Meet My Kids

My youngest son - Linus

Faith-filled, quiet, anxious, brilliant - he's my Linus, right down to the hair and blue blanket. Of course his blanket was called "Mongee" for many years, but it was blue and permanently attached. We joked that he never had to worry abut a costume. Just slap a red shirt on him and he was ready to go. His hair was even very thin and sparse like Linus's is. It still is, though he finally has a bit more of it. Our youngest son is definitely our little Linus. I love his heart, his devotion to others, his sense of right and wrong, his fierceness, his passions, his standards, and his deep abiding faith in God that just seems to have always been there.

My older son - Charlie Brown

Quiet, introspective, unsure of himself, stubborn (in a good way), not at all wishy-washy like people claim - Charlie Brown gets a bum wrap, and our old son does as well. People think one thing about him, but if you really get to know Charlie Brown, see the person behind the stereotype, you see a thing of beauty. You see someone who refuses to give up on a dream (flying his kite, kicking the football). Our Charlie Brown is epitomized by "still waters run deep". He's quiet, unsure of his own potential, and feels others opinions are important, more important than they really are. But he's smart, funny, loving, kind, and not a bit wishy-washy like so many think. He tries to stick up for others, loves his pets even when they snub him, and would do anything to help a friend in need.

My two boys, Charlie and Linus, fill my heart with so much happiness. They can be found talking about the big things in life, even at their young age. They are buddies who have the occasional knock-down. They make us laugh, stretch us to the point we are sure we will break only to help us realize we needed a good push in our growth. They have taught us we don't know much, we know more than we think, and to never, ever, ever judge a book by it's cover.

Now, if you want to know about our pets, that's a whole other cartoon series.

Weather Or Not ...

Momma, it's so dark outside 

DARK skies ...

Loud thunder ...

Big wind ...

Heavy rain ...

Well, that was fun.

I just told my husband last week that this spring has been so crazy. We normally have been in the tornado shelter once by now. We haven't even look in it's general direction.

But, today, I started to look.

It rained, it poured, it was just so dark.

Then, it stopped. All rain, all clouds, it just stopped. Not in the way that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck thinking tornado. It stopped like it was the end of the storm, though we knew from the weather apps that it wasn't ending any time soon.

So, we packed up and went to music class. My younger son pounded out a beautiful arpeggio on the piano. He learned some new crossovers.

Then it was time for big brother to jam out on the drums. He hit the drums for a little Matthew West (Hello My Name Is) and then some Stevie Wonder (to help him get the speed he needed for the Matthew West song).

We came out and the sky was clear as a bell. Wonderful. The news was wrong. We grabbed something to eat before heading home.

We walked out of the restaurant only to see dark skies again. So, we rushed home just in time for it to all start up again. The rain came, the wind really picked up, and the weather radio started beeping about warnings. Thankfully not tornado, but the skies did NOT look good.

If you live in tornado alley like we do, you get used to watch the skies a lot in the spring. No matter what the weather radio says, you overrule it many times just looking at the skies. The skies have caused us to get into our shelter many times only to hear the weather radio finally catch up with what we knew was coming.

Thankfully, today, we didn't have to worry about that. It rained hard, the wind blew very hard, but in the end we were fine, our home was fine, our animals we fine.

As for us, we had a little too much DVD time, the kids played a lot of Lego, and I did NOT get a lot of housework accomplished. Tomorrow we will get back to school, back to housework, back to a lot less TV time. But today was kind of a pause. It was a nice pause, a needed pause.

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You

I have a few things in the works around our home, and that means I have new topics for posts soon. I thought I would share a preview, of sorts, about what's brewing in my home and head.

Soap. I like soap. I don't mean, "yeah, it makes me clean, no way I would do without it" like. I mean I like soap a lot. I love the smell, the non-smell (if it's unscented), the feel of a smooth bar of soap. I like cute soap, plain soap ... OK, I might have a soap problem. However, I also don't like soap that isn't safe and bothers my kid's skin. This means I am always on the hunt for soap.

Until I got a wild hair to make my own. I figured I would quell that wild hair with a simple Google search on how to make it. I would discover it's very hard and give up. Yeah, no. So, join me when I take you on an adventure that is me making my first homemade soap.

If soap making wasn't enough, I also got a crazy idea to make my first quilt. It was a long drawn out thought process that went something like, "hey, quilting, why not" and off I went to the store. I have my fabric, my rotary cutter, my cutting pad, my measurements, and I will actually be starting soon. Pop on over to see if my first steps into the quilting world are a success or a flop.

It's been a while since I updated on our fine feathered friends we own (a.k.a. chickens). I will update with pictures, funny stories, and maybe even a first egg soon.

Tune in soon as I walk you through these happenings and more. We have a busy month so it should be fun.

Crazy Kind of Week

We visited my Aunt and Uncle last weekend. It was wonderful. My cousin brought her family over a few times. My kids love to play with their little cousins. It's a great time for all. Exhausting, but great.

On our way home this happened ...

Wondering what that is? That's looking out our front SUV window at the sheets of rain falling. No fog, no foggy windows, that's rain. You can scarcely see another dark vehicle and white 18-wheeler in front of us. Good times.

We started to read this book ...

I have a great review of some supplemental items for this book coming up soon. Be on the look out for it. My kids are enjoying the book a lot. They haven't seen the movie, so they have no expectations of what it should be, which I love.

I started this book last weekend ...

It's such a good book. It's like someone followed us around the last few years and then wrote about our younger son's life. I highly recommend it. I have a few others I am going to start soon.

We have accomplished very little since getting back from our little trip. We were wiped Tuesday since we got home that day so late. Our younger son woke up complaining of a "spicy neck" which is usually a sign of his reflux acting up. I tried helping him and got him settled back into bed. He woke up the next morning with a "little bit of owie in my throat". I treated that hoping for it to just be a little allergy going on with him. Last night it was big owies and nothing was helping. I looked in his throat and found a suspicious spot. So, off to the doctor we went this morning. He feels like he's been hit with a Mac truck (nasty nose, sore throat, no appetite, tired). He gave us an antibiotic and I actually agreed with him on this one. I am not one to jump on a pill every single time my kids are sick, but he's feeling really nasty and I think he needed it.

That means the fun times came of trying to find meds that he could take. Just take a look at prescription meds the next time you are in the store. They are so pretty with their pink, yellow, purple, and rainbow assortment of colors. Yeah, those colors are dyes, even in the pill form. Most don't come dye free. Add in gluten, soy, and dairy (this is a place that his apple issue doesn't pop up most of the time), and it's a gamble on finding a medication for him. We found one that was safe except for the dyes. We discovered that they had a capsule form of that med that could be opened. Yes, it had dyes, but only in the capsule part, not the actual medication. So, we now open them up, put them in a bite of cashew milk ice cream (tangent - try cashew milk ice cream, especially snickerdoodle flavor - YUM), and he's good to go.

It also means we have to amp up his probiotics. Gotta keep that tummy healthy.

And that's been our week. Fun but crazy.

Stay Right Here

You aren't in the wrong place. I have made a few changes to the blog to suit it better. I started this as a way to share our journey towards a toxin free life and it's turned into so much more. Since it will ALWAYS be about my life in a land of boys, I decided the new name fit so well. Random Acts of Boyhood seems to fit me, my life, my home, and my blog.