Headed to the Market

I have had ambitions to go to the Dallas Farmer's Market for a couple of years now. Crazy, isn't it? Just go already! But it seems like when I think about it, it's always too hot...or too cold..or the 'fridge is already stuffed full. Well, I finally got my act together and we went. We even incorporated a bit of learning while we were there.

This is not the most flattering pic of the Boys, but you can kind of see the little "I Spy" books I made them. Owie's book had words on one side and the picture on the other, in case he got stumped. Noah's book had word and picture on the same side. Once the Boys spied the item on the page, they were rewarded with a sticker. Collect all the stickers to win a prize! Sadly, since I had not been to the Farmer's Market since I was a little girl, I did not know exactly what to expect. Grapes, caps, trucks, bees, pumpkins could be spotted in abundance. However there was not a pair of boots or a dog to be seen. No worries. The Boys earned their prizes anyhow.

Look at the crystal clear, beautiful day God blessed us with!

It looks like O spotted a baby to earn a sticker!

Nosy flipping through his book.

Fun picnic lunch after shopping.

We had a really good time at the Farmer's Market, especially downing all the fantastic samples they were freely handing out. Although I came home with oodles of produce, I don't think I necessarily got a great bargain. I think I would have had to buy in a lot more bulk to save a lot of money. But a fun time was had by all, and we enjoyed the gorgeous day before all the dreariness set in.

Good Morning!

Mommy: "Good morning, Love Bug!"

Nosy: "I love you a bug too, Mommy."

How I LOVE that kid. He keeps me smiling all day long!

Finally...

It seems as if we have been waiting our entire lives for the day Owen would be old enough to finally play soccer. Ever since seeing his cousins play, starting two years ago, he has been asking, pleading, often for us to let him join a team. The day has finally arrived. Owen's first soccer practice.

The coach oddly scheduled practice for 4:30 in the afternoon, meaning Jeremy (assistant coach)couldn't be there since most dads are, you know, at work at that time of day. So I took tons of pics to show Daddy later. Here are the Boys before we hopped on Big Wheel/stroller and headed to the park for practice. His practices are only a few blocks from home which is lovely!

At the park and all geared up. Do you think he might be a tad excited?

Someone else considers himself a soccer star too. (More about that in a later post!)

The very first thing that coach asked the kids to do was to tuck their hands behind their backs and "act like a carrot" while kicking the ball around a cone. Just guess what my always compliant, eager to please, so excited about soccer Boy said to that! "I am not going to do it." Just like that. So matter of fact. I was shocked and embarrassed. Owie?! We had a little talk about respecting authority and following directions. He was better after that.

Check out that form! He looks like the karate kid!

Kicking goals

Towards the end of practice, Coach noticed a very pouty Nosy sitting on the sidelines. Once he discovered Noah's deep down love for the game, he offered to let him participate in practice. Nosy was ecstatic and kept up with the bigger kids just fine. I just hope once game time comes, Noah realizes he isn't actually part of the team!

Evidently there are limits to the lengths Noah will go to play soccer. No stretching, thank you very much.

Sweet and Sour

Our lesson in Bible class today was about watching our tongues, a hard lesson no matter how old you are! We especially concentrated on how our words can help others, accentuating the positive. Pleasant words can help people feel better or cheer them up or even make them feel "sweet" inside. The Bible verse we focused on is Proverbs 16:24:

"Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones."

After hearing the lesson, I had a little experiment up my sleeve.

We filled one tiny dish with lemon juice and one with honey.

Oh, that honey tasted delicious! It was sweet and yummy. It made us feel so great down in our tummies. We compared its sweetness to how nice words make us feel.

Next up: lemon juice.

O was not too fond of its sourness.

These next pics have me laughing out loud every time. You'd never guess Nosy was our dramatic kiddo!

Noah had a very extreme reaction to tasting lemon juice. We compared its sour bitterness with how sad bad, ugly words make us feel inside. Both Boys expressed how yucky the lemon juice made them feel, just like unkind words hurt our hearts.

Next, we mixed the two together to see what would happen.

Gave it a little stir.

O noticed that the honey sweetened up the lemon juice and made it all taste good. I don't think Noah would agree.

We concluded that when not so nice words (lemon juice) slip out from our unguarded tongues, we can sometimes make the person feel better by going back and giving them kind words (honey). A sincere apology and words of encouragement go a long way towards healing the person's heart and the relationship. The best option is always to guard what we say and only let the sweet words come out, but when we say unkind things, sometimes some pleasant words can heal the damage. This is one lesson Mommy needs just as badly as the students! Help me to always guard my tongue, Lord!

