Weeks 37 & 38, Blessed Be Your Name

So, I haven’t really been in the mood to write lately.  I’m not totally sure why, but I just haven’t been feeling it.   So, this blog entry is going to be much different than my usual posts.  For one, I’m combining weeks for the first time.  I hadn't wanted to do that, but the truth is, all of the days are running together, and I can’t remember what happened in which week.  Also, instead of writing everything out like usual, I’m just going to give you the bullet points!  So, here’s what has been going on over the past couple of weeks:

• ·         Tommy was super adorable while he was consoling me one night.  I had accidentally put dish soap into the dish washer, causing suds to fill the inside of the dish washer.  Luckily I noticed right away, but it still took me I think 6 loads of rinsing and drying cycles to get them all out.  Anyway,  I was really tired and thought I was about to be done with housework for the evening when that happened, so I’m not proud to admit it, but I started crying.  Tommy came up to me, gave me a hug, and said, “It’s okay Mommy, just a little bit accident—it’s okayyyy.”  He then proceeded to try to make me laugh by pretending to go all cookie monster on a giant fake carrot!  Anyway, he was so precious that I obviously couldn't be sad <3
• ·         Tommy did great in both speech and OT!  Both of his therapists have been so impressed with his progress J.  We just love Mrs. Kelly and Mrs. Emily—so blessed to have them working with Tommy!   
• ·         Here’s where the boys are at in their “schooling”:  both boys know their numbers 1-20, all of their letters, all of the letter sounds, and about 45 sight words!  Tommy has been picking out the words in his books, so that’s cool to hear him “reading”!  We've been working on sounding out other words, but I don’t think he quite gets that yet.  He’s still behind in fine motor, but we’re working on it!  Not shockingly, he doesn't like to work outside of his strengths, but Mrs. Emily has given us some wonderfully creative ideas to try out.  The good news is, it seems to mainly just be a hand strength issue. 
• ·         A few new “milestones” from the park—Tommy climbed up the tall rock wall and a rope ladder.  Those were the last couple of gross motor skills that they’re supposed to have before Kindergarten that he didn't quite have yet, so we were pretty excited about those!  And, although he’s always been friendly to other kids (and adults) at the park, he finally started introducing himself...very loudly...“I’M TOMMY!!”...and, repeatedly J
• ·         We all got hit with a stomach bug (thanks so much Monkey Joe’s), and believe it or not, it was our first time having to deal with the boys throwing up.  Although, it was obviously gross, I have to admit I loved that Ethan was out of it enough to want to be still and snuggle for a few days <3
• ·         We've enjoyed watching the N.C. State football games on TV with the boys.  They don’t really understand what is going on, but when State scores, we all go crazy, and they join right in!   It is so stinkin’ cute...“Gooooo State….SCORE...Wolfpack in the house”—yeah, we’re raising them right!
• ·         I've completed 3.5 weeks of the C25K program without missing one workout.  By the end of next week, I’m supposed to run for 22 minutes without stopping…umm…we’ll see!
• ·         The real food has continued to go well.  It does take a lot of prepping and planning, but we've actually been able to stay on budget!
• ·         We are proceeding with building a retaining wall in the backyard, so that we can actually have a backyard.  We are likely going to put the house on the market in the spring, and we think that the wall will help it to sell quickly.  That said, if we change our minds, or if it doesn’t sell, it’ll make our lives much better to have that additional outside space!

So, that’s the update!  But, what would a blog be without pictures?!

Tommy covering his ears so the bugs can't get in...SMH!

Ethan didn't seem to have a problem with the bugs :)

All 3 of my boys at the park for a little pre-game fun!

My babies hanging out at the top of the big-dog slide!

They seem to have come to the conclusion that it wasn't a wise idea :)

This better be the only motorcycle Tommy ever rides!!

Ethan going down the slide

Go State!

Daddy helping our big boy on the big boy swing <3

GO TOMMY!!!

That was a pretty tall wall, but he did it!

The boys in their "movie seats" for a rainy day movie treat :)

Tommy LOVED this hat he found in his closet...

obviously, he wouldn't even take it off for bedtime!

He's so adorable, but I wish I would've taken a picture of his hair in the morning!

Me and the boys wrestling on the couch during the State game :)

Tommy seems quite pleased with his "sack" of Ethan!

Tommy looks so cute in Goggi's Mexico hat!

Where'd Ethan go?!

There he is!!

The boys at Monkey Joe's for another special treat :)

Tommy coming through the stick barriers

By the way, these pictures were taken on at least 3 separate days  despite the fact that they're wearing their State outfits in all of them :)  We dress for "gameday" every week!

