be sure.

I liked the "point and shoot" thermometers that have been all the rage lately which manage to get accurate temperature measurements in two seconds.   Children typically don't like having their temperature taken when they're feeling unwell and while there have been vast improvements over the vaseline and rectal thermometer option from when I was a child, these new trigger gun instant temperature thermometers are a parent's best friend.

When I ordered the thermometer online during lockdown I read reviews and made a decision on what looked like a good quality thermometer.   It arrived and I was excited to test my temperature, only to see 97.7 come up.   I checked my temperature on my temples, under my arm and got varying results within a few tenths of a degree surrounding 97.7.

It was broken.  No, not broken, but certainly not calibrated, and what I absolutely didn't need was a thermometer that gave a non-febrile reading when I needed to be concerned about a fever in one of my family members.   And if there is anything I hate, it's returning something, especially when it's repackaging it and going to mail it back to Amazon.

So I hunted down my children to test them before packaging it back up.   And surprisingly, they tested in the normal temperature range.   So did my husband.   So what was up with me?   I hadn't been eating ice cream or had a cool cloth on my head.   It must have been a fluke.

But it turns out, it wasn't.   We have been all testing our temperature regularly recently.   Mostly, because the little gun thermometer is on the dresser when the children come into our room and consistently, I'm sub-normal.   Which is interesting.  And sort of cool.

The Big Boy Tiny Girl KiwiCo Crate Update:  I signed my son up for some KiwiCo crates for Christmas and once per month, a little cardboard box would come in the mail and he would have a fun, educational project to do.   My daughter became interested and so I looked into what I could order piecemeal that my daughter could be successful doing given her vision impairment—and she loved them.   She and her brother would do some of the crates together and he was a good helper to her and he liked doing the activities as well.   So I ordered more crates and when we got home there was a big box in the foyer Blake had brought in with our mail.  My daughter went through all the "crates" as they're called them and stacked them into three piles, for her, for her brother and for them to do together.   The children were so excited about them they wanted to dive right in so I had to put a  "one per day" limit on them so they would be sure to not only do the project, but read all the associated material and stories included.   It's day two now and they are ready for their next crate tomorrow with anticipation.