Dr. Crippen is the author of this book and also a practicing chiropractor. His journey into a cure for his migraines led to his expertise on holistic health. This form of medicine treats the body as a whole, instead of just throwing medications at symptoms and hoping they go away.

Anyone who has had a health problem that doctors were unable to help you with can strongly relate to Dr. Crippen’s story that he tells in this book, of searching for answers and being unable to find them in a broken system.

I can strongly relate to this. When my health fell apart in 2014-2016, I had all sorts of crazy symptoms. Thankfully, I had one provider who thought outside of the box. If it weren’t for this one cardiologist I had, I would have never figured out that it was one part of my diet causing all of my problems. (In my case, it was gluten, and you read more about that here.)

So without further ado, here is Dr. Crippen. He is sharing with us a snippet directly from from his new book, Timeless Youth.

***Disclaimer: If you purchase through Amazon links on my site, I do collect advertising fees.***

“Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.”

ALBERT EINSTEIN

Dr. Lisa Saunders, a medical doctor, journalist, and professor at the Yale School of Medicine, whose New York Times column “Diagnosis” was the inspiration for the TV show House, wrote:

“A decade ago, I stood alongside my 99 fellow freshmen as we were welcomed into the ranks of medicine in a ‘white coat ceremony.’ Here, on our first day of med school, we were presented with the short white coats that proclaimed us part of the mystery and the discipline of medicine. During that ceremony, the dean said something that was repeated throughout my education: half of what we teach you here is wrong – unfortunately, we don’t know which half.”

That quote, often repeated by the Dean of the Yale School of Medicine, was originally spoken by Charles Sidney Burwell, a past Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard, over 50 years ago. It is just as true today as when it was first spoken.

This book will explain why half of what is taught in medical school is wrong.

What if there was a better way? What if, instead of starting with disease and the parts and pieces that make up the body, we started instead with the principles that were true in the beginning and are still true today? 

The first principle of holistic health is The Yellowstone Principle: The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts

In the early 1990s, conservationists with Yellowstone National Park faced a titanic problem. Over the previous 70 years, an ecosystem that was once in balance was spiraling out of control, and conservationists were at a loss to reverse the trend.

One obvious symptom of the change was the ballooning population of elk. But this wasn’t the only change. Many of the trees were losing their bark, which led to a decline in the aspens and cottonwoods. Also, the songbird population had decreased.

Other changes in the Yellowstone ecosystem included a decrease in the beaver population, erosion of the streams, and a decrease in river animals such as muskrats, ducks, fish, reptiles, and amphibians — many symptoms of a diseased ecosystem.

All the symptoms of change, from beavers to rivers to elk, were connected by a single cause.

The ballooning population of elk led to an overgrazing of tree bark, which led to fewer aspens and cottonwoods, destroying the habitat of the songbirds and providing less wood for beavers to make their dams. Fewer dams resulted in erosion of the streams, and a reduced habitat for muskrats, ducks, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. Naturalists hoped they could attack the problem at its source — the growing elk population.

In the 1930s, the park services started trapping and moving the elk out of the park, and then, when that didn’t work, shooting them. This went on for decades. While one symptom improved (the population of elk did decrease) the other symptoms, the trees, birds, and beavers were largely unchanged.

What should be done next?

Plant more aspen and cottonwood trees? Introduce more beavers into the park? Dredge the streams and rivers to restore the wildlife habitats? All were logical — capable of treating one symptom or another — but none would restore balance to the ecosystem.

Why? Because, as the conservationists learned, the solution to the changes in Yellowstone would only be found by understanding the ecosystem as a whole, and not a disparate set of unconnected symptoms.

While the changes in Yellowstone’s landscape were becoming more apparent in the 1990s, the change started in the early 1900s.

When the U.S. Park Service took control of Yellowstone from the U.S. Army in 1916, they systematically killed all the wolves in the park, killing all 134 over the next 10 years. From this point until the early 1990s, there were no wolves in Yellowstone as wolves were a deemed a threat to cattle and livestock.

To make the ecosystem whole once again, naturalists could either kill more elk, plant more trees, add fish, feed songbirds, build dams, or, quite simply, they could reintroduce wolves.

Fourteen wolves were reintroduced in 1995 and 17 more the following year. Thirty-one total wolves were added to a 2.2-million-acre national park spanning parts of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.

This seemingly small addition produced a series of remarkable changes.

First, the wolves, a natural predator of the elk, helped thin the elk population.

Then, the potential threat of being eaten changed the behavior of the elk. The elk moved from the valleys and the gorges, where they could be easily hunted, to the areas of heavy timber. This allowed the bare areas of the valleys and gorges to regenerate.

Songbirds and migratory birds returned to the new regenerating trees. The beavers, with their food source of trees restored, began to proliferate. More beavers led to more dams. Otters, muskrats, ducks, and fish that relied on the dams for habitats returned.