Ethan hopping up and down :)

I love that the boys like to do things together now <3

Tommy as he came down the biggest slide for the first time!

The boys were BEAT after only an hour--they played their little hearts out!

So, the life lesson for this week is pretty near to my heart.  In fact it's been on my mind for weeks now, which actually might be part of the reason I haven't felt like writing.  Most of you who read this blog will also know another reason this week is significant.  It marks both the 6^th anniversary of Drew Howard’s passing, as well as what would’ve been his 15^th birthday. For those of you who don’t know, Davey’s cousin, Drew, passed away 4 hours before his 9^th birthday from a “common” virus that reacted extremely uncommonly in his little body.  It’s a rough week, every year.  In fact, the longer I've been a Mom, the harder it has hit me.  That said, this time of year is obviously the hardest on the four remaining Howards—Peter, Donna, Kathryn, and Emily.  Even still, I have learned so much from watching them over the past 6 years...

Life Lesson #12:  Practice what you preach

So, I’ve said things like this before, but it is one thing to say the right thing, but it is quite another thing to do the right thing.  As Christians, we know how we ought to respond when faced with tragedy, but when it actually happens to you, it is a whole different ballgame.  When Andrew Boyd Howard died six years ago, the Howard family’s faith was viciously thrown into public view for all to see.  At the most devastating moment of their lives, and truly I can think of hardly anything as terrible and unfair as a child dying before a parent, they had to wrestle with how to act, how to speak, and how to move forward.  How would Davey and I act if we suddenly lost Tommy or Ethan?  I shudder to think about it, and I hope I never ever have to find out.  But I do know how we’d hope we’d act—exactly like Peter and Donna Howard.  Under the most dire and depressing of circumstances, they were the epitome of Godliness here on earth.  They continued to praise God, and in truly the most incredible moment of strength and tenderness Davey and I have ever witnessed, Peter sang at his son’s funeral.  He sang for his son, and he sang for his Father:

Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

It was just such an amazing and powerful showing of love—of their love for Drew, of their love for the Lord, and of God’s love for them—for how else in the world could he have gotten through that song at his son’s funeral without God holding him up.  The Howard’s have lived out this song the entire time.  It’s easy to live out the “giving” parts—it’s not so easy to live it out in the “taking away” parts.  They have not become bitter, and they continue to find joy and love in this fallen world.  They have not lost sight of the final prize—seeing their son, and seeing their God for all of eternity.  Thank you Howard family for being such incredible examples of love, grace, and sincerity.  I long to hear the words that I am in no doubt you will hear from the Father—“Well done, good and faithful servants.” 

Week 36, Start-up September!

Ahhhh, September.  Football is in the air.  I wish chilliness was in the air, but alas.  That said, September queues my favorite time of year--the Fall!!  I LOVE FALL!!  I love football. I love jeans-and-hoodie weather. I love the colorful leaves. I love all things pumpkin flavored. I love Thanksgiving, and I love fresh starts.  As I mentioned before, I feel like I personally operate on a traditional school calendar.  September is the beginning of new opportunities, and I've been preparing for a few weeks now to kind of "roll out" some of my new plans.

One of my new plans was going all organic and "real" starting in September...like, all the way.  So, in order to try to be the best steward of our grocery budget as possible, I decided to essentially automate breakfast, lunch, and snacks every day.  Each of us have different "menus" if you will, but for each person, everday is essentially the same, except for the variations of seasonal fruits and the dinner meal.  Although the concept seems foreign to most of us, it is actually one that many other cultures do naturally, and one that Dr. Oz has recommended as well.  Now, obviously, the automated menus need to be balanced and nutritious for it to be a good idea, and I'm proud of what I am feeding my family these days!  So, I made a "Master Grocery List" with all of the weekly items and monthly items that I will need.  Then, each week, I only have to add in the dinner ingredients, because the rest should stay the same.

Even though I predicted the food costs accurately, I won't lie, there was still a little sticker shock when I completed my first entire shopping trip at Whole Foods!  That said, I'm proud to report that the food easily got us through the week, and everything was yummy!  Here's what we had for dinner this week:

Roasted Salmon with tomatoes and shallots, tri-color quinoa, and cantaloupe!

Chicken and Spinach Orreciette Bake

Homemade Baked Fish Sticks

Beef Taco Noodle Skillet

Homemade French Toast Sticks (with hidden pumpkin in the batter!)

