Reusing School Papers

A ton of paperwork comes home from school with my kids.  Newsletters, community fliers, activity sheets, lunch menus, etc.  Most of the time one side is blank.  I keep the papers on our 'schedule wall' for as long as the information is relevant.  After it isn't needed, and if it is in good shape, we find new uses for it.

The white paper usually gets stacked by the printer so the blank side can be used for printing non-important things.

Sometimes it is drawn on.  Or turned into a paper airplane.  Or a hat.  Or a sword.  Whatever.

Cutting standard-sized paper into quarters and securing the stack with a binder clip makes the perfect size notepad to put by the phone.  It can lay flat or be hung up by the clip.

I've also made thinner stacks stapled together on the long side for the kids to create their own comic books.  How many pages per book depends on the ability of your stapler.

You can also make multicolored paper chains, blank side facing out.  I suggest using a paper cutter rather than scissors to make the strips.  Forming the chain can keep a kid busy for ages.

Intradermal Flu Shot

I was flipping though an older issue of Good Housekeeping and saw a blurb about "ouchless flu shots" and how the newer Fluzone Intradermal shot uses a very short, thin needle to put the vaccine in your skin instead of into the muscle.   I felt compelled to share an opinion.

This winter, I had the intradermal type shot.  I didn't choose it over the traditional kind, it was just what was available after places ran out of the other.

I don't think regular shots hurt overly much.  The intradermal kind burned like a bee sting.  It itched like crazy for a couple of hours, and remained a raised welt for a week.  It is 3 months later and I still have a very faint bruise-like discoloration at the injection site.

There was no muscle soreness like sometimes happens with a traditional shot, but I'd rather have dealt with that.

Not a fan of Fluzone Intradermal.