Merry Christmas 2019

Merry Christmas! 

2019 has been a wild ride! Year 2 on the Mountain and held so many milestones!

In April we went to Disneyland – the kids had been waiting (Biggest Wilding specifically asking to go for EVERY Christmas since he was 4). So we were finally able to make the dream come true! The kids had so much fun and they were the absolute perfect ages to be old enough to do (almost) everything, still be in complete awe of real life princesses and pirates, and walk around all day for 4 days straight without (too much) complaining and handle the 3 day drive there and back.

Littlest Turned 5 while we were in Disneyland and got a very special breakfast with all her new best friends which has been the (Most expensive) highlight of her life!

With turning 5, littlest also started Kindergarten this year, and is loving life; school, dance, and her friends are her whole life! She is especially looking forward to getting to dance in the nearby city’s Santa Clause Parade with her dance class this Christmas.

Middlest also loves school after a rough transition in September from going from a K/1 last year to a class where the expectations are much higher in grade 2, However, he has  lovely teacher who is exactly what he needs to keep him on task and moving forward.  He is especially proud of losing his baby teeth, LOVES anything pirate related and is working hard on learning to read. This summer he amazed us all by learning to ride his bike in one day – which he had until then been completely uninterested in.  In the last few months we have definitely noticed him being more interested in trying new things – from new foods to new activities – even trying rock climbing this fall! 

Biggest, as always, is my lover of Adventure. Living here has been so amazing for him; new places to explore, snakes to catch, outdoors every day. He loves the Okanagan life. He especially loved getting to explore BC more this year as we took a couple road trips up to the Cariboo and to the Kootneys. He also LOVES fishing and being able to be part of the Salmon life-cycle as the school hatches and releases the fry in the spring and then this year we were lucky enough to see the salmon spawning both in Nelson and later right here in the river 5 minutes from our house! . He is also excited to be starting Basketball this month.

 

Our Big Project on the Homestead this year was the addition of chickens, watching them grow has been fun for the kids and adults alike! A Major project was was to build them a winter ready coop as we discovered right as cold weather hit that the existing coop on the property was not sufficient. So thankful to our family and friends who came from near and far to help us construct their new home before the snow hit- and the chickens have been so grateful they started laying eggs in November! Littlest really enjoyed the chickens when they were small, reading to them and keeping them company when her brothers were at school – where as now that they are bigger – biggest has really embraced helping care for them and collect eggs daily.

2020 – The year only ever talking about in sci-fi movies is here. And I still don’t have a robot to make dinner for me…Ironically this has been the year that we have more and more are learning how to be happy with what we have and sustain as many of our own needs ourselves. Although I DO highly recommend getting a robot vaccuum if you have kids or animals or live on a farm! This year Paul is planning on continuing to work for Ellis Creek, as well he has hopes to get more into his own business of making furniture and woodwork projects. For me its a year of transition – I joke that its my GAP year…. I have been full time mom and its defined my life most of our marriage, and while its still a full time position, with all the kids in school we are taking this year “off” to figure out what makes the most sense both for my health (which has struggled this year), what the kids needs are, what more we want to do on the farm as well as financially. The ideas are endless on a homestead, but its making them work with finances, and children’s schedules that we will be working on balancing!

I pray this Christmas is a time of rest and peace,
– from all of us!

Little Girls.

A year and a half ago we moved. I knew it would be hardest on littlest. She had a large friend group, and a few stand out best friends at only 3 years old and thrived in her suburban environment. But there would be kids right? We’d find another preschool right? Maybe a dance class?

My heart was as broken as hers was when a year after moving she still had no one friend that she would bring up in conversation save her “old house friends”, she did meet some great kids at a new preschool but they are all boys save one girl who is a fair bit younger than her developmentally. There are quite a few girls a year above her her as well, sweet great kids, but being in all day kinder and not knowing them much before they showed little interest in bringing her in. We had made some girlfriends in the bigger town when we first moved here, but they all went to preschool on the opposite days. She does just fine playing with the boys and we encourage her to be friends with them, I’m not writing this to complain but to highlight just how hard it was to see my social butterfly so lonely, asking almost daily to see her best friends at the coast.

I cried along with her and regular asked and accused God, why? Why when this move had been sooo good for the boys did it have to be so devastating for her. I prayed regularly that there would be at least one girl she could connect with in kindergarten. In the spring we met a new family to town with a daughter her age, I was hopeful. I knew of one kid in the school already whose sister would go into kindergarten as well. I figured at least 3 girls are better then 1 and began to pray that she would find a friend in at least one of them.

Littlest started kindergarten this past week. And I’m amazed at how many little girls there are! It really has to be an answer to prayer how her class is an even split.. 7 girls. Most are new to the area or families switched schools. Littlest is beside herself with glee. One little girl wore a big party dress on the first day and all week littlest has been telling me about how that girl is her new friend. A kindred spirit, a girly girl in her world of boys.

