A couple of months ago Isabella and Moira had the opportunity to trade work for horse riding lessons. They were working at a beautiful facility. The instructor made sure that all work was done carefully and completely. She had the same attitude towards the lessons. It was a wonderful fit....except for the extremely long drive that it took to get them there. When I did the calculations for the amount of money we were spending in gas to get there and back, it ended up being the same amount for the lessons....the ones we couldn't afford! It was heartbreaking to have to tell the girls that we would have to discontinue with their work/lessons. They took it much better than I imagined they would. I told them that we should pray that the Lord would open up another opportunity.
We waited.
We prayed.
We waited.
Isabella asked if we could talk with another ranch, one that was closer. There is a place just 5 minutes from us that she wanted to ask. However, they had told her last year that they were not looking for a work trade situation. I really didn't think it would be worth our time to stop and ask, but it certainly wasn't out of our way, so one day I stopped. I told Isabella that all talking would be up to her. She was told to call a certain person. That person said she needed to email another person. That person said she thought they could give it a go, but that she needed to call back in 3 weeks. I still wasn't sure that anything was going to come of it. Call me a pessimist. Ha.
And, as you can conclude, they got the go to give it a try. I do say, "try", because their instructor has told me that they have had many girls come in to work for lessons, but that they always peter out, failing to do the work that was expected of them. Ah, so that was their reason for being uncertain as to whether they would have them do the trade.
It's only been two weeks since they have started. In that time I have heard many times how wonderful our girls are. That was encouraging. The big shocker though? The owner asked if Isabella and Moira would be willing to learn how to feed the horses and clean out the stalls. He was on standby to be going out of town and needed someone to care for the horses while he was away. Wow. That was a pretty big calling, seeing as how he cares for 25 horses! That's a lot! Well, at least I think so :-)
The girls jump at the opportunity and they did a great job. I'm very proud of them for working hard and being dependable.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
A Positive Post
I thought after my last post I would add a more positive one here :-) This also has to do with Jedidiah. We've had many concerns about Jedidiah over his short 6 years of life. They have ranged from the serious (his failure to thrive) to the not so serious (this being only in comparison to the serious). Jedidiah has made many, many HUGE cognitive improvements over the past 9 months. It is really amazing to witness. The little things that most would take for granted, we have celebrated. There has been a new improvement the past two weeks. Helping with chores. Yes, chores. There needs to be a bit of background to see why this is amazing.
I'm not sure where to start, so bear with me as I sort this out on the screen. When Jed was a toddler and being tube fed, he was very much sedentary. Due to his extreme sensitivity his feedings took up to 1.5 hours. That meant he had to stay in one place for that whole time...as a toddler!!! Now, this worked well for him, only because he had such a lack of energy. Then, after his feeding, we couldn't let him exert himself too much, or work him into a cry, or else that whole 1.5 hours of feed would be on the floor (aka....throw up). This brought a bit of a moral/spiritual/parenting/whatever concern. It was a hard line to walk. As he got older we wanted him to have responsibilities (get dressed, help pick up toys, etc). But we had the wee bit of a problem of not being willing to make him cry (at some point any toddler decides they don't want to pick up their toys and will cry about it). Plus we had the hindrance of him not being able to hang with me while I did my chores, like all my other littles do, since he was so confined to a chair. So this led to a 5/6 year old boy who really hadn't "worked" a day in his life.
What is a mama to do? Pray. Yes, pray. I mean it's not his fault that he wasn't used to doing chores, and I didn't want the experience of bringing him 'around' to be hard on him, or I. As it was my girls were quite upset that they were doing all the picking up after their brothers, which proved to be lessons for them in their on lives. But it was indeed time for me to teach Jedidiah, and Jonah for that matter, that they had a responsibility to help with taking care of our house. Gone are my concerns of having Jed lose the contents of his stomach from crying. So I jumped in. I can't say I have been completely consistent, or had a well layed plan. I guess I just started to expect that he needed to be helping out.
It took a while to get him to clean up things. I started small. Very small (much to my girls' disliking!). I started to require that he help clean his room. Now we did have something going for us, in that Jed is very much into grouping like items. I laid out the boxes and told him what each box was for (one for toy animals, one for cars/trucks, one for tools, etc). As long as I work with him he has been very willing to help. As a matter of fact he has now started, on his own, to clean up other rooms in the house, without being told. This is amazing. It can also be crazy as he asks me for each. and. every. single. item. where they go. Ha! And truth be told there have been days that I am about to go crazy because of it. But I do stop and remember to be thankful that he is catching on. Normally by 6 my girls have been able to do things on their own, when given a specific task, like pick up all the books. We started last year or more giving each girl an assigned room to clean, and Saoirse was about 6 or 7 when we started that and she was able to do that (although we need to keep on top of her as she can easily get distracted). So in that regards Jed is a bit behind, he pretty much is in the stage my preschoolers would be. But I am fine by that.
The important thing is that my concern that he was going to be a lazy bump on a log will not be warranted. But I am aware that I will need to be a bit more intentional with him. I've started to tell him that he is now a big boy and that he gets to do school stuff like his sisters this coming school year (which we are starting at the end of September). I think short lessons are going to be key. So far he has been learning his numbers just in the course of normal reading and playing, so I am not overly concerned. He loves reading books and is always asking about what this or that 'says'. I've been telling him that pretty soon he will be able to tell what it says all by himself. He doesn't seem too excited by that, but I'm hoping that by talking about it over the next few weeks will prepare him for this new season in his life. I'm pretty excited to see how it all pans out.
