It has been a while since I posted a family update and a lot has been happening these past couple of months.
Adam is now three weeks into his chocolate making class. It’s been a lot of fun and very educational for us both. I have thoroughly enjoyed all the chocolate tasting sessions we’ve had. We just finished a session on tasting chocolate made with beans from the different growing regions. Adam did better than I on placing the region in a blind taste test–which I totally attribute to his beer tasting palate. But I did better on the first session in determining the percentage of cocoa in the bar. I never realized chocolate can be so complex. It has been exciting learning the nuances of the flavors and I will never taste chocolate the same way again.
The kids are winding down with school. We are not starting anything new until we have had a thorough restful, fun break. Hopefully the kids will start swim lessons soon. And this summer I hope we can sit back and enjoy reading and learning about art. I have some great art books that I recently purchased and one on loan that I’m very excited to start reading with the kids. And on these hot summer days it will be refreshing to go to a cool art museum and bask in beauty. Therese and Fulton have a couple choir concerts this week and next. And Therese’s religious ed classes are over with her first communion coming up in TWO DAYS!!! I have most of curriculum purchase for next school year. It’s so exciting to get the new stuff.
Cecilia is still not communicating with words. However she is a master at communicating non-verbally without signs. So we will be starting to get some intervention with the Early Childhood Intervention program. She had her official speech evaluation this morning. She’s on par or above where she should be in everything except her verbal skills. Hopefully this summer with less school on the schedule, we can focus more on getting her some verbal tools.
The garden has been a nice side hobby. It has been wonderful to just go outside and grab some lettuce for my sandwich or a salad. We’ve been enjoying some yummy beets, beet greens, swiss chard and spinach too. Thanks to the Politos, I learned the difference between beet greens and swiss chard. Every year, I learn something new about gardening. Our compost pile is doing well too…I have a squash plant and probably a potato growing in there. Now if we can just control the ants in our yard, we’d be good.
I spoke to my sister today and she is doing well. Her bone marrow transplant was 2 weeks ago and she hit rock bottom last week with her immune system wiped out. Her stems cells have graffed and her white blood cell count is on the rise. Praise be God! She’s losing hair but she shaved most of it off before her last round of chemo. She has a great sense of humor and enjoys posting a “hat of the day” on facebook. Her light and strong heart is inspiring to me.
I’ve had my own health concerns that I’ve been working on getting answers to these last couple of months. It’s difficult sometimes to take the time to focus on myself and my health when I have 5 other people I need to look after. And before we can consider growing our family anymore, I need the peace mind, body, and soul that I can take care of these precious gifts that God has blessed us with. For over a year, I’ve had a chronic pain in my shoulder and chest. After seeing my GP a month ago and ruling out a heart condition for the second time, I had some x-rays taken of my chest. He didn’t see anything wrong with me. A friend of ours recommended I see a chiropractor that our parish priest and a couple of other people recommended. He immediately noticed an asymmetry in my back and pointed out the rib in my back which wraps around to the front part of my chest where I have been feeling this pain. Today I went in for my 3rd adjustment and took him the x-rays that I had from a month ago. And my spine is completely out of whack. He said with some more adjustments and massage therapy, he should be able to help me! I could cry…It’s refreshing to know that the pain was not all in my head and that there is something legitimately wrong with me.
At the same time I went to my GP, I went to the new NaProTechnology doctor in town, at the Vitae Clinic. My Creighton Model charts have been weird and I had some concerns about how I feel on a monthly basis. I haven’t felt myself for sometime and I have chalked it up to the changes in my life and vocation. At the same time, I want to be the mom and wife God created me to be, and I didn’t feel I was doing that. Dr. Kalamarides is an amazing doctor and a gift to our city and women’s health. He reviewed my charts and recommended I do a hormone evaluation post-peak (post-ovulation). I did and we discovered my progesterone is low all post-peak! Wow! This completely explains my two miscarriages in the past 7 years and my need for progesterone treatment during my pregnancies. What a great blessing to know that I’m not going crazy! I start treatment this month and hopefully things will get better. And if God is so great to bless us with another baby soon, then my body will be in a place to sustain the pregnancy early on.
And finally at the same time that I started seeing these physical doctors, I also knew I needed a soul doctor. So I’ve started seeing one of our associate pastors for spiritual direction. It’s been so helpful. My great desire is to live out my vocation to the fullest as a daughter of God. I fall short many times every day. I can say my prayer life has been better than it has been in years. My Lenten practices have carried over into Easter. In fact our family prayer life has continued to blossom this Easter. We have been enjoying our Garden of the Good Shepherd readings and family prayer/rosary time at night.
But because we are her catechists, Adam and I will be able to sit with her at Mass.
