One Woman's Journey to the Heart of God: High Five for Friday!

{one} Last weekend, I was able to attend our church's annual women's retreat! I was so thankful to finally be at a larger event with the women in our church, and it was so good to meet more people and deepen relationships. We had a great weekend learning about how to fix our eyes on Jesus, and I am so encouraged by the faith of the women in our church. I love the diversity of age, stage of life, and cultures, and I look forward to further deepening relationships with these amazing women.

{two} While Mommy was away...the kiddos enjoyed fun time with Daddy! They had a pizza and movie night, and then went on a fun hike to Bear's Den Overlook with friends. It stretched them quite a bit, but they still did pretty well!

{three} We are super grateful that COVID cases seem to be decreasing. I did get my 3rd shot {since I am immunosuppressed}, and we are starting to find more ways to get more involved with church and friends here. So while I was able to attend the women's retreat {fully vaccinated and masked}, and we are going to more events than we were even a few months ago, we are still taking precautions. I am still not ready to put the kids in Sunday School, due to their little germ magnet ways haha. And we still require masks and distancing around those who are unvaccinated. But decreasing cases, higher vaccination rates in our particular area, and my own health improvements give me hope to doing even more in-person things soon.

{four} A lot of our decisions regarding COVID have depended on my health. I am still not in remission {it will be 2 years of active disease next month}, and I still don't trust my body to be able to fight off sickness {COVID or otherwise}. Since starting Stelara, I have seen improvement! While I am not out of the woods yet, I am having so many more good days, which is such a huge praise! But I am still dealing with fatigue and those pesky headaches. And I still have actual Crohn's flares, though those are starting to diminish. I have another follow-up with my GI next month, as well as with a Primary Care Physician to check my B-12 levels and hopefully get some help with the headaches. So I think we're finally headed in the right direction...I'm cautiously optimistic :)

{five} We have been making our way through our Pre-K curriculum, and overall, I think it's going pretty well! It's nice to have the structure in our days, though it can also be difficult on days when I am not feeling well, or the kids just aren't feeling it haha. We're still working on a good rhythm, as some days run more smoothly than others. But we're making it through, and I think they're learning :) They ask almost every morning if we are doing Preschool {and aren't disappointed when I say "yes"}, so I'll take that as a win!