I'm not sure where to start, so bear with me as I sort this out on the screen. When Jed was a toddler and being tube fed, he was very much sedentary. Due to his extreme sensitivity his feedings took up to 1.5 hours. That meant he had to stay in one place for that whole time...as a toddler!!! Now, this worked well for him, only because he had such a lack of energy. Then, after his feeding, we couldn't let him exert himself too much, or work him into a cry, or else that whole 1.5 hours of feed would be on the floor (aka....throw up). This brought a bit of a moral/spiritual/parenting/whatever concern. It was a hard line to walk. As he got older we wanted him to have responsibilities (get dressed, help pick up toys, etc). But we had the wee bit of a problem of not being willing to make him cry (at some point any toddler decides they don't want to pick up their toys and will cry about it). Plus we had the hindrance of him not being able to hang with me while I did my chores, like all my other littles do, since he was so confined to a chair. So this led to a 5/6 year old boy who really hadn't "worked" a day in his life.
What is a mama to do? Pray. Yes, pray. I mean it's not his fault that he wasn't used to doing chores, and I didn't want the experience of bringing him 'around' to be hard on him, or I. As it was my girls were quite upset that they were doing all the picking up after their brothers, which proved to be lessons for them in their on lives. But it was indeed time for me to teach Jedidiah, and Jonah for that matter, that they had a responsibility to help with taking care of our house. Gone are my concerns of having Jed lose the contents of his stomach from crying. So I jumped in. I can't say I have been completely consistent, or had a well layed plan. I guess I just started to expect that he needed to be helping out.
It took a while to get him to clean up things. I started small. Very small (much to my girls' disliking!). I started to require that he help clean his room. Now we did have something going for us, in that Jed is very much into grouping like items. I laid out the boxes and told him what each box was for (one for toy animals, one for cars/trucks, one for tools, etc). As long as I work with him he has been very willing to help. As a matter of fact he has now started, on his own, to clean up other rooms in the house, without being told. This is amazing. It can also be crazy as he asks me for each. and. every. single. item. where they go. Ha! And truth be told there have been days that I am about to go crazy because of it. But I do stop and remember to be thankful that he is catching on. Normally by 6 my girls have been able to do things on their own, when given a specific task, like pick up all the books. We started last year or more giving each girl an assigned room to clean, and Saoirse was about 6 or 7 when we started that and she was able to do that (although we need to keep on top of her as she can easily get distracted). So in that regards Jed is a bit behind, he pretty much is in the stage my preschoolers would be. But I am fine by that.
The important thing is that my concern that he was going to be a lazy bump on a log will not be warranted. But I am aware that I will need to be a bit more intentional with him. I've started to tell him that he is now a big boy and that he gets to do school stuff like his sisters this coming school year (which we are starting at the end of September). I think short lessons are going to be key. So far he has been learning his numbers just in the course of normal reading and playing, so I am not overly concerned. He loves reading books and is always asking about what this or that 'says'. I've been telling him that pretty soon he will be able to tell what it says all by himself. He doesn't seem too excited by that, but I'm hoping that by talking about it over the next few weeks will prepare him for this new season in his life. I'm pretty excited to see how it all pans out.
Monday, August 27, 2012
A new twist
I wish I could say it was a good twist. A new twist in Jedidiah's puzzle. I'm not sure if I mentioned that we have two appointments to see two new specialists. One is for endocrinology and the other for cardiology. We had to get a referral, so we had a visit with our family doctor. He thought we should also do a chest x-ray. He said he wanted to take a look at the organs in the cavity? I think that is what he said. I wasn't so sure on the whole thing, but since it's not invasive, I took him to get one. It was no surprise that we got a letter in the mail from our doctor. They are always very good at sending the results, no matter what they are. I opened it as a formality. Seriously people it was one of those, 'I really should, just so that I have crossed all my t's and dotted all my i's' kind of thing. Imagine my utter shock that the first sentence read something like this:
I reviewed your son's chest x-ray and it appears he has pretty significant asthma.
Really? Surely there is a mistake. Ugh. and double ugh. No, make that a few hundred ughs. I am thinking this may have been going on for a LONG time. Jed, for years now, has had what I have termed, "Jed's cough". I *KNOW* I've mentioned it to doctors before. I also know that his cough went away while on homeopathy. It stayed away, until a few months ago. I don't recall if he had it while on GAPS, I can't be certain one way or the other. I mean, Jed's cough, is just "a Jed thing". Something he always has seemed to do. Just a wee cough, but there. He used to have it worse before homeopathy. It would definitely be worse at night after he lay down to go to sleep. I am supposing the cough and the asthma may be one and the same?
The letter also asks for us to come in for a follow up to discuss treatment. People, this is killing me. Asthma meds? Obviously some talking will be in order. I may ask to see if a diet change (going back onto full GAPS) will ease the symptoms first before putting him on meds. And then if that doesn't work? I'll be praying really hard for the funds for homeopathy treatment (which if it were to happen, then you can all know that miracles really do exist :-)).
