Walk With Me Through 2023...

Every year that I sit down to write this review, I am always amazed at how FULL our years are. The years seem to fly by, but I am thankful for the chance to pause and think back over all that has happened, specifically over all that the Lord has done. We have so much to be grateful for!

Past reviews: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

We kicked off January with a trip to the eye doctor for Aiden. He did great, but it started his eye patching journey, which has not been his favorite this year. Grandma and Papa came into town for a week, which was so fun and special! They came to help with unpacking and to help with the kids, because I had my wisdom teeth out {not fun}, and I was so grateful for the extra hands. The rest of the month was filled with neighborhood walks, dance parties, and trips to the air & space museum!

The remodel was officially finished in February! I was still recovering from my wisdom teeth removal, as I struggled through a dry socket, a tooth infection, and complications from the antibiotic. Since I wasn't feeling my best, our school start was pretty slow, but we did finally get our act together. Aiden started causing some mischief during rest time, making huge messes in his room and the bathroom, trying to flush things down the toilet, and testing this Mama's patience. We had a fun Valentine's Day breakfast and love-day themed school day, and Mrs. Siu brought over fun Valentine cookies to decorate!

In March, I got to go away for a weekend on the Rappahannock River. It was a peaceful and restful getaway, and I was so thankful for the quiet retreat. Even though it still felt like winter, our church hosted their Spring Festival, and our kids had a blast with bounce houses, a petting zoo, crafts, face painting, and food trucks. I got to help decorate the church for spring/Easter, and we wrapped up our Abide Bible study. I also had the fun opportunity to go see Jen Wilkin speak at the Museum of the Bible with a few ladies from our Bible study. The kids started playing soccer, and we hit our 100th day of school! 

We celebrated Easter in April. The kids sang in church on Palm Sunday, we counted down with our countdown wreath, and celebrated with Easter baskets. By God's grace, I was able to see a neurologist several months early to start figuring out what to do with my migraines. We were starting to enjoy the warmer weather and spending more time outside; Mike was working hard on the landscaping. With some staffing changes at work, I was putting in some extra hours. Mike was able to surprise his mom and sneak in a weekend trip to Texas to surprise her for her 70th birthday!

In May, I was finally able to claim symptomatic remission from Crohn's! It had taken 3.5 years, but I had finally made it. Grandma and Papa came into town and it was a week full of parks, the zoo, strawberry picking, foot races, and birthday celebrations. We wrapped up our school year, with Eli and Maddie finishing Kindergarten, and Aiden finishing Pre-K. I got my MRI results back, and learned that there was no indication of a tumor. My prolactin numbers were up again, so I have to monitor that. We took several hikes, celebrated Mother's Day, and practiced riding bikes in the cul-de-sac.

We wrapped up our first soccer season in June. Mike finished up the landscaping at the house, and it looked amazing! We also started our battle with our mama deer, who kept helping herself to the new plants in the yard and making herself at home in our yard :)  I got to spend an evening out in Old Town Alexandria with my friend Beatrice, which was fun to have a fun girls night out. We had a church work day and the kids were great helpers, working hard cleaning our church building. We made a trip to Gravelly Point Park with friends to watch the planes take off from Reagan National Airport, and the kids had a blast! We spent time at our neighborhood pool, celebrated Father's Day, and soaked up the non-scorching hot summer days!

In July, we hopped on the spaceship Galactic Praise for a week of VBS! I volunteered with the 2nd and 3rd graders, and the kids loved the time in their individual groups. Aiden had a small procedure to remove a mucocele from his mouth, and my sweet boy was so brave! Mike and I celebrated 12 years of marriage! The migraine medication that I had started was not showing much improvement, so I was still working through that. I made a trip out to the retreat site with the team for the women's retreat, and was thankful to be a part of our women's summer book club. We also introduced the kids to the game of Uno, and we played non-stop!

