The sky is falling! Not really.

So apparently, according to the Mayan calendar, the world was supposed to end today. Seeing as I'm writing this post, that obviously did not occur. Now I try and keep this blog fairly light hearted so I'm not going to go into the fact that I do believe the world as we know it has pretty much ended. My children will not enjoy the same kind of world that I enjoyed just 20 some years ago unfortunately. Although I'm pretty sure my parents said the same thing about me growing up. So onward we march in this crazy, messed up world trusting that God is ultimately in control and only He knows when the world will truly end. And that's all I've got to say about that.

That being said I received a message yesterday from our insurance agent. On the message she wished me a happy upcoming birthday and told me that it was the perfect time to start considering life insurance. She asked me to follow up with her at my earliest convenience. I erased the message in disgust that I'm indeed old enough to have to worry about life insurance I guess. Apparently when I turned 32 this past year I wasn't old but now that I'm about to be 33 I am...go figure. I wasn't mad, but it did strike me as funny that if you wish someone happy birthday and then, in the same sentence, talk to them about life insurance it pretty much nullifies the happy birthday wish seeing as the birthday person is no longer happy it is their birthday but are now having an anxiety attack that they are going to die in the next few minutes! For all my insurance agent friends, this is not the best technique to get someone to buy life insurance. Just saying!

So as you can probably tell we didn't have too much exciting happen today. I did manage to make the best pancakes ever this morning though. I think that is pretty noteworthy considering they were gluten free pancakes. Brian took a bite and said "These are gluten free? Really? These are really good." That's what I like to hear. I've made these for the kids before but have never had them myself so I didn't know how they truly were until today. I took one bite and they reminded me of Cracker Barrel pancakes. If you know me well, then you know I LOVE their pancakes. These gluten free ones weren't quite as good but they are pretty darn close! If you are interested in checking them out yourself then you need to pick up Pamela's Gluten Free Pancake mix from your local store. I found mine at a health food store in town but some grocery stores like Publix may carry them as well. Amazon has the cheapest price on them I've been told though. Just so you don't have sticker shock expect to pay over $7 for a small bag of mix at the store.

After that yummy breakfast we all loaded up to go do some grocery shopping. Not exactly sure what I was thinking when I decided to take everyone to the store and then attempt Walmart just days before Christmas. Boys did just fine but this is one momma that cannot stand Walmart on a slow day, let alone a day just prior to a major holiday! Whoa buddy was I glad to get home. No price matching for this gal. I just wanted out of the store. We did have fun at Richard's Food Emporium though. The cashier gave the kids a free bag of roasted peanuts and you would have thought he gave them candy they were so happy! Too cute! Once we got home we all tackled the disaster of a playroom. We got it all cleaned up and tried to clean out toys. We only had one major meltdown about giving away a toy. T did not want to give away a certain toy but the child NEVER plays with it...literally. Neither does E. Poor T was heart broken! I would consider keeping it but he won't play with it and some other child will have a blast with it. I even asked Tyler if he would play with it and he said "yes, maybe next month or some other time. I'm not sure when but I will play with it." Enough said. Someone else can have a go at it. It's not like these kids won't get spoiled in a few days anyways with plenty of new toys.

And to wrap up our very ordinary day I made dinner consisting of a very spicy but very yummy Buffalo Chicken Soup (gluten free because apparently I have no regular flour) for us adults and gluten free chicken nuggets for the kids. I'm trying not to make a separate dinner for the kiddos but our meal was pretty spicy so I went ahead with the other meal for the kids this time. Seeing as my lips were on fire I'm pretty sure it was a good idea. We followed dinner up with a special trip to the new frozen yogurt place in town called Yomii. I love this place! Brian and the kids do too. It is a self serve frozen yogurt place. You get your own flavor of frozen yogurt and then load up on whatever toppings you like. My current favorite is coconut frozen yogurt with coconut flakes and 3 different flavors of boba (strawberry, mango & pomegranate). Yum!! The boys opt for vanilla and chocolate with m&ms and some other candies that are gluten free. Brian is all about the cake batter with crushed up oreos. This place could really do some damage to my waistline if I'm not careful! That along with the new Carrabba's that opened up as well. I swear this town wants me to be broke and fat! After that we drove around town for a bit to look at Christmas lights.

