30 day challenge-day 5

Day 5: tell us your three favorite colors

Blue, Grey, & Aqua I guess.  My hummer is a blue-grey color.  I love it, though I do wish it had a tad more silver to it, a bit more grey than blue.  I love to pair aqua with brown, but also with black.  My first car was a metallic blue.  My second car was silver.  I liked that color a lot, although I also love a dark charcoal color even more.  My third car was green-a deep dark green.  I wasn't crazy about the color, but it was different & I didn't really like the options they had so I went with it.  My fourth car was white.  I'm not crazy about white on a car, but I do think white (& yellow) look good with dark tinted windows & I did tint the windows.  And my hummer is my 5th car.  I don't know what else to say about colors..........

30 day challenge-day 4

Day four: write about my closest friend

hhhmmm, what am I supposed to say about my closest friend?
It would have to be my hubby, he is truly my best friend.  He is such a man of integrity.  I admire him so greatly, he has impacted me in so many good ways.  Back in the days when we were only friends & I never thought we'd date, much less marry, I knew I would never be the same person I was before I knew him, simply because of having known him.  He is so selfless, so thoughtful, so loving, so caring, so forgiving.  He is always my hero, always coming to my rescue when I need it no matter how brutal his own day has been.  I try HARD to be as good of a spouse to him as he is to me.

30 day challenge-day 3

Day three: my favorite television program.

hhhmmmm, that's a tough one.  I rarely watch TV these days.  There were lots of shows in the past that I loved, but too many to narrow it down to one.  I guess the longest running one was General Hospital, but I gave it up, the Holy Spirit kept convicting me, so much immoral stuff going on on the show.  These days if I do watch it's usually a cooking show or American Idol, but I wouldn't say it was a "favorite" show.  I'm not THAT passionate about it.  We could honestly shut down the cable TV (or whatever you call U-verse, not technically cable I guess) & I wouldn't care.  Reading books & playing guitar are just soooo much better.

30 day challenge-day 2

Day two: talk about your piercings & tattoos, if you have any.

I have 2 piercings in each ear.  I did the first ones when I was 10.  I did the second ones when I was 14.  I considered getting a third set when I was 18, but thought it would be too much.  I don't have any tattoos.  When I was young (early 20s) I had wanted to get one.  But knowing that it was permanent it had to be something super special.  I can remember going to several tat shops with friends & never seeing anything I liked enough.  I remember my ex saying I was fake, that I didn't really want one, but it wasn't true at all.  I really did want one, but it had to be something great enough that I wouldn't regret it later on.  And now that I'm older I'm soooo grateful that I never got one, LOL.  I guess God worked it out for me.  :)

Potty Training continued...update

Ok, so 2 weeks ago Lil J had had 2 accidents at church.  And the week before he had had 1 accident.  Prior to that had been several weeks of zero accidents.  BUT after the two accidents the lady working in the nursery was insistent that something was wrong with Lil J, that he has diabetes or something else wrong with him.  The only way I could end the conversation (& please her it would seem) was to tell her from now on I will bring him in pull ups (let me also repeat that in December it was the ladies in the nursery who had asked why on earth he was still in pulls ups since he wasn't having any accidents).

So the following week Lil J & myself were both too sick to go to church.  We skipped that week & watched it on podcast a few days later.

Yesterday we went & I had him in pull ups.  No one made any comment about the pull ups or the fact that he had zero accidents & the pull up was totally dry after church.  I didn't actually see the lady who was complaining about him, so maybe that's why.  But I changed him back into undies as soon as we got to the car & he remained dry & accident free all day long.

I am very proud of how well he is doing with the potty training actually.  Still not 100% perfect, especially when he's overly tired, but still, for not even being 3 yet I think he's doing really great.  :)  Just wanted to share that update.

30 day challenge-day 1

I am taking this 30 day challenge.  :)  I love stuff like this.

Day 1: my middle name & how I feel about it.

My middle name is Marie.  I've never liked it.  I always wanted a name that had some meaning to it.  My sister & brother's first names were chosen from the Bible.  My first name came from a character on a soap opera my mom was watching while she was pregnant with me.  My sister's middle name was our grandmother's middle name.  My brother's middle name was our father's first name.  Mine was chosen solely because it sounds good with the first name.  I've also noticed that there are tons of women with Marie, Anne, & Lynn as their middle names.  They just sound good with lots of first names.  My point is that I've never liked my middle name, mostly because it is far too common, but also because there's no meaning to it or behind it.  I don't say any of this in an angry way.  My name is what it is & it's who I am.  But if you really want to know how I feel about it, then there it is.  I was very careful in choosing my son's name because I wanted it to be special.  I've never felt like my name was special.

