Life Lately

I'm so glad it's almost the weekend! So very glad. 

Today I'm taking a break from Friday Favorites to do a little Life Lately post. It's been quite a while since we've posted a Vlog or blog post about how life is going. We are still in recovery mode for Zachary after his double hip surgery, but we're down to counting the days until we are hopefully done with his annoying brace between his legs. Let me repeat - we are in a single digits countdown and I don't know who would be more excited, Zachary or Peter and I. Well, Zachary doesn't really understand any of this so I guess we're more excited. This has been a LONG SIX WEEKS to say the least. 

I'm grateful for so much during these six weeks but we are definitely ready to move past all of this. For example, it is currently 8:53am on Friday morning and I have re-applied his brace approximately 10 times. He can now take the brace all the way off and just threw it across the room. Yep. This is my life.

Next Friday we will have Zachary's post-op appointment at the hospital. They will do X-rays to see how everything has healed and hopefully we will get the word to be all done with the brace and to start the process of learning to use those teeny legs again! I have no clue what that will be like for him or us but we're ready.

I guess I can't really share a Life Lately update without talking about the 2 new additions to our family. Two female snakes now reside in our home and that now makes 3 ball pythons. Exciting, right? Doesn't that make you want to come visit?!

I'm trying to be the supportive mama as Travis wants to work with reptiles for a living. I hate to admit it but I've almost felt a glimmer of compassion for these slithery things. What is happening to me?

Last weekend I had a date with a special guy. I think there's a longer blog post coming about all of this and the heart behind it, but Daniel and I had a super fun yet simple afternoon out. Just Mommy and Danny. He's the sweetest kid you may ever meet.

We have a brand new coffee shop just blocks away and it is quite tremendous. This picture right here is proof we have a nurse that is helping us a little bit now. I can sneak away and get some work done and sip on the prettiest of lattes. To be honest I was to the point of desperately needing a break and this did the trick. Hooray for home health nurses!

Have a great weekend, my friends. Hopefully next week you'll see an update from the hospital that we are leg brace free!

-Jessica

Life Lately + an EEG Update

We're 3 days into March and I spent some time this morning looking back on February. February opened it's door with GOOD NEWS! I received a call early on February 1 that Zachary's EEG results were looking NORMAL!

While he most likely experienced a seizure in mid January, everything looked great from his morning of testing. We just continue to watch for another episode but it could hopefully be a long time before we see anything worrying again.

As I was organizing medical supplies in Zachary's room a few weeks ago I came across Zachary's very first pair of glasses. He received these after his eye surgeries and after his eyes had healed for a couple weeks so I think he got these first pair of tiny glasses when he was around 10 or 11 weeks old. Small enough to fit in the palm of my hand and still covered in baby formula stains, these tiny metal-framed glasses are a treasure. They remind me of a time so early on when we knew nothing of Lowe Syndrome or what our little boy would face.

I renewed some health and fitness goals in February. While my workouts had been consistent, my nutrition needed an overhaul once again and I needed to push a little harder to break through a plateau and regain my weight loss progress. 

It has been so much fun working through the Insanity workouts. They're oh-so-tough and I feel my lungs burning for the entire 40 minutes. But I can feel my endurance growing and my backside re-shaping if I do say so myself. Pressing hard into cardio is not what I call fun, but it's strangely become something I wake up looking forward to each day. 

I may have lost my mind! :)

Our brand new Starbucks is OPEN! With our gift cards in hand, I was excited to go for coffee on the morning the coffee shop opened.

Peter and I were one of the first in the store that morning and may have been seen sitting in each of the comfy chairs one at a time so our bums were the first in the chairs. Yep. That's us.

"My" new Starbucks is close to home, on the way to therapy, and a super place to take my girl for her to work on her school work.

Besides Starbucks, I have a favorite new homemade drink - Raspberry Good Girl Moonshine! I wrote about it earlier this week so get the recipe and try it yourself!

We just need a more "manly" name for it as Peter takes a mug full back to work with him every afternoon after lunch and the name Good Girl Moonshine just isn't very manly. Ideas?

February also brought the launch of Special Needs Life Hacks! My friend Melissa and I have been having so much fun putting out bi-weely posts and webinars to build up an online library for parents just starting out on the special needs or pediatric medical journey. 

This new project is several years in the making in both Melissa's and my hearts and it's fun to see how God brought us both together and started us on this adventure. 

Check out Preparing for Doctor Visits or Organizing Medical Supplies and share with anyone you think might be blessed by the content. I have a post coming with much more in depth pictures on the Organizing Medical Supplies topic so keep an eye out for that!