My biggest wish for tomorrow is that the kids will sleep in! Yeah right! I have a few years before that will happen but a girl can wish, right? Poor E is getting sick I think. T sounded like he was a couple of days ago but is fine now so maybe E will do the same thing. I would hate for them to be sick at Christmas. Tomorrow we are going to attempt baking gluten free gingerbread cookies. The boys also want to make cookies for our neighbors so I believe we will do that as well. E is all about meeting new people so I think he will really enjoy delivering the goodies. Later this weekend we are hoping to do some camping in our back yard. We haven't told the boys yet but when we do they will be over the moon excited. They have been wanting to do this forever! Can't wait! All in all we had a great day and I'm pretty sure we will have a wonderful weekend! Love this time of year! Don't forget what this season is truly about! Not the presents, packages, & bows but instead about the tiny child, lying in a manger, who was born the Prince of Peace, Emmanuel! Love on your family, friends, and neighbors. Share with those less fortunate than you and pass on joy at every chance you get! Hope y'all have a very merry and fun filled Christmas!

Christmas Chaos

All I can say for my lack of blogging in over a week is that I've succumbed to the chaos of the season. We purposefully do not over book ourselves this time of year because I did that in the past and never enjoyed my Christmas. Somehow though, even without over booking ourselves, we manage to still be very busy this time of year. Between shopping, Christmas plays, parties, work, races, and church we manage to keep on the move most of the time. Tonight there is much wrapping to be done by a very unmotivated momma. Alas the gifts will not wrap themselves, so I must make this post kind of brief.

We are still doing the gluten free lifestyle for E. He is doing pretty well with it really. Withdrawal phase seems to be over and we are settling in. The rest of us are not as strict with our diet as E. He seems to be okay with that. So far the biggest difference is that E's eczema is gone! I haven't noticed any in about a week or so. Yay! Now we are about to enter into a cooler, drier weather pattern tomorrow so we will see if it holds up. If it does then that convinces me right there that he is gluten sensitive. As for behavior, I am noticing small improvements. Erika (kiddo's grandma) was here the past few days and says she can really tell a difference in how much calmer things are around here. That is what I was hoping for! E will always be E and that won't change with a diet tweak. What is changing is the intensity in which he handles certain things and that was the goal. Will be interesting to see how the next 2 1/2 months play out for him.

I cannot neglect to mention a funny that E said the other day. After my 1/2 marathon Saturday night, Brian was kind enough to pretty much take over the kids the next day after church so I could recover. He was playing Connect 4 with E in the floor. Brian proceeds to lose a game to E (not on purpose) and E, who is ecstatic because it is hard to beat daddy, pipes up with "I can't believe you fell for that daddy!" Oh my gosh! We both lost it! We were laughing so hard. It sounded just like "I can't believe you were so dumb dad to not see that!" Apparently E had truly tried a trick play to make Brian move where E could then win as a result and Brian did exactly as E hoped. I think E was in shock! You see, we are meanies and don't let the kids win at games. We figure it doesn't really teach them much that way so when they do win they get slightly giddy. :) Now before you think we are really mean we do coach them and teach them strategies on how best to play the game.

E is not alone in his funnies. T piped up the other day that when it is his birthday he will be 5 right now. It took me a while to figure out what in the world he was meaning by that. I kept saying that no he isn't 5 right now but on his birthday he would be. He kept insisting that when it was his birthday he would be 5 right away. That is when it hit me that he meant when he woke up on his birthday he would be 5 right then and not when he had a party. He is very excited about being 5 and getting to go to kindergarten. He is going to be so upset when it finally sinks in that just because he is 5 he will still have to wait until the new school year in August to go to kindergarten. Another one of his crazy antics is when it is his turn to pray at dinner he likes to sing a prayer he learned from his 3 year old teacher. He gets into it though and usually winds up dancing as he is singing it. One of these days I have got to video him doing it. It is hilarious!

