{iPhone Rewind} :: April

These are the days...

Listening to Peter and the Wolf...they have absolutely LOVED the orchestra music/story-telling. Aiden asks every day we do preschool if we can listen to it. Who knew this would be the crowd-pleasing winner?

We love playing outside with neighbor friends!

We got to have some friends over for dinner; such a sweet time of fellowship!

We enjoyed a fun train ride at our church's Spring Festival

We did an Easter egg hunt to find and match our upper and lower case letters...we need some extra practice with our lower case letters, so this was a fun way to get the kids more excited about it!

We were so happy on the warmer days :)

National Grilled Cheese Day!

Mike and I opened another Date Night Box, and we ended up making homemade poptarts, talking about our future goals, and having a little friendly competition {how many M&M's can you eat with chopsticks while blindfolded haha}

We headed into D.C. to help with a cousin's Flat Stanley project!

They really can be so sweet

Cutie girl reading her books

Doing a little planning for kindergarten!

Sweet girl has been working really hard to write her name!

Twin love :)

And then there's Aiden...  haha!

April 28th and it's still in the 30s...

We had to do some shuffling for nap time during our week of Covid quarantine, so everyone was out of routine. Maddie decided she was going to protest nap time and sleep on the floor instead of the couch. Sure kid. 

So glad to be out {and running} in the sunshine!

We see a variation of this TP mess almost every day now, courtesy of Aiden. It just makes me laugh because the twins never did this. I had 2 kiddos potty training at the same time, and somehow they managed to leave the toilet paper alone. Not Aiden...

Our Turn for Covid

After 2 years of doing all we can to avoid Covid, it finally found our house. Or at least we know for sure that it hit Mike. Thankfully, his case has been mild, with just some cold symptoms and fatigue. He is on day 4 of quarantine, but we think he's starting to turn a corner.

We decided to isolate him in our bedroom, just in case we could somehow avoid the rest of us getting sick. I have worn a mask when delivering him meals, and God has been gracious to keep us healthy! Now we just need him to get better so we can get back to normal.

I say that the kids and I have been healthy {and we have}, but a couple of weeks ago, the kids and I had what we thought was a cold, though it was the shortest cold ever. Mike got it, but it hit him harder, and his symptoms have stuck around for a lot longer. The kids and I never tested positive for Covid, and Mike finally tested positive a full week after his symptoms showed up, and his symptoms have been consistent from day 1. So either he had our cold and then got Covid on top of that and the two illnesses bled together, or the kids and I had a super mild case and gave it to him. 

• Aiden had a 101 degree fever that lasted 12 hours. That's it. 
• Maddie also had a 101 degree fever that lasted 12 hours, but she had some congestion and a slight {kind-of?} cough that was gone in a few days. 
• Eli had a 99 degree fever that lasted 8 hours. That's it.
• I never had a fever, but had congestion for 2 days. That's it. {The shortest "cold" for me on record!} So maybe allergies?? 
• Mike never had a fever, but has had congestion and a cough, now for 2 weeks. 

So again, who knows whether or not the kids and I had it. But I am incredibly thankful that we have been spared from the severity that Mike has had, and thankful that his case has been mild. I am thankful that I have been feeling better {with a little more energy}, as I have needed it the last week of solo parenting in quarantine! And I am thankful for our church family that has checked on us and extended endless offers of help. We didn't need it this time, thankfully, but it is so comforting to know that we have the help if we need it. A huge blessing living far from our families.

I'm thankful for protection for the past 2.5 years, that we got to see a mild variant this far into the pandemic. I'm thankful for vaccines that have given us an extra level of protection, and I'm thankful for God's continued healing and strengthening of my body, making it a little easier to face a Covid exposure.

Crohn's Chronicles :: Colonoscopy Time {Again}

Today I had {another} colonoscopy. Since I have been on Stelara for almost 10 months, it was a good time to see how much it's actually helping. I have been feeling better {praise God!}, but my doctor and I were curious to see if I was actually heading toward remission.

Tried a new prep this time...

I still have inflammation and scarring, but it looks much better than it did back in July! I have developed fibrosis {thickening and hardening of the intestinal wall due to chronic inflammation}, which is a concern and could cause a lot of complications if it worsens. So no remission yet, and still some irreversible damage, but definite improvement. And I didn't have any more polyps, which is a huge praise. I had more labs drawn to measure trough concentrations and antibodies for Stelara; that will help us make the decision on whether I should increase my dosage from every 8 weeks to every 6 weeks. We had discussed this back in January, since my trough concentrations were borderline, but since I was seeing improvement in my symptoms, we decided to hold off in that dosing change. I'll wait to get those results back and then see if maybe making that change will be what puts me over the edge.

While I have seen definite improvement in my GI symptoms, I have still been working on my fatigue and headaches. There has been a lot of struggle in getting answers on these things; it can be so frustrating when other doctors are not familiar with Crohn's {and insurance mandates that those unfamiliar doctors be the ones who put in orders}. Long story short, I was finally able to get labs drawn via my GI, and he saw right away that my iron levels were super low! So while it was frustrating to have to go through all those extra months of struggling because the primary care missed that on my bloodwork {sigh...another reason I won't be seeing that doctor anymore}, I was so thankful to finally have a reason for my issues!

I started taking iron supplements a few weeks ago, had to stop for the week leading up to my colonoscopy, but will restart those now. Hopefully I'll start seeing some improvement in my fatigue and headaches soon.

After slogging now for 2.5 years with active disease, I was definitely thankful for some encouraging news today! I still have some work ahead of me, but we're making good progress. I seem to be on the slow and steady tortoise pace toward remission :)  But I'll keep persevering, thankful for small victories, loving support, and daily grace to keep going.

Celebrating Easter 2022

We have been counting down to Easter using the ABC's of Easter from Tiny Theologians. It has been good alphabet practice/review, plus a good way to introduce varying parts of the Easter story.

We also used our Resurrection Eggs again this year, but I added the book Benjamin's Box. I liked the book as a supplemental story, but I do have 2 cautions: (1) be careful to distinguish between the actual Bible events and this fictional story, and (2) know that while the book is not graphic, it seems very heavy, especially for younger kids. I don't think that's a bad thing; I think the point was to show the reality of Jesus' suffering, but the focus seemed to be on Benjamin's sorrow {he felt like it was his fault, and I don't think the sin aspect was explained very well}. Just my two cents :)

We made resurrection rolls again this year, and the kids told me how the rolls represented the empty tomb. There seemed to be a lot of finger-licking during the process this year, so it's a good thing we only made a few to eat for ourselves so we weren't sharing germs haha.

I did Easter baskets for the kiddos, to help emphasize the excitement of the day. They always get a new book, and then I try to include small items, things they can wear, crafts, etc...usually courtesy of Target's dollar spot or Dollar Tree :)  They were so excited to run down the stairs and find their fun surprises!

We were really thankful to go to church for Easter this year! The kids have really enjoyed being in Sunday School with their friends and sweet teachers, and I am so glad to be back worshipping in person. We rounded out the day with a fun Easter egg hunt and dinner with friends.

Happy Easter! He is risen!