Honor Air Chicago

Two weeks ago, my friend Aimee posted information on Facebook regarding Honor Air Chicago.  The Honor Air program is nationwide, and pays for WWII veterans to visit Washington DC and all the war memorials that are  here in their honor.   Its an amazing program, and this time last year, we participated by writing letters to some veterans who were flying here to visit from Florida. 

Different organizations raise money and the trip doesn't cost anything to the veterans.  Most of them are in their 70's, 80's and sometimes even 90's, and many of them have never been to Washington DC in their lifetime.  When I first heard about this program it really resonated with me. Both of my grandfathers served in WWII and it just made me so happy someone thought of a program to honor these heroes and show them how thankful we all are for their service to this country.

When Aimee posted that an Honor Air flight was coming thru Dulles Airport on April 4th, and that they needed people to greet the veterans, I knew we had to do it.  The airport is so close to us, and I thought it would be a great experience for our boys to pay their respects.  There will soon be a day when there aren't any WWII veterans still alive, and I wanted them to have this experience to remember.

We headed to the airport Wednesday evening.  I had given our names and birthdates to the area coordinator about a week ago, so she had gate passes waiting for us at the Southwest ticket counter.  I bought the boys American flags to wave, and we headed to Gate B50 to greet the veterans as they returned from a day of sight seeing in DC.

They were running a little late, and while we waited we met an area swing dancing club there to perform for the veterans, and dance with anyone who wanted to.

This swing group raised $6,000 for the Honor Air program, just in February alone.  It warms my heart to know there are groups out there making this happen for these guys.

Finally it was time! The veterans pulled up in buses outside and we lined up to greet them, hug them and shake their hands.  Some of them had cameras, some of them were crying, laughing and probably experiencing a huge range of emotions.

This is my favorite photo of the evening.  Dylan saluted all of the veterans, all 97 of them.

Dinners were passed out to all of them, and the dancing began. Some of the veterans got up out of their wheelchairs to dance a jig themselves!  The boys helped the Girl Scouts pass out cookies to anyone who wanted them, too.

It was a great night, and afterwards we took the boys to Fuddruckers for celebratory burgers.  I think they really enjoyed the experience.  I know I did!  They have many of these flights coming thru town frequently, so we hope to attend another one soon!

 

spring break trip

We've been enjoying a week of no school, no schedules and lots of fun activities.  I'll just share some highlight photos below of our trip to Dad and Bobbie's on the shore of SE Virginia, which is how we started off our spring break for the first four days.

Logan and Maya

it was chilly on the boat

We took the boys to Jamestown Settlement..

We also visited Nauticus in Norfolk... a cool museum about all things maritime, military and such.  We got to tour the battleship US Wisconsin, super cool!

sundays

Dylan has been on a year round swim team this school year, and he practices every Sunday afternoon at a local indoor pool.  Rather than torture ourselves, oops, I mean Logan, we usually conquer and divide. Andrew will take Dylan one Sunday, and I'll stay with Logan.  Then the next week I'll take Dylan and I'll do something with Logan.  Its nice for the boys to each get to spend some time with us alone.

I usually try and trick Logan into a trip to Target or Wegmans to run some errands during our special time. Yesterday was no different, I desperately needed a few groceries.  And sadly, an annual egg hunt event we were supposed to attend with lots of other friends was cancelled due to heavy rain.  But we salvaged the day anyway.  After Wegmans, we stopped at a park so he could run around, and then went to visit our local turtle pond.  No turtles yet, but the geese were out in full force and we had two stale loaves of bread.    And I had one happy boy!

bro-mama birthdays!

My Mom and brothers' birthdays are close together, and every end of March we have a great excuse to get together for a little family fun time.  Next up, we have Easter and Dylan's birthday...another great excuse!  Lots of people don't get to see their family as often as we do.  I love that we live close enough to all spend time together celebrating these occassions.   My stepsisters live in Maryland, not too far, so we can truly all be to my Mom and Robby's within 45 minutes. 

Between our kids, my brothers, and my stepsisters, there are now 10 cousins/grandkids.   Makes for quite the party when we're all in one place at the same time!   Its always a group effort, but my Mom and Robby always host a great time, and the kids love their time with the cousins!

the purdy blossoms

The Cherry Blossoms have bloomed early this year, due to all extremely warm weather.   A girlfriend invited me and another friend to go downtown with her this afternoon and have a little picnic to check out the blossoms.  The blossoms are a HUGE tourist attraction and you can't even get near DC on the weekends this time of year.   It was great to go down this afternoon with much less traffic, better parking options, and up close and personal views.