The end of July, and into August, we headed to Texas! The kids did great on the flights, and it was so great to be back in Texas to see family and friends. The time was jam-packed, and we didn't get to see everyone we would have liked to, but we are thankful for the time we had. We wrapped up our summer reading; I was so proud of how well the kids did! We had a fun water balloon fight with friends, spent a week at Goldfish Swim Camp, and enjoyed a few hikes. We celebrated Aiden's 5th birthday with a fun army man them, complete with camo and nerf guns. We also kicked off our 2nd year of homeschooling, with Eli and Maddie starting their 1st grade year, and Aiden starting Kindergarten. 

September was filled with school, work, and church activities. We celebrated Labor Day at the pool with our Community Group and enjoyed some a fun foosball lunch with daddy while Mommy worked on women's retreat things. The kids got to enjoy a fun play date with friends while Mike and I attended a wedding. We joined a co-op, so the kids were learning how to sew. We kicked off our women's Bible study in the book of Acts, and Mike was installed as an elder. Our church's fall festival had some fun hands-on science and a chemistry show, and we got to visit the pandas at the National Zoo before they headed back to China.

In October, I was struggling with my second Crohn's flare, which was discouraging, since I was only 5 months into remission. I also switched to a new migraine medication in hopes that I would see more improvement on that front. Grandma and Papa were back in town for a week of fun, and we got to take them to the Cox Farms Fall Festival! My mom also got to come with me to the Women's Retreat, which was really special, since most of my month was filled with preparations for that. We also spent lots of time raking the leaves in our yard! We ended up with colds, so we didn't get to go trick or treating, but we still got to dress up and enjoy some fun Halloween festivities with Grandma and Papa here.

Eli and Maddie turned seven in November, and we celebrated with Pandas and Race Cars. We were still hard at work raking all the leaves in our yard, and it made for some fun family days. We gave Mike his birthday present early, and enjoyed several evenings by the fire pit, some of them roasting marshmallows. I made my first turkey for Thanksgiving this year, and we had a sweet lady from our church over to celebrate. We decorated for Christmas, which we were so excited to do, since we were moving last year, and we celebrated Mike's birthday with some yummy Uncle Julio's.

In December, we used our Advent Blocks and countdown wreath as we looked forward to Christmas. I blogged about how I was struggling in remission; definitely thankful for it, but struggling because I wasn't quite feeling as healthy and like myself as I did when I was in remission last time. Still praying and working through my health, hopeful for 2024. We were busy finishing up co-op and school things, but otherwise, the month was filled with all the Christmas things! We painted nutcrackers, made cotton ball snowmen, saw lots of Christmas lights in our neighborhood, went to the Ross King concert and our Community Group Christmas party, and made gingerbread houses. We had our first snow day, though it only lasted for one day. The kids sang Christmas songs in church, and we attended the Christmas Eve service. We enjoyed a quiet Christmas at home, and ended up celebrating Christmas dinner with friends. We did a zoom Christmas with Mike's side of the family on the 30th, otherwise, the last week of 2023 was spent playing and organizing and getting ready for the new year!

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Praise God for a wonderful year! We are settled in our house, and we are still just so thankful for how He has provided for us in this home. We are constantly reminded of the gift it is, and we don't ever want to take it for granted. We cannot believe how fast the kids are growing, and we are loving this stage of school and personalities and growth. We have a new year of ministry ahead, and will continue to figure out a good rhythm for our family and the best ways to serve our church family. I am praying through ways to better manage my health, hoping for fewer struggles in the coming year. But whatever comes in the new year, we know that the Lord is good, and we are thankful for His constant faithfulness to us. Here's to 2024!

{iPhone Rewind} :: December

Painting some wooden nutcracker crafts

Making snowmen with Daddy!

Hands in his pockets hehe :)

Blurry, but we took several walks around the neighborhood to see the Christmas lights! A perfect post-dinner, pre-dinner activity ;)

We loved hosting Ross King at CBC again this year, and we loved that the kids got to go to the concert this time!

Community Group Christmas party...so thankful for this sweet community.

Doing our advent reading over dinner; they really like Sundays when we light the real candles haha.

We got our first snow of the season! To be honest, I didn't really think we'd see much or that it would stick, so I was really surprised to wake up to it.