Increasing vegetation stabilized the riverbanks, reversed the erosion in the riverbeds, and created a healthier ecosystem.

The changes in Yellowstone could not be understood by looking at only one species, one location, or one plant. The interventions aimed at treating a single problem produced only short-lived changes, and none restored health to the whole.

Instead, to restore balance to the ecosystem, all the pieces must be considered as parts of the whole, where every part impacts every other part.

Just as an ecosystem is made up of many individual plants and animals, of a variety of species, each independent yet interconnected, the human body is also made of many independent parts — cells, organs, tissues, and systems, that interconnect to form a whole.

This idea of holism fits within the context of nature. When we introduce wolves back into Yellowstone, we accept the cascade of changes as natural consequences. In nature, we understand that a change to one part affects the whole.

But somehow, along the way, we started to view the body as separate from nature.

Instead of seeing the body as a whole ecosystem, the way we might with a national park like Yellowstone, allopathic medicine treats the body as if it operates according to a different set of rules.

The body, the thinking goes, is not a whole but instead a collection of parts. This is called reductionism, the idea that a complex system can be understood by understanding the pieces that make it up. It is this thinking that lets us to cut out a cancer from the body without changing the conditions that led it to grow in the first place.

Reductionistic thinking lets us take an antibiotic for a cold — often without knowing if the symptoms are even caused by bacteria — instead of asking why the immune system did not fight off the bug in the first place.

In another context, reductionistic thinking allows for the surgical replacement of a knee without evaluating the health of the whole.

Specifically, without asking how and why the knee degenerated in the first place. And no, getting older is not a sufficient reason to have a bad knee. My favorite questions for patients who use the “I’m just getting old, Doc” explanation for knee pain is to ask, politely of course, “Well, if that is the case, how old is your good knee?”

The idea of reductionism is not universal, but it is foundational to the medical idea of health. Perhaps, it came from the Industrial Revolution with its proliferation of machines to increase output and its concurrent migration into cities and out of nature.

Or, perhaps, from the revamping of medical education that occurred after the Flexner Report, in 1910, with its increased focus on scientific research in the basic sciences like physiology and biochemistry (both of which focus on the parts of the body rather than the whole) at the expense of holism. However it happened, the medical idea of health mandates that we see the human body as a collection of parts, separate from nature.

This change had a profound effect on our health.

It is the difference between shooting elk and restoring wolves.

The idea of thinking of the health of the whole is foundational to how we see nature.

We do not need to consider the health of 2,000,000+ acres of a national park to see the principle of holism. We can observe the same principle in a single leaf.

When it comes to health, plants are simple. They are not like humans. Plants don’t complain. They don’t forget to eat. They don’t sabotage their health with Oreos and reality television. Plants grow. They add carbon dioxide (CO2) to sunlight to create food. They survive.

Because of this, healing plants is easy.

A healthy plant needs optimum amounts of three things: sunlight, water, and nutrients (found in healthy soil). A sick plant, one with brown leaves, needs optimal amounts of three things: sunlight, water, and nutrients (found in healthy soil). That’s it; that’s the whole list. The presence or absence of disease does not change what the plant needs to create health. It may need more or less of each, but healthy plants are the inevitable result of optimal amounts of these three inputs.

But what if things were different? Let’s imagine we enter a world of plants, a world that, for simplicity, we’ll call Plant World.

Let’s imagine Plant World has advanced well past the antiquated ideas of ensuring plants need optimal amounts of sunlight, water, and nutrients. How old fashioned! How antiquated! Instead, in progressive and innovative Plant World, plants are treated like people, following the three-step allopathic model disease care diagnose disease, treat with drug or surgery, eliminate the symptom or disease.

Step one, diagnose disease.

In plant world, before a sick plant can be helped, it first needs — of course! — a diagnosis. How can you treat a plant if you don’t name the disease? In the allopathic plant disease care, as with humans, the disease is given a name, often with a Greek root. We’ll call it Brown Leafitis.

In this progressive system, researchers and plant doctors search for a cure for Brown Leafitis. Lots of money, public and private, is spent researching pharmaceutical treatments and surgical techniques (step two!) to treat the symptoms of Brown Leafitis.

The allopathic plant disease care system even has teams of molecular biologists searching for a miracle drug that will cause an already sick plant’s leaves to turn from brown back to green. Other promising treatments include, covering the leaves with spray paint and the surgical removal of the brown leaf (a leafectomy, if you will). How progressive! How technologically advanced!

Even better, Plant World elected a government that demands equal access for all diseased plants to essential plant medications and includes a team of lobbyists petitioning Plant Congress and the Federal Plant Drug Administration to have medications approved for the new epidemic of Brown Leafitis.

Luckily — for the plants — Plant World disease care doesn’t exist.