Beautiful, and FLUFFY!

I love spring.

That is all.

Perfect Banana Bread

Perfect Banana Bread

I buy bananas at least once a week.  Sometimes we eat them, sometimes we just don't get to them until they starting turning spotty.  I'm terribly picky about my banana texture, and once they start growing spots, they're just too mushy for me.  When that happens, I put them aside and when I have an 'extra' hour, whip up this super easy, always perfect banana bread recipe.  Its always moist, always delicious.   Its Dylan's very favorite breakfast with a spin thru the toaster oven and schmear of cream cheese.

This morning, I also had another motive for making this bread.   We roasted salmon and broccoli in the oven for dinner last night, and the house needed a better smell!

What you need:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
3 or so mashed overripe bananas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray one 9 x 5 loaf pan with nonstick spray, or use two smaller foil loaf pans (eat one now, freeze the other for later!).

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In mixer, add bananas and whip until goopy.  Next, add the melted butter, eggs and brown sugar. Add flour mixture slowly and mix until mixed well.  Pour batter into sprayed loaf pan(s).

Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.    Enjoy, so delicious!

founding fathers artwork

A little belated Presidents Day artwork from Logan.  So cute.

where is Dr. House when you need him?

Logan had a follow-up with the pediatric sleep doctor this past Monday to re-check his iron levels.  As I've written about so many times, we're still trying to solve the puzzle of Logan's sleep (or lack thereof).  Its been three months since his last iron level check, and back then his levels had only gone up a couple of points.  We switched him to an iron pill (instead of a liquid) in early January, to be sure he gets his full daily dose. We've also made some dietary changes for him, trying to get more and more iron into his body.  We thought for sure his levels would be up by the end of February.

Turns out they were not.  In fact, his ferritin level was back down to 19, which is where we began last August, over 7 months ago.  Very frustrating, to say the least. I was pretty amazed it hadn't gone up one iota.  Since its our understanding his PLMD won't improve, and therefore his sleep quality won't improve, until his ferritin is in the 80 - 100 range, we have to keep at this little medical mystery until we've solved it.

Sigh. 

What causes iron mal-absorption?  Well, we're not exactly sure.  The first thing we're trying is to treat him for reflux.  If he's had on-going reflux (which we see no signs of, but we're told it can exist in  kids with no real obvious signs), that can cause iron to not be absorbed.   He's now on an over-the-counter reflux medication and will have more blood drawn at the end of May for another iron level check.  If it has not gone up then, we need to look into some other reasons.  One reason could be Celiac Disease.  I'm learning more and more, but again, there are no obvious outward signs he has this condition.   

Just in case though, I contacted a good friend who works with an allergist at the end of last week and she is doing another allergy patch test on his back this weekend to see if anything flares up.  The test isn't absolutely accurate, so it may or may not indicate a problem. We're testing for a reaction to milk, wheat, oats and corn in larger areas this time.  The patches will come off tomorrow afternoon, and we'll see if anything looks obvious.  Even if it doesn't, a next step might be to do just start a 4 - 6 week restricted diet for him, and we'll  have to decide if we're going to remove all milk, or all gluten first.   If we take one of those things out of his diet and see behavioral improvements and also see his iron levels going up by May, we'll know we're on the right track.  I suspect there may be something going on with milk, because he's always had what seems to be an addiction to dairy.  Removing dairy wouldn't be easy, as we've tried other types of milk (almond, soy, etc.) and he doesn't like them.

Gluten free might be more simple.  Fortunately, we have a lot of friends who are gluten-free and there are lots of well stocked stores nearby with tons of options.  I'll just have to educate myself on what to buy and what to substitute in for him to meet his little picky taste buds.  I'm sure it will be quite an undertaking at first, if we go down this path, since some of his main staples are cereal, macaroni & cheese, oatmeal, yogurt, pizza, PB&J.  But we'll figure it out.

