soccer season, spring 2012

Spring soccer is drawing to a close, and it's been another fun season.  The fourth in a row Nathan has played with the same team, and I just love this group of people.  Lots of homeschoolers, but a mix, as well.  The kids are all so kind, it's taken some effort to get them to be aggressive since they're all so stinkin' sweet!  Nathan has made a lot of progress where that's concerned, and last night I did an "experiment."  I told Nathan to pretend that the opponent with the ball was Zach, or even to pretend that the entire opposing team was comprised of Zachs.  It worked, that boy was on the opponent like white on rice!  Here are the pictures that I took as team photographer, amateur that I am:

No, he wasn't talking, that's the face he was trying to make, it's his new thing.  Imagine him saying, "Hey, baby," and you'll have a good feel for the attitude behind the face.  So funny, this boy.

Serious, but trying not to crack a smile.

The Dragons, a fun and all-around delightful group of kids and parents.

After this shot Nathan said, "Oh, wait, that was a silly one?"

mySentry

I have been meaning to blog about my experiences thus far with our new diabetes gadget, the mySentry.  This article on Diabetes Mine caught my attention, especially the part about the prevalence of severe hypoglycemic episodes at night in children.  This serves only to reinforce my commitment to getting up at night to check Zach, which always seems to amaze people (even though I know they'd do the same thing if it was there kid...I always say it actually helps me to sleep better knowing that I'm going to get up and check him).  I have experienced a phenomenon a number of times where I wake up for no apparent reason, at a time other than when my alarm wakes me, and have the sense that I should check Zach, only to find that he is, indeed, low.  That's my "God thing."  I always say, audibly, "Thank you."  Anyway, here's part of that article, and I really am going to do my own write-up about this mySentry deal:

So who’s it for?

mySentry is really engineered for caregivers, most especially the parents of type 1 kiddos. If you’re a type 2, or an adult dx’d type 1, you probably don’t know this—but most parents of little type 1s get up several times a night (or at least once at 3am!) to check their children’s blood sugar. Every night. Night after night. Week after week. Month after month. Year after year. For years. Why? Because nocturnal hypoglycemia is a real, persistent, common, and dangerous threat to type 1 kids. Which means the worst time for the parent of a little type 1 is when the sun sets and all the mythical fears of the night become very real.

In a study published in The Journal of Pediatrics, Dr. Màrta Beregszàszi and her colleagues estimated the prevalence of nocturnal hypoglycemia in type 1 children and adolescents is a whopping 47%; and nearly half the incidents were asymptomatic—meaning the children felt no symptoms of the low. Another study by Dr. Alexandra Ahmet places the prevalence as high as 68% and notes that 75% of all severe hypos in kids occur at night. And if that doesn’t chill your blood, consider Dr. Francine Kaufman’s 167-night CGM study of young boys that found in a full 27% of the nights, the boys dropped below 40 mg/dL in their sleep, and that the length of time they spent low was longer than previously believed.

Highlighting added by me, but holy sh%#!  I will be putting a sensor back in him today...

my sweet Nafey

     Nathan is now in his last year before officially being a teenager, although he is beginning to look very teenager-y these days.  His facial features are sharpening, his arms and legs looking long and lanky, and his feet!  Oh my goodness, he's in a men's 7 or 8 already, and just last summer he could wear my Rainbow flip-flops!  Of course, with the increased growing comes the increased EATING, and eating is something this bunch of kids can do.  Thank goodness for BJ's and Costco, that's all I can say!
     School has gone remarkably well for Nathan this year, but it was an adjustment, for sure.  He still has moments of feeling overwhelmed, falls apart, rallies, and acts like it's nothing but a thing (or thang, if you're from these parts).  He's consistently bringing home A's and B's, fifty-fifty, more or less.  I'm very proud of him, and his friends adore him (as you could probably tell from his birthday slideshow in the last post).  He still really looks up to his big brother, even though he's made his own name for himself at school, and I marvel in admiration at how kind and patient Mychael can be toward his often temperamental younger brother.  I really believe that homeschooling these guys during the earlier years helped to establish the close bond that they obviously have.  Now, don't get me wrong, they can fight like nobody's business, but boys are very forgiving and don't hold grudges, I feel like I could learn from them.  Female relationships always seem so much more...complicated, don't they?  Maybe that's why I tended to have more in the way of male friends as a teenager.  Okay, that's not the only reason why, but why explore that any further...
     I enjoy Nathan tremendously, even though he exhausts me more than all of my other children combined and squared!  He's fun and funny, likable, generous, "real."  Perhaps God gave him to me to remind me that as exhausting and trying as I can be to Him, he loves and enjoys me all the same, and I wouldn't want Nathan any other way.

this...is...Graham!!!

This digital slideshow made with Smilebox

spring and Easter, 2012

Another Easter has come and gone, but we are still in the throes of spring around here.  My dogwoods are putting out their lovely blossoms...they always remind me that every good and perfect gift comes from the Lord.  Before we ever moved to this house I used to longingly admire the dogwoods around here, especially the wild ones tucked into woods, flashing white here and there amongst the greenery.  I love contrast, God is the perfect artist.  We moved into this house the end of April, 2005, and that spring I saw that God had not only given me dogwoods to enjoy in my new home, He'd given me SPECTACULAR dogwoods.  Pictures to follow once they've exploded....

It's easy to get busy in this household, but thankfully I get a little internal check that I need to s l o w     d o w n, and enjoy my precious children, to embrace their wonder at the world around them.  I think there have been years in the past where, for the sake of religiosity, I have glossed over the things of childhood when it comes to Easter, you know, taken a stand against the secular world's version of Easter.  Interestingly enough, during our discussion with our church group the other night about our favorite Easter memories, it started off that people were talking about church-y memories, because surely that's what the pastor meant.  But when he said that he personally had almost no religious memories of Easter, rather it was more the Easter baskets, etc., that stood out fondly in his mind, the whole group chimed in enthusiastically that they, too, had similar fond memories.  And, I realized that it was wonderful to have those memories, because those are the treasures of childhood.  I want to make sure I share those treasures with my kids, and just look at their happy faces.  Do they know what Easter is really about?  Or, what do I tell them?... because I admit, I have no desire to watch Mel Gibson's The Passion when Easter rolls around each year.  If I were Jesus, I wouldn't want my people to re-live that year after year after year, I'd want to see my followers living the way I lived, not focusing on the way I died.  I choose to tell my children that Easter is about God's unfathomable love for us.  I try to live in such a way that I feel that my Father would be pleased with me, and I don't believe He dangles the cross in front of my face to continually remind me what my wretchedness caused.  Christ lives in me. Period.

Easter egg hunting with the homeschool group:

Zach enjoys the fact that his cousin Lily loves him...I see a wonderful future husband and father for some lucky young lady!

Isaiah willingly let me take his picture!

I always say, family is one of life's biggest blessings.

Jordan inspects her resurrection eggs.

Jordan and Jenna have a great time together, as you can see!

My silly kids. 

As Good As It Gets:

"Dirt" dessert:

Face painting done by Meagan:

I hope Easter was a blessed celebration for all of my loved ones!

stylin'

     We arrived home from Florida on a Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago, and that evening Mychael had the privilege of attending the Moody Blues concert with our good friend, Dub.  Mychael has been to see both Rush and Richard Thompson, but he said this was by far the best concert he's been to.  Dub hooked him up with this hat he bought a few decades ago, and we thought it was Mychael to a "T!"  Sort of Indiana Jones-meets-Johnny Cash, don't you think?