Thyroid update

It has been a little over two months since I started taking my thyroid medication. And after the first month I went back in for a follow up to make sure my dosage was correct and my levels were on track.

I got my blood work in the mail a few days later...and how sweet is was to see that all my levels were within perfect normal range. Not too high in normal and not too low in normal. Just perfectly in the middle.

I wanted to frame that little piece of paper. Those numbers meant so much. Those numbers represent more to me than I can say.....

No more tremors in my hands and legs. Which means I can hold out my hands without them shaking. I can hold a book, type, write, press my foot down on the gas peddle in the car without it jumping back up at me.
No more surges of heart palpitations that would seem to never end.
No more 135bpm when I'm sitting still.
My body is no longer running at supersonic speed.
I'm no longer "on" every minute of the day. My body is finally able to turn itself "off".
I can go about my day without feeling like I'm gonna vomit from extreme hunger every two hours.
I can lay down in my bed at night and not feel my entire body forcibly vibrating every half a second from my rapid heart beat.
I can rest a book on my stomach and not have it vibrate.
I no longer feel my heart beating in my chest, calves, arms, stomach, finger tips, neck, ears or head.
I can rest my head on my pillow and not hear every beat of my heart.

No tremors.
No vibrating.
I am still.
And I am quiet.
And that is something I will never ever ever take for granted.

And it is a beautiful thing.

This is worth one pill a day for the rest of my life. This is worth all the drama and radiation and time away....

to be able to experience the beauty of being still, and quiet...is worth it all.

This feels good.

And I owe it all to a lot of different doctors...but one in particular....who I will be eternally grateful for...is one that I believe the LORD providentially brought me to.

I saw her for a completely unrelated matter...she was a gynecologist. :~) But she's the one who finally listened. She's the one who's eyebrows finally crinkled together. She's the one who thought to run a lab on my thyroid. After years of living with this...it was a gynecologist who I'd never seen who finally caught it.

I have no doubt the Lord brought me to her office. I have no doubt the Lord placed that specific medical assistant in there and raised her awareness to my high heart rate. I have no doubt the Lord gave me a pressing need to continuously bring up specific symptoms. I have no doubt it was the Lord who planted a seed of concern in the gynecologist for my thyroid.

I don't believe in coincidence. I believe in God who plays an active role in my life, working on my behalf and orchestrating things for my benefit.

And in my new found stillness I revel in overwhelming gratitude and am reminded to offer up sweet thankfulness to my God who loves me.

Feels so good to be still...and loved.

'Bloom' Baby!!

It's that time of year again!!! Bloom Where You're Planted was calling our name today thanks to it's military appreciation day. We absolutely adore this farm. It is perfect. And quaint. And all together lovely.

 
 Me and Isaak both agreed that in the event we ever retire and are fortunate enough to have a little piece of land to call our own...we will be makin' this garden trellis tunnel.

 Complete with massive gourds and larger than your face sized leaves.

The horses are always the girls favorite part.

This little strip of land is my favorite spot here. It's nestled in between the corn fields and horses with grand views of the sky and very gently rolling hills of farmland. It'd be the perfect spot to plop down on a blanket, bask in the softness of 68 degrees, the warm sun, the picture perfect cloudless blue sky, and just watch and enjoy creation....if only horses didn't attract so many flies.

 Moving on, lots to see....

Well, this is new! Every year we come they've added something else.

Isaak thought he'd take that horse saddle swing thingy for a spin after seeing Sydaleigh on it. He nearly biffed it trying to get on. That contraption is not adult friendly. Very wiggly. Much more wiggly than it looks. If only he'd a face planted it...that woulda been hilarious! (not that I get some sick sense of enjoyment our of seeing my husband or any other person face plant it...but well, maybe I do...a little bit! If they don't get hurt that is. I have a twisted sense of humor that finds toe stubbing and whacky falls quite funny. I have a deep love for America's Funniest Home Video's. )

 

Climbing the hay!

"Ta-Da!"

"Come on, jump with me."

"Hmm, I don't think so."

 "WHAAA!!!!"

"Oh. Well that wasn't so bad." 

 "Lets do it again!"

CORN PIT!!!!!

 We do love ourselves a good pit filled with corn kernels.

 the only problem with loving a good corn pit,

 is that when you do things like this....

 like getting buried up to your eyeballs...

means lots of corn in places it shouldn't be. 

It gets in your ears, your shirt, your shoes, your socks,

I dumped out about fifty or so kernels from Marvi's underwear after we got home.

.....after the corn pit we took another pit stop to play on the new tire swing

 dress Marvelly up like a scarecrow, she dug it. :~)

feed a goat and play with a new water device thingy. 

 and then it was off to hunt for some pumpkins

Sydaleigh wanted a big one. So Isaak said if she could carry it, she could have it. 

That girl picked herself out a mammoth sized pumpkin. And she carried it. 

She was very proud of herself and her mammoth five year old strength.We were too.

Marvelly on the other hand was quite content with her "baby" pumpkin. Literally, baby. She cradled that thing in the car and pretended it was a baby on the way home. 

Oh.my. They are entirely too cute. :~) Great Saturday at our favorite Fall hangout.

CHIEF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I knew something was smelling exceptionally funky in the girls room. At first I thought it was coming from the laundry room. But after a thorough cleaning of the litter, the smell remained.

Hmmmm........

"What is the rank smell????"

Unfortunately I did not have time to investigate yesterday, when it started crinkling my nose.

But today, I knew I'd have to tear the girls room apart and figure out what was causing it.

Oh my.

*deep breaths*

I really only thought it would be an old soiled pull-up that got kicked under the bed by accident.

Mmmm mmmm......nope. Worse.

