Farm date with Easton

After the morning family outing to take in Leesburg's Court and Market Days, we headed home for some lunch and put McKay down for his mandatory nap. It just so happened to be the Farm Tour Festival in our county which I don't like to miss so I took Easton on a date and Ryan got a nap. All were happy!

As we pulled up to the farm, I see that they've newly installed a playground. Easton's thrilled, but I was a little dismayed because we frequent parks a lot and I came here for the farm experience! So I let him know we'd do the playground after we found ourselves some pumpkins. First we stopped to see the wheat harvest demonstration which was pretty cool!

The farm had a bunch of pumpkins laid out for the non-patch people. Easton ran to it and started checking out the mighty gourds. Then he saw another kid roll over a pumpkin and holler a delighted, disgusted "Ewwwww!" Easton LOVED it and began turning over pumpkins to see if he could find any fabulously rotten ones to squeal about. Such a boy thing!

Then we took the hayride to the pumpkin patch which was fabulous on a sweatshirt and shorts weather day! We hopped off the hayride and other patch people with their arms overflowing with beautiful pumpkins and decorative gourds began climbing aboard. Easton proceeded to pick up the nearest discarded pumpkin which was probably left by some mom telling her kids they had to pick their favorite. He looked up at me and said, "Playground now?" What a schemer! Here I was, dreaming of a fabulous afternoon discovering all a pumpkin patch can hold with my son and he was thrilled to check off the task and head for the playground! So rather than fight him on it, we grabbed his pumpkin and boarded the hayride before it had even left. I totally should have held my ground and made it a fun game hunting for treasures in the patch, but with a bad case of hayfever and a sore leg from the current health ailment - I was okay giving in.

As you can see from the pictures, Easton is in need of a serious hair cut and me seeing pictures of said hair condition hope to address it very soon. However, hair length did not impede this kid from haivng a great time at the farm and the playground. I still get such a kick out of seeing him look for me before and after he does something like those slides. It means that he still thinks I'm the most important person in his life and reminds me I need to soak it up!

The both of us are really enjoying our current Joy School setup and I was his teacher this week. It was so adorable to hear him open the door for his friends and say, "Welcome to Joy School, come on in!"

A word to the current health ailment on my leg. It's a condition called erythema nodosum and is rather repulsive. If ya google the condition, it's an inflamation of the fat cell layer. I lovingly refer to it as my elephant leg condition because my affected leg swells from the knee down, has a red hot spot the size of a good bruise, extremely tender, and I loose all shapelyness of said leg and my ankle disappears. It's a condition that runs its course in 3-6 weeks and is an outward manifestation of my ulcerative colitis, cuz apparently having UC diarrhea isn't enough. However, the UC symptoms are doing MUCH better on this whole modified diet I'm trying to stick with (some days better than others) so I'll keep with it to try to avoid going back on prednisone steroids.

My cute guys

I haven't posted in a while because we've been rather busy. Any time I have at the computer has been used to research nutrition and gluten-free recipes. Fun, huh? Other than that, here's the lowdown! We bought a trampoline from a family that was moving. I've been dying to make use of our horrible backyard so that I can send the boys outside to play. We had to have a fence built and last weekend Ryan and a couple of his wonderful friends leveled the backyard in prep for the trampoline. Dean set the retaining wall complete with plastic tarp to keep the dirt from coming through the brick AND a drainage pipe. Joseph did the cement step at the base of the deck and they all collaborated on the entire project. Such a great job! Also, our wonderful new neighbor works for Rentals Unlimited and was able to get us free delivery and use of a Rota tiller and tamper (soil flattener). It's just so awesome!!! I am completely indebted to all three of them!!! I'm soooo excited! Here's pictures of their work:
Dean's wall

Joseph's cement wonder - totally reminds me of my dad's projects, the cement lover!

Easton loves the movie "Chicken Little" and he and McKay are both little songbirds when left to themselves. In that movie, two characters are kareoking "Don't go breakin' my heart." I sing this with the boys but the best is when we heard it on the radio recently and McKay just started belting out "Woooo-Hoo!" randomly and still does. Kids just crack me up! And to hear Easton making up his own words to songs kills me! Here's some pics today of McKay taking one of his regular post-meal baths in the sink:


On Sunday, McKay was sitting in my lap and looked up at me and Ryan and pointed to his feet and said matter of factly, "Feet!" That's the first real word. The rest of his words are really kidspeak other than when he's hollering "MOM!" I just can't get enough of his impish smiles and so it's a good thing he's quite the snuggler and has taken to smashing noses/gazing eyeball to eyeball!

