Seasons Change

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These 3 were so little! 😍

In this photo from 2017, they are 5, 10 & 15.

This makes me cringe a little though (I’ll get to that in a minute), because we had just left the cardiologist where the youngest here was dismissed as a patient after 5 years of frequent checkups, fully expecting she’d be going in for heart surgery. Her doctor had walked into the room, looking over her test results and his jaw dropped! He said he could not explain it, but she was HEALED! NO NEED FOR SURGERY!


I quickly told him I could explain, you see we serve a God who is still performing miracles and this is exactly what we, and so many of you my friends, had prayed for. 🙌

You guys… then we celebrated with McDonald’s!🤦‍♀️

I’m a firm believer in “do what you can in the season you’re in”, and I honestly didn’t know a whole lot better and didn’t understand nutrition and health at the level that I do now.

Now that I do I’m cringing at the fact that we celebrated a healthy heart with Happy Meals, a warm box of sugar/gluten-filled cookies, and ice cream sundaes.

I am looking back and giving myself grace, knowing what life was like going through what we were with her health, barely sleeping with an 8-month-old at home who had issues of his own, and navigating homeschooling a variety of ages while volunteering for everything I could because I still thought God loved me for what I *did* not because of whose I was.

Looking back at this I’m thinking of the momma who snapped this picture and the husband and the baby sitting next to her (me). I’m realizing that so many women, and men, are right where we were. I’m grateful that God has shown us a better way, and I get excited about being able to share that knowledge with others as the opportunity arises.

There are so many free tools when it comes to health care, and I’ll be highlighting those in future posts.

In that season we were in before we didn’t know about investing in our health and even if we had, we really couldn’t afford to. We just needed to start small with things like clean water, sunshine, and more time barefoot on the ground. Things that don’t require a financial obligation or take much time.

One of the Most Overlooked Essentials in the Parenting Tool Bag

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Parents of littles, if you don’t own an otoscope yet, I highly suggest you order one now.
Like RIGHT NOW, before it is 11pm on a Friday and you need to check your 2 year old’s nose
to :
A) Figure out which nostril the popcorn kernel is in, if she did in fact put one up there.
B) Be sure she didn’t stick more than one popcorn kernel up her nose, even though she’s denying there
are any up there at all, but you’re sure by the look on her face there IS at least one. <– How’s that for a run-on sentence?  Pretty good, eh?  I just want you to read it fast and feel the anxiety I did for a sec.
The verdict:  One kernel, easy to dislodge after spotting it in her tiny little nostril, covering the opposite nostril and asking her to blow hard.
#toddlersmakemesweat
The thought of trying to explain at the ER why my 2 year old is even up at 11pm, that was just unfathomable.  I don’t think they’d be that understanding of my honest excuse:  “Uh, well Doc, because it’s summer and any sort of regular evening routine or schedule has been completely thrown out the window.  Tonight it’s 11:30pm, tomorrow may be 7:30pm.  Oh, and the popcorn? Well right now she’s terribly picky, so we just feed her whatever she wants to eat so she doesn’t die of starvation or something.  I mean how long can a kid live off of Larabars, popcorn, pineapple, and marshmallows?”
Just save yourself the trouble and order an otoscope, okay?  Now I do have a slight background in nursing which helps slightly with checking for ear infections, but anyone can use one of these.  They do come with a handy visual chart that is all sorts of helpful.  We’ve also used our otoscope recently for checking out a bee sting to the eye, a sliver to the foot, and details on bugs.

I’ve had mine (the same one in the link) for just over 3 years now, and it’s still working just like it did the day I opened it.

Purchasing through my affiliate links will not cost you any extra. Amazon gives me a small portion of each sale made through my referral links, which helps me run this blog, and support our homeschooling.

A Slightly Better Wife- GreenAir Oil Diffuser Tutorial and Review

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This post contains affiliate links.  Visit my disclosure tab for more details.

Edit: I’ve had this diffuser for well over a year now, tried other diffusers, and this one is STILL my most very favorite.  Even though it is not as visually appealing as some of the other diffusers on the market, this one has worked the best for me.  Worth every penny!

Ditching Toxins- 1 Year Later

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Almost exactly a year ago I posted about how freaked out I am by toxins.  Since then I DID actually pull out the lotions that had parabens listed in the ingredients, or had a list of ingredients longer than I cared to read.

I tried making my own deodorant (& toothpaste), which worked better than the store bought.  That is, until it got too cold and hard (hoping it will work again in the summer, I have hyperhidrosis and am a super sweater.

I’ve gotten a little more relaxed since Christmas and started using a hand lotion that I don’t even know where it came from.  I read that it had parabens but I figured I’d just use a little, and it smelled SO good!

Well, I read an article today that has again sparked my interest to remove toxins, so the lotion will be ditched.

You can read about the article here, it talks about parabens and breast cancer.  It’s not that they may be causing it or even directly linked, but I do feel that women as a whole are using WAY too many products that are unhealthy and our bodies know it.

By the way, if all of you women would stop using so many products to make yourselves look good, then I could stop using so many and it would really level out the playing field.  Just sayin’.

Also- I stopped using my very favorite moisturizer and swapped it for olive oil after a MOPS meeting where I had everyone making a sugar scrub.  Some gals asked if it was okay to use on your face, and I said I wouldn’t, because it’s oil.  Then a few other said that it was actually good to use just olive oil on your face.  I looked into it, and they were right!  My skin loooooves the change.  Although winter winds have been tough, the olive oil is still all I will be putting on my pretty little face.

Think to yourself- What can I do to make a difference for me/my family?  Then do it!

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