Not only that but for the first time since we moved here an afternoon dance class is being offered in our little town and 3 of the girls from her kindergarten class are in it. I haven’t seen littlest this happy in 2 years. The wait has been hard but the delight she demonstrates now relieves so many doubts and second guessing. God is good even when it takes longer than we want.

Merry Christmas 2017

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

This year has been a great one! Of course just when things begin to feel comfortable something happens to change everything! And for us this year that is a big move! At the very end of the year we put an offer on a 2 acre property in the Okanagan and are moving in Feb! This holiday season has been a blur of activity and emotion – with the kids both being in school it means many many school and Christmas activities this time of year, adding in staging and selling a house while working out financing and details for the new house.

In 2017 The kids had many new experiences;
Raine – Raine has been a lot of fun this year as she finally remembers things well enough to be excited for things like birthday and trips to the lake house. Her friends are her entire world, and she especially enjoyed her “Pony party” (and has been busy planning her next birthday ever since) and starting Pre-school. She has thrived at preschool, she loves the learning aspect, spending time with her friends as she is lucky enough that her two best friends are in her class with her, and of course if you ask her; snack is the best part of preschool.

Darcy – Darcy is in Grade 1 this year, the fall has been a hard transition from kindergarten to having to put “work” into learning as they are beginning to do more reading and writing and more complicated math then he had been used to. However, he still enjoys school and having the same teacher has been a help in making that transition.
This year he has really Enjoyed fishing, and has decided that he would like to be a marine biologist and study sharks.
He also played soccer for the first time this fall and really enjoyed it.

Overall it was a fantastic year, with more ups than downs and that makes it extra hard to leave. We will miss our community  and friends dearly as each one of us has made dear friends and had wonderful experiences here; yet look to the future to new adventures and being closer to family and give the kids a chance to spend more time in nature on a daily basis.

Love,

Katie, Paul, Raine and Darcy

Managing Hypothyroidism

I wrote part one of this post ages ago here. And then life got busy, and kids are kids, and I was still learning and trying different things, so I didn’t feel ready to write this part yet. But now here it is. This is the practical stuff, the things that are are the difference between me being bedridden and being able to get things done and take care of my kids and pursue other interests.

Natural Desiccated Thyroid:
The website Stop The Thyroid Madness taught me so much about my condition and functioning. Through full thyroid panels we figured out that a large part of the reason I was getting sicker and sicker was because despite having enough T4 (which is what Synthroid contains) my thyroid was unable to convert it into adequate T3 – which is what your cells actually use. Once I got a prescription for NDT (Thyroid by Erfa in Canada) and got past the adjustment period I felt like a new person, I was able to make it through the day, my nerve pain was gone, many other symptoms vanished or greatly diminished! And the weight! It was incredible how fast all that baby weight that refused to fall off no matter how I ate or how much I pushed my body fell off. In a month of being on NDT I was below my pre-pregnancy weight without even trying!

Supplements:
After doing very well on NDT for some time, some symptoms started to become more predominant or had never really gone away. Because my thyroid levels were good, (or at least good enough that the Dr.was worried that increasing my prescription would tip me to hyper); I started looking into other things. I was taking probably at least 8 different supplements a day and not feeling much better for it. After switching to a high quality whole food supplements I was able to cut down on the amount of supplements I was taking with great results! I no longer needed a nap, my hair that had been falling out finally  started to grow back and not fall out by the handful every shower.

Adrenal Fatigue:
The first 2 years of having my children was surrounded with a lot of stress, financial, legal, learning how to parent my oldest in a way that best met his needs, not to mention I don’t think I had ever really recovered after pregnancy and childbirth left me with adrenal fatigue. I have had to cut way back, I limit even walking as too many steps a day seems to set me back a day or two of difficulty functioning, I unscheduled our lives to reduce as much stress as possible, and I take products containing adaptogens to boost my cortisol.

Diet:
I did an experiment one summer and went completely gluten and dairy free and the results were great, I had more energy, less brain fog, was less moody! I am a strong believer now that inflammation is definitely an enemy of a thyroid disease sufferer. I will admit that at this point in life financially and time and energy wise, I am not completely gluten and dairy free, but I am probably 90% gluten free and 100% lactose free and function far better when intentional about keeping these things out of my diet.