We don’t waste our time and money on pharmaceutical drugs or tiny plant surgeries to treat Brown Leafitis. Instead, we restore health in a plant by ensuring the plant has exactly what it needs to create health (sunlight, water, and nutrients (found in healthy soil)).

By assuring a plant has the nutrients it needs, the plant returns to health and the symptom of brown leaves go away, or, better yet, never appear in the first place. Giving the plant water, sun, and healthy soil is healthcare.

We recognize, intuitively, that a brown leaf is not a disease of the leaf, but rather a sign of a problem within the whole plant. We intuitively provide healthcare to plants, but we disastrously provide disease care to humans.

What the medical idea of health seems to forget is that we humans are not reductionistic machines but instead operate under the principle of holism — like plants!

In the case of my headaches, taking pain relieving medications sometimes helped with the symptom of head pain, but didn’t make me healthier. How could I be healthier taking a chemical that (supposedly) helped pain yet at the same time damaged my liver and kidneys?

Doctors who understood the principles of health would take a different approach.

They would see pain in the head not as an isolated symptom but instead as a sign of dysfunction of the whole, much like we view a brown leaf on a plant. Instead of prescribing a drug to treat the symptom, the treatment might include the human equivalent of water, sunlight, and healthy soil needed to restore health.

So how do we find those basic first principles, the human equivalents of water, sunlight, and healthy soil that create health?

We must begin by seeing a disease of a part as instead a dysfunction of the whole.

Timeless You-th tells the story of my struggle to find a cure for my crippling headaches while navigating the established medical system. My headaches persisted and worsened despite seeking the best medical treatment available, including top doctors and pharmaceutical drugs. The overall goal of my book is to teach you five foundational principles of health so that you, too, can create a lifetime of timeless youth.

Timeless You-th is your go to resource to maximize your health without drugs and surgery. Grab a copy on Amazon and share!

The post Why Holistic Health is Life Changing: New Book by Dr. Crippen appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Mom and me at Kansas City International Airport

Last week Mom and I had to take an unexpected trip to Kansas. My aunt was in the hospital, in ICU. Mom and I were worried, so we trekked on out there.

I’m the arthritis lady that has to take a special trip to the doctor’s office so I can make it through an airplane and car trip. I have to schedule walks down the airplane aisle to keep my legs from going crippled.

Good news: My aunt DID get moved out of ICU, and we got to visit with her. Even in hard times, Aunt Linda’s sharp wit can save a dire situation. She’s funny when she tries to be. She’s even funny when she’s not trying to be. I hope I have that much grace when I’m in a situation like that.

Bad news: She has a long recovery ahead and will be in the hospital for a while yet, and she’s only in her 50s. Hospital stays are miserable.

Other good news: I got to see my cousin Amber, who I grew up playing with, so this was a big deal.

Mom, me, and Amber, taking a lunch break at Panera.

Other bad news: Amber’s back is maybe even more messed up than mine is. We have this family arthritis problem. We could have done without that part of the inheritance, Granny…

So Amber and I were both popping NSAIDs and muscle relaxers and spraying each other with BioFreeze. And by the way, we are still young. We are trying not to think about how much worse this could get!

Nothing was working too well. In fact, as annoying as it is, do you know what seems to help me the most??

Physical therapy exercises. I started them in 2010 when my chiropractor assigned me strengthening and stretching exercises, and I was hurting so much that I actually did them out of pure desperation.

I did them faithfully until I started feeling better. Ever since, I’ve had the hardest time getting back in the habit. I need my own personal physical therapist in my living room.

So I found this YouTube channel that is PERFECT. Actually, it’s more than a YouTube channel. It’s a whole website. I wrote all about it over at Monterey Premier. Check it out here.

“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”   –Jesus, in John 16:33

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Pregnancy induced sciatica: a little preview of my future, but I had no idea.

My Chronic Pain Battle: Fake Sciatica, Tendonitis, Bursitis, Muscle Strain, Whatever it is!

The first time I developed “sciatica”, whether it ever actually was sciatica or not, I have no idea…..I was pregnant with my very first baby. “It’ll go away once you have the baby,” they said. It hurt exactly the way it does now: across my lower back, down one side of my rear, down my leg, all the way to my foot.

Horrifying stuff, always at its worst when you’re lying in bed.

I couldn’t wait to go into labor. I knew they were handing out free epidurals (with insurance) there. That’s right. I didn’t see any trophies for delivering babies without an epidural, so I was sure to sign up. I’d give anything to finally not feel my hip.

But the joke was on me. The epidural didn’t work properly. I ended up with dead legs, but my uterus was not so much….I got to experience the pain of natural childbirth after all. Only, my legs were dead, so I couldn’t even move around to cope with it.

16 hours, and a great deal of vomiting and shaking later, and they finally ripped Joshua out of my pelvis with one of those baby vacuums.

