Longest Winter EVER!!!

Life seemed to be going on in it's usual fashion--very low stress for the most part--until just after Thanksgiving of last year. Then it all hit the fan. Our two year old decided that sleeping was for the birds. I never imagined my little Owen could dig his heels in like this. He would be so sweet all day but as soon as it was time for bed he became a child straight off of 'Super Nanny'. It came out of no where so we really weren't prepared on how to handle it (but rest assured we handled it all wrong and made the situation worse). Even if we finally got him to fall asleep (usually sometime around midnight) he would wake up in the night and appear at my bedside...just staring at me. He never had any requests. He would just stare in defiance. This problem went on in some degree for a couple months. Mom and Dad were exhausted and I'm sure Owen was, too.

Around this same time... I'm watching my sweet little Weston's skin get worse and worse. Eczema covered his whole body. His cheeks and head were so bad that they would ooze a clear fluid and scab over. I spent a lot of time worrying about my little guy and trying to figure out how I could help him. Around 4 months of age we decided to start him on a prescription steroid cream and hopefully give him some relief--I really wish I hadn't done this. Yes, it worked. Within two to three days of use his skin would look radiant. But you can't use these creams for more than 7 days at a time because they do have dangerous side effects one of which is a thinning of the skin. So we would take a break and the eczema would come back with a vengeance, each time seeming worse and worse. I soon found out that another side effect of these topical steroids is asthma. My sweet little baby developed what sounded like a fake cough. But I thought to myself, "Why would a baby fake a cough? He must have some lung irritation but I KNOW he's not sick". Then at 6 months of age he gets his first immunization, DTaP. Soon after, Weston got these little lumps on the back of his neck at the base of his skull, and all his lymph nodes were swollen. Now I'm in panic mode. I really start to feel like it's all too much for my little baby's body. He wasn't even 7 months old and had so much stuff he was dealing with.


Around this same time...I'm also feeling like my two year old is dying. Owen had diarrhea and threw up everyday for 2 1/2 weeks!!! By this time his sleeping issues had resolved and we were all ready to catch up on months of lost sleep...but instead we spent what seems like a month comforting a VERY sick boy after his vomit/dia episodes during the night. As you can imagine, this created a lot a REALLY NASTY LAUNDRY (not cool when you don't have a washer and dryer). I was praying I could avoid getting this awful bug, but that was not my luck. Fortunately mine only lasted about 3 days. (Prior to this, Owen had been sick with all the other bugs that go around. Poor kid became a stranger in Nursery.)


I had to ask myself, "What is going on? Why is everyone SO DAMN SICK?" Even Scott, who hasn't been ill for one day since we got married spent most of the winter sick. I spent time reflecting on our life style. Aren't we healthy people? Don't I cook healthy meals? Maybe this was just an off year for us--but then I remembered that last winter Owen & I had VERY poor health. We caught everything! I was on antibiotics 5 times last winter. Hmmm, maybe eating "healthy" is more than a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, and a vegetable with your dinner? Why do I spend all day feeling tired but then can't sleep at night? Questions, questions. I started doing a lot of reading, and prayed my heart out for the Lord's direction. I wanted to address our health issues--particularly those of my children--but without the use of drugs. My "intuition" (call it what you will) told me that our diets needed to change. I started with dairy. We were eating WAY TOO MUCH of it (we ate yogurt, cheese, milk, butter and ice cream like it was going out of style). I decided to cut it out completely--just as an experiment--to see what would happen. After 7 days, Weston's nasal congestion vanished (before, he couldn't sleep without snoring, yet he wasn't sick). I started SLEEPING at night...wonderful, peaceful sleep. I had energy even after a rough night with the kids. Owen had these funky rough bumps on his upper back and a bum rash that disappeared. It helped with Owen's and Weston's eczema...but not much. Over all, it was a huge success. I took Weston to a homeopath to see what else I could do for his skin. He gave us some drops for Weston to ingest and a natural ointment for his infected skin. This seemed to help, too. I started cleaning up the grocery list. If I was going to buy processed, packaged food, the ingredient list had to be very short and legible...no bazaar additives, no HFCS, no MSG...NO JUNK! I bought a lot more fruits and vegetables, and organic whenever possible (can I just say that for the most part I've been blown away by the full, fresh flavor of the organic produce I've been buying. So tasty!!) Around this time I watched a movie called Food Inc...YIKES! All I could think about was that I have been SO DUMB for SO LONG! For example, for years now I have avoided putting ANYTHING in the microwave at ALL COSTS (I have a "thing" with this common home appliance). I wouldn't thaw out meat in the microwave or reheat leftovers because I don't want to irradiate my food--call me crazy. Come to find out, almost all the food I've been buying at the regular grocery store has already been irradiated...ESPECIALLY the meat because they come from such sick, poorly treated, diseased animals that if they didn't, it would be the death of us all. I'm done being the clueless consumer who just buys whatever is on sale; who doesn't question what the bazaar ingredient on the back of my food label is, and WHY it's in there in the first place. I'm done with ignorance and believing that these HUGE food companies have my health in mind. They only have ONE thing in mind...profits.


I started shopping at places like Good Earth, Whole Foods and Sunflower Market. I started educating myself on the origins and processes that our food goes through. Even when I was under the impression that I was buying a quality product I would call the company or go to their website to make sure; sometimes I was delighted...sometimes disappointed. I still have so much to learn (you can only do so much research with 2 little boys running around). But I have come across some incredible companies making some fantastic products. I try to buy whole foods, minimally processed. We eat a lot more fruits and vegetables. We're mixing up the grains. We still eat dairy but we're putting in to practice that word "moderation"--and the dairy we do eat is organic and comes from much healthier animals. I buy raw seeds and nuts--against Scott's will (he much prefers the roasted/heavily salted variety...love you Scott;). We haven't been eating meat like we used to, but if I do buy it, it's organic and preferably pasture raised. It sounds expensive, I know. But I'm actually spending pretty close to what I used to (cutting down on meat and processed foods helps). All I can say is IT'S WORTH EVERY PENNY!!! The payoff has been HUGE!. I feel amazing! My energy level hasn't been this good in a LOOOOOOOOOONG time. Again, I actually sleep at night (hallelujah and praise the Lord...seriously)! I used to get these awful, mysterious stomach aches that seem to have vanished. Chronic aches and pains have almost completely gone away. And surprisingly, some pretty stubborn pounds fell off. Weight loss was NOT my motive for once! If it had been, I would have failed--trust me. This was about protecting my family; about taking control of your health and not leaving it to a giant corporation that will do anything in it's power to increase profits (disturbing). We don't adhere strictly to this new way of eating, but I would say this is how we eat 80% of the time. There are too many variables--some of which are out of our control--to be perfect. Plus perfection can be too rigid and very wearying. In the words of Tony Horton, "Do your best and forget the rest." (Does Tony remind anyone else of Michael Scott from The Office? I'm pretty sure that Steve Carell does P90X just for the material).


Do my kids still have skin issues? Yes. But we've come so far, especially Weston. His skin is night and day. I have felt the Lord's hand in this journey. I'm actually able to look back on the longest, most miserable winter of my life with gratitude because it was probably the only thing that would have prompted all this change. I'm sure that sickness will still come knocking, but I know that we're in a better place.