Essential Oils:
I am so blessed to have been introduced to essential oils when I was. Between using them to reduce the toxic/chemical load I and my family are exposed to (which I do believe also had a large impact on my not being able to function well), they have worked wonders for my personal mood and well being. One of the things that I have struggled with that as never quite gone away was depression and anxiety, both hypothyroid symptoms, both I have tried to address with diet and supplements, with varying degrees of success. But oils for grounding and mood and that support adrenal functioning have been vital to my healing and well being. Frankincense, Arborvitae, Rosemary, Peppermint and Wild Orange and the Grounding blend and Encouraging blend and the Cellular Repair blend have been my “life support” especially during this extraordinarily long winter, that emotionally ground me and pick me up to be able to handle the day with enough energy and patience to deal with the stressors that come with it.

All in all, I am greatful for all these tools that help me manage my symptoms. I would be lying if I said it was all great and I never suffer, in fact, I have been made acutely aware these past two years what chronic means. It will never go away, I will never be healed and have the life that I had before back;  but I am grateful for the knowledge out there that helps me manage and gives me hope that even in spite of my illness I CAN accomplish things in my life, I may never be as as active as I once was, but I CAN be the mother I want to be, I may never be able to handle high stress work environments, but I CAN be used by God to bless others – even in the midst of having to take care of myself very intentionally every day. If you are interested in what brands I use please contact me with your email address, I am happy to share with those who want more details. 

 

Christmas 2016

Dear Friends and Family,

This year has been one full of growing and learning, at times terrific and at times challenging. So I best begin with the updates.

Raine: Raine is smack dab in the middle of terrible twos, I know what you are all thinking… Raine, the sweet quiet one? terrible? You have it easy…  yeah that one. She has discovered that she can do things to get her way. And that she has the ability to not only “fight back” but to instigate the toddler fights with her brother and friend group. We are definitely seeing her stubborn streak showing up full force (which I am told I am to blame according to my mother)  She loves church and playgroup, anytime she can be around other kids  is exciting. She LOVES to dance and we are hoping to find somewhere that she can try it out in a group setting in the new year.

Darcy: The year started with assessments and challenges, but with the information we have now to help us be the parents he needs and knowing what resources to look for he is really coming into his own. We are so proud of the growth he has shown in the past year. He is very excited that he learned to ride his bike this summer without training wheels, and now wants to ride it everywhere and anywhere! Kindergarten started this fall, it started out a bit rocky but with a great resource team he is doing much better and LOVING school. He is very social and making friends with all the older boys, and tells us he has married one of the girls in his class who lives near us. In October we became permanent parental guardians… in his words “Mom, now I’m a son!”

Paul is still at the same cabinet installation job, and enjoys his work, which has been very busy this year, making us at home miss seeing him as much. His next adventure is to “reclaim” the basement that has been rented out up until now but is much needed space as our kids are getting older.

I am involved in various activities, running the church playgroup and volunteering in the nursery, I am still involved with the cloth diaper lending library – although have pulled back since the summer to take care of my own health and other ventures. This spring I signed up as a Wellness Advocate with dōTERRA essential oils, I love how these precious gifts, straight from God’s creation, have potential to empower not only myself but my family, and those around me to live life fully with more choice and healthier options for physical and emotional well being. And of course ever busy with the kids especially as Darcy has been adjusting to school these last few months.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas and time with friends and family!

– Katie, Paul, D and R.

Together We Make a Family

God sets the lonely in families. – Psalm 68:5a 

My every prayer for the last two years have been leading up to this day. My every fear was that this day would never come. Or that it would come, but it would be the wrong timing, or things handled the wrong way, or it would get put off again and again. But today the judge called it heartwarming, and approved the plan that makes us a family. The family that the Ultimate Judge in heaven has created us to be since we first heard of this little person, long before we knew he would ever come to live with us.

There have been struggles along the way, and I sure this is not the end of struggle as to struggle is to grow and live, but it is end of an season, of a chapter, in the story that I am glad to move forward from and on to the next; but for now, I will praise God for his goodness and impeccable timing, and celebrate that this child is home to stay.

Boo is turning Two!

Dear Daughter,

It feels like yesterday we were bringing you home in your infant carrier, propped up with blankets because you seemed so small in the seat, that you had your first smiles, foods, laughs…as we have have transitioned through first steps and first words, at some point you have also crossed the line between baby and toddler.

There is no doubt you are a toddler now. You have definite preferences; You LOVE Owls and call them Hoo’s, Dora and Boots, Daniel Tiger and Baby Jake, and reading your “Bibow” Bible. You love to colour and I am always impressed at how you no longer randomly scribble but you choose what to colour, although sometimes that is still the walls. You love to be outside, whether it be walks, going to the part or building and playing in the backyard.  but you also are developing distinct dislikes as well,  you do NOT like to be woken up, or to wear certain shoes, or going to bed – well maybe that one isn’t new or surprising – but now you have the words to make sure we know just how much you dislike it.  “No” is a very prevalent word in your dictionary these days. You might still look more like Daddy, but you are definitely mommy’s girl when it comes to personality, you know what you want and how to to get it every time.