The good news is that the ob/gyn folks were right about the pregnancy sciatica. It went away the day I gave birth.

Phew! I approached the next pregnancy, only one year later, with great fear and trepidation. Please don’t let it come back. Please oh please. That sciatica stuff was terrifying.

And it didn’t!

happy, healthy pregnancy

And then wonder of wonders, my epidural WORKED! This baby was stuck in my pelvis too, though. It took me 12 weeks to recover from that one, but still no sciatica. Yay!

Then two years after Caleb was born, out of the clear friggin blue sky, it did come back. Only this time I wasn’t pregnant. It was sudden, and I think it was brought on from this incident where Joshua jumped on my back. However, as I looked back at my records, I noticed that I reported it to the doctor as “gradual onset.” Who knows. My memory isn’t so hot anymore.

I just woke up one day and could not put a lick of weight on my left leg. It just buckled! This was different. With the pregnancy sciatica, it hurt to walk, but at least I could do it. I called my mom, she drove me to my doctor’s office while the boys went to preschool.

I took every shot they offered me, I did a little physical therapy, they ran blood work and an MRI, but no one really knew what was wrong. My chart said “tenosynovitis.”

My physical therapist said that I should not have any more children.

I wasn’t too worried. I was 28. I’d get better. Four months later, it was nothing more than a mild pinch that occasionally came and went. I was eventually able to even walk normally.

Feeling pretty good between babies 2 and 3. I figured the hip thing was a problem of the past, with just a little pinch leftover as a reminder.

I decided to have another baby. I gained a whopping 55 pounds, but still there was no sciatica. I was good.

I’m not sure when exactly, but somewhere between Daniel’s birth and Alan’s return from Afghanistan, the occasional pinch grew. It appeared more often and stayed longer.

Then there was another big event. I’ve noticed people in the chronic pain community call this a “flare up”. I use that phrase with reluctance, as no one has ever, as yet, been able to figure out what exactly is flaring up. Six years later, this now irritates me to no end.

This was around the time of the 3rd flare up. Cute pic, though!

The third major flare up occurred after Alan had just returned from Afghanistan, and the boys and I had just returned to Virginia. But this time my shoulder, back (It felt like my ribcage), and neck decided to join in the fun.

It was like the entire right side of my body and my neck were trying to kill me. And right at that time, my pinky nail went white. Solid white and loose. Was I losing my nail??? Weird!!!! Why?????

I could hardly turn my neck because of the pain between my neck and my shoulder, and worst of all, it hurt to inhale. I had to breathe carefully. Breathe too deeply, and I’d pay for that.

The military clinics were useless. U-s-e-l-e-s-s. The first doctor that I saw handed me a prescription for muscle relaxers, said, “Everyone has back pain,” and sent me on my way.

Thanks.

The second time, because you’ll try even a useless clinic when you can’t inhale all the way, the doctor was a little better. She told me not to take the muscle relaxers, referred me to physical therapy, and took x-rays. She also did this periformis release technique on my rear end, and all of the pain moved a little to the left. That was sort of promising.

She said the neck/ inhaling/ shoulder pain thing was strained muscles.

I tried the physical therapy clinic. They never had any available appointments during the hours that I could get childcare for my two pre-schoolers, so that was a dead end.

I’ll never forget my low point. It was 2012. I put Daniel to bed for a nap, and I put in a movie to keep the kids occupied but safe. There were three little boys at this point, and I laid on my bed, stared at the ceiling, cried, and prayed for help.

Then the doorbell rang.

To be continued……You can’t do this story justice in one post!

Read Part II here.

The post My Chronic Pain Battle: Fake Sciatica, Tendonitis, Muscle Strain, Whatever appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Such an anti-climactic couple of days around here.

Do any of you have chronic back pain? I sure do. Upper back, lower back. It goes down the side of my right leg. It pops up in my wrist. I’m always hurting, some days worse than others. When I want to pretend like I feel fine, I pop an Advil 800 and head out into the world. When I want to sleep, I take Tylenol PM.

I lay on hot packs. I rub on Panaway essential oil. I have a stash of back massagers, tens units, back braces, lumbar pillows, anything you’d buy to help with your back, I’ve got a few of them.

No one wants to read about other people’s medical problems, so I try not to write about it too much.

Today was the day I got my MRI report back. I was all excited and nervous about this.

Surely I didn’t research every sort of problem that could cause back pain. Surely I wasn’t afraid that I had cancer. Surely I didn’t imagine suitable replacement wives for my husband. Haha! No, no…. of course I am not that insane.

I just have a wild imagination. I’ve never been a worrier, but I admit I went a little overboard on this one. The thing is that I so badly wanted to know what caused my pain. I figured if I knew the cause, maybe I could fix it.