I feel so....so....man, i can't put my finger on it. I mean how many times has he had his breathing been listened to? How could this have gone under the radar for years? I am very thankful that he has never had a true asthmatic episode. This also leaves me to wonder what part of the asthma may play in his failure to thrive. Maybe none, maybe a lot. Who knows right now, only time will tell.
I need to go outside to bring in our things that I left out there when I opened that letter. I thought it would be a nice change to do our school reading outside. It proved a little difficult at times with trying to watch over the baby at the same time. But I think I shall try to do it more often, and I believe the baby will catch on that he needs to stay close by.
Please pray for Jed, and for myself. I was told that his upcoming appointment with endo will entail lots of blood draws. He has been very brave in the past with blood draws, but they leave him very scared to go to any doctors for a while afterwards. For me only because I feel so totally unraveled with this news. Again, I don't know why, but I do.
Thank you all.
I reviewed your son's chest x-ray and it appears he has pretty significant asthma.
Really? Surely there is a mistake. Ugh. and double ugh. No, make that a few hundred ughs. I am thinking this may have been going on for a LONG time. Jed, for years now, has had what I have termed, "Jed's cough". I *KNOW* I've mentioned it to doctors before. I also know that his cough went away while on homeopathy. It stayed away, until a few months ago. I don't recall if he had it while on GAPS, I can't be certain one way or the other. I mean, Jed's cough, is just "a Jed thing". Something he always has seemed to do. Just a wee cough, but there. He used to have it worse before homeopathy. It would definitely be worse at night after he lay down to go to sleep. I am supposing the cough and the asthma may be one and the same?
The letter also asks for us to come in for a follow up to discuss treatment. People, this is killing me. Asthma meds? Obviously some talking will be in order. I may ask to see if a diet change (going back onto full GAPS) will ease the symptoms first before putting him on meds. And then if that doesn't work? I'll be praying really hard for the funds for homeopathy treatment (which if it were to happen, then you can all know that miracles really do exist :-)).
I feel so....so....man, i can't put my finger on it. I mean how many times has he had his breathing been listened to? How could this have gone under the radar for years? I am very thankful that he has never had a true asthmatic episode. This also leaves me to wonder what part of the asthma may play in his failure to thrive. Maybe none, maybe a lot. Who knows right now, only time will tell.
I need to go outside to bring in our things that I left out there when I opened that letter. I thought it would be a nice change to do our school reading outside. It proved a little difficult at times with trying to watch over the baby at the same time. But I think I shall try to do it more often, and I believe the baby will catch on that he needs to stay close by.
Please pray for Jed, and for myself. I was told that his upcoming appointment with endo will entail lots of blood draws. He has been very brave in the past with blood draws, but they leave him very scared to go to any doctors for a while afterwards. For me only because I feel so totally unraveled with this news. Again, I don't know why, but I do.
Thank you all.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Stash Bash
It's been a long while since I've crafted. Too long. It felt good to whip out the needle and make a little something up. There is a baby shower this weekend for someone at church. I thought that I should use what I had on hand to make the new baby a little something. Funny thing...this is the first time I made something for someone outside my family. After making up the gift I thought I should jump back into finishing off Jed's blanket that I was in the process of making some months ago. I think if I start now I should finish in time for the cold weather. Assuming we get cold weather this year.
I came across this very easy and very quick pattern. I am so thankful I did as it was the one I used to make Jedidiah's sweater, which he never wore, that got passed down to Jonah and Aubrey. I love that sweater, but didn't save the pattern. I came across it on Ravelry. It's called: Baby It's Cold Outside Sweater. It is crocheted in one piece. I love crochet for it's simplicity and the fact that you can get results in decent time. I would like to venture more into knitting soon, but we'll see. Knitting seems to be more of a foreign language to me.
For the booties I came across this great site called, Crochet Dreamz. Really neat designs! I bought the X-Strap shoe pattern and whipped them up last night and finished putting on the buttons and flower this morning. I really love how they turned out. Not perfect, but perfectly cute :-)
Just two pictures to share:
I only edited the photos since I couldn't get them to rotate! Ha, ha!
I'm sharing this on Crunchy Catholic Momma's blog, and Small Things blog.
I came across this very easy and very quick pattern. I am so thankful I did as it was the one I used to make Jedidiah's sweater, which he never wore, that got passed down to Jonah and Aubrey. I love that sweater, but didn't save the pattern. I came across it on Ravelry. It's called: Baby It's Cold Outside Sweater. It is crocheted in one piece. I love crochet for it's simplicity and the fact that you can get results in decent time. I would like to venture more into knitting soon, but we'll see. Knitting seems to be more of a foreign language to me.
For the booties I came across this great site called, Crochet Dreamz. Really neat designs! I bought the X-Strap shoe pattern and whipped them up last night and finished putting on the buttons and flower this morning. I really love how they turned out. Not perfect, but perfectly cute :-)
Just two pictures to share:
I only edited the photos since I couldn't get them to rotate! Ha, ha!
I'm sharing this on Crunchy Catholic Momma's blog, and Small Things blog.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
amazing
The older two girls and I decided to have a bit of a contest. We are calling it a "Biggest Loser" contest, but the focus is on health and habits. We've actually had a few people here in the house asking/begging to go back on GAPS. No joke. I was having a horrid time trying to get back into the GAPS swing of things. On top of that I knew we needed to be getting in shape. I thought a bit of fun would help with the hard work that GAPS brings. Although, thankfully, there isn't the learning curve associated with just beginning GAPS for the first time.