It was wasn't much and was gone by lunch, but that didn't stop our Texas-born kiddos from enjoying a few snowballs :)

National Gingerbread House Day! :)

The kids sang some Christmas songs in church- Silent Night and Mary's Boy Child

A re-enactment of the nativity: Maddie as Mary, Eli as Joseph, Aiden as Baby Jesus, Pooh Bear as a shepherd, and Mickey as a wise man haha

Showing off her history/Bible project :)

Frozen Trouble! Complete with ice cubes, salt, and water pouring haha

My little Lego builder :)

Introduced Maddie to perler beads!

Learning how to play Qwirkle

Making bagel pizzas

Stomp rockets were a hit!

How Eli spent his last days of the year :)

Matching her doll!

This boy is ALL about the army men these days haha

Somedays just need flowers AND chocolate ;)

<3

Christmas 2023

This year, we had a quiet Christmas at home. We Skyped with my parents and brother earlier in the day on Christmas Eve. It's not the same as being in person, but I'm thankful for the technology to "see" family when we're so far away. My parents were just here in October, and they have plans to come back maybe in February, so we'll get to see them again soon :)

Since Christmas Eve fell on Sunday this year, we didn't have morning church services, but instead had Christmas Eve services in the last afternoon. Mike {of course} had to be at both services, but the kids and I attended the first service, so that we could see friends both coming and going from both services. 

The candlelight services was wonderful. We sang Christmas songs, had a Christmas message, and then wrapped up with the traditional candle lighting. And the kids did great!

Ready for Christmas Eve service!

I tried my hand at homemade cinnamon rolls this year, so I got those prepped on Christmas Eve night, and then when Mike got home, and we got the kids in bed, we got the gifts set up :)

Ready for Christmas morning!

Christmas morning, we enjoyed cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and then we opened presents! I'm grateful for the kiddos' excitement, but that they don't wake up at crazy hours or require present-opening first thing haha. They definitely rushed through breakfast, but they at least were willing to eat first ;)

Cinnamon rolls didn't turn out half bad

Yes, we did wear matching family Christmas pajamas :)

Most of the day was then spent playing with all the new fun things! We also got to zoom with Granny and Grumpz to say Merry Christmas. We're going to get to see Granny in a few weeks, and we are excited to have her here soon. 

I didn't get any pictures, but we headed over to a friend's house for dinner. We got to spend the evening with some sweet families from the church, enjoying dinner and playing games. 

We have enjoyed having Mike home over Christmas, and having some time to take a break from the busyness of our schedule. We have enjoyed just spending time playing games and building Legos, and reading books. 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the McCulloughs!

{Crohn's Awareness} :: Struggling in Remission

The first week of December is Crohn's & Colitis Awareness Week. They have done various campaigns in the past, but this year they focused on an "It Takes Guts!" Award, highlighting inspirational stories of varying IBD warriors and their caregivers. While it absolutely takes guts to live with these diseases, awarding a t-shirt and a social media shout-out for our daily reality just seemed a bit strange to me. Maybe I'm just being cynical. 

But it probably highlights how I have been feeling over these past few months. I was able to claim remission back in May, which is a HUGE blessing. It came after a long 3.5 year battle. And yet, I have had a hard time identifying why I haven't felt settled in my remission. A hard time identifying why I still feel so frustrated, despite being in remission. I have certainly been thankful for it: my symptoms have reduced, and I have felt so much better than I did the previous 3 years. But I have still really struggled, and I haven't really been able to pinpoint why. 

Remission is Not the Same

Part of it is that I haven't gone back to feeling the way I did in my first remission. While I feel better, I still don't feel my best. And that's a little hard to explain to people. Yes, my symptoms are better, but they're not 100% better. My GI tract is just not the same as it was before I got sick, and I feel as though it will always be off in some ways. In addition, I have still been dealing with side effects from my medicine. When I took Humira, the side effects eventually went away. That hasn't been the case with Stelara. It seems like they're here to stay. And it has been a long, slow process of figuring out how to deal with those symptoms. Out of desperation, I'm chasing medication side effects with more medication, and it's just not a fun place to be. Especially when the secondary medication can only provide some relief, not actual elimination.