So when the doctor’s office, which I can never ever get an appointment with, actually called ME to schedule an appointment right away to discuss my MRI results in depth, I thought, “Oh! This is it. There was something on the MRI. We’re getting somewhere,” but those thoughts sort of led to, “I hope I’m not dying, or what if I need surgery?”

Therefore, it felt incredibly anti-climactic but also exciting to find out that the MRI suggests that I am fine. They didn’t let me read the actual report, but she said the only thing on there was tendonitis in my shoulder. 

Pretty funny, as I thought the shoulder MRI was a waste of effort. My shoulder itself is fine. It’s the back muscles around it that bother me.

I’m so happy and relieved to know that basically I am okay. Only, I’m not “okay.” I’m all tired, sleepy, lethargic, and achy.

So the next thing they wanted to discuss was depression……

Am I depressed? I don’t think I’m depressed. I have such a blessed life, I have no reason for sadness.

Okay, well, here’s the thing. I’m not depressed in the sense of being sad or lonely or such. However, the quality of life factor became greatly reduced the day I began to home school my boys.

It’s sad that something I wanted to do so badly turned out to be such a mixed bag of blessings and curses.

I love being with my family. I enjoy knowing what they are learning and seeing them succeed.

The thing is that I am not a school teacher. I don’t enjoy teaching, testing, or researching fun things to do. Plus, it hurts. My back hurts too badly to haul them out to field trips very often. It takes me days to recover from that.

Home schooling has been the single most humbling event of my life. I have leaned on my faith in the heavenly Father hard to simply get through my days. I wake up with a sense of dread over having to manage the course of the day for five separate people, while also feeding them all and wishing for a tidy house or time to do anything that I actually enjoy.

When the boys were in school, I relished that time between 8 and 2:30 to lavish love on my pre-schoolers and live at a slower pace. Then we’d pick them up at 3, we’d all head to the park, and we’d do homework and play in the evening. It worked for us.

I am so glad that I tried the home schooling thing. This was one of those jobs I looked at with high ideals and rose-colored glasses. I romanticized it in my mind, but in the end it is not for me.

Many women love it, and they should continue to home school. I should not.

The stress of managing a job I’m not cut out for is making my entire body hurt. Did you know that’s possible? It is. The aching body is making me less capable to take care of my family and my responsibilities.

I believe that the Lord puts inside of each of us a “soul thing”, a thing that we can do, enjoy doing, and bless others with. I have several soul things. I love being a mom, just a mom. Writing is my therapy, and singing is a little extra fun on the side. Those are my soul things. Oh! And when my back cooperates, I can cook like no tomorrow.

Next year, my children will be taught by someone who enjoys it, and I am going to get back to living a life that fits.

We all have a different mold we are created to fill. I’m done trying to fit into anyone else’s mold. I’m ready to get back to being a happier mom, and that will bless my boys and others as well.

“You won’t ever be able to keep up with unrealistic. Unrealistic demands lead to undercurrents of failure. So don’t allow the unrealistic demands of others to march freely into your life.”    Lisa Terkeurst, The Best Yes, page 161

“And this is my prayer:  that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.”    (Phil. 1:9-10, emphasis added)

The post Can Open, Worms Everywhere: The Back Pain, The Stress, and The Home Schooling appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

The oldest children are off on a play date. JD is taking his nap, and the house is quiet.

Can you feel the excitement??  I’m so excited; I could dance around and make carpet angels……if I had more energy. However, I’m old, and I spent all of my energy on teaching them and making their lunch, so instead I’m going to throw a VIRTUAL party, sitting right here, with my laptop. 🙂

Okay. I will calm down now and try to share what’s on my brain. I just heard a noise, and I sincerely hope that it was the wind and not a two-year-old waking up. I’m sure none of you want to see a grown woman cry.

Let’s talk about what’s been going on lately.

I’m still glowing from the women’s retreat. Real life is back in full force, but all’s well.

Every time I hear “all’s well”, I think of Disney’s Robin Hood and the little vultures that shouted, “It’s two-o’clock, and ALLLLLLL’S WAYEL! ALLLLL’S WAAAAAYEL!”

I only watched that movie 100 times when I was a child.

So yes, “All’s waaaaaayel!”

This weekend:

1. I was on my last pair of contacts because I keep forgetting to go pick up the new ones. JD broke the leg off of my glasses. Then the power went out for almost 24 hours! For a minute, I was worried I’d never get to see again. Ha! But all’s well that ends well.
2. I lost all of my home school paper work that was overdue to my umbrella school. We are not our own private school this year. This year I wisely chose a local Christian school to be a part of, which will make the move go much more smoothly.

So those were my issues, but those things have all been taken care of, for the most part. I totally just took all four boys into the eye clinic with me and picked up my new contacts. It was a long 20 minutes and a whole lot of little boys making faces at themselves in the mirror, but it is done. Phew.