Candida Cleanse

I think most people are aware of yeast issues.  But I also think a lot of people downplay how widespread of a problem it is.

I have a long, long history of antibiotic use, beginning at less than a week old.  Growing up I took antibiotics for chronic ear infections, chronic UTIs, chronic tonsillitis & several bad bouts of bronchitis.  Of course back in my childhood years they also gave antibiotics (erythromycin) anytime I was sick, even if it was viral.  And in 2008 I had a really severe spider bite that was MRSA+, for which I received tons & tons of heavy duty antibiotics (both oral & IV) & was even hospitalized for a short time during the treatment.  The tonsillitis subsided in my teen years.  The ear infections subsided in my early 20s.  The UTIs still occur occasionally, though I've now learned that they stem from Interstitial Cystitis & if I can keep that under control I can mostly avoid the UTIs.  That is my constant goal these days.  The bronchitis gets me still occasionally, but not nearly as often.  I now use propolis as my defense against coughs (I learned this from my mother in law) & it really does help me in most cases.  I had tried to use a pill form of propolis (simply because it's easier & not as messy) not too long ago but it didn't seem to be very effective I have to admit.  So I've returned to using the pasty form & it's working great once again.

Back in 2008 (right before I got pregnant & right after the spider bite incident) I was meeting with a naturopath doctor to address my chronic UTIs.  I desperately wanted to find the root cause & find a way to put a stop to them & my primary doc wasn't helpful at all in this regard.  As we reviewed my medical history (& she was taking notes) I finally came face to face with just how much antibiotics I had taken over the course of my lifetime.  I was actually quite shocked.

The naturopath doctor did some tests & found that I had a "leaky gut" & that I wasn't digesting fats properly.  My digestive system was not in good shape, which isn't too shocking given the amount of antibiotics I have ingested.  Right when we were about to begin treatment for this I found I was pregnant.  The doc chose to wait on treatment.  She said that some of the herbs she had planned for me were considered safe during pregnancy (& some were definitely not) but she still didn't like to give them, just to be extra safe.  I was supposed to meet with her once per trimester & then we would resume the treatment plan after the birth.  But of course none of this was covered under insurance & anyone with kids knows that budgets get tighter with the birth of a child, not to mention going down to being a one income family from being a dual income family.  And so it got put off & I still haven't gone back.

During the pregnancy I had a UTI & had to take antibiotics.  And during labor I had a fever & was given IV antibiotics.

I was concerned about Lil J's digestive health, that it might be adversely affected because of the state of my own digestive health at the time I got pregnant & also due to antibiotics during pregnancy & labor.  I've been giving him probiotics since shortly after birth in hopes that that would help him overcome any issues he might have.

I was struggling myself with skin fungal issues.  I started seeing another alternative med doc after my own primary doc not being any help at all.  (the alternative med doc was at the same office at the naturopath, but the naturopath was off work due to having a baby of her own at the time)  I tried lots of things with little success.  Finally, about 7 months after Lil J was born, I changed my diet.  I did a super strict anti-fungus diet for about 2 months & it REALLY helped.

Shortly after Lil J was born I somehow discovered a TV show called "Know The Cause" & I chose to follow his diet plan to accomplish this.  I purchased the eating plan book & the recipe book & followed it to a T for 2 months.  ALL my skin issues went away.  (I still hope to return to the naturopath doc at some point to see if I still need to do more to fully restore my digestive health)

I remember discussing Lil J's digestive health with the alternative med doc but we both agreed it was near impossible to do anything while he was an infant.  One of the big things that you have to remove from the diet is dairy & he was on a cow-based infant formula, so that wasn't really doable.  He's had a fungal foot issue (much like athlete's foot) since he was an infant.  I have tried tons of creams & am still using one that sort of keeps it from getting worse, but never gets rid of it.  I've had my suspicions that this is related to his digestive system & an overgrowth of yeast in his system.  Each morning after his bath I completely dry out the toe area with a hair dryer & then apply cream & then his socks.  At one point the fungus had spread from the toe area to the entire bottom of the feet.  But I have managed to get it confined back to just the toe area & keep it just there.  But I have NEVER been able to eradicate it COMPLETELY.

To make matters worse, once he was able to start eating he was only willing to eat wheat!  He wants toast, pretzels, crackers, things like that.  So I've known in the back of my mind that putting him on a candida cleanse would be a nightmare, because he would just refuse to eat.  But I've also known that at some point I was going to HAVE to do it.

