In Which We Have to Get Healthy

But first an update. I promised one. We DID, in fact, get the youngest's room under control. All toys are now on the shelves in her closet or stored in the garage for rotating later. The 137 baby dolls turned out to only be 16, but I feel that is a sufficient number for a young mom to handle. They are on a shelf. All that is in her room is her play kitchen, her $12 new-to-us baby care center, and that shelf of babies. Her clothes were organized too, but then we were blessed with 2 garbage bags of hand-me-downs that I thought we might put away for later.

So far, they have all fit.

How did she get so big? She's 6 1/2 and these are all size 8s.

Sniff.

Anyway, onto our health journey. We are not young like we once were and it is past time to be very serious about our health.

1. I believe I have mentioned changes at husband's work which means that we now pay health insurance and prescriptions out-of-pocket until we meet the deductible. This makes you strongly consider "do I NEED to go to the doctor?" Which is not how it should be.

2. I have had pain like back when I had ulcers/gastritis 7 years ago and also found a lump in my abdomen. Obviously, that is scary. I visited the g.i. doc, got scheduled for blood work, an ultrasound, and an EGD. So far, we have spent $1500.

3. I could have spent that money so many ways.

4. But it was good to have because now I know that I have a. 2 small ulcers b. a small hiatal hernia c. a slightly enlarged liver (fatty liver) and he thinks the lump is probably a hernia too. He will look at it more at my follow up next week.

So, add that to us not being able to afford the out-of-pocket diabetes meds for husband, and you've got a situation that requires action.

On New Year's Eve, we started eating Trim Healthy Mama. I did this plan back in 2014-2015 and lost 30 pounds. I know it works. And after I lost all that weight, a few things happened:

(there are a lot of lists today, huh?)

1. My Dad went into the hospital for 6 1/2 weeks and I took care of Mom, transportation, running back and forth, and our kids (youngest had *just* turned 3 at the time). Dad ended up passing away at the end of the summer so then of course....grief, grieving children, Mom, funeral, everything.

2. About 3 weeks after Dad's funeral, we took our second-born to the doctor for allergy testing. We found out she was allergic to...well, earth. But mostly soy. So, I spent months. MONTHS. Learning to not kill her when I cooked and grocery shopped.

3. Clearly, my THM ways went by the wayside.

So that is why I now have 40 pounds to lose. And some exercise to do. I have been walking nearly every day for a week (I forgot Sunday). It's a good way to start out. And our eating has been excellent ever since Dec. 31. It will take a bit for the weight to start dropping off, but it will.

And I'm taking meds for the ulcers.

We have gotten husband off of his short-acting insulin and one pill.

I think we are on the right road, headed in the right direction.

And we really don't have a choice. I desperately want to be healthy and energetic and to finish raising these girls. Plus my husband needs me as well. I need to be here for these people.

Signing off,

On This Saturday

...I got up at 6:00am. Why? I guess in part because I am old and set in my routine. I wanted to sleep, but I was awake. I've made coffee and had breakfast and the kids are all still sleeping at just after 8:00am.

I'm sitting here thinking about what I want to do today. Of course, there are "have to do" things such as meals and laundry. Thankfully the grocery shopping is done and bills are paid (Thank you, Lord!). I hate spending my weekend doing those things.

I could also work in the garage. I could clean up the extra room. I could deal with paperwork.

But what I think I want to do is work in the youngest child's bedroom. We've had every imaginable room arrangement over the years. Currently, all the girls have their own rooms. Second born talked us into giving her the front room that has, over the years, been a homeschool room, an office (I believe it's intended purpose), and a play room. It doesn't have a door. We hung some beautiful curtains and she has her own space. It's small, but temporary. One day the oldest will move out and then the remaining girls can each have a proper bedroom. For now, second born is just happy not to be sharing with little sister. So we moved all the toys to little sister's room. She's the only one who still really plays so it makes sense. But when the older two were growing up I never liked having toys in the bedrooms. Bedrooms are hard enough to keep clean without adding toys.

The youngest and I made supper the other night. Hopefully, today's task will involve fewer knives.

So today I believe I will channel my younger mom self and get in there and organize. I used to make picture labels for the girls and put them on the toy containers. Then I would label the shelf where they belonged. There was no reason for them to not know where things went. I believe the youngest doesn't know how to clean her room because so many things do not have a place.

Also, there are many things that need to leave the house.

We watched a few Marie Kondo episodes last week and of her own accord, the youngest brought about 10 things out of her room and told me to get rid of them or sell them. This is huge, people!

But I've got to get her room under control. She has 137 baby dolls (maybe that's just a ballpark figure but it feels true) and they need a home.

A home where there is still room for the real human who lives in the room to sleep, get dressed, and play. Is that asking too much?

And also, I need to take some photos of items to sell in my eBay store. Last month, Steve and I listed a few items and with the money we earned I paid for this semester of co-op and will soon pay for our spring break camp we go to each year.

So, my eBay store needs some more stock and I have lots of it waiting in the garage.

Now that I've made my plan-of-the-day with you, I'll come back later and let you know how it all worked out.

Should be good for a laugh or two.

Signing off,

In Which I Have a Pain in the Neck

Well, actually make that two pains. I will tell you about each one.