Caleb has been improving in soccer like never before. Two games ago, he had SIX goal attempts. The goalie caught every single one, but we were still thoroughly impressed. Go, Caleb!

Daniel is tearing it up in pre-school. I’m as pleased as punch. I hit upon three must have tools for FUN pre-K learning:

1. Chutes and Ladders: This game will drill numbers, counting, and how to play a board game into a kid’s head like no other. Even for K and 1st grade it’s helpful because every board space is numbered, all the way to 100, which reinforces the higher numbers.
2. Alphabet Bingo: Now that Dan knows most of his letter sounds, this is perfect. We don’t call letters by their name, but by their phonetic sound, which makes for a quick transition to reading.
3. Popsicle Number Puzzles: Aunt Amy created a pre-school kit that is mega, mega wowza. Both littles love the craft stick-puzzle activity the best; I mean now that they’ve used up all of the sticker shapes. Here is the kit:

Here’s the WOWZA KIT! Dan and JD LOVE it. Their fave: She took 10 craft sticks, glued a photo onto them and then cut them apart and numbered the sticks. You can line up the numbers and the picture…..pic to come soon!

Big thank you to Luke!

Alan was privileged to go fishing in Big Sur with his friend Luke last week. If any of you are dying for ling cod, stop by, and we’ll give you a few fillets from our freezer. Alan caught the maximum allowable amount. Alan rarely does anything like this, so I can’t tell you how excited we were for him.

ling (?) cod

Big Sur area

Update on the back drama:

I have this ongoing hip, shoulder, lower back, and finger tip pain problem. Well, actually my fingers aren’t in pain. They are just sensitive to the touch, and I have trouble with fine motor movements. Plus, I get these random low fevers that only stay 24 hours (thankfully) and then go, but that’s been happening for a year now.

I still say I have psoriatic arthritis. I have ALL the symptoms, except for “sausage fingers”. I just haven’t asked my doctor about it, which I need to do.

Anyway, whether it is just a mechanical issue from always using all the wrong muscles or an arthritis issue, either way EXERCISE helps.

The only catch? I’m out of the exercise habit. I still walk daily, but that’s about it.

Enter physical therapy round #2. I’m very happy with my PT team, Ryan and Jesus. Yes, that’s Spanish, so it’s pronounced Hayseuss. I asked him if anyone ever calls him “Jesus” (pronounced the English way). He said, “No,” and I don’t think he laughed. Ha! I told him that just means he’s never been to the South because I know plenty of folks back where I’m from that do not know the Spanish pronunciations of anything.

I still laugh when I think of one family member calling queso, “queso,” pronounced the English way, at a Mexican restaurant.

Okay. Sorry. I got off topic. My point was two-fold:

#1. It will make their lives easier to know at least a little Spanish, so I do think that’s important for children raised in America.

and

#2. I’m hoping my chronic back pain issues will continue to get better as I go through my second round of physical therapy. It’s a terrible thing to pop Advil all the time. (Don’t worry. I typically only take a couple/day.)

It’s bed time that bothers me most. Who can sleep with an unhappy hip or back?

Don’t worry about me, though. Most of the time I’m so busy I don’t even notice it, and if I would take better care of myself, this would improve.

Which brings me to next year…..

We are now 8 months out from our next big move. We aren’t 100% sure where we are going, but we think we will be headed right back to where we came from. I’m researching the schooling possibilities, and this may come as a shock to some of you, so hold onto your seats:

I do not plan to home school the boys next year. I will explain more in a far-in-the-future blog post. I’m thankful I got to do this. It has been so ridiculously hard, but it’s also enlightening.

I have been forced to better discipline my children, and of course, that’s always a work in progress. They are people, after all.

I have had to prioritize deeply. I often scold myself for not doing things I would like to be doing, but the fact is that it just wasn’t a priority. The priority was educating and promoting character growth in my boys.

These boys are my charges. It is my duty to lay down everything else, if need be, to ensure that these boys are raised properly. Alan and I take responsibility for the kind of character that they are or are not developing. Even when I’m not home schooling, that will still be our responsibility as parents. 

I’m continuing to read all I can get my hands on about home schooling and learn from other moms who have done this before me! I may do it again, other years, as needed. Meanwhile, it gives me a great feeling of sweet relief to know that I have several options for next year. It makes the next 8 months feel more doable!

God has provided for me each step of the way, and I see His miraculous work in my life everyday. Some people say there are no more miracles. I guess I am ignorant as to why they say that. I hope no one ever informs me because I still see miracles happening, every single time that I see God intervening in my life. To me, that is a miracle.

I hope you all have a miraculously fabulous week.

…6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.                            Philippians 4:6-7

“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”    Colossians 3:15

The post A Quiet House, Thankfulness, and Sweet Relief appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Oh, Daniel, you ARE Buzz Lightyear.

Today the boys and I had to walk all the way to the mini-mart, which is all of 1/2 a mile.