Tomorrow's adventure will be making gluten free gingerbread cookies. The boys have been asking to make gingerbread men for a few weeks but I wasn't able to find a good gluten free recipe. I think I finally found one so we will see how they turn out. Tomorrow is going to be the perfect Christmas baking weather...cold and breezy! Well, cold for Florida anyways. It is also perfect weather to attempt a buffalo chicken soup recipe that Brian's cousin posted on facebook the other day. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! Will let you know how it turns out.

Okay...must stop typing! I can procrastinate wrapping no longer! Good night all and Merry Christmas!

Gluten Withdrawal?

I did great posting 2 blogs in a row so I rewarded myself with a tiny break! Now I must get back on track or a weekend away will turn into a year away and that would not be good. This past weekend was pretty chill really. Did not have many plans and just stuck around the house for the most part. Sounds relaxing, right? It is, except for having no plans and no structure is not a good thing in this house. With no structure comes behavior spiralling downward. Saturday was not so bad to tell the truth. The kids got into it some but that is expected. What siblings don't? Good news was when E would be disciplined he took it very well. No fit throwing or melt downs at all. Just accepted it and then moved on. T on the other hand was very, very whiny most the day. So much so that he was made to go rest for 30 minutes before lunch time. T doesn't nap anymore so being sent to rest/nap is a big deal. After that, things seemed to go much better. So much better that we decided a movie night would be great. I let the kids pick out 2 movies and stay up late. What was I thinking?! I should know better than that.

Sunday dawned with the kids not sleeping in at all! The only saving grace was that I didn't need to be at church until 10:30 for the last service. Most Sunday's we are all there for 2 services and for the tear down of it all. We rent space from a school so we have to put everything back in order each week. This particular Sunday though I wasn't feeling well so we only went to the one service and then left. In that time frame all was fairly normal. E did tell me he was called stupid by a child in his class. He has a hard time with this kid on a regular basis. Apparently E let him know what he thought about being called stupid. Don't blame E at all but we did have a talk about how to handle it better next time. The good thing was he did get a teacher to help him with the situation after he told the kid off. Baby steps, right? Later that day, I was still feeling horrible and very ba humbugish. E started getting crabbier throughout the day and T wasn't far behind him. We made it to bed time though thankfully! Put the kids to bed thinking they would pass out from being up late the night before...yea right! They picked bedtime to start playing nicely together in their room. Finally got them settled around 9pm. Yet another late night.

This morning they decided to sleep in a little thankfully. E seemed very sluggish this morning and slightly crabby but nothing too major. Brian got up and fixed the kids GF french toast for breakfast which was a hit. E scarfed his down like he hadn't eaten in days. As we were getting in the car to leave for school E was being especially ornery and standoff-ish. Brian was trying to tease him out of his bad mood but instead E broke down in tears. Big, old heartbroken tears! It was like our 6 year old boy transformed into a 16 year old girl! At this point, I pretty much told Eric to stay home with Brian for a little bit and go back to bed. E agreed and I took T to school. About 30 minutes later I get a call that E was fine and wanted to go to school. So I made my way back home and picked up my very happy, go lucky child. What in the world just happened?! Apparently 30 minutes of rest and reading cured what ailed him. Took him into school and gave his teacher a warning about what had happened this morning so she would be prepared for any meltdowns. He did get into a scuffle with another child today but was fine other than that.