Tommy diligently waiting for the muffins to come out--with Daddy's shoes on and no pants of course!

Homemade Organic Whole Wheat Pumpkin Carrot Raisin Cupcakes--before the cream cheese icing was put on!

Brown Rice Chinese Noodles with mushrooms--Davey actually liked this--couldn't believe it!

In combination with the new food plan, I knew it was also time to get back to exercising regularly.  I was fortunate enough to go out to dinner on Tuesday night with a couple of my friends, and we were all talking about the struggle that is weight loss.  Well my one friend, Sierra, is very fit and has learned to control her weight.  Anyway, to make a few hours of conversation short--she offered to "coach" me and 2 of my other friends.  So, we've all agreed to send her a daily email update, and she has agreed to encourage, motivate, and push us along the way!  We've also all agreed to begin the "C25K" program (couch to 5K).  So, I'll be doing that 3 days a week, and then starting next week, I'll be doing bootcamp twice a week!  So, far so good on the C25K for Week 1--I just hope I don't get injured (more than I already am) once bootcamp starts!  So, that takes care of budget, eating right, and exercise...gotta love fresh starts and new opportunities!!

On Monday, we were really happy to drop the kids off  at Aunt Becky's pool for them to have some Labor Day fun with Becky and Goggi!  While they were gone, I took the opportunity to finish up the pantry organization that I started a few weeks ago!  I got ALL of those containers for $1 a piece at Walmart and Dollar Tree!!

The pantry is done!

Unfortunately, none of Becky and Goggi's pool pictures really turned out, but we know they had a blast!  They were worn out and had really good naps--check out a refreshed Ethan greeting Goggi after his nap!

We headed over to Goggi and Papa Bill's house that evening to meet up with the rest of the family for dinner to end our Labor Day on the right note!  Other than that, it was "business" as usual at the Catchings' house!  We continued our little preschooling routine, and everything is still going really smoothly.  Here's a little bit of what the boys have been up to this week :)

Ethan after some hard coloring work
(you can kind of see the  remnants of crayon scattered across the right side of his face!) 

Okay, for this next section of pictures, this has been the area where Tommy is most behind--writing!  He usually doesn't even want to try, but I have to admit, I didn't realize pretzel bribery would work so well!  We'll continue to work on these for sure, but even though they still are less than age-appropriate average, I was super proud of him!!

This one was Tommy's favorite to do!

Ethan loves going through every instrument in the  music drawer!  I'll have a percussion player yet!!

Tommy loved writing on the chalkboard!!  

Tommy kept pretending to be Daddy when he had his glasses on <3

On Wednesday night, the boys were eager to go over to Grandma's house, as you can see below!  They had a special treat waiting for them that night when they went to bed--sharing a room for the very first time!  Since Uncle NoNo and Aunt LoLo are taking over Ethan's room for a couple of months before they move into their new condo in Chapel Hill, Ethan's crib was moved into Tommy's room!  I have to admit, I thought it would be a disaster, but according to Grandma it was a huge hit--at least for Tommy anyway!  She said he was so excited and talked to Ethan for about 30 minutes, even though apparently Ethan ignored him and went to sleep!  Soooooo, we're thinking about letting them share a room soon.  We have plenty of space for them not to share obviously, but Davey says there is something special about sharing your room with your brother!

C'mon Grandma--hurry up!!

Tommy just waking up on the left, while Ethan was still snoozing away in his crib with the giant green bear!

Overall, it was a pretty laid back week.  We had some good family time together for sure.  At one point, Tommy just up and decided that he wanted to give Davey a kiss...on the mouth...which Daddy wasn't cool with!  Check out the whole sequence of events below!  And, just a little warning here--PARENT BRAG ALERT:  Tommy kind of melted our hearts this week.  We always say a little prayer at night before we put the boys down, but every single day this week Tommy has spontaneously prayed all by himself.  One night he even asked Davey if they could "pray to God together"....teardrop!  The heart and belief of a child <3

Everyone is having fun...for now :)

Tommy leaning in 90%--Hitch style...Daddy is not giving up the other 10% though!

Tommy decided to try to catch Daddy off guard by tickling him!

Pause for a photo op :)

Back to work......

Davey cannot believe what is happening

this kid is relentless!!

Okay, maybe Tommy's about to give up....

nah--ATTACK, ATTACK!!

Daddy keeps trying to fend him off...

man, this looks like tiring stuff!

One more try!

Tommy is puckered up and ready to smooch!

He's trying not to like it, but look at the joy on Daddy's face--he loves it!!