I put JD in the double jogger, that way I could put the milk I needed in the empty seat. How did we let ourselves run completely out of milk? Families of six cannot do such a thing!

I didn’t let anyone ride bikes, so Caleb ran most of it. One of Daniel’s biggest wishes is to beat Caleb in a race. Sometimes we try to rig races for him, by giving him a drastic head start, but it’s tough.

Daniel is a slightly short, far wiser than his years, four-year-old. This boy is an athletic, determined, do-it-myself, brownie cooking, tricycle-riding, Bible verse quoting, mouthy little POWERHOUSE. He is the mitochondria of California. I do not exaggerate.

(Excuse the science joke. It was cell week.)

But Daniel doesn’t see himself that way. He has no idea.

As he runs down that side-walk, boldly telling himself that he WILL catch up with Caleb, only to be passed by Joshua from way far behind, he just crumbles.

He whines. He cries, “Mom! He passed me.”

The pure competitiveness and ambition of it all! How I adore him, and no matter how many times (per day) that this scene must repeat itself, he tries again.

We can see the very circumstances that frustrate him gradually molding him into this strong, determined, and resilient person.

But Daniel didn’t see it that way.

He just wanted to WIN. He just wanted to SHOW ‘EM!

I just smiled, and I reassured him that he is extremely fast, ever so much faster than a normal four-year-old. And it’s not that he’s little. It’s just that he’s YOUNG, and one day he WILL beat them sometimes.

Daniel smiled, “Really?” Off he went like a rocket, only to crumble a few minutes later because “Caleb took a short-cut, and now I’ll never catch up.”

Then his shoe fell off–one house down from finally arriving safely back to our driveway. Sigh.

Life is exciting but hard.

I convinced him to climb into the double stroller because we were so close to home. The seat was still empty because the mini-mart, much to my dismay, was completely out of every single kind of milk.

I don’t know how to fully express to Daniel how incredible he is, and yet he will always measure himself against his older brothers, a ludicrous measurement, considering the current difference in their ages. That difference won’t count for much at all in fifteen years, so hang in there, Daniel!

Another great athletic achievement for Daniel. He started at the top of the slide-less slide and walked his way down ever so carefully.

This made me think of God and people.

We look all around. We strive and we fret and we whine just like Daniel. We want to know why we can’t be as fast as this guy or as successful as this other lady, but God doesn’t see it that way. We get discouraged because we can’t do things as well as we’d like to do, but God doesn’t see it that way.

He sees the big picture, just as I can see more of Daniel’s big picture than Daniel can.

Having these big brothers to compete with is TRULY making Daniel greater. He pushes himself harder than he would otherwise. He sticks up for himself fiercely. He overcomes short-comings QUICKLY so that he can keep up with those boys.

Daniel is becoming a driven, confident, self-assured man. It doesn’t matter if he never catches up with his brothers in stature. He is building an incredible character, and I get to watch it happen.

It happens to us, too. We just have to take our eyes off what we can’t do, and fix our eyes on God. With God, we can do ANYTHING. We will grow not in size (hopefully), but in character, just like Daniel. We can hone the talents that God has put in each of us into something beautiful. We can over come our short-comings to produce a more fruitful life, a life that benefits more than just ourselves.

For just a moment today, I gloried in the thought of focusing on the BIG picture, not just the trees in front of me.

We need to look at ourselves the way that we look at our children.

Still growing! We might even grow the most from the very circumstances that make us cry!

Me, at the “Ninja Warrior Playground”

For example, I have no idea how to delegate, and there are only 24 hours in each day, so I can’t have a blog that makes money anymore……

No, let’s replace that idea with this one:

This year I’ve decided to spend more time on teaching, learning to be a better teacher, healing my back, and getting out, both with and without my boys. So now is not the time to do sponsored posts or make any money at all. But I am well provided for, so that’s okay. I will work back to that another day, just not today.

“You’ll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You’ll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life’s
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never foget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!”

–Oh, the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss

Can you do monkey bars with one broken wrist, like Joshua? Go, Joshua, go!

I hope you all have a great weekend. I hope one day you and Daniel both get to win. We all just need to endure the training first.

The post Why it is So Important to Focus on the Big Picture Rather than Our Daily Difficulties appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Like many of you, essential oils are a brand new concept to me. They first began to show up in my Facebook news feed the last year or so. At first I thought, “What in the world are they talkin’ about?” But the friends mentioning the oils were all people I thought a lot of, so I was intrigued.

Then the move happened. All of the main characters in the days of our lives changed completely, and we landed square in the middle of this foreign land called California…….Ha! No, I’m just kidding. It is different, yes, but it is certainly not foreign. The plant life kind of is though:

So we quickly found a new church, and the pastor’s wife, Jennifer, at my new church happens to be a Young Living Oil distributor. She has introduced me into the vast world of essential oils. Our Heavenly Father never ceases to amaze me in how he puts just the right people and things in my life, just when I need them–before I even know I will need them.

