We’re all still reeling from the Connecticut tragedy, I know. And I have nothing new to say – and nothing that hasn’t been said better, by smarter people – on the subject. We live in a fallen world, and as one local official remarked on Friday, evil did indeed visit that town.

If you’re like me, you’re walking around on a knife edge, one sappy Christmas commercial away from sobbing uncontrollably. I know my children are tired of being squeezed relentlessly, snuggled unashamedly, clutched ridiculously tightly. I am unwilling to let them out of my sight, reluctant to stand even a few feet away in a room of strangers. School today will be a strange thing indeed.

Brian and I wrestled Friday evening with whether or not we should tell the girls what had happened: on the one hand, they have little to no exposure to the news or social media, and with Maddie’s tendency to worry about EVERYTHING we could see her getting incredibly wound up about this if we told her. On the other hand, if we kept this from them and they heard about it at school – we didn’t even want to think about the state they’d be in by pick-up time.

So we decided to tell them.

The croup is making its rounds here, and between that and walking pneumonia I’ve given the following homeopathic help out so much that onion farmers are lining up to be my very own political action committee. So I thought I’d post it up here and share the love.

For the record, I didn’t make this up. I first read about this over a year ago on Keeper of the Home, and before that we probably had a few hundred thousand people do it back when people didn’t have instant access to a CVS and looked in their back yards for some relief.

And finally for the other record, I’m not a doctor, so don’t listen to me. You know what I mean. If you or your kid has a medical issue, seek professional help and for heaven’s sake don’t say “But this chick I read on the internet said to . . . .”

With the caveats out of the way, here goes.

One of my all-time favorite sites, Crunchy Betty, posted an article recently on homemade dishwasher detergent. Her sister makes her own, and her one-year-old daughter got into it and ate a fistful of it. One quick call to poison control and they discovered that the fact that it was homemade detergent saved them a trip to the ER.

Making your own household cleaners isn't just cheap and eco-friendly - it's better for the kids, too! Check out her full post (plus a few recipes for homemade dish detergent) here.

And as an obligatory warning note: even homemade cleaners can be toxic. No one thinks your kid should drink a bottle of vinegar straight, for instance. But it's better than the harsh chemicals in store-made cleaners.

I’ve spent a couple days this week talking about teacher gifts so feel free to catch up before you start reading today. But if you’re already caught up, let’s dive in – to my own ideas for what to give teachers as a “thank you” for putting up with your kid –and, let’s face it, you – for a year.

First off, think about who you want to remember with a little something. For me, it’s the people I see every day, whose paths I regularly cross as my daughters go about their school lives. So if you’ve never had a one-on-one meeting with your school principal and can only vaguely remember what she looks like, then don’t worry about a personal gift; perhaps something small for the whole office staff to share would be great.