Okay...maybe Chief peed on something.....nope. Worse.

Alright....perhaps Anna coughed up a hair ball under one of the beds.

*gag reflux kickin' it*....nope.......Worse.

When Sydaleigh bent down and told me she spotted the culprit under her bed, I lifted off the mattress to get a better look.

Looked like a hair ball to me.

If only.....if only it had indeed been a hair ball.

Upon closer inspection.....

I discovered.....

that resting under Sydaleigh's bed.....

WAS.A.DEAD.MOUSE!!!! *cringe and shudder*

A mouse!!!!!!

A FLIPPIN' MOUSE!!!! Left under Sydaleigh's bed to no doubt bask in the glory of his catch.

Oh uggghhhhh uhhhhhh..... I don't do mice. Sorry. I shewed Sydaleigh off to the play room, screamed for Isaak, started breathing through my mouth lest that wretched smell of DEATH make me vomit....and Isaak brought that thing outside.

*shivers racing through my spine*

I can't even think about it without cringing. And my blood pressure rises. And I feel a stress induced heart attack comin' on. 

There is only ONE reason why there'd be a dead mouse in this house. ONE REASON!! And that one reason just happened to bring one home this afternoon and try to run into the house with it dangling from his mouth. ICK! "Get back! Get back! You ain't comin' in here!!" 

I had to practically beat that thing from the grip of his mouth with a broom stick. That nasty nasty NASTY cat.

It was one thing to find an occasional snake in the house when we lived in California. It was one thing to discover an occasional dead lizard or frog in the house when we lived in Florida. I'm okay with the cats killing little crickets and beetles that sneak under the door cracks here in Nebraska.

Occasional reptiles, amphibians, and insects....I can handle. That is fine.

But it is another matter en.ti.r.ly. when Isaak's cat brings vermin home. Rodents are NOT okay.

Not okay!!!

That cat BETTER find another place to sleep tonight because I am not opening that door to let him in even if meteorites threaten to rain down, if it drops to -50 degrees, or he is being chased by a pack of wild dogs!!

There are hardly words for how much I despise that cat.

Little Miss Sunshine

"The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple."

-Psalm 119:130

A month into the school year

We are four weeks into the Kindergarten school year. And so far....GREAT! I can not brag on Sydaleigh enough. This little girl, has not one.single.time. complained about going to school. She has never once asked to stay home or complained about getting up in the morning. Each day she is cheerful and enthusiastic to go to school. She is learning. She is flourishing. She is being challenged. She has got a great teacher that maintains much of the same guidelines we have in our home. She is active and engaged and keeps a close eye on the happenings in the classroom. She has a great method for open communication and Sydaleigh enjoys learning under her.

We have had a couple little, not hiccups, but just, things happen in school that have needed addressing so far. The first week her teacher was out of the classroom for a day and Sydaleigh's class had a sub. There was a pushing incident while the kids were walking in line to music class. I got a little riled up and talked to the teacher about my "take no crap stance" with other kids laying their hands on my Sydaleigh. :~)

And then her lunch got taken and hidden from her for fun by another friend and she had to eat cafeteria food. I probably shoulda not gotten so riled up this time. But it's me, and I tend to respond emotionally before I think things through logically. When I informed Sydaleigh I'd be havin' a talk with the friends mommy, she got really upset...knowing that my talking to another mom resulted in trouble for her friend.  So after lots of tears and screaming and some lying....I just felt the Lord encouraging me to step back. So, I told Sydaleigh that I would not talk to her friends mommy. But that she needed to talk to her friend herself and ask that he not take and hide her lunch anymore. But I also reminded her that she is this boys friend. She is not his mommy. It's not her job to make sure he doesn't get in trouble. It's her job to make sure she always tells me what is true.

Oh....how I'd love to step in and fight all my kids battles for them. How I instinctively want to protect and save them from everything the world throws at them. Even small things like this. It's so easy for me to step in and just solve all her problems for her. But, I can't solve all her problems. I can't fix everything for her. I want to equip them to be problem solvers. I want them to be bold and have confidence to speak up and address a situation. And that's not gonna happen if I'm always stepping in, and never giving them a chance. 

I'm just so grateful that we're starting out with small things like lunchboxes!!

I need to be eased into this!

One thing that we are apparently not going to get the pleasure of being eased into is this whole "girlfriend" fiasco.

FIRST day of school a boy came home gushin' to his momma how Sydaleigh is his girlfriend.

Say wha?!?! Not again!

It was the same way in preschool! The boys in her class and in her swim lessons would tell their moms how Sydaleigh was their girlfriend too.

NO!!!!!  She's five!!!

Shoot, I laugh now, but if she's already turning the boys heads, I'm clearly gonna be beating them back with a stick come high school. Probably before that. And I do mean "beating them back with a stick" li.ter.a.lly. I need to find a ninja store so that I can find one that collapses so I can fit it in my purse all inconspicuously, and then BAM! Bust it out all quick and ninja like. 

And then I'm gonna get the girls some of THIS. So they can be protected....and fancy. Gotta equip them against all their admirers....because apparently the line is already forming.  :~)

But school is going well. She absolutely loves it. She adjusted so smoothly. She has made a plethora of new friends. And when she comes home we spend time at the table having a snack and talking about her day. And then her and Marvelly spend time together getting reacquainted after a day spent apart. 

Me and Marvelly have been having a grand time, just us. I have been doing "school" with her a couple days a week. But since she has the attention span of a peanut, we are done in about 15 minutes. But in the past four weeks she has memorized how to spell her name and is developing her fine motor skills learning how to trace letters. Oh, and coloring inside a picture. Very big three year old stuff. :~)

But we mostly play.

One month down. And what a good month its been. Hectic. But good.