My pain had been almost gone for months. Then boom. Flare up. Now I can barely manage to sit through a church service, because of the pain in my joints. I’m going to tell you how these oils have helped me.

But first, if you are new to the oils, you may have many of the same questions that I had.

“What are essential oils? Where do they come from?”

“What can they do? What do you DO with these things? Pour them on your body? Use them in the bath tub?”

So first let me give you very basic answers:

1. Essential oils are defined by Google as natural oils typically obtained by distillation and having the characteristic fragrance of the plant or other source from which it is extracted.

2. They come from all different plants. You already know that different plants have different properties that can be used medicinally, such as aloe for burns. Therefore, it isn’t unheard of that other plants could also have beneficial properties.

3. What can they do? Well, there’s an endless list of things you can do with them. There are oils that have cleansing properties, such as lavender, or thieves, which is actually a blend of oils. There are oils that can help with inflammation, such as Panaway and copiaba. There are oils that can help with skin problems, anxiety, and you name it, there’s probably an oil for that.

4. HOW do you use them? There are several different ways to use them.

I have friends that use the lemon oil in their water to get the health benefits of lemon, but without the acid. (Yes, many Young Living oils are edible.)

A whole slew of them can be rubbed right onto the problem area of your body. However, many of them need to be diluted by an oil, like olive oil, first. There are a couple of these pain-relieving oils that I have been just slathering right on. (Panaway and Relieveit) You would never do that for a child, though. For children, you must dilute, and I hear that some oils are stronger and should be diluted before rubbing on, even for adults.

Then there’s also diffusing.

This is my boys’ favorite. “Mom, will you put in some of that nose medicine in the air?”

My knowledge is barely touching the tip of the iceberg. I am so new to this. However, what I have learned, I will share with you. Then I will point you to where you need to go to learn a whole lot more.

So here’s how I use these oils:

1. My very favorite: Extreme Relief Pain Cream

Don’t worry too much about me when you read this, but I actually use this every single night lately..I know. It’s the arthritis. I can feel fine all day long, but the moment I lay down to go to sleep, I ache too badly to go to sleep. This provides instant relief–instant–from the pinching pain. It’s probably not long lasting. I still wake up aching, but THANKFULLY, this little cream allows me to pass out in sweet, sweet, pain-free bliss.

It was a little embarrassing to try to explain this to my doctor the other day. I am pretty sure they think I’m the “crazy hippyish lady that thinks she has arthritis.” My doctor seemed to think I’m just feeling the effects of a heavy, clingy baby and a vitamin deficiency. I’m hoping the blood tests will give us more answers. I don’t think this chronic battle I’ve been fighting should be shrugged off any longer.

But I digress…

I made this jar o’ goodness at an Oil Class, hosted by my distributor, Jennifer. She provided the recipe and the ingredients. She is awesome. Any time I have a question, she pulls all her resources to try to find an oil that will help me. Thank you, Jennifer!

Here’s what is in it:

Extreme Pain Creme

approx. 2 table spoons of coconut oil

15 drops each of:

Valor

Peppermint

Panaway

Copiaba

Lemongrass

Stir it all together, and done.

************

2. Daniel’s favorite: Bug Repellent.  Daniel is our self-proclaimed house bug-killer, and he goes all over the house spraying for bugs with this spray–until I confiscate it and say, “That’s enough, Daniel.”

Bug Repellent

Distilled water

Witch Hazel

even amounts of the following oils:

Thieves

Purification

Peppermint

2-4 drops Lavender

**********

3. Joshua and Caleb’s favorite: Peppermint

They love to smell the bottle, to open up their sinuses. These two boys LIVE with sinus problems. Poor things. So yes, I have my boys sniffing things….don’t worry,they only do it once every other day or so, and they say it helps them.

For their congestion, I diffuse:

around 7 drops each of thieves, peppermint, and lavender (in water)

OR

around 7 drops each of lavender, peppermint, and lemon.

The lavender, peppermint, and lemon combination has also made for a wonderful air freshener. I have gotten many compliments.

**********

The great thing about these oils is that the scents are more hypoallergenic than the synthetic scents that you find at places like Bath & Body Works.

4. For my joint pain, I have had success in applying Panaway and in using Relieveit–separately. My favorite, though, is the Extreme Pain Cream.

Most all of these oils I mentioned come in the starter kit that you get when you join Young Living. Some of you may have more great tips for us. Please share in the comments!

Want more information?

-To order, or learn more about ordering, contact JenniferKLemonDropper@gmail.com!

-To get more oil ideas, you can also try this website:http://www.naturallyhis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/100PLUS-uses.pdf

The post The Basics of How to Use Essential Oils appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.