For a while now (maybe a year or so), his breath (especially when he first wakes up after a nap or in the morning) is very yeasty.  And then last Friday when I was brushing his teeth at bedtime I saw it--YEAST growing on the back of his tongue.  He has thrush.  (I always brush lower teeth, upper teeth, tongue, & palate  in that order & I saw it while I was brushing his tongue)  I knew that I could no longer postpone treating this.  I prayed over him, explained the situation to my hubby, & asked him to pray & to be supportive during this tough time.

So starting Saturday morning we began.  Based on my own past experience I know that you can take all the supplements you want, but if you don't change the diet you won't get anywhere.  You have to starve the yeast.  Dairy has already been removed from Lil J's diet for a while now, but wheat & sugar & corn still needed to be removed.  I am not going to be quite as strict as I was when I did this myself, it's just too hard & drastic for a toddler who doesn't understand, especially as picky as he is.  My own diet was completely grain free.  I am allowing Lil J to still have brown rice (which still allows him his rice milk & rice cakes & puffy rice cereal).  And I'm allowing almonds, his favorite nut.  And I'm allowing a small amount of fruit still, since he really likes it.  I know all about sugars & starches feeding the yeast, but he's not even 3 yet, this is REALLY hard on him, my goal is to be successful but also understanding & working with him as well.

It's tough, don't get me wrong.  It's VERY tough.  Every time I serve him something to eat he throws a tantrum.  And later on, his hunger gets to him & he gives in & eats some of what I've served.  Some of it he's still refusing though.  He's eating nut based crackers, turkey slices, rice cakes, almond milk yogurt for the most part.  I am allowing a small amount of pureed fruit or fruit leathers each day.  I'm working hard on getting him to eat some fresh fruits & veggies during this time, but as of today he's still refusing.

I have to report that 24 hours into this his breath was normal again, not yeasty.  And as of this morning (48 hours in) his athlete's foot is already almost gone.  I am still praying & hoping we can get this squared away COMPLETELY & quickly.  And I am also hopeful that we can change his future eating habits for the better during all of this.

I also ordered "ThreeLac".  It's a supplement that my alternative doc had told me to take when I was struggling with my own fungal issues.  I was never able to find it at that time & had given up.  But as I was googling about the issue specific to toddlers I ran across ThreeLac & quickly remembered why it sounded familiar & ordered it.  I am hoping it will also be helpful & effective.

Prayers would be much appreciated as me & Lil J continue to work on healing our digestive systems.  :)

Treadmill & Cardio in general

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE working out.  I've now been working out for 20 years!

I have always hated cardio workouts & in the past I mostly just skipped it & avoided it.

In my younger days I could eat whatever I wanted & not have to worry about weight, or more specifically, body fat levels.  So skipping cardio wasn't a big deal to me because I wasn't worrying about fat.

But as I get older I do have to fight to keep the body fat off.  The older I get the harder it gets to maintain my weight & since having my son it's also made it harder to keep my abs flat & flab free.

I do have a heart murmur & I've always been very aware that my heart isn't as strong as other people's (even people who don't workout at all!) because of it.  Later on in pregnancy my heart was having a really hard time keeping up & by the time I went into labor I was going into heart failure.  It was clear to me that I needed to start doing cardio.  The heart is a muscle & by working it I can strengthen it.  Sure, not necessarily as strong as other people's, but still stronger than it has been.

Last August I was given a treadmill.  I have always wanted one, hoping that I would really enjoy that form of cardio.  I started working on running one mile.  I must admit I was REALLY hating it.  But I kept with it.  I was improving but still hating it.

However, I have to admit that I always found myself holding back, not pushing myself as hard as I probably could.  I was worried if I pushed myself TOO HARD then I wouldn't be able to continue RUNNING the whole mile & I would end up walking or quitting.  This bothered me, yet I couldn't think of a way to get around it.

I've always heard of circuit training or interval training (to my knowledge they are one & the same, but I might be mistaken about that) but I didn't really know exactly how to do it.  I had tried to look into it a few times, but it always seemed to complicated for me.  Then a few weeks ago I got an email from Dr. Mercola that was about this type of exercise.  It mentioned that you can burn more calories in less time & that it's better for strengthening your heart because you push yourself as hard as possible (no holding back) for the short interval intense bursts.  And it has a very simple structure to it, so I decided to give it a try & I am truly LOVING it.

I should add that this can be applied to ANY form of cardio.  You just need a timer or stopwatch or something like that.  I've been using it with the treadmill, but I do plan to use it with my spinner bike at some point.  The treadmill has a timer on it, but the bike doesn't.  Although I'm pretty sure my phone has a timer in it that I can use.

