Therapy For Two

I had my first therapy session last week.  First, real paid for, real psychologist, real office appointment.  I have received counseling before (actually a lot!)  but always from the church.  It was very interesting.   

We started seeing this lady three weeks ago for Connor.  After trying to get him in school this year we saw first hand how severe his fear and anxiety really was.  The school suggested we get him some help.  We pulled him out of school, again, and put on our home school boot straps once again.  After our first session with the counselor she suggested that I meet with her own my own as well.  Ha, ok!

I must confess, it was nice to have someone listen to me and ask me questions.  And I didn't have to reciprocate, it was all about me.  I couldn't help but try to analyze her every question in my head and wonder, "why did she ask that?".  It was kind of fun.  And refreshing.

Her goal is to have Connor back in school by 2nd semester.  I am just trying to get him to feel comfortable without me in the counselor's room.  But if she knows all the tricks, ok!  She is having us use a technique disciplining our kids called 1-2-3 Magic.  No lie, it is magic!  I had to laugh when she gave it to me because on my nightstand is the current parenting book I am reading called, Don't Make Me Count To Three.  But 1-2-3 Magic is not counting to three, it is three warnings so I will keep reading the other one and hope they can work together.

So me and my little man are on a journey this year.  And I know it is going to be good.  Expensive, but good.

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.  ; )

Here comes the sun...

I was reflecting the other day on all of the moves we have made as the Pierce family.  Besides moving to CA from ID for college, the rest of our moves have been very quick and crazy.  I really mean quick and crazy. 

Redding, CA - Seattle, WA:  Within a three day period and in this order, TJ quit his youth pastor position, we had an offer on our house, and a friend offered his condo in Seattle for us to live in while we regrouped and found a new career.  Within weeks we were driving a u haul to Seattle and moving our family of four into a 1000 sq ft condo that we had NEVER seen before or ever been to the area before.  It was nuts.

Seattle, WA - Coeur d'Alene, ID:  nine months later we went to CDA for vacation for 4th of July.  TJ brought his suit and hit the pavement to just see if by chance he could get a job and we could be closer to family (third baby was on the way) and live in a place more affordable.  He landed an amazing job, flew back to Seattle and quit his other job, we finished out our vacation and then drove home and packed up our Condo.  It was really strange to go on vacation and not ever come back.

Coeur d'Alene, ID - Boise, ID -  again about a three week process of getting an offer from TJ's company to move, thinking about it, having everything fall into place, and then once again loading up our now family of five and moving to a place we knew nothing about and into a house we had only seen for 20 minutes.

Ok, so there is the run down.  One thing that I am really proud of, and not in a prideful way, about TJ and I is that we don't settle for something if we have the power and God's allows us to change it.  Most of our moves have been because of dissatisfaction and wanting something better for our family.  And we feel like God each time had stirred our hearts in that way, to want something better.  Our move to Boise was no exception.

I said in a previous post that I would explain why we moved here.  As I have been thinking about it, the answers are so many.  And a lot of them are very personal and have taken some time for us to process.  That last sentence sounds juicier than it is, trust me.  : )

Because I already feel like I have been typing a lot I will start with a short and rather lame reason why we moved here.

MORE SUNSHINE

Some of you reading this may think that is silly.  It's not!  Those of you who have only visited Coeur d'Alene in the summer think we are crazy for moving away from that beautiful place to the dessert.  But Coeur d'Alene is a hard place to live the rest of the year, for us anyway.  The days are short, dark, FREEZING, and snow from November to April.  I am a sun person.  Always have been ever since I can remember.  I love to swim and lay out.  A lot.  Summer is my favorite season.  TJ likes the sun too, he does however find contentment easier than I do so he can tolerate the weather.  But as I said above one of the things I appreciate about us is that we don't settle or tolerate if we have the power to change it.

We are still in the 80's low 90's here in Boise and it is LOVELY.  We love it and are soaking in the sun everyday.  The kids come inside every night from a full day of playing outside covered in sweat and dirt.

And my heart is happy.