The past couple of months I've been very lethargic, and waking up in overall body pain. The past few weeks it has taken me up to two hours to be able to get working around the house. This has not been good for the state of our house! In the past week I've had difficulty sleeping due to neck pain. I thought perhaps I had done something to my neck. Maybe I needed a new pillow. Something.
That something came this morning. Just 48 hours into GAPS and I woke up this morning free of pain. NO PAIN. My neck? Totally fine. I can't begin to tell you all that I got done this morning!!! Even though I didn't sleep well last night (lots of people waking up during the night), I have the energy to get things done :-) Don't get me wrong, I dont' have this amazing energy that is out of this world, but enough energy to do the things that I need doing. By 10AM I was able to get the following done:
All dishes washed (trust me this is nothing short of a miracle)
Two loads of laundry done (could have been more if we actually had a working dryer)
Dehydrator loaded up with corn and green beans
Meat brought out to defrost (seriously this was an overwhelming task these past few months!!!)
Went through the freezer to get an idea of what I need to buy and what I have to can
Made some breakfast for the baby and I
Made smoothies for the rest of the crew when they got up
Made a batch of granola
Cleaned up the kitchen
Of course the normal changing diapers and such :-)
Now this may not be impressive for most people, but seeing as how we haven't been eating breakfast until 11AM each day, this is amazing for ME!!
I just got the baby to nap and I am laced up and ready to exercise. We only have a few hours before we have to take off to drop off the older two girls to their work trade, then to get an x-ray for Jed and finally a couple of errands thrown in. I need to buy a couple of buttons for a cute crochet sweater I made for a baby shower this weekend. I'll be posting that once I get that done. I also purchased (the first for me) a crochet pattern for some VERY CUTE shoes. I found this site that is awesome! Most of her stuff is for sale, but I haven't seen anything this cool (for crochet) online in the past few years I've taken up the hook. Can't wait for the pattern to come in my email box, then I can whip them up and my gift will be complete.
The past couple of months I've been very lethargic, and waking up in overall body pain. The past few weeks it has taken me up to two hours to be able to get working around the house. This has not been good for the state of our house! In the past week I've had difficulty sleeping due to neck pain. I thought perhaps I had done something to my neck. Maybe I needed a new pillow. Something.
That something came this morning. Just 48 hours into GAPS and I woke up this morning free of pain. NO PAIN. My neck? Totally fine. I can't begin to tell you all that I got done this morning!!! Even though I didn't sleep well last night (lots of people waking up during the night), I have the energy to get things done :-) Don't get me wrong, I dont' have this amazing energy that is out of this world, but enough energy to do the things that I need doing. By 10AM I was able to get the following done:
All dishes washed (trust me this is nothing short of a miracle)
Two loads of laundry done (could have been more if we actually had a working dryer)
Dehydrator loaded up with corn and green beans
Meat brought out to defrost (seriously this was an overwhelming task these past few months!!!)
Went through the freezer to get an idea of what I need to buy and what I have to can
Made some breakfast for the baby and I
Made smoothies for the rest of the crew when they got up
Made a batch of granola
Cleaned up the kitchen
Of course the normal changing diapers and such :-)
Now this may not be impressive for most people, but seeing as how we haven't been eating breakfast until 11AM each day, this is amazing for ME!!
I just got the baby to nap and I am laced up and ready to exercise. We only have a few hours before we have to take off to drop off the older two girls to their work trade, then to get an x-ray for Jed and finally a couple of errands thrown in. I need to buy a couple of buttons for a cute crochet sweater I made for a baby shower this weekend. I'll be posting that once I get that done. I also purchased (the first for me) a crochet pattern for some VERY CUTE shoes. I found this site that is awesome! Most of her stuff is for sale, but I haven't seen anything this cool (for crochet) online in the past few years I've taken up the hook. Can't wait for the pattern to come in my email box, then I can whip them up and my gift will be complete.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
A Tea Party....for boys?
First thing first.....our boys are all boy :-) Lots of trucks, blocks, tools and rough housing. As you know we have been very excited over all of the cognitive leaps that Jedidiah has made this past year. That kiddo never ceases to amaze me. The other day he came up to me with the wee little library book. It's a tiny little itty bitty magazine for toddlers. He wanted me to read it. Seriously it only takes 3 minutes to read the whole thing, and that includes stopping and talking about the pictures. In this issue there was a story a little girl and her daddy making breakfast in bed for the mommy. They put food on a tray, some of which resembled tea party items. The little girl also made a card for the mommy. Jedidiah asked if we could have a tea party, like the one in the book. Really? This would be a new leap for him. He made sure we had did everything in the book. We didn't have any crescent rolls (like the one in the book), but he thought that homemade chocolate cake would be a good substitute. He insisted that he also make a card, *just* like the one in the book. The same colors and all. For our location, we chose to make a fort in the family room. I can't say I was looking forward to lots of little boys, with food, on my bed ;-)
Before I jump into the pictures I have to share that we finally found out why Aubrey has been so cranky this past handful of days. He was feeling a bit warm about five days ago and was very fussy. He didn't have any other symptoms. However at this same time there were two siblings with a horrid tummy illness that included a fever. I waited for his diapers to become more numerous, but they didn't. Maybe teething? Oy. But then. Then, a few days after the fever, I noticed this rash. It was on his bottom and legs. Weird. So i kept an eye on it. Then the next day I noticed two small blisters on his toes. Ah ha!! Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. Been there, done that when Jonah was Aubrey's current age. The next day he had many more blisters on his feet. Thankfully he doesn't have it anywhere near as bad as Jonah did. Jonah got it so bad he could eat for three days and he had many, many blisters all over his feet and hands. Aubrey only had one on his hand. Amazingly Jed didn't get this illness when Jonah did. But he did come down with it this week as well. He has it even less severe as Aubrey, which I am thankful for.