So here's the basic plan: you warm up for 3 minutes.  Then you go as fast as possible for 30 seconds.  Then you recover for 90 seconds.  Then you go as fast as possible for 30 seconds.  And 'round & 'round you go.  The goal is to build up to 8 of the 30 second bursts.

It's a very simple plan, yet it has structure to it, which I like.  I, personally, have split up the 90 second recovery.  So it goes like this: 30 seconds walking slow, 30 seconds walking fast, 30 seconds running slowly, then back to the 30 second as fast as I can go.  So it's basically just 4 phases of 30 seconds going around & around for me.  And I get so into each 30 second phase that I don't even realize how much time is passing by.  Before, when I was just running, I would stare at the timer & be wishing I was done at just a couple of minutes into the run.  I now find myself so into the workout that before I even notice it's already 10 or 15 minutes have gone by.

And by pushing myself as hard as possible, even for only 30 seconds, I do feel like my heart is getting stronger, my endurance level is increasing, which is what I want.  The idea is to push yourself to the point that you couldn't possibly continue past the 30 second mark & that's what I do & I feel like I'm seeing major results from this.

I am very pleased with working out like this & plan to continue (along with my strength training & pilates, etc).  It burns more calories & strengthens the heart better than traditional type cardio workouts.

Potty Training Continued, opinions wanted

So I had originally started potty training in mid-August of last year.  6 weeks later, at the end of September, I put Lil J in pull ups & put it on hold.  He remained potty trained with poo poo, but he did get lazy about peeing.  It seemed he wasn't ready to me.  I was going to just wait until he turned 3 to start trying once again.  But in mid-December the gals in the nursery at church asked why he was still in pull ups, stating that he wasn't having ANY accidents.  I really hadn't been paying attention, since I was just going to wait until April to resume potty training.  

That week I started in again & he was doing well.  The next couple of weeks he did well, and he had NO accidents at church & all was well.  A week ago at church he had one accident.  He had been especially thirsty that morning, & they had him outside on the buggy, so they probably didn't hear him if he said he needed to go potty, so I chalked it up to that & didn't worry about it.  They didn't seem bothered by it at all.  I have started noticing a trend in the evening, shortly before bedtime where he was having accidents, but aside from that he was doing well for me.  

Then this last weekend he had 2 accidents at church.  The gal in the  nursery starts going on & on, telling me it's not normal, I need to take him to the doctor.  She thinks he has diabetes or something else, but something has to be wrong with him.  She goes on & on (as hubby just walks out, he was going to lose his cool with her) & I finally just told her that I will just be sure to bring him there in pull ups from now on.  She was quite content with that response.  For some reason she is the only gal in the nursery who complains about him having accidents.  I have to wonder if she is the only one willing to say anything or if she is simply less tolerant than other gals in there?  Or is her approach with Lil J not working for J & making things worse?  (He is very sensitive & I have to keep all things potty related very positive & happy I've noticed).  She says she's raised 11 kids (between her own & foster kids), so she definitely has plenty of experience it would seem.  

I do also have to say that I'm a nurse & I do not believe my son has diabetes.  Yes, excessive urination is ONE symptom, but that doesn't mean he has diabetes.  At his age he would have to be overweight & eating a HORRIBLE diet in order to have type 2, which he isn't & doesn't.  And he certainly doesn't fit the profile of a type 1 diabetic.  

I'm sure the gal meant well, but if I wasn't a nurse that would really scare me, to be told that my son has diabetes & he's not normal.  

But, more importantly, he's not even 3 years old yet.  I know lots of kids that hadn't even started potty training yet at his age.  And if they had they certainly would've had some accidents.  

I still put him in a pull up at bedtime & some mornings he wakes up dry & some mornings he wakes up wet.  There are plenty of times when I am out running errands that he tells me he needs to go potty & I ask him to hold it (sometimes up to 15 or 20 minutes even) & he is able to hold it, he does have control like that.  But I also think it can't be abnormal for accidents at his age, right?  I would love to hear from others, please comment away.

Kindles, Etc.

Anyone who knows me at all should know that I am a major bookworm.  I have been my whole life.

There's a lot of "e-books" out there these days, but I still very much prefer a real actual book.

However, I have been swayed slightly.

First I must say that I have an app on my iPhone call "You Version".  It's a Bible app.  It's free.  I had downloaded it simply to have the Bible on my phone (for free) for anytime I needed/wanted to read my Bible when I might not have it with me.  When hubby got his iPhone I told him about the app & he downloaded it.  Of course he did more exploring than I had done.  I knew that they have TONS of translations of the Bible available, but I did not know that they had reading plans.  And, having never used a reading plan, I wouldn't have realized how valuable it can be even if I had noticed it myself.

