{iPhone Rewind} :: April

We got some fun Easter surprises in the mail from all the grandparents :)

This girlie is on a roll with losing her teeth!

The kids sang in church on Palm Sunday :)

Love these sweet times before bed time

Eli, age 6: I love my mommy and daddy. They take us to church. I love learning about Jesus.

Maddie, age 6: My family makes good food. I have two brothers. My daddy preaches.

Practicing addition and subtraction with some driveway jumping! #thisishomeschool

Drawing time :)

When you don't sit still during your haircut... whoops.

This bear is very well loved

We're doing some landscaping work at the house, but we're going to keep this pretty tree :) {and really, Mike is doing the landscaping ;) }

Eli has been waiting for this tooth to come out for weeks! It's comforting to know he pulled it out with those dirty hands...

Cutie girl loves playing games during her one-on-one time with Daddy :)

His marble towers have gotten really elaborate!

Thankful for this every night

We have had AMAZING weather, so we have enjoyed playing in our yard!

This is Aiden.

Sweet boy ended up with a tummy bug, and he was just so pitiful.

I have been putting in some extra hours at work, and the executives were so kind to send these beautiful flowers as a thank you for all my hard work!

Mike got to surprise his mom with a quick trip to Dallas for her 70th birthday!

Love getting to play games with these two...especially now that they can {mostly} follow the rules ;)

Got to enjoy lunch at McAlister's!

Then it was Maddie's turn for the tummy bug :(

I got to watch my friend Beatrice defend her dissertation and earn her DNP!

Always with Pooh Bear by his side...

The boys got to serve with Mike at Generosity Feeds again {Maddie was sick}, and they did so well! 

Health Check-In :: Migraine Management

I have mentioned my migraine woes before, and unfortunately, I haven't seen much improvement. I kept holding out, hoping that my body would adjust to my Crohn's medication and the migraines would subside. And while they haven't been quite as frequent as they were a few months ago, they're still fairly debilitating and I finally had to cry uncle and seek out some additional help.

I originally had an appointment scheduled for September because that was the earliest I could get in to see the neurologist {!} But God was incredibly gracious and a spot opened up for me to see her this week! And she is awesome. It was a really good consult; she spent a full 45 minutes with me. I got all of my questions answered, I learned a ton, and I think we have a good game plan moving forward.

Once again, it was comforting to have my symptoms affirmed. I know that I am not making them up, but sometimes I question just how bad things are, if I am just a baby about my symptoms, if I should just suck it up and deal. But based on our conversations, she confirmed that I am definitely in the category of "chronic migraine." {So I'm not just a whimp! Haha} And despite all I have tried to help prevent them, I have the deck stacked against me in a lot of ways. There are just so many factors at play {hormones, weather, Stelara}, I didn't really have much of a fighting chance haha.

If I plan to stay on Stelara for the foreseeable future, which I do, since I am feeling so much better from my Crohn's, then I will need help in combatting these suckers. So we are going to try a daily preventive medication, as well as a "rescue" medication. It may take some time to find the right dosing and drug combination, but I feel hopeful that I may be able to see some relief soon. 

Because of my history {remember Tumorthy??}, she wants to do a repeat MRI, just to rule out any other issues, and be able to say definitively that this is indeed chronic migraine. She also mentioned that oftentimes, white spots will appear on the MRI scans of migraine sufferers, so I'm interested to see if we can see that. There's no real medical benefit to that, I'm just curious :)

She's also going to check my prolactin, B-12, and magnesium. Prolactin to see if there's anything amiss from my history of a macro adenoma. B-12 because that low levels can cause migraine {who knew?!? When my GI checked my levels last year, they were fine, but I haven't been supplementing so I am really curious about that one}. And magnesium was my request, simply because I have read a lot of research that shows low levels can cause migraine {and it's not something I have ever had checked}. She said it's more of a one snapshot in time, so it's not always as telling as you might think, but she wasn't opposed to checking anyway.

So there are still a lot of steps along the way, but I am so thankful that I am able to start that process now, instead of 5 months from now. 

Here's to another health journey...

Easter 2023

We have been counting down to Easter for the past 40 days! I wanted to start introducing some practices of Lent to the kiddos, and I think that I was a little over-ambitious with the length of time. But that's ok. It has kept us a little more focused on Jesus over the last month, so that's still a win ;)

I found this countdown wreath from The Keeping Company {thank you, Granny, for the Christmas gift!}, and we have been reading a story out of this book each day. I still wasn't brave enough to actually light the candle, but we have plenty of time to do that in the future, especially since this can be used as an Advent countdown too! I will still want to tweak how we use this tool in the future, but I am definitely excited to keep it as a part of our Advent and Easter rhythms. 

We let the kids open their Easter baskets on Saturday, since Mike has to be at church early for the sunrise service. I tried to find some fun new activities for them {drawing books and painting projects}, and they got a new book, their Easter outfit, and flip flops for the spring!

We may not always do Easter baskets, but for right now, I want to celebrate Easter as much as we do Christmas. I want the kids to remember the traditions of pulling out our Easter books and counting down to the cross and the resurrection. I want them to be excited to celebrate their risen King, and we are praying that they one day put their faith and trust in Him. 

While we missed the Good Friday service {no thanks to a migraine, ugh}, we were able to celebrate with our church family on Easter Sunday! Mike was up early, helping with the sunrise service, and then with baptisms in both services. I'm thankful that we were able to snap a few photos this morning, despite all the busyness :)

Hallelujah for the cross! He is risen, He is risen indeed!