When Ryan got home tonight, Easton began asking for "sticky popcorn." This simple recipe only involves popcorn, brown sugar, butter and marshmellows. Ryan made it with Easton's help and to be funny, Ryan handed a huge glob to McKay to see what he'd do. I missed that first moment which was hilarious because McKay's jaw dropped and his eyebrows arched. He cracks me up!!! But these are pretty funny anyhow!

A serious case of the grumps overcome!

I've finished the cleanse a week and a half ago which I underwent to see if I could stay off steroids and heal myself through nutrition. There's so much I've learned about myself and nutrition - it's quite remarkable! Still compiling an entire post about it - it may never get published at this rate.

I can report that the cleanse was totally worth it and I'm still continuing some aspects of it as I reintroduce foods - gluten, then meat, then dairy and now the whole grain quinoa [pronounced Keen-wah]. Reintroducing gluten proved to have an immediate effect. In a completely weak moment at the end of the diet, I succumbed and ate a plain eggo and a doughnut in one morning while out and about. Within a half hour, I had a horrible headache and stomach ache for the rest of the day. I mourned that revelation for a few days because I REALLY love bread, crackers, IHOP pancakes, chocolate chip cookies, hamburger and hotdog buns w/ meat just off the grill . . .

So a week and a half ago was also Conference weekend. Loving all the spiritual promptings I had to improve myself, I also quickly fell into one of those “self-evaluation” crises that come once in a while, following quickly on the heels of feeling so in charge of my life. In the midst of this crisis, I was also trying to pull myself together for the post-cleanse appt with my doctor so I could discuss all my insights and remember all my burning questions.

Then Ryan had sat us down for FHE to talk about our family emergency plans. Ever wary of my state of mind, Ryan could see I was upset after he asked me to fill out some little basic form. I fell apart. I just couldn't imagine adding one more thing to my plate at that moment. I'm sure he was completely caught off guard once again, since I'm the type that tends to stew and bottle things up.

Ryan lovingly, patiently sat and listened to me grump and cry until I'd come to the part where I didn't know what to do or where to begin. He asked what we could do right then about my overwhelmed to-do list. I mentioned that I'd been thinking about putting the boys together in the same bedroom. We'd already put the boys to bed, but we got them up and moved the rooms around! Poor Ryan tweaked his hip moving furniture and it's been bothering him since - not good for a marathon runner in training! I don’t know why that project helped, but apparently my perfectionist-immobilized self needed some a serious physical task to feel better.

I'm glad to report that this very project helped me get out of my rut and I attribute it all to Ryan's Do It attitude. So the project and getting back to eating right! I told a friend I'd do a yard sale with her so that I'd be sure to clean out the clutter. I am a gal in need of deadlines! A friend commented on her blog that preparing for house guests makes her finish home projects or take on new ones. That is SOOOOO me it's not even funny! The ultimate FEAR Factor in my book! I was also partially inspired by snippets of a book I read after putting a friend's kids to bed. Many know this lady as the FLYLady. If you don't know about her, google her.

Come To Me

We're enjoying sessions of our church's semi-annual General Conference. I love this opportunity to spend time at home with my family and re-focus my life as we listen to the prophet and leaders of the church. It doesn't get better than this!

This morning, I had a little light bulb experience. Almost 18 months old now, McKay was trying to pile up some pillows to collapse into. He became frustrated and began throwing a mild tantrum about it not working out the way he wanted. I was watching him do all of this from the comfy sidelines of the couch, letting him figure it all out for himself.

My mommy instinct kicked in and I called to him. He picked up his head, ran to me and we snuggled on the couch. A little later I was playing with the boys in the basement and I got to thinking of that moment upstairs.

The thought occurred to me that Heavenly Father is always there beckoning to me to Come to Him in the midst of my ups and downs. How often I struggle on my own and become consumed in a tantrum of sorts frustrated at my own inabilities to accomplish things on my own according to my own agenda. How often I've been reminded by the Holy Ghost that our Heavenly Father is ever extending His arms to me.

I was still thinking about this little lesson as this morning's conference session began with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing an arrangement of one of my all-time children's songbook favorites "A Child's Prayer". [Click here to listen]

This song is very dear to me. It took me back to the horrible time when I was so upset about not being able to nurse Easton because I'd become really sick. Easton was only six weeks old and he couldn't have the medication I needed to get well. I was listening to the children's songbook cds as this song came on and it was once again one of those times I felt washed over with my Heavenly Father's love and awareness of my little trial.