I think the little guy finally laid one on him!

Daddy is now exhausted, but it looks like Tommy is ready for round 2!

On Friday, we finally made it to Hit and Run, after Tommy had asked every single day!  The boys had a good time playing baseball, but I think they had just as much fun hanging out in Granddaddy's office!

Run Ethy Run!

Tommy is getting pretty good at swinging by himself :)

Ethan is counting "one, TWOOOOOOOOO, three" before hitting

 

The 2 Tom's busy working at the office--HAHA!

Ethan is clapping for the cash register--he's my son, what can I say?!

Tommy is crunching the numbers while Ethan tries to get his paws on the dough...again, Ethan = me !

We had another fun, party-filled weekend too!  On Saturday, Matt came over again to watch the State football game with us.  This time, I'm pleased to report, the Wolfpack was able to pull off the win against UConn!  Then, on Sunday, we all went out to eat to celebrate Davey's Granny's 75th birthday!

We made a pit stop to Harris Teeter since we were a little early for lunch--the boys loved  "driving" Goggi's cart!

Everyone is having a good time for Granny's 75th!

Ethan and Daddy laughing at some inside joke apparently :)

A look down the whole table!

Daddy and Tommy give Granny the thumbs up!

We had to leave a little early because the ginger was getting restless!

Tommy giving Gran-MaMa/Granny a hug goodbye!

The women of the family--sadly, I had to miss out on this one because we had already left!

Sunday night was bittersweet though.  It was the Season Finale of "Drop Dead Diva", and so naturally Laura came over to celebrate.  We were a little disappointed with the finale, but it also marked the last time Laura and I would be watching it together as "neighbors"--sniff sniff!!  I know we'll continue to get together a lot even with them living in Chapel Hill, but I know it likely won't be every week like it has been the past 5 years.  I am sad for myself, but I am so happy for them to be realizing a dream of theirs to be living in a really nice Chapel Hill condo--can't wait to come visit!!

Life Lesson #11:  The Way of Kings, and the way of The King!

Okay, this week's life lesson was set up really nicely for me.  Last week I spoke about how to behave while working (or playing or anything!)--basically, do the best you can do, and do it for the Lord.  I had already had in mind to kind of piggy-back off of that one and discuss a similar topic--how to behave when you're the one in charge.  At some point in their lives, most people have to lead something.  It may only be that they're the captain of the recess kickball team in elementary school, or they may end up in charge of thousands of employees as an adult.  Whatever the case, being in charge is a powerful thing.  It can be completely ruin a person (not to mention those working beneath them), or it can be a powerful testimony.  As I've mentioned in previous blogs, it is just so so so hard to not let money and power get to your head.  In general, they both are a breeding ground for greed--it can be so very ugly.  But, it doesn't have to be like that.  My sincerest kudos to Bill Catchings and Mark Van Name for doing it right, when it's so easy to get it wrong.  They are the co-owners of Principled Technology, where Davey works.  The company is about 8 years old I believe, and they have just been hugely successful--yes, from the world's standpoint--money!  That said, I think even a more significant accomplishment has been their unheard of generosity to their employees.  In the age of gigantic bonuses and incentives for only upper echelon management, they have shared the wealth--literally.  They do profit sharing across the board--a percentage of your salary, so that it is equal.  Their benefits package is literally unheard of--they specifically try to find the industry leader and then beat them.  Case and point--earlier this week (playing right into my life lesson!), they had a company meeting.  During the meeting, they announced yet another huge benefit--all pregnant employees will get 12 weeks PAID time off!!  But, that's not all--the father's and/or significant other's will get 3 weeks PAID time off to spend with their new addition!  I'm not sure I can even remember all of the benefits PT gives their employees there are so many.  I know the one that has helped us out the most has been the unbelievable health insurance.  It's 100% covered--ALL OF IT!  A debit card in the amount of the deductible is given to each employee, so that there literally is never any money coming out of your pocket!  And while the vast majority of the employees don't ever need to use their full amount, we meet ours in less than one month.  The others get to have the remainder rolled into their retirement accounts!  Okay, I could go on and on, but the point is--they treat their people well--REALLY well.  My sons, if you ever find yourself in a management position, I would be proud for you to emulate your Papa Bill.  As one of my favorite new Sci-Fi books, "The Way of Kings", puts it--"Rule others as you would be ruled."  Or, we can always listen to THE King, who says, "Treat others the same way you want them to treat you."  That's right--the "golden" rule.  Most leaders, managers, and people and power do not do this--be sure that you do when you have the opportunity.