Our tree

I sure love the Christmas season! I love the spending time with my loved ones. I also love the lights and the spirit around Christmas time. I know Christmas is a few weeks away, but I hope everyong has a safe and happy holiday!

When your "normal" changes

    Six months ago if you would have told me I would go from a relatively healthy person to dealing with an unknown auto immune disease, I wouldn't have believed you. But here I sit with my new "normal".

    Five months ago I was faced with the possibility of having a tick borne illness.  I felt just awful. I had flu like symptoms that just wouldn't go away. I went to my doctor and she put me on a very strong antibiotic. She thought I had Rocky Mountain spotted fever, even though I don't ever remember being bit by a tick. Well, the results for any tick borne illness came back negative. But my symptoms were all still there, with some new ones coming along.

    I started having really bad dizzy spells. Marty told me that I passed out once. I just remember going to lay down because I was dizzy, then the next thing I knew Marty was waking me up.  During this time my heart decided that it wanted to run a marathon without me. :)  So off to the Cardiologist I went. He put me on a 30 day heart monitor. During that time the monitor said my resting heart at one point was 168! Each time I would go to the Dr. my heart rate was around 100. He diagnosed me with Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia. Basically the natural pace maker of my heart doesn't work properly. So he put me on a beta blocker. It has helped my heart not beat as fast, so that's been a blessing.

    The flu like symptoms were still there. My joints hurt, I was achy all over and was running a low grade fever. So my regular physician referred me to a Rheumatologist. He was very thorough, spending an hour with me the first visit. He checked my joints and got a family history. He did x-rays and drew eight vials of blood. I went back yesterday and got the results.  I have osteoarthritis in my hands and my ANA titer and pattern came back positive. My ANA (antinuclear antibodies) titer was 1:160. Normal range is 1:80 or lower. A positive titer of 1:160 or higher are strongly associated with autoimmune diseases. My Rheumatologist said that he has seen too many times people with a positive ANA test being told that nothing is wrong with them, but then a year later have a full blown auto immune disease that could have been caught earlier. No, auto immune diseases can't be stopped from developing, but they can be managed. He said as of right now he doesn't have enough information to correctly diagnose a specific disease, but that I am in the beginning stages of something. So I go back to Rhematologist in February to see if anything has changed. So, as of right now, he said I have Early Undifferentiated Systemic Rheumatic Disease, that's a mouthful!! I am currently taking four different types of medicine/supplements on a daily basis.

    I can't complain, through it all God's been good.  Marty has been a huge blessing and the children have really stepped up and help a lot around the house. I deal with some sort of pain on a daily basis. I can't do as much as I want to do. But you know what I CAN do? I can be thankful for the years of good health I have had. I can be thankful that we are in a place where I can get the help that I need. I can be thankful that The Lord has blessed me with a wonderful family. Yes, there are days that I'm just plain grumpy, but do you know why I can smile even though I really don't feel like it? Because I remind myself that through it all God's been good!

    Marty sent me this song the other day, and it really spoke to heart. Here is a link to the song, God's Been Good. I hope it's a blessing to you.

The Arch

 

  I just had to share our view of the Arch in St. Louis.

Class pet

We were getting ready to start school the other day and Eli comes to the living room and said he saw a turtle out his window. So, being the homeschooling mom, I immediately thought, learning opportunity! So outside  I went and and picked the little guy up. The kids poked and prodded at him for a while then they volunteered to write a report about him! That's right, volunteered!! I counted it as an extra grade, they were great! So they wrote a little report on the turtle and then we let him go.

It was a neat learning time for them. 

Of course, I took pictures! 

Writing their reports

He so didn't want to come out!

There he is!

He was looking for a way out!

I think I heard him yell, "FREEDOM!!"

Travels

We have been to Louisiana and Illinois the past couple of months. We have had great meetings and The Lord keeps sending more in! We are blessed with wonderful supporting churches. We are thankful for their patience as we are still waiting on paperwork.

We had our first major miss-hap the other day. We were on our way up here to Illinois when a semi passed us and slung a rock though the back drivers side window, It sounded like a gun going off in the van. I was driving at the time and couldn't figure out what the sound was. I pulled over and saw that the window was completely gone. Elijah was sitting in the back, but praise The Lord, he wasn't sitting by the window. He was sitting in the middle of the seat. He was pretty shaken up, but not hurt. We are extremely thankful for The Lords protection and watch care over us.
 