After coming home from getting T from school, I decided to just google if you could have withdrawal symptoms from going gluten free. Guess what? You can and it is very common! It is especially common in people that are sensitive to gluten. You typically start feeling good right away and then withdrawal sets in a couple of days later. Guess which 3 people are showing the signs of it? Myself, E & T. Brian seems to be fine. Guess I can't blame gluten sensitivity on him. :) In case you are wondering, some of the signs are exhaustion, depression (or ba humbugish in my terms), irritability, stomach pains (T has been complaining about this more than usual), nausea, headaches, and an entire wealth of other symptoms. Read that it can last anywhere from a few days to a couple of months! I sure hope it doesn't last much longer! Along with withdrawal research today, I found some other interesting articles on gluten free that we will be discussing with our doctors. I'm thinking this switch will be amazing for our family, once we get past through this phase, for more reasons than I had imagined from the beginning.

The verses that comes to mind about this phase of it all is Psalm 30:5 "Sorrow may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning." Philippians 4:6-7 says "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."I love those verses. This isn't a huge trial by any means. We have been through much worse and weathered quite well thanks to God's constant grace, mercy & peace. This will be no exception I'm sure. So here's tomorrow is better for the Lemmon crew. :)

Coincidence?

What a day, what a day! Nothing seemed to go as planned today but in the end it wound up being a good day. Funny how that happens when you just sit back and don't try and control the outcome of it all. So this morning was rather a ordinary. Nothing to earth shattering or unexpected happened. This afternoon though something earth shattering, or at the very least earth trembling, happened.

I had just walked in the door when the phone started ringing this afternoon. I looked at the caller ID and it was E's teacher. My heart sank because I just knew that he had some kind of emotional response to something and they needed me to come get him. I answered warily and to my surprise I hear from his teacher "Everything is okay but I wanted to let you know about an incident that occurred at recess today." Apparently E and a friend were goofing around and playing a game that involved fake punching. Well, as you can guess, someone missed and actually punched someone. The someone that got punched was E. His teacher wanted to let me know about it because there was a bruise under his eye. She assured me that he was fine and doing great. Whew! What a relief. On a side note I so appreciated her calling me instead of waiting for me to show up and see his eye. Love his teacher. Then she proceeds to tell me that his reaction to it was really good. He cried (what 6 year old wouldn't after getting punched) but he didn't get mad about it like he typically would. She said that he knew it was an accident and didn't blow up at his friend about it at all. He was fine with it and went on about his day. This is HUGE!! This is an earth trembling moment for us! Now is this out of the norm response just coincidence that E is completely gluten free or is it because he is completely gluten free (and if so can you really notice a difference this soon) that he was able to exhibit self control. I don't know and honestly I don't care. I'm just happy to see progress.

Now because E had such a "traumatic" day I decided the boys could pick what they wanted for dinner. Since I'm not very creative with all this gluten free stuff yet they had a choice of gluten free mac n cheese or gluten free pizza. They both chose pizza. I had also decided we should have ice cream for dessert. I went to the store and even found gluten free ice cream cones. I will use any excuse to squeeze in a fun treat. Lo and behold when I picked him up I see that his eye is not really that bad but whatever. So I made gluten free pizza dough from a mix I had read up on. Even though my pan wasn't the right size it still turned out really good. The boys devoured their slices and then asked for more. While sitting down to dinner I always like to ask them what 3 awesome things happened to them that day. And here is another earth trembling moment. E told me that they play a game called Around the World in his class. He didn't explain it very well to me but what I did get was that it is a math game and you go up against other students in the class. E typically sits out he said because he knows he has a problem with getting angry when he doesn't win. He also has a hard time being able to write an answer down quickly even if he knows the answer which frustrates him. Apparently he decided to play today because he wanted to see if he could do it. I think this gluten free diet gave him the courage to do it because we have talked about how it may help him concentrate better. What made this 1 of his 3 awesome things was that he was able to win against a few of his classmates and when he didn't win against some of them he didn't get upset. Yet another BIG win for him.