On a positive note, I am seeing much improvement on the migraine medication. I went 15 days without a migraine, and I literally cried happy tears as I went to lie down in a dark room when I got that first one after so many days. Because that was the longest I had gone without a headache in OVER a year. That length of time hasn't repeated yet, especially with all the pressure shifts in the weather, but it gives me hope that it is possible to go 2 weeks again without a headache!

Another Flare, But Normal Labs

In addition, I have had 2 flares in the 6 short months I have been in remission. Which I never had when I was in remission on Humira. I would have bad "flare days" on Humira here and there, but nothing like this. My first one was in September, and it lasted more than 2 weeks, and felt like I was right back in the thick of active disease. It eventually settled, but then a month later, it started again and lasted about 1.5 weeks.

When I met with my doctor in November, I mentioned it to him, so he immediately ran lab work. Which I appreciate so much. Turns out that my labs were completely normal; my inflammation markers were the lowest they have been since my last remission and 100% confirm my current remission {lowest recorded in Virginia!} Which is a huge praise! So we're chalking my flares up to flukes, possibly stress-related, and monitoring my symptoms moving forward. I am personally taking my flares as a gentle wake-up call from the Lord on my schedule and confirmation on my need to pull back so that I don't over-stress my body and push its limits. Message received, loud and clear :)

Processing This Remission

I don't want to seem ungrateful; the Lord has been incredibly gracious and kind to me. I am in remission! I am not sick like I was a year or 2 years ago. And I remind myself of that often. I have to. But there is a reality to living with Crohn's, that even being in remission is not simple or easy. And that is something I am learning this time around. Because my first remission was. I achieved remission on the first biologic I tried, fairly quickly, and stayed in remission for 7 years. For the most part, I felt good, going back to feeling more like myself. I did have to adjust my life, but I found a new normal that felt fairly similar to my life before Crohn's.

This remission is just so different. One biologic failed me before I found one that put me in remission, and it took 3.5 years to achieve it. I have already had 2 flares in the first 6 months of this remission. And I haven't really felt good yet. Better than when I was sick, but not really good, like myself. The side effects are almost as bad as my Crohn's symptoms, that I often question which are worse, and if remission is worth the side effects. I am having to readjust my life again, but I am finding that my new normal is looking much different than it did before. And I am struggling to process through that.

But I have to remind myself that I am only 6 months in, that maybe another 6 months and things will be different. It took a long time to get to remission on Stelara, maybe it will take a long time to actually feel better, or more like myself, on Stelara. Even though my Crohn’s is in remission, I’m sure my body is still healing from being sick for so long. Because Crohn’s affects so much more than your GI tract. And I have always had to remind myself that my health is not guaranteed. I smile to think of the words of my former boss "Every day you're not in the hospital is a good day!" And that's SO true. I am beyond blessed to have not had any hospital stays. That alone is practically unheard of for Crohn's patients.

The Lord is good regardless of my remission status. I have seen His faithfulness over and over. So while it can be a struggle sometimes, I will praise the One who cares for my every need and never leaves my side. I will praise Him for access to medical care and medicine, for an attentive doctor. I will praise Him for {even imperfect} insurance and a generous employer. I will praise Him for a supportive husband and the ability to work from home. I will praise Him for every day I am not in the hospital, for every good day I have. I am currently working on praising Him, even for the bad days, because I know that He is with me, and that I don't have to walk them alone.

Advent 2023

For Advent this year, we are doing our Advent Blocks again, but we are also adding in the countdown wreath that we used at Easter from The Keeping Company. We set it up to countdown to Christmas, and we will be using Advent candles and their Advent devotional. I plan to light the Sunday Advent candles, but use battery-operated candles during the week. I figured that was safer ;)

For me, I signed up for a daily Advent email series from Every Woman a Theologian: The Right Prevail. It's supposed to be a more theological Advent series, so I'll be curious to see what it will be like :)

I am looking forward to entering into this Advent season. I had high hopes of having all of my Christmas shopping/wrapping/shipping-prep done by December so that I could enter into the season free of that stress and distraction...while I didn't quite meet that goal, I am close. And I will still be able to wrap things up earlier than usual and focus on the beauty and wonder and peace of the season. At least that's what I'm fighting for this year ;)