BG Lights Up

Lots of lights, a carriage ride, and an evening with friends...

such a fun kick-off to the holiday season.

Silas' First Haircut

While we were in Jackson celebrating Thanksgiving, Silas got his first haircut! To some it may seem like Silas barely has any hair, but rest assured, he did have a few wacky pieces of long hair on his head. Aunt Amy (Bryan's sister) made our little guy look so handsome.

Silas was a little unsure at first,

 

but after playing with a comb

 

 and some sweet words from Aunt Amy,

 

the haircut was finished.

Thank you, Aunt Amy!

Thanksgiving 2012

Our Thanksgiving was packed full of fun times, tasty Paleo friendly food, 

and lots of time with family. Here's a glimpse at all of our fun...

 

 

 

 

  

 

We are so thankful!!!

Turkey Day 5K

Thanksgiving morning Bryan, Matt (Bryan's brother), and I ran in the Turkey Day 5K in Jackson, TN. This was my second attempt at a 5K race. The other one was 5 years ago. I have to say I did much better this time around. (I look a whole lot different too. Just check out the picture in that post.) Being in a race atmosphere definitely helped my time since it was about 5 minutes faster than any 5K running I've done around the neighborhood. I was even able to maintain an 11:17/mile pace and finished in just under 35 minutes.

  

Bryan and Matt were speedy quick and finished with great times. Bryan finished in 21:58 with a 7:05/mile pace. After Bryan finished his run he came back and ran with me until I was close to the finish line. (He's sweet like that.) 

It was a fun morning!

Statuses Never Posted

Another round of statuses never posted...
 

• I wouldn’t have guessed that one of the best gluten-free places in town would be Mellow Mushroom.
• A weekend without the kids feels so strange. Nice, but strange.
• I just ran two miles in my new Icebreaker. It was worth every penny because I wasn’t cold at all.
• Gluten-free lipstick. Check. Gluten-free foundation/powder. Check. Well on my way to an entire gluten-free makeup bag.
• Just hit submit on the biggest assignment of the semester!!!
• I’m loving the Iron and Wine Pandora station.
• A box full of vitamins arrived today!
• Learning how to meditate is not as easy as it seems.
• Just got a poultry catalog in the mail. Oh, the things I get excited about these days!

Preschool at Home: Week 6

Last week we learned about the letter "F", the number 6, read fish related Bible stories, and learned a poem about fireflies. Here's a link to my Week 6 Pinterest board in case you are interested.

 

We read this poem each day and made a firefly craft.

 We played an alphabet football game. I would cover a letter. Seth would pick up the ball, guess the letter, and if it was right I would throw my arms up and yell "touchdown." Silas even joined in on this game. He loved throwing his arms up when I yelled "touchdown."

 

We read about Jesus and the miraculous catch for most of the week.

We also played with fish stickers, and

  

made a fish out of an old cd, construction paper, and cut up scrap booking stickers.

 We made a net full of fish using a paper plate, some construction paper fish, 

some plastic wrap, and a Sharpie marker.

 We went fishing using foam fish (with magnets on the back), an Altoids tin, and a magnet. The "fishing" magnet we were using was super strong so it kept getting stuck to the side of the tin. The concept was good, but next time we'll know to not use such a strong magnet.

 We covered a letter F with feathers and

 we practiced counting footballs after we went on a football hunt in the yard.  

I hid foam footballs (from Mighty dollar) in the yard and Seth would find them. As you can see he was a huge fan!

This week, during our preschool learning time, we are just focusing on Thanksgiving!

Operation Christmas Child 2012

 Packing,...

  

stacking,...

  

and sending our boxes off.

 It's hard to believe that we have been packing and sending shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child for 5 years! It's become quite the tradition for us and we absolutely love it!

Backyard Bounty: Broccoli

This is the first of hopefully many backyard bounty posts. With the fall garden thriving and the hope of lots of homegrown foods next year, I thought it was time to showcase what we have growing.
First up...broccoli.

After an unsuccessful attempt two years ago, I wasn't giving up on growing one of my favorite cruciferous vegetables.

As it turns out, I just didn't know enough about gardening back then. Broccoli loves cool weather and grows a lot better in the fall and early spring.
We are eating more than we are cutting right now, but if we can get ahead then I would like to add some to the freezer. If not, we'll just eat it fresh from the garden. 

A More Holistic Approach

I was pretty disappointed after my last MS check-up. All of the disappointment and uncertainty that I felt immediately changed to encouragement and hope after my visit to a more holistic doctor yesterday.
Instead of potential long waits, hustling and bustling you in to get vitals, and a hurried discussion with a physician, this visit was so calm. There was soft music playing, hot tea in the waiting area, and stacks and stacks of different reading materials.
It's hard to put into words how completely different a more holistic approach to healing is.
I chose to go to Nashville Integrated Medicine because I knew that they focused a considerable amount of attention on what is called the Five Pillars. They are as follows:

• Nutrition/Diet
• Movement/Exercise
• Sleep
• Emotional Stress
• Meaning/Connectedness/Purpose

Turns out going grain-free/gluten free almost 7 months ago was actually very good. That would have been the first area that we would have addressed in a holistic approach. Dr. Forbes suggests eliminating wheat, corn, sugar, and dairy from the diets of almost all of his patients.  It was nice to have some confirmation that what we are doing has some very good potential benefits. We've already seen some of those too.
We wanted to know what else we could try without just simply relying on medicine. After going through the five areas of a holistic approach we left with several things we are going to try which include taking lots of specific vitamins, eating lots of cruciferous vegetables, eliminating all dairy, continuing with the running and possibly adding in some yoga or other exercise, and learning how to meditate.
Dr. Forbes seems just as excited as we are to see how these changes will affect my next MRI. Its really the only way we can see how things are progressing, especially if I am not having apparent flair-ups.
As always, I'll be sure to update on things along the way.

Preschool at Home: Week 5

Last week we focused on the letter "E," the number 5, the story of Abraham, and the poem "An Elephant Walks Like This and That." 

There were a few things we didn't get to on my Week 5 Pinterest board, but here's a look at what we did do.

 

We decorated a letter e with eyeballs.

We read My "e" Book.

Seth worked on this alphabet puzzle throughout the week.

We worked on some pre-writing skills. 

I printed out these writing cards and we tried several of them on a piece of paper.

We practiced tracing our letter E.

 

We worked on scooping pom poms with a measuring spoon. 

We focused on counting out 5 pom poms over and over.

Seth scooped and scooped for probably fifteen minutes.

  
We counted eyeballs in an egg carton.

We read about Abraham and Sarah from our children's Bibles, but didn't manage to fit in any crafts.

Our focus verse was "Every good and perfect gift is from above." James 1:17. We did sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star every day because we read about Abraham's descendants being as numerous as the stars.

We also learned the poem "An Elephant Walks Like This and That." 

We colored an elephant, made up motions for our poem, and repeated it every day.

This week we are moving on to the letter F, the number 6, fish related Bible stories (we might read several and do different crafts), and learning the poem "Firefly."

Adding Venison to the Freezer

1 cooler full of deer meat + 3 hours of slicing and dicing

 +1 grinder

=lots of healthy meat. 

Thanks to one of my dad's friends, we're well on our way to a freezer packed full of meat!