And I can't leave out T from all the big happenings either. This afternoon we went outside and rode bikes in this very dreary weather. While outside T decides he wants to learn how to read some words. I am one momma that is not going to miss that learning opportunity! I grab the sidewalk chalk and we get to work. My driveway is covered in all sorts of words! I have to say this little man surprised me on how fast he caught on. Some words we worked on were "at", "it", "on", "in", "hit", "hat", "and", & "the". Now tomorrow he may be able to only tell me half of them and that is perfectly fine. I'm just happy he is showing an interest in reading. I believe he may have my love of reading eventually. At least I hope he does. Both the boys have been all about me sitting and reading with them at night now. E has to read 20 minutes each day for school but even after he does that he will come snuggle up with T & me to hear a good book. Right now T is all about Dr. Seuss and E is all about the Bible.

So that was our day! By most people's standards our day was probably pretty boring but to me it was one of the best days! Just seeing my kids maturing and making progress warms my heart. Looking forward to what tomorrow will bring.

Reintroduction...and change

As you can tell from previous posts this blog was mainly to keep family and friends updated on the boys. You can also see that I was not so good at keeping them updated! Haha! With facebook there really wasn't much of a need for a blog. Well now we have reached a new adventure in our family and I thought it would be fun to chronicle it on the blog. What you will find from here on out are posts on our everyday life and adventures. It will include anything from the mundane to the exciting, from recipes to funny things kids say and do. With that being said let's get started.

Where to begin....we are an "ordinary" family of 4 people and a dog. Our family consists of a 6 year old boy (E, very soon to be 7), a 4 year old boy (T, very soon to be 5), my husband, and myself. Yes, that means I am the queen of my house because even the dog is a boy. I love being the queen of the house and wouldn't have my life any other way. Being a mom of boys is an adventure of love and insanity! Our children could not be more different had they come from 2 different families. I have one timid child and one dare devil. We have a quiet child and a loud child. We have a talkative child and a reflective child. I have a rule follower and a rule tester. They are alike in a few areas though...they both love to be silly and they have the tendency to switch up their personalities and catch you off guard! These boys keep me on my toes and constantly challenge me to be a better person. Even though they are completely different, my love for each of them is beyond measurable.

What brought me back to blogging was actually a lifestyle change. As I mentioned before we have a new adventure and that adventure is in the form of going Gluten Free. E is a very loving, smart, and funny child. He is also very loud, talkative (to the point of if he is quiet something is wrong), emotional, sleepless, easily distracted, and impulsive. Sounds like a typical 6 year old right? Well...not really when their teacher notices it too. We do not have a diagnosis but what we do have is a hunch that there may be ADHD involved. What we also have are 2 parents who prefer to try every natural route possible before going toward traditional medicine. Now if you disagree that is fine. Every family needs to seek what is best for them. We have nothing against medication but we just prefer to go the natural route first. So having sought advice from a health professional we were challenged to take our son off all gluten for 3 months and see what happens. We were told we would probably start seeing behavior changes in 10 days and after 3 months the change would be drastic. We will just have to wait and see. I'm willing to wait 3 months and see what happens. If it helps my child be the best little guy that God intends him to be then we will continue on this path. If after 3 months nothing changes then we will go from there.

So on that note, today was Day 1 of being completely gluten free. What makes this difficult is that E is a very picky eater. Going gluten free with a picky eater is difficult at best I'm finding but we did have some successes today. The biggest success was finding a bread mix that we love! I was really skeptical about the gluten free bread because I have heard horror stories of the dry, nasty gluten free bread. I did a lot of research on Amazon and saw that King Arthur Gluten Free bread mix got great reviews. I lucked up on some at a local health food store and after shelling out a small fortune I brought it home and baked it last night so it would be ready for school lunches today. Much to my surprise it smelled divine while baking and tasted pretty darn good! The texture was slightly different than normal bread but it wasn't bad at all. The best part is that E liked it and ate his sandwich at lunch time without complaint. The other success was E actually ate the gluten free spaghetti pie I made for dinner. As for T and how he is doing with the switch there are no problems. He is the master of adapting to change and trying new things. He came up and gave me a hug and said "Thanks mommy for buying gluten free fruit snacks!" I wish all of life's issues could be solved with a pouch of fruit snacks! Woohoo for a great Day 1!