Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.

This little guy almost always has kind words for people.

During our devotion time the other night, Abigail and I were talking about words, tone of voice, and how it's not just what we say, but how we say it that affects people. 

I am so guilty of poor word choice, and speaking to my kids in an almost at the brink of yelling and clearly I am frustrated voice- too often.  

Being a wife and mother is tough.  There are so many responsibilities and demands.

But today, I will choose to speak pleasant words.  

Happy new year

Well, Christmas break is just about over…

Thanks to the snow, the kids are going to get to enjoy one extra day of Christmas break.  We got over 11 inches of snow in less than 24 hours!  The kids had fun playing in it, but now the temps have dropped to negative 15 or so, with wind chills even colder, so going outside to play is out of the question.  

For some CRAZY reason, I decided to take the dog out for a jog today.  Josh told me "it's not that bad out-- I shoveled and I didn't die" It was rather cold, but I made it 3 miles. If I would have stayed out any longer, I would have gotten hypothermia.  I think Heidi would have gone 10 more.  She is really enjoying this cold weather.  I tried to take a picture of her intentionally burying herself in the snow, but my fingers were frozen.

I ended up making those cookies I talked about in my last post.  I realize they look very similar to a belgian waffle, but they are much more tasty!  Josh has declared that from here on out, he'd like to eat at least one of these cookies every single day…we'll see about that!

Josh and the boys made birdhouses.  They had a lot of fun doing it.  They planned on giving them to friend as Christmas gifts, but they didn't get them painted in time- maybe next year!  

Elijah made his own birdhouse.  Josh likes to turn him looses in the garage with power saws and other power tools.  I know this is a good thing, but it always makes me nervous.  I better get used to it though, as he will be driving in a few short years.

Abigail has been very helpful in the kitchen lately.  She has always enjoyed cooking, but she is starting to do a lot more on her own.  She has made numerous batches of cookies and sweet breads without any help from me.  This will prove to be a very important skill :)

We took a trip down to Nashville after Christmas so the kids could visit their favorite candy store.  (the one that also happens to sell the same kind of cookies I made)  I resisted the urge to buy some.  Josh took the boys to a playground for a while because the weather was beautiful, and Abigail and I walked around to look at some of the other shops.

Of course, what is Christmas break without some sort of catastrophic injury that results in a trip to the ER?  Poor Jeremiah was running up the stairs when he tripped and smashed his front teeth in.  I figured they'd have to be pulled because they both appeared to be dangling by the root.  The physician pushed them back into place and said they 'might' heal, but probably not.  I can see that his right one is just about to fall out.  I guess the tooth fairy will come early to him.

The kids built a few snowmen.  The snow was perfect for snowman building-- not anymore though considering it is a frozen ice world in my back yard.

I have really enjoyed this time with my family.  I guess it's back to the real world in a few days.  

Ready to take it easy!

GREETINGS!

This is what happens to me after I spend too much time at the grocery store, then try to squeeze in some quick christmas shopping, only to realize that I forgot to get the napkins, which are all the way at the other end of the store. Apparently, Abigail has a tendency to turn into the Hulk as well-- poor girl.  

I am really looking forward to Christmas this year!  I don't have all of my shopping done, but that is okay because for the next 3 weeks I'm totally FREE!  No more school work for me :)  I finished my classes for the semester (THANK GOODNESS!) and although the kids aren't officially on Christmas break yet, they won't have any major school projects due this week, so that is good news.  I am looking forward to their break though.  It will be so nice to not have to have 5 kids fed, dressed in decent & seasonably sensible clothing, teeth brushed, shoes on, papers signed, homework done, and OUT THE DOOR by 7:30 every morning.  

It is nice for me to have these little breaks though, because it helps me appreciate the blessings the Lord has given me.  I really don't mind being busy.  I don't mind all of the errands, running kids around, preparing meals, folding laundry, doing my own homework, etc… but I really do enjoy a break on occasion!  It give me time to make Josh his favorite cookies :)  He's been dropping hints for weeks about Russian tea cakes, which I finally made the other day- he pretty much ate the whole batch of them playing games with Jeremiah & Christian while I took the oldest 3 to a concert.  We saw TOBYMAC- and I'll tell ya what, that man would put ANY 49 year old to shame.  He has some moves for an old(er) man!  It was so much fun.

Speaking of cookies, I plan to make dutch waffle/honey cookies some time this week- if they turn out, I'll post pictures, if not…well…you can imagine what may have happened.  And I'll be making a trip down to the only store I know of that sells these fabulous cookies, which is a candy shop in Nashville, IN.  They are that good.

Until then,

Merry Christmas!

Drumstick dash!

This year, Josh and I decided to sign up to run the Drumstick Dash.  Since it's a short race, only 4.6 miles we decided to sign the older 3 up to run it with us.  It's a great race to run, because most of the money raised goes to support the Wheeler Mission, a local homeless shelter that provides not only meals, but addiction recovery programs, etc…

It was such a cold morning- only about 19 degrees, but the kids were up and ready to go!

They all did a great job.  Abigail and Isaac both ran the entire time, and kept a pace of 6mph (10 minute mile) so I was impressed.  Isaac even kept some energy back so at the end of the race, he was able to sprint to the finish and beat Josh.  It was a lot of fun, and something I would recommend for any family looking to start a new Thanksgiving tradition.  

In other news, Josh decided it would be a good idea to get a fresh turkey for Thanksgiving.  And by 'fresh' I don't mean never frozen.  By fresh, I mean living, breathing, heart-pulsating, eyeball-looking-at-you, living.  I didn't really believe him at first.  But he came home with this:

hey what am I doing here?