You are so social! Everything I have heard about your father and myself as small children, I wasn’t expecting you to be our little social butterfly! You may not have hundreds of words but you have many friends, but you are always wanting to be around others. You know exactly where your friends live and never want to go past without waving or saying hi, you love to share and to make others happy, to smile at babies, and to give hugs to everyone you meet. I hope that this side of you never dulls and you are always as caring and friendly as you grow up.

I love this stage that we are entering, of constant curiosity and learning. You seem to just absorb knowledge these days! You know several words in Spanish (Leche, Cuna, Agua, Gato, Perro, beso, cabeza, pelo, ojo, mano, nariz, boca to name a few) , you can pick out several letters on a page (the important ones….O for owl, R for Raine, A, and I) and most of your body parts. You identify most of the animals by the sound they make. You have surprised us by learning how to get your clothes off, and your favorite day of the week is the day you go to My Gym, where you have really found a new confidence in both your physical abilities and in helping you to really “come out of your shell” and develop your personality.  Of course we were not expecting that would mean you would use the whole house as a gym!

My birthday wish and prayer for you is that you would know how loved you are, that you would never stop learning and growing, that your love for the Bible and Church would become the foundation for a love for God. That this coming year would full of even more exploring and joy.  Mommy and Daddy (Papa as you call him these days) love you so much.

 

Mister D turns 5

The day this kid has been waiting for…. Since he was three he has been talking about it…the ultimate age for a preschooler to hit….signifying the start of a new era….

F-I-V-E! Thats right… 5. the Big one, the one that signifies that hes not little boy any more, but a big kid, who is going to “big kid school” this coming September.

This year was a hard one for us all, but it has been extraordinary to see the changes it has brought. There were times that I honestly was at my wits end with what to do to calm the storm and if we were strong enough to be the parents he needs. With help from some professionals, and lots of studying and connecting to others, we have come to accept that he may likely always have some extra struggles, but he is so much more then his struggles or labels and he is proving it every day, we are so thankful to those who have given us encouragement and tools, and continue to do so, to help support him as he grows.

. He has learned to let us help him through the hard things, that food isn’t all that bad (and he’s grown to prove it!), to count to 10 (most of the time), to write his name, and  That it’s ok do things on his own, and its ok to be need parents sometimes too.

The kids had a blast decorating his cake!

 

This year has been full of dinosaurs, playing outside – the muddier the better, lego, drawing, playing with Little (sis), summer at the lake (s), finding snakes, and all those other sorts of little boy things (that hopefully will stick around for this BIG KID).

These kids love each other so much! 

So to finish up, Mister D, We love you to the moon and back, and to the lakehouse and back and even Mexico and back! I can’t believe your 5!

1 Timothy 6:20

I have often found that the letters to Timothy have a way of feeling like they are written right to me. This passage is no exception. 

My New years goals this year are to do less…to de clutter.  Not only my space but my mind…to compare less and to focus on what’s important for me and my family…even if it means letting go of my own ideals of what I want family life to be…even if it means saying no to things…even if other people don’t get it.

http://bible.com/111/1ti.6.20.NIV

Home For Christmas 2015

‘Twas the day before Christmas and all through the house we were celebrating Christmas in the calm before the storm. We decided early in the morning (when we happened to wake up a couple hours before the kids) that it might just make things go smoother and less overwhelming for the kids to have Christmas  a day early in order to space it out from seeing the relatives and travel. It was definitely far more relaxed then Christmas other years or even this whole week leading up to Christmas to spend the morning with just the 4 of us, and to have a less overwhelming pile of presents to choose from!

Of course there were still plenty of presents, and Santa came through with full stockings and the Dinosaur SuperD asked him for last week!

Baby R had to try out all her presents as she opened them

Mom and Dad guessed right when picking out presents this year and R was enthralled with her new doll stuff!

And How CUTE is this! Our neighbor and dear friend MADE this doll carrier that we gave R!!! Its perfect and now she can carry her babies, just like mommy!

D got some pretty great things too! A LeapPad and a REAL (kids) Camera were among his faves, and of course he never tires of new books!

 Then it was time to clean up…and R was delighted to help with her new brooms (one from each grandma!)

All finished off with a yummy breakfast! All in all it was fantastic to be able to take breaks as the kids needed, avoiding sensory overload meltdowns and having less new stuff all at once made this Christmas “day” a lot less crazy then I had anticipated, we have already played with toys and calming down back into routine…We are still looking forward to having a big Christmas with all the relatives later this week, but I think we may be onto something having a small family Christmas and then visiting with the rest of the relatives on another day! A Very Merry Christmas to all of our Friends and Family!