Ok, so picture time of our tea party:
Jedidiah looking back over to see if he was making his card the right way. Way too cute.
On the right hand page of the little magazine you can see the heart card, along with the two blue "x's" and one green and one orange "x". All there on Jed's card too.
This is Jonah's card. I made a light dot to dot for him to trace to get the heart shape. He was very proud of it.
I was even more proud when Jonah came up to me and asked me to read his card to him. This is the inside of the card. So I said something like, "To Mommy, from Jonah, I love you." Then I gave it back to him and told him what a wonderful card he made. He took his card then waved it back at me and exclaimed, "No, mommy, you didn't read it all!!" I asked him which part I didn't read? He proceeded to tell me nothing short of a five minute tale! Ha! Then he wanted ME to *read* it. Oh my, memory, please serve me right! I did fair, but not quite getting ALL the details.
Jedidiah frosting the cake. We just made one small cake. Goodness, I didn't want everyone to be bouncing off the walls before noon!
The inside of our fort. I thought it needed a bit of decoration and I found these stars in my yarn stash.
We used this blue sheet to cover my step bench (anyone remember those from the '80's?). When we were getting something down from the cupboard, Jonah caught sight of this 'family' dish and thought it must be included in our tea party.
Do you think Jonah looks like he's having fun? Seriously both boys have been asking to have another party/fort multiple times a day!
The girls were not to be left out. The decided to make up their own tea party area. The got dressed up, brought out some dolls to help them partake in the goodies and made sure to have a proper tea set up :-)
Aubrey woke up after everything had been set up and the cake was being served. At the end of the party we were letting them make the top of the fort billow up (it was made of this very light weight fabric). Aubrey thought this was the best part. He was all smiles.
Aubrey was being super cute. He has taken to Jedidiah's famous boot fashion (wearing two different colored boots). I was taking a picture of him and he came over to see it on the back of the camera. I decided to see if he would go for a picture of us together, and as you can see he was all up for it.
Jonah found his beloved Bob the Builder outfit. I had it in one of their dresser drawers, on the bottom. After all it's only 90 something degrees out, and this is is a heavy duty jean outfit. He insisted on wearing it. My has he grown!!! This used to be too big on him!
Before I jump into the pictures I have to share that we finally found out why Aubrey has been so cranky this past handful of days. He was feeling a bit warm about five days ago and was very fussy. He didn't have any other symptoms. However at this same time there were two siblings with a horrid tummy illness that included a fever. I waited for his diapers to become more numerous, but they didn't. Maybe teething? Oy. But then. Then, a few days after the fever, I noticed this rash. It was on his bottom and legs. Weird. So i kept an eye on it. Then the next day I noticed two small blisters on his toes. Ah ha!! Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. Been there, done that when Jonah was Aubrey's current age. The next day he had many more blisters on his feet. Thankfully he doesn't have it anywhere near as bad as Jonah did. Jonah got it so bad he could eat for three days and he had many, many blisters all over his feet and hands. Aubrey only had one on his hand. Amazingly Jed didn't get this illness when Jonah did. But he did come down with it this week as well. He has it even less severe as Aubrey, which I am thankful for.
Ok, so picture time of our tea party:
He made sure to fill up every available pocket with tool things :-) Jonah is such a cutie. Which is a good thing, because he is also a very inquisitive boy, which gets him into all sorts of trouble. Ha, ha!
Wednesday, August 08, 2012
Next stop....Endocrinology
Jedidiah had his yearly check up with his GI doctor. In one area (the one that is totally not important) things went well, but in the other area....um, not so good. His doctor was very pleased with Jed's cognitive advances. He commented on how he was finally looking "like a normal boy". That would be a very good thing IF it wasn't due to the reason Jed looks more normal. He looks more normal because his weight is progressing along the curve, just on his own level, which I believe is like the one percentile...or less. However, his height is falling away from the curve. As it was he was below the curve, now he's much farther below. This means that he is appearing to fill out and become more proportional, giving him that normal boy look.
His doctor said something about how last year he mentioned that maybe we wanted to see endocrinology. I knew we had done a growth hormone test at that time and I had WRONGLY assumed that they would have called me if it was 'off'. His doctor looked in his chart and told me, "Oh, yes, he had that test, and it was on the low side." Low side? And he never told me? Ugh. As a note, your hormones fluctuate throughout the day. So one hour you can have a normal reading and the next it can be low. I thought it was definitely warranted that we make an appointment with endo. He goes in at the beginning of September.
Sigh. A BIG LOOOOOOONG siiiiiiiiggggghhhhhh. With ALL the things we have done for Jedidiah I feel like we are still not any closer to the answer. Let me say that the GAPS diet DID "give" me my son, the one that was 'trapped' in that wee little body of Jed's. His speech has taken off full force, he can now do imaginary playing, he wants us to read books to him (not just point at the pictures), he can draw pictures and he is trying to write. I know there are more, but those are off the top of my head. Jed has made huge progress and it is evident to those who know him.