We had a birthday in our family this month! Daniel turned 9 and we pulled out all the stops. A homemade bounce house with our trampoline, hundreds of balloons, and the Lego Batman Movie were the highlights.

This kid. I am not exaggerating when I say he's always smiling and always crazy. He's such a joy to have in our family. Happy birthday Daniel!

We made a fun video of our celebrations HERE. Take a look!

There are so many more pictures on my phone from the month of February that I could talk about but I think this post has become long enough. I'm thankful for the fun, the memories, and looking back at how God has walked with us once again through another month.

You can always check out our YouTube channel to see in real time much of what I have shared here. We are having a blast getting our channel started and will be spending our 2017 making memories through the good and the bad of what may be ahead.

Will you walk with us? You can subscribe to our channel HERE.

We actually met our first milestone of 100 subscribers! Now for 1,000...!

Have a great March!

-Jessica

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Life Lately

January came and went so fast I don't know how 31 days really happened. We were met with a flurry of doctor visits and testing that left us exhausted and ready for a fresh new month! So how about a Life Lately to catch you up.

Call me a hermit but my favorite way to spend a Friday night is at the dining room table with my little family. Coffee, maybe a giant bowl of fresh popped popcorn, and my rowdy crew playing a board game. I call that the perfect evening. I feel like we've finally "arrived" - even Daniel can join in on the big people games now. Catan, Castle Panic, and Forbidden Island have been the favorites this month.

I may or may not have loudly yelled and made Peter go back around the block to the consignment store after I saw this beautifully bright red play kitchen in the window as we drove by. You see, I have been wanting to get Zachary a kitchen for the longest time. His speech therapist uses one at therapy regularly. They open and close the microwave, work on words like hot, stir, bowl, etc. He thinks it's fun, especially throwing the play dishes. I think it's the cutest play kitchen I've ever seen. And the price was extremely affordable.

Of course Zachary is truly a BOY and prefers to knock over the kitchen and crawl on top of it. Sigh...

Some days, most days, it feels like Zachary will never get this walking thing. Then there are days like this when he gets brave and lets go of his therapist and it seems like we're so close. It'll be on his terms and in his timing when those first steps eventually come. But we're doing all we can to get him ready. And we wait. And trust.

While there is a certain 5 year old in our family who seems to take up so much of my time and energy and is ever present on my social media pages, there's this big kid who's growing up faster than I would like to admit. Our favorite first born who is quite tremendous turned 17 in January. SEVENTEEN. I don't quite get it.

Travis is smart, kind, crazy, and somedays too much like his mother. He keeps us awake at night with his guitar and ukulele playing, loud video gaming, and midnight dinner making. But I wouldn't trade that for anything. He's pretty great!

As we checked on Zachary before we headed to bed one evening mid-January, Peter and I witnessed what was most likely Zachary's first seizure. That moment led to many many phone calls, a trip to the hospital for a doctor appointment, and an EEG just 2 weeks later. The EEG process is enough to make any parent want to pull their hair out followed by a week of said parents desperately needing rest and extra sleep. We are so grateful for the top notch medical facilities near us. We feel so blessed. 

And Zachary is doing great, thanks to the prayers of so many loving people and a faithful God.

Sometimes a mama needs to rest. This mama doesn't rest very well at all. I'm pretty good and keeping up with the busyness and stress that comes with the journey and trials we walk. But this month my body decided it was time to catch the cold that was going around and it knocked me down hard. I don't quite ever remember having a cold as bad as I had a week ago. I laid in our big brown recliner for days, slept, and watched lots of When Calls the Heart. Peter is quite the "Fommy" as we all like to call him (father/mommy) and kept our kids fed and the kitchen cleaned for the week. I rested more than I have in years. Definitely not the way I wanted to be forced to rest, but looking back I think it's just what I needed.

So here's to NyQuil, Kleenex, and Airborne - either one of you fabulous companies want me to be your sponsor?!

One last picture. It's fun to watch the Harry Potter stage re-start as our next round of kids get older. Kaylee has had numerous mornings lately where I can barely get her out of bed - thanks to late night Harry Potter reading sessions.

Just a few days ago this almost 9 year old dove into book #1 while Peter and I were nearby doing our workout. I heard a loud snicker and then my silly boy sounding out the word "Dum-ble-dore" as he laughed again. "That's such a funny name" he said. The magic of book reading is just starting for that little guy.

Don't forget you can always keep up with our family on our YouTube channel to follow us throughout the month.

Happy February!

-Jessica