All about the Veggies....

The whole gang piled into the van for a little drive to the Bellevue library. Why Bellevue since I live in Millard? Oh that topic is in & of itself worth another blog, but long story short; I live a block south of 132nd & Harrison, so I am considered Sarpy county, I am considered outside city limits and "my taxes are not paying to support a library", so therefore we are banned from ANY library; unless of course we PAY to go. $45 for a year. Ridiculous. My sweet mother-in-law bought us libraries cards to the one in Bellevue. I am so close to getting Mike McKnight from Channel 6 involved. ;)

Back to the family event. We go into the library & go our seperate ways. Dan to audio books, Mom & tots to kids section. Kyle picks out a few books, but spots, like he always does, a HUGE stuffed tiger & proceeds to wrestle it on the floor. Nice. Hailey eggs him on, by making her "I am excited" raptor noise from the likes of her stroller. I politely quiet them down & ask Kyle if he wants to look at some DVD's they have. They always have a TON of Veggietales, Bob the Builder, Thomas, all his favorites. He looks at a few and says "Mommy, I want this one." I look at it and it's the "Snoodle's Tale"a Veggiestales one. It looks a little cheesy & girly. So I asked "Are you sure you want this one?" hoping he will get a different one. He says no, so I said ok.

We watched it at my in-laws that night. My mother-in-law told me they watched this once at a women's thing at church once & it brought her to tears. I thought, Really, a kid's video, seriously?! A few days later, we watched it again at home. On the video it has a different story, a silly song & then the Snoodles tale. This time I thought ok I will watch it this time. This story is maybe 10 minutes & I was in awe. What an amazing story. I cried & felt the love of God, as if I was a little girl watching it. This little snoodle is told he is ugly, no good, not worth it. With his "backpack" full of all the nasty pictures that all his "friends" tell him he looks like, he is so weighed down & sad, that he climbs a mountain to be alone. On top of this mountain he finds a "man". The man takes all the nasty pictures & throws them into the fire & gives him a picture he drew of what he thinks the little snoodle looks like. The snoodle is handsome, strong & radiant, just the way the man sees him! He puts that picture in the snoodles backpack, which is rather large & he thinks it's too heavy for him. But the "man" reassures him it's rather light & not burdensome. The snoodle flaps his wings & soars off the mountain, FREE from all the heaviness he had once carried! What a glorious picture! I was undone & from a little kid's video?! I recommend watching it. Kyle was really intigued by the whole thing. Really trying to understand all the different emotions in it.

It made me think of all the pictures I carry with me. All the little remarks that have been thrown my way & I have just thrown them right into my backpack, believing they were suppose to be a part of me. Not knowing any better. My backpack began to be really heavy, too much for me to bear. I was feeling the weight on my shoulders & ready to give up hope of EVER finding a way out. I was hopeless. Feeling like a failure. One day when I was at my worst, I was given a glimpes of hope. Hope that I could one day meet a "man" that would forever change my world. That would restore my soul and give me a new life. What? How can this be?A God that cares that much about me?But he does. He shows me everyday how much he loves me. He reminds me in the way Dan looks at me. I have never been loved the way my hasband loves me. He reminds me of how much He loves me by letting me be the mother of my two beautiful miracles. Watching Kyle sing, brings joy to my heart & watching Hailey, sleep so peacefully is refreshing. He is a good God and I am overwhelmed by His faithfulness to me. What an amazing God I serve. Thank you Jesus, for allowing me to see the real picture. You are an amazing artist.

Hailey, "The Speck Harvester"....

...that is what we have labeled her & she is taking FULL ownership of it as well. You see, I never had to worry about Kyle putting things in his mouth because he NEVER DID. One day, when he was about 9 months old, he got into my purse, dug into my wallet & spilled all the change onto the floor. Instead of immediately picking up a fistfull & shoving it into his mouth; instead he examined each penny with utmost curiosity. Hailey, on the other hand, is the complete opposite. Every waking moment I am pulling something new out of her mouth. She has a full out-right fit! Arched back, screaming, big ol' crocodile tears, as if I've just ended her world. The funny part about it is what I am getting out of her mouth.

Let's list a few of the finer choices: old dried up macaroni noodle, grass, threads from the carpet, a chopped up piece of onion (at my in-laws), crumbs from the inner cracks of the kitchen floor, stem from a grape(just this morning), cardboard, ....the list could go on & on, but I think you get my drift. This girl is un-stoppable! I am constantly watching her, waiting to see what she will find next. Somedays, she comes crawling down the hall, with that mouth moving & I say "ok, Hailey, what is it this time!" I wonder where in the world she find these things! I keep all the doors closed (except for Kyle's room), so she can't get into too much. She's quick! What I just can't help but laugh about, is the tantrum she has when I take it out of her mouth. You'd think she'd get upset if the speck I was prying from her mouth was of some delight, like a chocolate chip or piece of a cookie, but a small chop of onion! Kyle's even helping out in our latest adventure of Hailey. He will come to me & say" Mommy, Hailey has a speck in her mouth!" What a riot. I am just thankful it hasn't been of any danger, the things she finds are the smallest speck, I can barely see it. She will be on the prowl & her eye catches just the tinest of specks & she is on a mission. Get speck ,put in hand, put in mouth, enjoy for a short moment, Mommy prys open my mouth, removes speck, I crawl on to find the next perfect speck.