And so this journey continues. One that we don't know the destination, we just take that next step, praying all the way.
The important thing is that Jedidiah is thriving and enjoying life. He just isn't thriving in height and weight :-)
His doctor said something about how last year he mentioned that maybe we wanted to see endocrinology. I knew we had done a growth hormone test at that time and I had WRONGLY assumed that they would have called me if it was 'off'. His doctor looked in his chart and told me, "Oh, yes, he had that test, and it was on the low side." Low side? And he never told me? Ugh. As a note, your hormones fluctuate throughout the day. So one hour you can have a normal reading and the next it can be low. I thought it was definitely warranted that we make an appointment with endo. He goes in at the beginning of September.
Sigh. A BIG LOOOOOOONG siiiiiiiiggggghhhhhh. With ALL the things we have done for Jedidiah I feel like we are still not any closer to the answer. Let me say that the GAPS diet DID "give" me my son, the one that was 'trapped' in that wee little body of Jed's. His speech has taken off full force, he can now do imaginary playing, he wants us to read books to him (not just point at the pictures), he can draw pictures and he is trying to write. I know there are more, but those are off the top of my head. Jed has made huge progress and it is evident to those who know him.
And so this journey continues. One that we don't know the destination, we just take that next step, praying all the way.
The important thing is that Jedidiah is thriving and enjoying life. He just isn't thriving in height and weight :-)
Monday, August 06, 2012
Bug bites and homeopathy
Ok, so maybe I should have said, bug stings. But before I get to the stings I wanted to quickly share about a bug bite the baby received. We were at the park last week and the baby was very tired. It was past nap time and all he wanted to do was to be pushed in the swing. This park only has 2 baby swings. One was being used, and Aubrey was in the second one. At some point both of his brothers wanted a turn. When I pulled Aubrey out he would scream and cry. The first time he was just clearly mad and crying. The second time I took him out of the swing he was crying and then started to do more of a scream. I assumed he was just having a tantrum. By the way, he was in my arms the whole time he wasn't in the swing. When I put him back in the swing, after his brother's turn, I noticed a bug bite on his arm. I thought it was a rather large mosquito bite. I had just gotten two mosquito bites myself. He wasn't itching it though. It looked like he was having a bit of a reaction to the bite as it was quite pink and swollen. I was very surprised to see the following day that his arm from his elbow to his hand (including his hand) was completely swollen. Very noticeably swollen. I was thinking, oh great, now the baby is allergic to mosquito bites. I thought that until the following day (which was yesterday)....
Jeremiah and the girls have been putting in fencing to expand our goat area. It was just the baby, Isabella (she was sick), and I in the house. I was cleaning my room. Flannery came in clearly upset. She said she got bit by a spider. A spider? Where did you get bit, I asked? She pointed to her bottom. A spider bit you on your bottom? Did you actually see this spider? Flannery said it had to be a spider since she had just walked through a spider web. I told her to show me this 'spider bite'. It didn't take me a second look to see that she was stung by a wasp (soon to find out a yellow jacket). No sooner did I declare that she was stung, did Saoirse come in saying that daddy was just stung by a yellow jacket. At this point Jeremiah did not know that Flannery was stung. So he just came in, leaving the boys and Moira outside. Let's just say I freaked out. YOU NEED TO BRING THEM IN RIGHT NOW!!!! Thankfully they were not stung.
Jeremiah came in to grab the wasp spray. He went back out, hoping to spray the offending beasts. However he didn't know where they had come from. He soon found out after he was stung again on his ankle! He came in and I applied a baking soda paste, which did no good. Jeremiah was telling me that he was starting to feel light headed and foggy, something he feels each time he is stung or bit by a bug. Take note, that those are basically the words he said himself. In the past he has gotten quite ill from the effects of a bug's venom (to the point of having to miss work due to being so sick) . At this point I remember the homeopathic remedy, apis. Apis is actually made from the honey bee. So I made some up and gave it to Jeremiah and Flannery. Immediately afterwards Jeremiah took off to purchase some wasp traps. Five minutes later Flannery, who had been lying in her bed, came running in my bedroom and started to jump on my bed. Clearly she was fine, although there was still some pain. I made sure to give each of them the remedy two more times that afternoon. By evening, definitely when Jeremiah would have started feeling the full effects of his bug reaction, I asked him how he was feeling. He said he felt fine. I said it must have been apis to the rescue. He said he thought that since he was bit on his lower leg that the venom must not have been able to travel up....Basically that it couldn't have been the apis, he was just lucky enough to be stung on his lower leg. Wha????? You gotta love a sceptic, either that or bang your head against the wall! Ha!