Heidi went nuts for a while over the turkey.  Thankfully, we have a fenced area we were able to put the turkey in until 'the big event' so Heidi couldn't slaughter it for us.

Josh and his new friend

It wasn't exactly easy to slaughter the turkey (more emotionally taxing than hard to do!)  Thankfully I didn't have a part in it :)  Josh said it really makes you appreciate where your food comes from.  He managed to get all of the feathers off and innards out.  Josh is not afraid to do new things.  I am always impressed with his ability to just go for it.  I am much more apprehensive.  

Abigail really enjoys helping out in the kitchen.  I have been trying to give her more responsibility in that area.  This year she helped with many things. 

Jeremiah was supposed to help daddy and Elijah rake the leaves.  He thought it would be a good idea to jump in the pile!

Exciting times!

These are some exciting times…

After years and years of pondering, thinking, discussing, we are finally taking the plunge.  Can you guess what we are doing?  Here are some hints:

If you haven't guessed already, we are going to get chickens.  This is exciting news, folks.  Josh and I have both wanted to raise chickens for a while (we did raise a pig, after all- which is FAR WORSE than chickens could ever be…at least I imagine.

I don't know what has taken us so long to finally go for it.  

I'll be sure to keep you all informed as we make progress!

Thanksgiving

I have much to be thankful for.  Don't we all?  There is always a reason to rejoice, always a reason to thank God.  

Three years ago around this time of year, I was 'diagnosed' with MS.  I don't really think I have MS, I'm just not sure the Neurologist knew what else to say.  I fit the model. I had a few lesions on my brain, I had loss of motor function, evidence of protein in my spinal fluid, not to mention extreme burning and numbness in my extremities, as well as in my face.  Weird, I know.  

I started taking various medications, including rounds of intravenous steroids (to control inflammation) tramadol (for pain- a "fake" opioid ) klonopin (for vertigo) excessive amounts of vitamins (for the heck of it) I was also prescribed, but never actually took Lyrica, Teriflumoide (or something like that) Cymbalta, and some other things that I don't remember.  

I hated the way I felt, and I hated the thought of being in bondage to medication if I didn't 100% without a doubt need to be.  I was also terrified of the thought of a wheelchair, but as things progressed my muscles became more atrophied and I didn't have a lot of strength in my legs.  I was so dizzy and I fell pretty much every time I closed my eyes. Oftentimes in the shower.  I had Zero balance!

I started running before I had MS, and even maintained a running lifestyle during my pregnancies.  However, the most I ever ran at one time was about 2 miles.  After I was diagnosed with MS, I quit running.  Not only was it physically difficult to run because of the numbness, it was mentally challenging, because honestly I was a little depressed.  

So I didn't run from about November 2010 to April 2011.  Then, for reasons that I don't quite remember, I decided to go out for a jog.  I was apprehensive because I was prone to falling and my legs were numb.   I felt nervous about running on the road, so I started running on the treadmill at the YMCA.  I figured if I fell, at least I wasn't at risk of getting run over by a car!

Then, sometime in the Fall of 2011, Josh announced to me that we were going to run a half marathon.  A WHAT?? You want me to run 13.1 miles?  

But I did it.  I had learned a technique of counting my steps as I ran, and it helped me stay balanced.  Thankfully I don't need to do that anymore!

I continued to run and get stronger.   Eventually I stopped taking all of my medications.  That is another story, but I will tell you one thing, some people in the medical profession are not in the business of keeping you off medications, that is for sure!  The last time I was at my Neurologist office (about a year ago) I mentioned to him that I would like to stop taking benzodiazapines, (klonopin) because I had read some pretty horrible things about them,  I thought they might actually be making my vertigo worse, and I'd really like to try to deal with things medication free for as long as possible.  His response:

So do you want to up your dose since it's not helping with the vertigo anymore?

Oh jeez, did he even hear a word I said?  At that point I decided to stop seeing my Neurologist.  I'll find a new one if I decide to go back!

Wow, this is not really what I had set out to write about, but that is okay.  I guess my message is, if you're dealing with a chronic illness, especially one that entails chronic pain or numbness- put those MUSCLES and NERVES to work!  Take care of yourself.  Eat well, limit fast food/junk food, get outside and enjoy the sunshine when it's available.  Don't resign yourself to thinking you can't, because chances are, you probably can! 

It's easy to fall into depression or bunny trail down paths of miracle medications.  Don't get me wrong, I am NOT anti-medication, I know that medication can work wonders in some people's lives, but first start taking care of yourself in the best way possible.

As I write this, I still deal with the effects of MS (or whatever it is!) Today I woke up and my legs are on fire.  When I put my hands under the cold water, it feels like the water is burning hot. It's hard to hold a pen because my fingers are so numb.  When I take a step, I feel like I'm being stung by a hoard of killer bees.  I think I have a cold, and I've noticed when my immune system is down, or seasons change, I tend to have flare ups.  That is okay.  I will deal with it, and if it gets too bad, I had better find myself a new neurologist so I can get some IV steroids :) 

Okay, now I must get back to my real life, which consists of playing a game of "spot it" with Jeremiah, then going to pick up the kids from school

This is us at the Monumental Half Marathon last Saturday (Nov.2) Our 4th half marathon! I ran my best time 1:55 yeah, baby!  We are now officially signed up for a full Marathon in April...oh dear.  26.2 miles, here I come.  

A picture of Christian and Heidi dog, just because I think this picture is way too cute to not post.

He looks so happy- he loves his dog.

We went to Turkey Run during Fall break- we really enjoy hiking at the State Parks in Indiana.  We really do have some beautiful parks in this state!  

I am so thankful for my family.

Happy Halloween!