Finally The Sun = Sunburn

    I was beginning to wonder if we would ever again see a warm sunny day.  Do you remember that Twightlight Zone where they lived on this planet with no sun, and they only saw the sun once every ten years... well I was beginning to think that I was guest starring in that episode!  Unfortunately with the sun comes the inevitable sunburn.

    This Tuesday past the kids had track and field.  I was thinking that there was a good chance that I would make mother of the year.  I was prepared.  I had even gone so far as to purchase new athletic type clothing for them.  I had looked out hats and purchased the highest sunscreen rating that I could get my hands on.  Oh I was a really good mother.  That fallacy came tumbling down around my feet Tuesday night.
    Tuesday morning I got the kids up in great time (when I say 'I', I really mean Christopher, but I was technically there... that counts as 'I' ... right).  They were fed, dressed, hair done and ready to go to school.  I sun screened their faces, and necks, ears and arms with a thick layer just you are supposed to.  I didn't sunscreen their legs because it was track and field, their legs wouldn't see the sun.  I think that you know where I am going with this one.
    Rowan came home early with an injury (I will not go into details, but I will say that his injury would make all the men reading this wince).  Riley came home with this weird rash on her legs.  She had been sitting in the grass with her friends while she waited for her track and field events.  It was probably just an allergy.  Right after school I took put Riley and Rowan in the car to take them to their art class in Peterborough.  Riley was complaining in the car on the way there that her legs hurt.  I assured her that I would pick up some rash cream for her while they were in their class.  When I picked them up after their class, her legs looked like someone had painted them scarlet.  It was sunburn.

      When we got home I began to research natural sunburn remedies.  There were a few ingredients that kept coming up... tea and cider vinegar.  I decided to make a concoction that mixed the two of them together.  I soaked four tea bags in four cups of boiling water for an hour.  I then mixed in one cup of cider vinegar.  I put a handful of ice into the large bowl to cool it, and put some in containers.  The next thing that I did was cut an old flannelette sheet into long strips.  These strips I then soaked in the cold tea mixture.
  

    When Riley was settled into bed, I put an old towel under her legs and the tea soaked cloth onto her legs.  She put up a fuss, but in the end she settled down.  She didn't fuss because the mixture hurt, but because it was cold.  As a matter of fact she asked for me to repeat the soaked clothes again for the next two nights, she said that it really took the heat out of her legs.

    I now have two jars of the tea/ apple cider mixture in the fridge.  I don't plan to repeat the mistake of the kids getting sunburned, but lets face it, sometimes these things happen.  I am prepared this time ahead of time.