Almost a year ago I started the one year Bible reading plan in the You Version app.  I will be finishing it up on February 5th.  I've been browsing the reading plans (there are literally TONS), knowing that I'll need a new one soon.  I have to say that I REALLY like following a reading plan.  It helps me stay on track, keeps me accountable, to read DAILY, which is what I ultimately want to be doing.  And it gives me structure, giving me a daily reading assignment.  I've tried reading & studying my Bible on my own & I always feel a bit lost I have to admit.  I really like the structure & accountability that a reading plan gives me.

Back when I first got my iPhone I was browsing free apps & I ended up downloading the Kindle app, which is free.  As I browsed for books I found there were actually some FREE books available.  They were mostly old books.  I got Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Phantom of the Opera, The Strange Case of Benjamin Button, Through the Looking Glass, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, The Velveteen Rabbit, & The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  I'm assuming there's no copyrights on these anymore, though I'm not sure if that's true or if that's why they're free.

I never really got around to reading ANY of them & later on my phone broke & when I replaced it I had to re-download all my apps & I didn't bother to download the Kindle app at all this time.

A few weeks ago someone posted on Facebook that there was a vegan cookbook about lentils for free (for one day only I believe) through Kindle.  I wanted that cookbook so I downloaded the Kindle app & to my surprise all those old books I had downloaded before were still there!

Someone asked the person who posted the free cookbook info how she had found out the book was free for the day.  She shared a link to an email list that emails you daily with the free books listed for each day.  I signed up for the list & enjoy browsing it each day & getting some more books.  They are a wide variety of topics.  I skip a lot of sections, but always take a look at "how to" type books, Christian books, cook books, & things of that sort.

Now I don't have as much time to read these days, since becoming a mommy.  But I sure do still love to read.    So far I've been reading an "actual hard copy book" during the day if I do have time to read.  (I'm currently working on "It Starts At Home" by Kurt Bruner & Steve Stroope & "The Warrior" by Francine Rivers.)  And then at night, before I go to bed, I'm reading a Kindle book.

And that leads me to one advantage that the Kindle DOES actually have.  (aside from the advantage of being able to get a FREE book, no one is handing out FREE hardcopy books unfortunately)  I LOVE to read before I fall asleep.  Since getting married I have not been able to do so however.  If I have a light on so that I can read I'm going to keep my hubby awake (& these days it will also keep the toddler awake).  But reading a book on my phone, with the Kindle app, doesn't require additional lighting, the phone lights up enough for me to be able to read, but not so much that it will disturb anyone else in the room.  This is a feature that I actually LOVE.

Now I don't have an actual Kindle, just a Kindle app through my iPhone (they also have an android app).  I'm sure there must be advantages to having an actual Kindle over doing it the way that I do, BUT I can say I'm quite sure I wouldn't want an actual Kindle.  It would just be one more device that I have to deal with, charging, keeping track of, etc.  Back when I first got a PDA, I had a PDA & a cell phone.  It was quite a hassle having to deal with two separate devices.  My next cell phone was a Palm Centro, with the PDA built right in.  And next was my iPhone (which I still have, I've had it for a while now) which isn't exactly the same as the Palm PDA, but it does the same stuff that I need/want.

Now, for anyone who knows my hubby, you know he struggles with reading.  I really believe it's because of his eyes (they don't work together, each eye is working separately--we found this out when I forced him to see an eye doctor after I had met him), but he does persevere with his Bible.  And he's become very accustomed to using the YouVersion app & reading plans that I mentioned previously.  But he recently wanted to get a book.  I looked it up on Amazon & showed it to him.  He didn't want to wait for it to ship though, he wanted to start reading as soon as possible.  I told him about the Kindle app.  He was hesitant.  He was concerned about losing the book if something were to happen to his phone (or his Samsung Galaxy tablet he also has).  I shared with him how when I recently downloaded the Kindle app once again all those books I had downloaded a long time ago were still in there.  It's pretty unlikely that he would lose the book.  I also shared with him that he could have it on BOTH his phone & his tablet--since they both have Kindle apps available.  At that point he was sold.  He got the Kindle app & then purchased the book.  He's been reading now, every single day, both his Bible & this other book.  He REALLY likes it in this format.  He always has it with him (unlike a regular book), he has it on both his tablet (which he prefers to read on, since it has a larger screen) as well as his phone, & he can still highlight, make notes, & easily look up words he doesn't know the meaning of.

I used to be VERY anti-Kindle (& all other e book formats) but I have to admit that I am coming around.  I still prefer an actual book, but there is a time & a place for a Kindle book in my opinion.  :)