Welcoming Autumn

We held off until the first official day of Fall and then I could resist no longer. Those beautiful, shiny, orange, $0.78 pumpkins at Walmart had been calling my name for days. I finally succumbed. We decided to head out into the cool evening and paint our pumpkins.

But first, they were in dire need of a good scrub. I think the Boys chose the two dirtiest pumpkins they could find in the pile at Walmart. O gave them a dunk.

My Guys had a great time decorating their pumpkins.
(Notice Owie's shirt? He dressed himself and put his shirt on backwards. When I talked to him about it, he patiently explained to me that it was his basketball jersey and jerseys have numbers on the back. Okay, Buddy. Whatever makes you happy!)

Nosy's Tosies

While the paint dried we poked at stuff with sticks,

and ran like the wind,

and looked good enough to eat.

Love those Boys! I am really focusing on living in the moment. Time is flying by so fast and I get so sad when I think about it too hard. But these moments? These moments are precious and priceless and I am very busy soaking them up.

A Good School Day

I don't take many pictures during school. Usually we are too busy for photo ops. But today we had two especially fun things happen.

First, both Boys earned surprises in Bible class. What a special day! To earn a surprise, they had to recite Deut 6:4-7 from memory (Noah was permitted a few prompts.) and earn stickers for answering the questions in our catechism: 20 for Nosy, 30 for O (over several days). Way to go, Boys! I am so proud of you!

The prizes were new hats for our dress up basket. The guys were thrilled!

Later in the day, we discovered our very favorite new game: store!

To learn the value of the different denominations of coins and practice on adding/subtracting, we made a little store of play food. Each food item had a price tag, and each kiddo was armed with a bowl full of coins and a shopping basket. They could take turns making purchases to play with after school.

It was so funny to observe the Boys' spending habits. Nosy was a big spender, running through his money quickly buying high dollar items like mimis (pacis) and mac and cheese. When he ran out of coins, he was perfectly content to play with what he had bought. O, on the other hand, hoarded his money, often skipping turns because he didn't want to spend any of it. When he would make a purchase, it was always for something 5 cents or less. He bought all the cutlery at 1 cent each and the plates for 3 cents each. At the end, he still had a stack of coins left but hardly any food to play with. I guess the "spender" versus "saver" trait is something that is inborn? It will be interesting to see if they stay true to their early inclinations.

O's Funnies

*"Thank you, Lord, for the zebras. They are my favorite. And the dinosaurs...even though they died."

*After singing "Jesus Loves the Little Children": "Red, yellow, black and white, Mommy? White children?! (laughing hysterically) I have never seen a white child!" I informed him that he was an example of a white child. "I'm not white! (aghast that I could say such a thing) I'm khaki!!"

*When flipped over by Daddy: "All the parts from all over my body went into my head!"

"No Big Pokes 'Llowed!"

It's been almost five months since Nosy's diagnosis. I haven't given an update in awhile, so here it is...but first, here's a pic of The Little Man himself:

He's wonderful and happy and amazing and growing like a weed! Healthy? It's hard to say. We have had a couple of spurts of 2-2 1/2 days of good blood sugars in a row. During those times, great rejoicing can be heard throughout The House of Halpin. And we dare to wonder if we've finally stumbled upon Nosy's "sweet spot." Sadly, these great days are never long-lasting. He vacillates between being too high and too low, and both ends of the spectrum stress this Mommy out.

We continue to work with the doctors and practitioners each week, tweaking Noah's carbs to units of insulin ratio and his long-acting insulin dose. I guess we keep hoping and praying that we will eventually find the right combination to keep Noah in balance. There are so many other variables that affect him though. I have heard recently that even a weather front can make his sugars swing. A month ago, we were really struggling to keep his numbers in range. I just happened to get a glimpse inside his mouth and realized he was cutting his two year molars. Mystery solved, but the highs and lows still have to be dealt with.

Noah and I have both been struggling psychologically. I guess I thought it would get easier with time. Instead, Nose has started resisting his "big pokes," fighting me and running away. It breaks my heart to have to chase down my sweet toddler, needle in hand, and restrain him while jabbing him with a needle. He screams, I am often in tears, and O just sits by and watches the scene play out. When the shot is all done, he usually shouts at the top of his lungs, "NO BIG POKES 'LLOWED!!!!" The anger...it worries me, but I don't know what to do about it.

It is usually better when other people are around. We whisper in his ear, "Let's show them all how brave you are. You are the bravest Boy." Today he whispered back, "I don't want to be brave anymore." Breaks. my. heart. in. two.