Well, I hear my list speck harvester beckoning from her crib. She will be upset to find that Mommy swept the floor, but I am sure her little hands will find just the perfect speck. She always does. :)

To be or not to be...organic

The kids are napping, I have sweet potatoes cooking (waiting to mash into some baby food for the littlest sweet potato) & so I am taking the time to sit & contemplate.

Dan and I decided to try and do our own vegetable garden this year...chemical free. Our first attempt at it & SUCCESS! I will post pics of the yummy bounty later. My husband is so proud of himself. We were a little disappointent in our green bean & snap pea harvest, not as much as we would have liked. We went out of town for a week & when we returned the peas were slumped over. Bummer. Tried to promp them up, but didn't help too much. What is doing quite well , are our tomatoes, cucumbers & cayenne peppers. . Nothing better than slicing up a good ol' juicy red tomato, just picked from the garden! Making my mouth water. We have 5 different tomotoes.(one of the five is a grape tomato plant) Why so many? Well for starters I LOVE tomatoes & with this being our first time & all, we weren't sure how many would survive. So if you would like some yummy tomatoes, give me a holla and I will be more than happy to share.

As you see I said our garden is chemical free, Dan really wanted to try it without the use of any added chemicals, which got us to thinking about all our other food. Also, we went to Colorado & stayed with my Aunt Patty, who eats all organic & informed us of all the partially hydrogenated oils, etc......that REALLY got us thinking. Thanks Aunt Mango! :) We started small and replaced simple things...now we have natural peanut butter, using butter & olive oil, whole wheat pasta, organic cereals, fruit bars & waffles. Nothing too drastic. We went to Whole foods to check it out & not in our price range for a lot of things. Found a few reasonable things. Dan & Kyle LOVE this organic blueberry flax granola. Dan eats it like cereal & Kyle munches on it as a snack; and it's not bad price wise. Like a box of cereal. In moderation we are slowly moving into the crazy organic, healthy eaters. The only thing we haven't changed it milk. I would love to, but at $5.99 a gallon for organic milk, yikes. That hurts. Not workable in our budget as of now. Ok people, fire! I am ready for some feedback.

**just a side note, as I was typing, Kyle came out of his room & informed me that he needed to "bee-wax" out in the living room with me. Who rules the roost here?

Never a dull moment

Kyle is always saying something to make me smile. Here are a few funny moments with my little man.

MONDAY: crying this from his room, from where he is suppose to be napping:

Kyle: "Bee-wax, Mommy, Bee-wax!"
Mommy: "What honey? I don't understand what you are saying."
Kyle: "Bee-wax, Mommy" this time he is pointing at his door.
Mommy: "Kyle, why don't you show Mommy what you mean."
Kyle: goes to his door & points out the hallway- "Mommy, I want to go lay on the couch, watch a movie & bee-wax."
Mommy: giggling this time- "Oh, I get it you want to RELAX!"
Kyle:"Uh-huh!" with a sigh of relief because Mommy finally got it!

A FEW SATURDAYS AGO:

Kyle and Mommy "bee-waxing" on the floor & watching a movie (again, not wanting to take a nap that day)just laying there next to each other. He has his pillow and beloved blankie, we are snuggled in together. The rule is, we don't get up, it's not play time, we are relaxing. If we get up, we have to go in our rooms & lay in our beds. After a few minutes of relaxing, Kyle turns to me & whispers, "Mommy?" Mommy, full aware that he is going to ask if relaxing is all done, I answer him in a sort of monotone answer, "Yes, Kyle." Looking me square in the eyes & with full sincerity says, "I love you." My heart melted. Looking back into those soft brown eyes, I said "I love you too, Kyle." My heart ached after that, I felt the same way I did the day he was born; fully aware that my heart was forever his.

ALL THE TIME:

Kyle LOVES to play the guitar, sing & absolutely LOVES to listen to music. One of his favorite songs is a Matt Redman song, the chorus is what he always belts out.
These are the lyrics "Oh no, you never let go, thru the calm & thru the storm Oh no, you never let go, every high & every low, Oh no you never let go, Lord you never let go of me."

Kyle's interpretation: (keep in mind he says "w" for "l")
"Oh, no, wet get go, to the calm & to the store, Oh, no, wet get go, every high, every wo, oh no, wet get go,Ward, never wet go me."

First Time for everything

Well, I've done it. I've been sucked into the vortex of blogging. I have been contemplating this ever growing interest & appeal of blogging, but thought, is this really for me? And rest assured ol' blogger pals, alas I have become one of you. I will not be as creative in my writing, as I am not as savvy with the internet/blogging, but I will make an attempt. This is a great outlet, a way for family & friends, both near & far to really know the nitty-gritty of the Greve home. So sit back & relax & be ready to be mildly amused. Just humor me a bit & just pretend to be, ok?!