So I've decided that the baby was stung by a wasp. He got a mosquito bite later that night and there was no swelling. And now a few days later the area is still pink, as opposed to just a pink bump that a mosquito bite leaves. Poor baby. I wished I would have figured that out sooner and given him some apis :-)
Jeremiah and the girls have been putting in fencing to expand our goat area. It was just the baby, Isabella (she was sick), and I in the house. I was cleaning my room. Flannery came in clearly upset. She said she got bit by a spider. A spider? Where did you get bit, I asked? She pointed to her bottom. A spider bit you on your bottom? Did you actually see this spider? Flannery said it had to be a spider since she had just walked through a spider web. I told her to show me this 'spider bite'. It didn't take me a second look to see that she was stung by a wasp (soon to find out a yellow jacket). No sooner did I declare that she was stung, did Saoirse come in saying that daddy was just stung by a yellow jacket. At this point Jeremiah did not know that Flannery was stung. So he just came in, leaving the boys and Moira outside. Let's just say I freaked out. YOU NEED TO BRING THEM IN RIGHT NOW!!!! Thankfully they were not stung.
Jeremiah came in to grab the wasp spray. He went back out, hoping to spray the offending beasts. However he didn't know where they had come from. He soon found out after he was stung again on his ankle! He came in and I applied a baking soda paste, which did no good. Jeremiah was telling me that he was starting to feel light headed and foggy, something he feels each time he is stung or bit by a bug. Take note, that those are basically the words he said himself. In the past he has gotten quite ill from the effects of a bug's venom (to the point of having to miss work due to being so sick) . At this point I remember the homeopathic remedy, apis. Apis is actually made from the honey bee. So I made some up and gave it to Jeremiah and Flannery. Immediately afterwards Jeremiah took off to purchase some wasp traps. Five minutes later Flannery, who had been lying in her bed, came running in my bedroom and started to jump on my bed. Clearly she was fine, although there was still some pain. I made sure to give each of them the remedy two more times that afternoon. By evening, definitely when Jeremiah would have started feeling the full effects of his bug reaction, I asked him how he was feeling. He said he felt fine. I said it must have been apis to the rescue. He said he thought that since he was bit on his lower leg that the venom must not have been able to travel up....Basically that it couldn't have been the apis, he was just lucky enough to be stung on his lower leg. Wha????? You gotta love a sceptic, either that or bang your head against the wall! Ha!
So I've decided that the baby was stung by a wasp. He got a mosquito bite later that night and there was no swelling. And now a few days later the area is still pink, as opposed to just a pink bump that a mosquito bite leaves. Poor baby. I wished I would have figured that out sooner and given him some apis :-)
Sunday, August 05, 2012
Some resources
I've come across some resources recently in blog land that I wanted to share. I just about finished cleaning up my bedroom. It had gotten so out of sorts as I've just been throwing stuff back there. So yesterday I decided that not another day was going to go by with my room a disaster. I'm glad I took a before picture. Ok, maybe not. Before pictures are never pretty :-) Anyways I do plan on taking an after picture soon. It's dark out and the baby is sleeping (he sleeps in our room), so I will have to wait for another day. I plan on sharing how I am going about stocking up supplies. For now I thought I would share some sites that can explain better why and what to stock up on.
I've really been blessed by a new to me blog, "The Welcoming House". A wonderful woman sharing her thoughts and expertise in food storage and preserving. I love how she lays out the truth in a non alarmist way. I think way too often people have the wrong idea of the purpose of food storage. Or perhaps they have watched one too many episodes of 'Doomesday Preppers'. I've had one too many conversations with people who think storing food is going overboard. So please take a look at the Welcoming House and pass her link on to others who need to hear what she has to say.
I've already pass along the link for Dehydrate2Store.com in the past. If you haven't seen the site before it is the ultimate site for dehydrating food. I came across a new site (to me) on dehydrating, and I liked her approach on presenting dehydrating in 6 easy steps. Sometimes we just need the information in an easy to follow list. You can visit this new site here at, Easy-Food-Dehydrating.
The next resouce is a book. I'm not even done with the book, but I think it should be required reading in all high schools. Seriously. Some of you may have heard of Joel Salatin. His latest book, "Folks This Ain't Normal", is a game plan of sorts to see us through what will certainly be a new normal....lack of cheap energy. It would take way too long to go into all he has to say. Some of the things he advocates though fits into food storage and self sufficiency. I was able to get a copy from the local library, so no excuse for not reading it :-) You can find out more about the book HERE.
Those are some of my new finds. Do check them out, and stay tuned for my video on food storage and a video on homeopathy.
I've really been blessed by a new to me blog, "The Welcoming House". A wonderful woman sharing her thoughts and expertise in food storage and preserving. I love how she lays out the truth in a non alarmist way. I think way too often people have the wrong idea of the purpose of food storage. Or perhaps they have watched one too many episodes of 'Doomesday Preppers'. I've had one too many conversations with people who think storing food is going overboard. So please take a look at the Welcoming House and pass her link on to others who need to hear what she has to say.
I've already pass along the link for Dehydrate2Store.com in the past. If you haven't seen the site before it is the ultimate site for dehydrating food. I came across a new site (to me) on dehydrating, and I liked her approach on presenting dehydrating in 6 easy steps. Sometimes we just need the information in an easy to follow list. You can visit this new site here at, Easy-Food-Dehydrating.
The next resouce is a book. I'm not even done with the book, but I think it should be required reading in all high schools. Seriously. Some of you may have heard of Joel Salatin. His latest book, "Folks This Ain't Normal", is a game plan of sorts to see us through what will certainly be a new normal....lack of cheap energy. It would take way too long to go into all he has to say. Some of the things he advocates though fits into food storage and self sufficiency. I was able to get a copy from the local library, so no excuse for not reading it :-) You can find out more about the book HERE.