We are in the middle of our hardest week yet since leaving the hospital. Not only have his numbers been way too high and way too low, they have been swinging with no rhyme nor reason at all, with complete unpredictability. I am so stressed and worried. I find myself laying awake for hours on end at night, checking his blood sugar every couple of hours all night long. I am so afraid I will find him in a diabetic coma one of these nights. I know I need to turn the whole thing over to God. I have turned Nosy over to God, repeatedly actually. He is the one ultimately caring for, loving Noah, and yet I still can't rest easily for some reason. I am a mess.

So that is where we are on the diabetic front. The plain, ugly truth. I really thought I'd deal with this better than I am. Maybe it's the sleep deprivation. Maybe it's lack of trust in the only One who can fix the situation. Regardless, I pray for strength, for faith, for wisdom for all of us.

Just look at this face, these eyes. What a miracle this Boy of mine is already. I am so thankful for him.

giving my legs a squeeze

The Big Reveal

Our very lengthy remodel has been done for a little while now, but I have yet to post pics. We had hired a couple of guys that work with Jeremy to do most of the work, but Jeremy pitched in to help every evening and on the weekends. He learned so much! After the guys were done with their contribution to the project, Jeremy struck out on his own to make a few more improvements.

The floors and walls were very bare for the first few weeks as I decided how I wanted to decorate, attempting to mostly use what I already had but in new ways. We still have several bare walls (but I have plans in mind!), and we hope to slowly replace our white appliances and light wood kitchen table to complete the new look.

So here is what we did:

(I use the term "we" very loosely...mostly to mean they did all the work but I got to do most of the picking out..and the cleaning up.)

I have already posted pictures of the flooring, but we put it in the entry, office, living room, kitchen and hallway...everywhere except the 3 bedrooms and the bathrooms. I love it! It's so easy to clean up after drippy little (and big!) boys. We ripped out the terra cotta tile that had been around the fireplace and replaced it with 2x2 stone tiles.

We had the light wood (oak, maple?) cabinets stripped, painted them black and then distressed the corners a bit. We also put hardware on the doors and drawers, which we have never had before. I think the handles I chose are my favorite part of the whole remodel. They are black with a distressed edge and a tiny scrolly pattern on the handle. They complement the cabinets so well.

Jeremy ripped out our backsplash (it was tan and green bathroom tiles) and tiled it himself (with Papa's help) to match the fireplace. I am so proud of him! It turned out perfectly! Jeremy's confidence in his handy man skills has grown immeasurably through this whole process.

We also stripped all the wallpaper in the kitchen and texturized it to match the rest of the house. We then painted it a very bold khaki color. I know it doesn't make much of a statement, but Jeremy and I are very neutral people.

All the baseboards were also replaced with 4 inch tall ones, painted a flat white. They look so nice and updated with the new flooring.

This is my delightful new rug from Ikea. I love it, but I was very nervous about what Jeremy would think upon seeing it. It's a bit bold for us. He actually likes it too! Yay! It's a keeper!

So that's it! I love every bit of it and find myself cleaning just for the fun of shining up my new things. (Is that vain and materialistic? Probably. But the house is staying cleaner than before!) I still can hardly believe this is my home. We are so blessed...and we can happily live here forever.

Rest Time Art

O made this flock (herd, pack, school?) of dragonflies out of tinker toys during his rest time today. So creative, Owie! Sadly, they annoyingly buzzed around my head all afternoon and frequently "stung" me on the bum. Who has ever heard of stinging dragonflies?

Celebrating a Rainy Day

We were planning on exploring a new trail that has just been opened with Gramps this morning, but we awoke to a pretty drippy kind of day. Hey, a few raindrops never stopped us! We donned appropriate rain outfits and headed out for some rainy day fun.

O is just too cool for words. This is the pose I got when I asked him to look serious. Notice Yaya's sunglasses circa 1970.

Nosy opted to ride in the wagon. I can remember many rides in this very wagon from when I was a little girl.

Let the splashing begin! Sadly, today Owie did not enjoy feeling "so wet and yucky," meaning we passed many tempting puddles without even a glance.

Mommy led by example by ker-splashing in some of the very biggest puddles. Eventually, O would wade in.

Noah enjoyed the ride.

The creek was so full and wild after all the rain. The Boys were surprised to see the normally trickling creek so full. We even spied a few kayakers zooming down the river!

Look at the huge sticks we found to float down the river. We would throw the stick in at one end of the bridge and race it down the length of the bridge. The water was moving so fast that it was hard to win the race!

How many Guys does it take to throw a super huge stick in the water? Evidently three guys using all their might!

That umbrella is as big as Nosy!

What fun times we had in the rain! We'll leave trail exploring for another day and be so grateful for the memories made today.