1. An ACTUAL pain in my neck. 

Remember I had that horrible headache on Christmas day? well, it was Jan. 2 before I could get myself to my atlas chiropractor. She's so wonderful. I knew my atlas was out of place and I was right. It took 2 trips to get it back in place but my head hasn't hurt since. Headaches are so awful and they can truly be debilitating. I don't know how people live with them. I'm a little worried each time my neck hurts or I start to have a headache but I know there are other reasons for headaches and neck aches. It's not always going to be my atlas. I wouldn't even mind going to the chiropractor that much, but it's pretty far from our house. After having that much pain, I am very thankful to be pain free!

2. Cooking. And planning what to cook. And buying the food to cook. And cleaning up from the food we cooked. And doing it all again in a few hours.

So, some changes at husband's work resulted in some insurance changes, which resulted in us having to pay out of pocket for medicine this year. My husband has Type 2 Diabetes, which means his meds would cost us about $1,300 a month. Clearly, that's not do-able. So ever since New Year's Eve, we have been working on getting him off of some of his meds. 

The way I decided to do this was with Trim Healthy Mama. I know the plan. I know it works (I lost a lot of weight about 3-4 years ago BEFORE my dad died and BEFORE we found out our second-born daughter had food allergies. After that, I concentrated on learning to cook for her allergies and gained a lot back. Sigh) So we started THM and he is already off of his short-acting insulin! We are so happy about that! However, if the cost is not monetary, the cost is time. 

I am fixing THM breakfast and supper each day for him as well as planning and packing snacks and lunch. That's everything he eats, seven days a week. It's a LOT. Big deal you say? Perhaps you do that already. But there is never a time he can just grab some to-go food to give a break or just buy something at the convenience store when he's hungry. There is not a time for me to sleep in, either. This morning he did fix his own scrambled eggs and I got to sleep until just after 7. It was heavenly. 

It affects our lives greatly is what I'm saying. We have to go to bed earlier so we can get up earlier so we can do all the food things. 

The good news is that in comparison to all this meal stuff, homeschool is a breeze! We had our second day back today and its going fine. More on that later. 

I'm going to read a little now before I start cooking the next meal. 

P.S. I'm so busy I don't even post pictures on here! If you want to see what's going on with Project: Family, follow me on Instagram! 

Signing off, 

A Story

Once upon a time there was a family who had a very good holiday season. Thanksgiving was stressful for the Mother as it has been since her father died. Her father had always done so much that his daughter had always considered Thanksgiving a vacation. No more. Thanksgiving is not very much fun when you have to do all the work. And spend that much money.

And of course as soon as that holiday is over, it's time to prepare for the big one: Christmas. And although the Mother enjoyed Christmas and picking out presents for her loved ones, and although she was filled with gratitude and thankfulness the whole month because of all the blessings her family had, it was a bit stressful too.

There had been a houseguest that month and of course shopping and presents and cleaning and cooking--so much cooking. There was upcoming stress of the next year to think about as well.

So that on Christmas afternoon, when all the festivities were quite over, the Mother developed a bit of a headache and said that she thought she would lie down.

And the headache grew and she felt quite bad and the lying down turned into nearly the whole evening and the Mother went to bed at 10:30. When she awoke the next morning at 8:45, she felt better. Can you imagine needing that much sleep?

The mother feels better now. And she is also going to do something she never, ever does. She is going to make today a vacation day.

There will be no self-imposed guilt about her husband working so she should be working too, like usual.
There will be no worries about all the things that need doing about the house.

The Mother is going to sit and watch movies and do nothing responsible all day long.

The End.

Looking Ahead

Back in October I realized we had SO many activities and exciting events coming up on our calendar, that we needed a visual. We keep a calendar of the current month up in our dining room with important events on it. We also use our calendars on our computers and the four oldest people in our family are all linked up to the calendar so they can always check what's going on when.

But the visual I decided to make was a paper chain. For the remaining days of October, I used orange and black construction paper. For events in November, I used brown and orange. And for December, I did a pattern in red, green, and white. I ended the chain on Christmas day and when we first hung it up, it stretched across and around part of our dining room.

The girls have taken turns tearing a chain link off each evening. They can't believe how short the chain has gotten already. It has really helped with a visual of "How much longer until....." questions.

This month the main things we have are of course Christmas....and we have a house guest coming next week. Towards that end, we have been cleaning a lot lately. Our regular cleaning is not enough when you have someone coming to stay and not just over for a few hours.

And the Christmas shopping has begun in earnest. I'm taking my mom this afternoon to get a few things as well. I'm also working on Christmas cards, which need to be mailed out soon.

This month we are also doing a lot of planning. We have wrapped up the first "season" of our podcast. Now we just need to plan for next year's episodes. Also, husband is thinking ahead to what he will preach about next year. And we are making plans for our finances in 2019 and what we can do to help out in that area.

It doesn't matter what you are planning though---a fun event like a camping trip, or how to improve your life in the new year--those plans all need to be prayed over. Honoring God with our plans is the most important thing.

This fall is passing so quickly!

I don't believe that I can pray, "God, should I...?" and He will answer me. That is not how God operates today. (See Hebrews 1:1-2). But I DO believe that God will give us wisdom if we ask for it in faith. (See James 1:5-6). I also believe scripture addresses many things that we can apply to our own lives with common sense.

And that is the really important thing in all of this. We may plan, and prepare, and work hard on our future. We may fill our calendar up with events both fun and important. But if we are not seeking the Lord's guidance, our plans are in vain.

What are you preparing for?

Signing off,