Happy Anniversary, Nana & Poppy!

Today my parents have been married for 36 years! Whew.

Switching gears a bit, I thought I’d relieve everyone by letting them know that it seems my little snake friend has moved on. Perhaps he’s afraid I’d run him over with the lawn mower? (Sorry, PETA. I would have done it.)

I was mowing the back yard today and I heard a weed eater (weed whacker?) nearing. I though our neighbor was coming to help out again. (They’re terrific like that.) But, I was wrong!

It was Nate!

He has been working midnights and woke up a bit earlier than I thought. So, he just joined in on the lawn work.

I’m sure this may be surprising to some people, but I thought his gesture was very romantic. I was already trying to keep four kids corralled (Ferris was inside sleeping), so help was so welcome. (I’m pathetic… I know. I don’t even want him to buy me flowers on our anniversary. It’s too trite and wasteful!)

My husband’s the best. I can’t wait ’til we celebrate 36 years together. Maybe then we’ll actually take a honeymoon. ;) 

I’m used to taking forever at the store. When you’ve got five children, how could it ever be a quick trip? Honestly, just buckling car seats and then situating everyone in (or around) the cart is exhausting.

So, I was giddy with excitement to do some real grocery shopping all alone today. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE being with my kids… but sometimes I miss the efficiency of errands that I had before we became parents.

Anyway, back to today’s trip. I went to two stores and it still took me three hours. THREE hours. Both stores are within five miles of our house, too.

Know why? ‘Cause reading almost every food label to check for dairy ingredients and milk by-products takes some time and patience. Whew! I think I did OK though.

Even though it still took forever, I’ll count it as a success. After all, it was an investment in Brady’s health!

Now… what to do about those cookies he ate right before I got home? They had whey in them and he didn’t think to ask Daddy. Ugh!

I took Andy and Brady to the library the other day and (finally!) enrolled them in the summer reading program. We found out that Connor can participate, too.

Much to the boys’ delight, we also learned that they get a small prize for every five books that they read (or have read to them.) I wanted to argue, just five? But I kept my mouth shut. We read seven just tonight.

Anyway, we turned in our first set of titles and each boy got a prize. Andy chose a piece of cheap junk cherished toy that pops up. Connor got a certificate for free apple dippers from McD’s. And Brady — my boy who’s allergic to dairy — reached in and blindly chose a certificate for a free milkshake from Steak’n'Shake. Um, yeah.

Guess we’ll do a little trade.

Anyway, I was hoping for some help. I checked out 25 books to read to the kids tonight. Those won’t last us long. I’m generally in a hurry when I’m choosing more, so I was thinking of putting some on hold via the library’s website. So, here’s where you come in. Anyone have a favorite kids book you think we should read? What are your all-time favorite titles? Who are your favorite children’s authors? Why?

Please keep in mind that my kids aren’t quite ready for chapter books yet. (The oldest is just five.) Any suggestions are welcome, though.

For the record, my all-time favorite storybook from when I was a kid is “The Flying Hockey Stick” by Jolly Roger Bradfield. It’s out of print now and very hard to find (unless you miraculously win it on eBay like I did.) If you can find it, it’s worth a read. Kids love it! (And I still do, too.)

Connor has recently had a renewed interest in potty training. I’m so busy that we haven’t had a “special potty day” again for him, but we’re instead just riding the wave, so to speak. Heh, heh.  I’m letting him go as often as he wants, offering much bribery encouragement, and praising him with high-fives and “woo-hoos” as loud as I can make them.

He’s doing great with this no-pressure tactic, so I’ll take it for now; however, I think he’s planning a vacation. How do I know?

Tonight, he did his business, climbed down and flushed. Like normal, he waved into the toilet and said, “Bye-bye, potty!” I giggled. Then he added, “See you later!”

Beach trip anyone?

And for good measure, he followed up with the instructions we usually give Daddy when he heads off to work: “Be careful and come home to me!”

Personally, I’d much rather it stay at the beach, forever on vacation… thankyouverymuch.

I’ve been putting off writing about this, because it just seemed like such a huge topic… But here goes!

We’ve known for quite some time that Brady had some sort of food allergy. He has had a million symptoms of food allergies basically his whole life, but we didn’t know what it was. Because none of the symptoms were severe enough to be life-threatening, I’d put off figuring it out.

The elimination diet is a daunting process! (We’d done one round of it earlier and it was very difficult. I blogged about it then here and here.)

A couple of weeks ago, when the weather started getting REALLY hot around here, Brady started wheezing. I knew it was time to figure out his allergy once and for all. I’ve read enough to know that if you continue to give the child the allergen, he can develop full-blown asthma. If you eliminate every trace of said allergen, he is much more likely to outgrow it! So, the wheezing scared me into a much more active search.

I’m so happy to say that we figured it out this time!

My boy Brady is allergic to milk / dairy in all its forms. Every tiny trace ingredient causes a bit of a reaction from him — thankfully not anaphylaxis! But every little speck does seem to make a difference.

So, last week, Brady mourned the loss of Ranch dressing, milk chocolate, and frozen pizza. He’s been drinking rice milk for a long time, so that hasn’t been an issue. I knew I’d be able to find ice cream alternatives. The cheese was going to be the hard part.