I forgot my camera when we went to Louisiana, but I did not make the same mistake again. :)
Here are a few pictures of our time here in Illinois.  Illinois is a beautiful state!

First day of school

We started school August 25th! It has been a good but busy time for us. Between doctors visits and school, my days stay pretty busy.

We are using Landmark again this year. The kids are doing great! We have been going for four weeks now. Time sure flies when your having fun.

It's hard to believe that I have a 5th, 4th, and 3rd grader!

The Lord allowed us to move out to the unused college dorms! The extra room is a huge blessing!

The kids first day of school surprise.

Our school room door

All smiles!

3rd grader!

4th grader!

5th grader!

All of us!

Kids 4th of July shirts

Today the kids and I made their 4th of July shirts. 

Naturally, I  got the idea off of Pinterest.  Where else do creative ideas come from? ;)  Certainly not from me, I am not very creative on my own.
Anyway,  these shirts we're super simple and lots of fun to make. All you need Is some red and blue acrylic paint and a white t-shirt.

Paint their hands blue and then put them where the stars would be on our flag.  Then just paint 7 red stripes. Let it dry and you are good to go!

To do all three of the kids shirts was less than $15! And they are one of a kind.  ;-)

Busy Summer

Hello out there! It has been a busy summer for us, June especially.  But, it has been a good summer so far.

Marty was able to take a trip to Nuuk Greenland at the beginning of June. The Lord blessed his trip in so many ways! He tells about it a lot better than I can,  so go on over and check out his blog. http://freezinforareason.me/2015/06/16/nuuk-trip-2015/

Also in June, all three kids went to camp! They had a blast. Marty and I got some much needed us time as well. We missed them, but we also enjoyed our time together.

We are also going to begin traveling again soon.  We are ready to get back on the road so we can get back to Greenland!  Please pray for Marty as he makes phone calls for meetings,  and also for me,  that I will be the Help meet he needs.

             We are eager to get back home.

Prayer request...

It has been a while since I have blogged! We have busy with school and with everyday life. We start our spring break this next week, we are excited about that! Two more months of school and we will be on summer vacation. This school year has flown by! I will say, it has been nice to have a normal school year, at least as normal as it can be.   :) 

We went on a field trip to an aquarium.

On a ministry note, it looks like The Lord has closed the door to Denmark. You can read more about it HERE. We don't understand it, but all we can do is trust The Lord to lead us and give us direction. We are diligently praying about what The Lord wants us to do. I would ask that you would pray for us, this has not been an easy time for us. We still have a desire to reach the Arctic people. They are a forgotten people when it comes to the gospel. 
  
Thank you for those of you that pray for us, please continue to do so.  Pray that no matter what The Lord has in store for us that we will accept His will and get busy doing it.  

Confessions of a mommy...

 Confesssions of a Mommy

Sometimes as a wife and mom I get caught up in the everyday things that I forget to take time for the things that matter the most. My Lord and my family. I try to start my day with my morning devotions. I am not a morning person, so this can be challenging at times. :) There are mornings that Marty will get up and make breakfast, those are the mornings I get the most time reading my Bible and praying. There are days that it seems like I will never have enough time to spend with The Lord, and those are the days I need Him the most! I can always tell when I haven't had enough time with my devotions. I'm not the most pleasant person to be around.  I know I'm getting a little personal, but this is on my heart and I feel like it will be a help to someone. As a Christian I NEED that time with The Lord. This year it's my goal to get that needed time in the morning with The Lord. 

Another thing that has been on my heart lately is spending quality time with my kids. I know we live in close quarters, we live in a camper, but it is easy to live close to people but not spend quality time with them.  There are days that go by and I wonder what happened to the time. I get busy doing the household chores that I wind up spending little to no time with my family. So, that being said, this year I'm going to take that extra time with them. Yes, the dishes may have to sit in the sink a little longer, the dust bunnies may rule a little longer, and the laundry is going nowhere. But my kids will grow up and leave the nest before I know it. My oldest is ten already! 

I'm also making some changes to how much time I spend on Facebook. Talk about a time drainer! I'm not going to check it while my kids are awake. I can take that extra time for them. I enjoy Facebook, but it's not worth my time if it's taking the precious time away I could be spending with them.
I lnow I have gotten pretty personal in this post, but sometimes it's needed. I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year.  And let's make this year a year where we strengthen our walk with The Lord and make our relationships stronger.
 
Ephesians 5:16  Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.