Things That Make Me Say Yeah: Healing with Plants

Part of my evolution in the way I think, eat and live has been to lean more on plants and their natural healing power.  Now, by my own admission, though I passionately believe in these principles of living, I have not been as steadfast in my daily living as I would have liked.  I made a conscious decision before I turned 30 that I was going to do better and be stronger because I know my body is going to go through a lot in the next 30 years and I want it to have the best fighting chance I can give it to be strong, healthy and carry my soul through a long vibrant life.  So June 14th I gave up processed sugars.  It's only been just over a month, but if you knew me on a daily basis you would know what a HUGE deal that is for me.  I spent my first 30 years keeping sugar farmers in business.  I had a very true and very serious sugar addiction.  Sugar addiction is real people.  Sugar was my drug of choice.  But I'll save that for another post about my struggle with my weight.  So I went one month completely processed sugar free.  I have also been trying to focus on fitting plants into my diet more than ever.  And while I am not a vegetarian by any means, I do believe that plants have the power to heal our bodies and so today's favorites focus on plants.  Hope you find one of these things useful/inspiring in your own life!

I gave this book to to my brother-in-law and his wife for Christmas and have been wanting a copy for myself.  I finally used some birthday money to nab a copy from Amazon.  This books warms my heart.  It's rustic and simple and vintage and nutrient rich all wrapped up in this beautiful little package.  I love it.

For a year now, I have been drinking a smoothie every day with few exceptions.  And while I love my golden flax and chia seeds, I love this protein even more.  I love that it is 100% from plants and organic.  It's good for my body and good for the earth.  I love the taste it adds to my smoothies and its easy to order right off of Amazon.

I might have added more to this post, but I have a distraction in my lap demanding my attention...

I know this is a horrible picture, but I love how it makes the bling in the back of his mouth shine :)

Medical Monday: Benign Tumors

So this Medical Monday is coming at you late because I've been struggling with hormone issues lately.  Long story short, I have had a severe hormone imbalance since the end of my last pregnancy last spring.  The doctor finally decided to put me on some hormones for about a week to try and balance things out and/or reset my system as they put it.  So I spent last week on hormones.  I can honestly say I have had a glimpse of menopause.  So anyhow, I am getting myself back together now, but I am just exhausted.

So we checked in with Clayton's oncologist last week to get the results from the MIBG we did this month as a follow up to the CT in June.  Based on all of the results, they feel that what they have been seeing on his liver are benign tumors.  They say they sometimes see these on children who have undergone radiation therapy to their abdomen.  At this point these tumors require no treatment and the doctors did not indicate any possibility they would become malignant.  They did say that sometimes these tumors can grow large enough to require resection.  So for now, we will be watching the tumors by moving our scans back up from every six months to every three months.  This is one of those situations where a couple years after his cancer treatment we are starting to see its late side effects.  Unfortunately, the doctors expect we will likely see other late side effects as well.

Still waiting to hear about his rescheduled kidney procedure...

Beachin' It 2016

Last year we took the first of what we decided would be an annual beach weekend.  The beach was actually what started our interest in getting a camper.  We were really wanting to go to the beach, but couldn't flake on medical bills to pay the astronomical price of staying at the beach, so enter our little camper.  Among our camper's many uses, it allows us an affordable way to treat Clayton to a beach weekend.  That kid LOVES the water.  Unfortunately when we went last year, the surf was too rough for him to play much on the gulf side, but this year was a different story.  Lucky for Clayton because the loves not just the water, but the surf.  Anyhow, here are some pics from our stay at our little spot in Perdido.

The view out our camper door.

I love this look I see on Clayton's face from time to time.

Spying the waves...

Getting ready...

And go!

And when Dad tries to get me out of the water...go limp.

And of course our girl waited for us to return after each visit to the beach.

While we enjoyed this place the last couple of years, I think next year we will move to a campground a couple hours further east.