Scary Allergies

Most food allergies can just be avoided, but the PEANUT ALLERGY is just scary.  At least now I know that just touching a peanut doesn't cause a reaction in Kellyn, my 2 1/2 year old. But that sure was a scary thing to find out.

We took Kellyn to an allergist at 10 months old because she had already shown allergic reactions to eggs and red food dye (in medicine). On the prick test, she also tested positive for the dreaded peanut allergy. It was a borderline reaction though, so we just were told to avoid giving her any peanuts or peanut products. A blood test at 2 years old confirmed she still has a very low level allergy to peanuts.

Our home has been peanut free for almost 2 years now, we just don't have it in our home, and I don't let anyone in our family eat it when she's around. We found a great almond butter, called Barney Butter, that tastes just like peanuts butter, but is made in a completely peanut free way from start to finish.

We put out warnings at our church too, because she and another little boy her age are allergic to peanuts. But group gatherings are always a little scary for us. The boy's mother carries an EpiPen for him just in case.

Yesterday, the kids were in the Firestone store in Lubbock with me picking up the van after having some maintenance work done. There was about an inch gap between 2 of the cushions on the couch in the store, and Kellyn reached down in between them to pick something up. She held it up to me and asked, "What is this?"

Oh, no, a peanut. Of course, she wouldn't know what a peanut looks like because we go the other direction anytime we see them.

I took it from her and threw it in the trash can. I told her not to touch anything, while I grabbed a wipe from the bag. The only thing she did touch was her other hand, so I wiped them both thoroughly  Then I picked her up and took her to the bathroom to wash her hands with soap.  I watched her carefully for the next 15 minutes, ready to dose her with Zyrtec I'd brought in the van. And then I watched her for reactions all evening too, I couldn't help myself. What kept going through my mind was the news story last week about a 19 year old dying from eating a cookie that contained peanut oil, but didn't have a proper label.

I thank God that she did not have a severe reaction to the peanuts, in fact she didn't show a reaction at all. I'm also very thankful that she asked what it was without just eating it first. There were probably a dozen peanuts down in between those cushions. I told the manager, and he said he would clean it up soon (but he didn't do it in the next 10 minutes we were standing there avoiding the couch).

I don't think you appreciate the Fear factor that comes along with this particular allergy until your own child has it. So please, if you know a child with a peanut allergy, take it seriously and help their parents protect the child.

The Not So Fun Questions of 4 Year Olds

The deep questions have started coming from our 4 year olds...

"Are we going to die?"
me: yes, every one dies, and then we get to go to Heaven and be with God, but hopefully it's not soon

"Jesus is in heaven, but he's alive?"
me: yes, that's right (silence is golden)

"How did the doctor cut me out of your tummy?"
me: with a very sharp knife called a scalpel, but not all baby's are cut out, it's just because you wouldn't come out the normal way (oops I said too much)
"How does a baby normally come out?"
me: (ya, we actually had that talk... and then I added some stuff about these things being private things to only talk about with Mommy, Daddy, and the doctor.)

"How does a baby get in Mommy's tummy?"
me: God puts babies in the Mommy's tummy (theologically correct, the whole "God knit me in my mother's womb" verse)

Oh ya, fun times... thankfully they are satisfied with simple answers for the moment.

November Thankfuls

On every day in November up to the Thanksgiving Holiday, I'm going to write one specific thing for which I'm thankful.

I already posted the past 2 days on Facebook... so here they were.

Nov 1: I'm very thankful for all of my kids Bible class teachers...In this picture Kellyn has all her babies sitting nicely in their spot for Bible class.
A few minutes later she was patting a book and singing "Jesus Loves Me"

 



Nov 2: Today I'm thankful for homemade, banana muffins... yummy.

I may not even bother with dinner since the kids are filling up on them right now :D
Kellyn asked for another one, and before I got there to get another for her, she'd already used the step stool to get one down from the counter.

Nov 3: I'm thankful for the technology in my mini-van and this automobile era I live in.

Today the gas light reminded me to fill up with gas before I went too far. It said I had 16 miles left, so I might have made it to the community breakfast and back to my house, but on my next trip I might not have even made it to a gas station.