I’m happy to say we have really good health food stores around here! Last week we bought some rice-based ice cream and dairy-free bread.  I found soy pudding and tofu cheese (it’s vegan.) The thought sorta makes me cringe, but he’s young enough not to care and I won’t teach him any differently.

Today I found a dairy-free ranch dressing (Brady’s ecstatic) and an all veggie pizza that has no cheese! I can always make our own pizza, but this frozen kind will be great for days when we’re overloaded.

Many restaurants have their allergen information on their websites, so if we plan ahead, we can still partake. The part that scares me is the upcoming pitch-in dinner at church. I’ll have to pack him his own special meal, I guess.

He’s been such a trooper. I’m so proud of him! It’s going to be hard for awhile, but just having it pinpointed helps. I’m breathing a sigh of relief … and so is Brady. Wheeze-free!

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about ways to get my children to see the importance of service, specifically Christian service. We’ve been doing tiny things here at home, like actually serving dinner to siblings, etc., but I wanted it to sink in outside the home, too.

There’s a sweet older lady at church who has quietly been responsible for pulling all the weeds around the landscaping at church for years. She was so meek about it that it never even occurred to me that someone did it or even that it needed to be done! Anyway, she recently had surgery, so I volunteered our services. Friday, I loaded up the van and the six of us went to pick weeds while Daddy was working. (OK, really just three of us… Connor and Evan were easily distracted and Ferris was no help at all! )

Andy and Brady did fairly well for the first hour, but then their focus started to waver about halfway around the church. I decided to teach them a new song to keep them interested. Here’re the lyrics, just in case you’ve never heard it. It’s an echo song.

“I sing a new song …
Since Jesus came…
Serve a new master …
Wear a new name…
Walk a new road…
Have a new goal…
Know a new peace…
Down deep in my soul.”

Every single time we sang it, the boys would start to giggle about halfway through… Yet they asked me to sing it again and again. I couldn’t figure out what was so funny. Finally I tried to listen to exactly how they were singing it. Here’s what they sang:

“I sing a new song …
Since Jesus came…
Serve a new master …
Wear a new name…
Walk a new road…
Have a new goal…
Knowin’ who pees…
Down deep in my soul.”

What?! “Knowin’ who pees?!”

I had to try really hard not to laugh as I corrected them and explained what peace is. What’s even crazier, though, is that we don’t even use that word. (We’ve been a “potty” house since we first had kids.)

But what can I say? They weren’t completely wrong. God does know all.

For Matt Bateman, Andy’s Coach and all you other White Sox fans:

Enough said.

Our house is in an uproar this weekend because the Cubs and Sox are playing the Crosstown Classic. Around here, it’s equivalent to the Civil War.

Though we live southeast of Chicago, we’re die hard north-side fans. We bleed Cubby blue.

We’re currently going through another round of the elimination diet to determine Brady’s food allergy. (We’re making progress finally!) While eating a carefully chosen lunch (void of the milkshakes Andy and Connor wanted,) Andy said, “Mommy, I think I’m allergic to the White Sox.”

I tried not to laugh. “Oh really? What happens if you get near the White Sox?”

“I stink!” Andy said, giggling hysterically.

Don’t worry, buddy, I’m sure more than half of Chicago has the same allergy.

PS– For those of you who give a hoot, Cubs won game one of the series. Game two is being played now. The Cubs won game two also. Can you hear us singing the “Go, Cubs, Go” song?!  :)

We mid-westerners have been recycling for a very long time… Longer than it’s been en vogue, that’s for sure.

When I was a kid, we sometimes rode our bikes around the neighborhood asking for everyone’s empty “pop” cans just so we could sell them to the local collector. I’m not sure what he did with them, but he’d give us a very minimal amount for them and we’d then waste our earnings on sugary sweets from the neighborhood Village Pantry. (Wow… We were even giving economic stimulus packages to the dentist back then, too!)

When I was a kid, we made makeshift kites our of plastic garbage bags. We created a slip-and-slide out of a roll of plastic and the garden hose. And we made our bikes cooler by clipping a baseball card against the frame so it flittered in the spokes and sounded like a real moped. (Do those even exist anymore?!)

I remember going to family reunions and seeing salads served out of repurposed ice cream buckets. We bought “vintage” clothes from garage sales and “recycled” them by wearing them ourselves. We drank from Ball jars. (OK, my husband and I still do this… but so does our local steakhouse!) 

So, I may not be Leo DiCaprio now, but I still know a thing or two about living green. I’d explain more, but I’ve got to go. I’m “repurposing” dish soap to fill my kids’ bubble machine.

Tell me, now, what memories do you have of “living green” when you were a kid?

We finally got around to taking a whole-family photo that includes Ferris. We needed an updated photo for a project I’m working on, so my mom took one some of us in our front yard on Monday and here it is…

My favorite part of this photo is that Brady and Connor (aka: oil and water) are holding hands. We all look so peaceful and almost normal, don’t we?

As a nod to The Wizard of Oz, “pay no attention to the graphic artist behind the computer.” She may or may not have altered three photos and combined them to get one where all five children look relatively normal.

Then again, maybe she should have tried a bit harder. We’re pure cheese.