Oh Boy! What A Day.

 I am thankful that I get to hang out everyday with these three good looking little people...

 And spend time exploring beautiful places... 

Thanks goodness for these kids and the peaceful Boise River we played in yesterday, otherwise the day would have been really overwhelming and unbearable.

Yesterday we confirmed through a second opinion that Carly is indeed allergic to Wheat, Dairy, Eggs, and Bananas.  Now would be an appropriate time to say "oh man!"  or let out a big "sigh".  Our family has undergone phases where we have eliminated wheat or dairy but mostly for me.  One would be doable.  And even both are doable.  It is the no eggs that is killing me.

Poor Carly cried for about an hour this morning grieving the loss of Gold Fish Crackers and Pirate Booty.  She finally settled on oatmeal for breakfast when all she really wanted were eggs or pancakes.  It is hard to eliminate something as an adult but at least you understand.  This process is no fun with a kid.

This elimination diet is a six month process while we go through a process called NAET with a naturopathic doctor.  It eliminates the allergy by slowly building up your immunity to the allergy.  We still have tons of research to do before we completely understand it but you can check out the website if you are interested.  www.naet.com

So here is the deal.  I am grateful that we have amazing doctors in the natural medicine world who provide alternatives to drug happy western medicine.  Especially for my 5 year old who was originally told to go on a prescription allergy medicine for the rest of her life.  Please!  And I am grateful that we have been on the road to natural living for a long time so that this news wasn't hopeless and we knew where to turn.  I am thankful that Carly in the last week has taken a big interest in eating healthy and making her own green smoothies.  But.....

Come on already! 

Carly has already had oral surgery, eye surgery, contacts, glasses, bifocals, eye patching and now the allergies.  Urg!  I love my little lady and her problems are not burdens, she is a blessing and as a family we can work through these issues.  But....

This is a lot of hard work!

It is exhausting.  We now have therapy one day a week with Connor (that post will come) and all the homework that is with that plus home school.  We have completely changed the way we are disciplining the kids (per the therapist).  We have eye appointments, dentist appointments, allergy appointments and so on.  And having to find all new doctors for all of these since we just moved here.  But....

This is a big reason why we moved here.  

To have the time to completely focus on our family and our kids.  To not be distracted by expectations and busyness.  To not feel overwhelmed but feel like together as a family we can deal with this and do it well.  That is the hope anyway.  And I must say the six weeks we have been here, all by our lonesome, with only each other and the occasional visitor, we are very happy with our crazy decision to pack up and leave everything comfortable.

Deep breath and one step at a time.

And maybe a bowl of popcorn and old episodes of That 70's Show.  ; )