I'm also currently reading a novel set in 1916, and the main character owns a Ford Model-T, and drove it from D.C. to Idaho at about 20 miles an hour. They also have to have gasoline sent by train to their town so they don't run out.

So I am thankful for my local gas stations and their supply for my mini-van.

In Remembering ... 9/11

As I sat down this morning at the first fall meeting of my Ladies Bible Class, I wrote this at the top of my notes page.

9/11/2012
*Remember*

But then I stopped and thought about our topic for the class this fall... "Forgiveness".

So I added on to the heading

9/11/2012
*Remember*  ...but also Forgive.

That was a hard thought for me to write down.
I believe it is important for us to learn from things that happen to us, and things that happen in our world. In order to learn from those larger things in our history we MUST remember.

But we must also forgive. Jesus taught us to pray to God by saying, "forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us." Wow. I sure want God to forgive me, so I need to learn to extend that grace to others as well. It is for my own spiritual health that I have to let go of the hurt.

On 9/11/2001, there were specific people who hurt other specific people. I hope those vicitms and their families have learned to forgive, even in the remembering. I also see that our entire nation, and perhaps the entire non-muslim world was hurt by the actions of a handful of people. Have we forgiven them?

I don't want you to think of this as a political issue right now, remember that it's a personal one.

So I'll ask again. In remembering the events 11 years ago, have you fully forgiven?

To color or not to color...

I'm going to a meeting on this Saturday with the homeschool group from our county. It's just a roundtable discussion of ideas, but I'm excited.
Barry and I are still not sure what our choice will be for next fall, but it's one of our top options. Alyna and Ryan won't turn 5 until mid-September so our only options are private schools that will test and allow them early entrance, or homeschooling them.

We've already had an experience with their preschool that makes me consider homeschooling even more, which is partly how I got invited to the meeting this weekend, because of discussions with other moms on Facebook about it.

Alyna came home with a worksheet where they used a pencil to draw a stem down from the flower bud to the base stem at the bottom of the paper. She did excellent lines and even drew some extra leaves herself that looked just like the ones printed on the paper.
I had said as I looked at it that I bet she colored some of the flowers in too, and then looking at it said, "Oh, she did a couple."
But then she said to us, "We don't color with pencils."

Her teacher had stopped her from coloring with her pencil. She's been so excited since getting a pack of pencils  from her Sunday school teacher last month, and colors pictures with them all the time. I think she's going to follow in her Daddy's footsteps with a love for creating charcoal drawings.
I was astounded that the teacher would halt her creativity by limiting her to coloring with crayons. I told her, "Well, you don't color with school pencils, but you can color with home pencils."
Since that day, that flower worksheet is almost completely colored in with pencil shading  (within the lines). It may not be colorful, but she uses color in other pictures regularly. This is a different kind of creative outlet for her.

Other moms have suggested to me that "maybe there wasn't time for coloring", or "maybe they are worried that kids will switch their grip to color and not hold the pencil properly." So, I understand. If it's time to move on, just tell her that she can finish it later. And her grip doesn't change. She paints, colors, and writes with the correct finger positions on the item, and has done that since she was 2 1/2.

Another mom suggested that maybe it wasn't a "correct" color for a flower, so the teacher didn't appreciate it.
My response to that was, "Well, that kind of talk just makes me want to home-school. Why do we suck the creativity out of our kids?"

That's when another mom invited me to the meeting, and I'm glad she did. I'm anxious to see what kind of outings/special activities the group here does together.

Today, Ryan and Alyna and I worked on some sight words and putting them together to make different sentences. We had cards with our family names: Daddy, Mommy, Alyna, Ryan, and Kellyn... they already mostly recognized those. Then we learned "loves" and "me."
They had big smiles as they read the sentences I put together for them. "Daddy loves me", "Alyna loves Mommy", "Kellyn loves Ryan", etc.
Then they both played on www.starfall.com for about 40 minutes.

And oh yes, it's a holiday, so we went to a park early this morning before it got hot.

Like a child...

Tonight, my daughter Alyna, who is almost 4, was sitting at her little picnic table eating a snack. She turned around toward me and randomly said, "Mom, God is even in Strawberry Shortcake Land. God is everywhere," and she spread her arms out wide.