Those are some of my new finds. Do check them out, and stay tuned for my video on food storage and a video on homeopathy.
Saturday, August 04, 2012
Jedidiah in rainbow
Jedidiah was sitting with my while I was typing my last post. He wanted to use some color! So I wrote out his name many times and let him pick the colors. Here is Jedidiah in rainbow :-)
JEDIDIAH
JEDIDIAH
JEDIDIAH
JEDIDIAH
JEDIDIAH
JEDIDIAH
JEDIDIAH
Where did my Jonah go?
Ah, Jonah. Obviously all my children have their own personalities that make them unique. But some personalities are stronger than others, or louder, or more rambunctious...etc. One child's personality stood out due to the fact she was so quiet. Each of my children have certain things they do that make them, them :-) So back to Jonah. I'll give you the short of it since I can really draw things out! One of the first thoughts I had of Jonah as he was placed on my tummy after he was born was, "I just gave birth to a line backer". No joke. He was face down on my tummy. His shoulders were....thick. Thick pretty much sums up Jonah. I really thought he was at least 9 pounds. To this day I wonder if the scales were off. He only weighed 8 pounds even. Not only was he thick but he was very long. I assumed he would thin out as he grew. He never did. Even when he learned to walk and most toddlers thin out from all that new movement...nope. I figured once he was around 3 or so when they get to that preschool age and move out of that babyish look...nope. Jonah has always been thick.
Food. Jonah and food. Oh my. This child has loved food. He pretty much would eat anything. I found it quite odd that he insisted trying to eat salad when he was only about a year old. It took him a while before he was able to manage it, but he loved salad! I mean, how many kids you know would chow down on salad? Jonah loved all foods...a lot. I have always said that Jonah's future wife will have it easy, as long as she knows how to cook. Really! Sometimes I secretly worried about his love of foo :-)
This past month Jonah turned four. Nothing unusual about that. Jonah has been Jonah since the day he was born. But....but then it happened. The one stage that most kids go through that I never thought possible for Jonah to hit. Most of my kids have gone through a picky eating stage. I was pretty much convinced I would never have to go through that with Jonah. I mean 'Jonah' and 'food' just go together. Food describes Jonah. And so a couple of weeks ago, after he just turned four, I couldn't believe my ears when I heard Jonah declare, "No, I don't like this." He was referring to a food that we have always eaten, that *he* has *always* eaten. I really thought he was joking, but he wasn't. I told him I didn't buy it, since he always ate this. But I was even more shocked when it happened at the next meal and a meal or two after that, and has pretty much happened multiple times a day. Jonah, not like food? Who took my Jonah? On top of that, this once thick boy isn't looking so thick. The combination of a growth spurt (he is shooting up like a bean stalk!) and his now limited food palate has given us a new to us Jonah. I really can't help but stare at him as this always thick Jonah is becoming more slim. Please understand I am not talking about him losing weight! He's just going through that growth spurt that most kids do much earlier.
I sat on his bed staring at my sleeping Jonah. He has changed so much in the past few weeks. Not only in his eating, and growth but how he is talking and dealing with life. I really don't recall any of my children making so many of these changes all at once! I dare say he is becoming a boy. I know he's a boy in the male sense, but I am talking about how is no longer a baby, a toddler or even preschooler...he's turning into a boy. It's amazing.
As amazing as this all it, I still want to know:
Where did my Jonah go?
Food. Jonah and food. Oh my. This child has loved food. He pretty much would eat anything. I found it quite odd that he insisted trying to eat salad when he was only about a year old. It took him a while before he was able to manage it, but he loved salad! I mean, how many kids you know would chow down on salad? Jonah loved all foods...a lot. I have always said that Jonah's future wife will have it easy, as long as she knows how to cook. Really! Sometimes I secretly worried about his love of foo :-)
This past month Jonah turned four. Nothing unusual about that. Jonah has been Jonah since the day he was born. But....but then it happened. The one stage that most kids go through that I never thought possible for Jonah to hit. Most of my kids have gone through a picky eating stage. I was pretty much convinced I would never have to go through that with Jonah. I mean 'Jonah' and 'food' just go together. Food describes Jonah. And so a couple of weeks ago, after he just turned four, I couldn't believe my ears when I heard Jonah declare, "No, I don't like this." He was referring to a food that we have always eaten, that *he* has *always* eaten. I really thought he was joking, but he wasn't. I told him I didn't buy it, since he always ate this. But I was even more shocked when it happened at the next meal and a meal or two after that, and has pretty much happened multiple times a day. Jonah, not like food? Who took my Jonah? On top of that, this once thick boy isn't looking so thick. The combination of a growth spurt (he is shooting up like a bean stalk!) and his now limited food palate has given us a new to us Jonah. I really can't help but stare at him as this always thick Jonah is becoming more slim. Please understand I am not talking about him losing weight! He's just going through that growth spurt that most kids do much earlier.
I sat on his bed staring at my sleeping Jonah. He has changed so much in the past few weeks. Not only in his eating, and growth but how he is talking and dealing with life. I really don't recall any of my children making so many of these changes all at once! I dare say he is becoming a boy. I know he's a boy in the male sense, but I am talking about how is no longer a baby, a toddler or even preschooler...he's turning into a boy. It's amazing.
As amazing as this all it, I still want to know:
Where did my Jonah go?
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