Its just a never-ending science experiment for the poor guy, and I just sometimes wonder if we'll ever put all the puzzle pieces together to solve the behavior/iron mal-absorption/sleep disorder puzzle.  We started on this road over four years ago and have come to a lot of dead ends, a lot of appointments, a lot of questions, answers and research.   A lot of learning we have to be the ones to advocate for our son and stay on the doctors to give us answers.   And what we've been through with Logan doesn't even slightly compare to what parents go through with children who are truly ill with more chronic conditions. That, I can't even imagine.

We'll return to the sleep doctor at the end of May, and see how things look.  Chances are, she will schedule another sleep study for over the summer, just to see if his apnea is gone.

And we'll keep at this until we have some answers.

The Animal Fair (clap clap)

The entire third grade team has been working on the annual spring third grade program, the lovely and entertaining Animal Fair. The kids memorized an incredible amount of oh-so-cute songs and I wish I had videoed them all since they're were so catchy (especially a rendition of Ice Ice Baby about the Artic)!  Grandma Lynn came out to enjoy the program with us, and we're happy to report there was no puke-a-rama, unlike the unforgettable Patriotic program in first grade.

Each third grade class has been studying specific eco-systems and Dylan's class focused on the ocean.  His particular animal was the Parrot Fish, and he completely a multi-media presentation about it.  Some of the kids also incorporated QR Codes into their presentation, so parents could scan with smartphones and instantly see their childs' presentation on You Tube.  Pretty cool, when you consider all of my school reports were comprised of what I could find in World Book encyclopedias and microfiche.

Dylan's class wore blue shirts, of course.  Sadly, the video upload of Dylan's class song/dance routine is giving me problems, the file might  just be too large.  I'll keep trying, but here are the photos and his multi-media presentation at least.

Here is Dylan's multi-media presentation on the Parrot Fish

Third grade has been Dylan's best school year yet, for lots of reasons.  Great teacher, really structured classroom, and the kids in his class are very kind to each other.  He brings home top scores on almost of of his work, and he just looks forward to school every single day.  Its been so great to watch him really enjoy himself more than ever, and just thrive at school.  I can hardly believe he only has two more years until 6th grade middle school.  Where does the time go?

Roasted Peppers, Sausage and Potatoes

I am LOVING Pinterest and all the yummy recipe ideas I've gotten there.  A few have been flops but for the most part, I've added some really tasty recipes to my collection in the everlasting search to keep food healthy, interesting and affordable for our family.

I came across this recipe last week and want to give this blogger full credit for the recipe.  I made a few changes to the recipe and I think it made it even better and easier.

Roasted Peppers, Sausage and Potatoes

Roasted potatoes, onions, sausage and peppers roast in the oven with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and rosemary. Don't you love a meal that only dirties one pan? This is an easy one-dish meal that makes clean-up a breeze, and the smell in your kitchen will make everyone hungry!

This recipe uses a very low fat chicken sausage, with 75% less fat that pork sausage, and it's gluten-free, too.  I bought a garlic flavored chicken sausage but there are lots of different flavors you could try.

This dish was so easy to make.  Instead of mixing it all up in a bowl as she suggests, I just cut up all the ingredients and dropped them right into a Ziplock bag.  Add the olive oil and spices, pepper, onion and potato, seal the bag and shake until everything is coated.   I used red potatoes, and I only used one red pepper (which was plenty)...because they can be so expensive.

Preheat oven to 375.

4 - 5 medium potatoes (I like red)
1 medium onion
1 red bell pepper

Chop up these three ingredients and toss into ziplock.  Be sure to cut them the same size so they all cook evenly.  

fresh Rosemary - 1 tsp (you can use dried if you have to)
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
3 TBSP olive oil

Now add those three ingredients to the same ziplock.   Seal and shake to coat well.  

Line a large baking sheet with heavy foil, spray with nonstick spray.  Dump the contents of Ziplock onto cookie sheet.   Roast for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, slice up chicken sausage and set aside.  After 15 minute timer goes off, add the chicken onto baking sheet, and roast another 35 - 40 minutes.  Your house will smell wonderful!

We loved this meal.  And clean up is so easy, you've dirtied no bowls, and the foil can simply be thrown away. Easy peasy, healthy, tasty and inexpensive.  I can see trying variations of this with different flavored chicken sausages, adding mushrooms, artichokes, asparagus or other veggies, and maybe even squash, with the same method -- chop, coat and roast.   Yummy!