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
Matthew 19:14

But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
Luke 18:16-17

Thank you God for the creativity and imagination you have blessed us with. May we use it to grow our faith, and receive your kingdom.

Road Trip 2012 - Part 1, Headed East

20 days, 5 states, 4404 miles

Trip Outline - Hobbs, NM --> Keller, TX --> Columbia, TN --> Roanoke, VA--> Gordonsville,VA --> Virginia Beach, VA --> Gordonsville, VA --> Washington, DC --> Lexington, VA --> Columbia, TN --> Searcy, AR --> Gurdon, AR --> Hobbs, NM (home sweet home)

Day 1 - May 31, Just me and the kids, pack up and head out by 8:30 central time, 5 minutes later it was already 9:35 as we crossed the border from New Mexico into Texas.
We stayed in Keller, TX (suburb north of Fort Worth) that night with my cousin's family for the night. 30 minutes from her house we stopped at a Chick-fil-a because the weren't at their house yet. We played and ate ice cream.
5 minutes away from my cousin's house, Kellyn threw up. She's been known to get car sick since she was 4 months old, but had done much better not getting car sick since we moved her car seat to the middle where she can see out the windshield.
The next week when we were eating at Chick-fil-a again, I thought to check the ingredients of their ice cream. The cashier printed out a full list of ingredients on the cash register, and sure enough, whole eggs is listed in both the ice cream and the ice cream cone. So she wasn't car sick after all, it was her allergy to eggs that did it.
The kids had fun playing with their extended cousins, 2 girls of elementary school age. We also had dinner with my aunt and uncle who live in the area. It's always great to keep those family connections alive.

Day 2 - left my cousin's house at 8:30 central time, and drove through Arkansas to my parent's house in Columbia, TN (just south of Nashville).
The kids traveled great, and we made great time until we got stuck for an hour in construction on I-40 between Little Rock and Nashville.
My parents actually met us about 2 hours from thier home, so my mom could drive the rest of the way. Being tired from driving that far by myself with the kids, I didn't want to drive that last hour on the windy, hilly TN back highway in the dark, watching for deer.

Day 3 - Saturday, lazy day at Grandma's... it's so much fun to watch the kids play with the toys I grew up with. I love the old style of Fisher Price little people sets.

Day 4 - Sunday, church with Grandma and Grandpa, except I stayed home with Ryan who had a 100 degree fever all night. He seemed fine by lunch time.

Day 5 - play date at McDonald's in Spring Hill, TN with a friend of mine from college and her 5 year old boy. We mostly just keep in touch with Facebook, so it was fun to catch up face to face.
That evening, I went out shopping, and had dinner and a movie all by myself. It was nice to just go on my own schedule, and not have to take anyone else to the bathroom or share my food.

Day 6 - Nashville Zoo at Grassmere with Grandma - they had a dinosaur exhibit that scared the kids some, but that's what they still talk about from the zoo.

  Here's how we traversed the zoo... double stroller with a hitch hiker board attached to the back for one of the big kids to stand on.

They also enjoyed seeing the elephants, giraffes, gibbons, and petting the goats.

Day 7, 8, and 9 - lazy days at Grandparents' house because the kids all had constant coughs. Grandpa got it too.

Day 10- Saturday, left at 8:30 am to drive to hotel in Roanoke, Virginia. Grandma rode with me in the van, and Grandpa followed behind in his car.
I had ridden through VA as a teenager, but never realized how beautiful it is there. The thick woods around everywhere give a small town feel even to the bigger cities.
We went to Panera Bread for dinner but found out that just about everything there that kids will eat has egg in it (breads and mac 'n cheese). So we left and went to a Cheddar's restaurant around the corner. It was delicious food, and had lots to order that Kellyn could eat.

Day 11 - played at a park, and then at the indoor play area at the mall in Charlottesville, VA wasting time until checkin at our resort later in the afternoon.
We did grocery shopping just before going to the resort and I cooked chili for all of our arriving family in our cabin.
Barry (my husband) flew into Charlottesville that night, and my brother-in-law graciously picked him up. The kids and I were very glad to have him with us on the rest of our adventure.

... To be continued...