The J6 Journey: Year 2, Day 24: As the World Turns

Yes, I know, "As the World Turns" is a TV soap opera show. A horsemanship mentor of mine like soap operas, and for a bit, I watched them, too. Anyway, and, As the World Turns on its' axis because it is a sphere and not flat, thank you.

ANYWAY, up and down and away we go today. First, we got some not so fun mail from CRA (Canada Revenue Service) saying we need to pay back most of the child tax credit we received. I have no idea why, and it's probably going to take awhile to untangle. We are talking big bucks here and I pray it's just a misunderstanding. So, that's a down moment for the day, as well, "Mom, I won't do my work." attitudes, ugh. So someone lost TV privileges again today and had to help me by bringing in the Christmas boxes from the porch so I can finally put away the Christmas decor. The tree is staying up, so maybe we'll decorate it for Valentine's Day. I don't want to take the time to take to storage just to move it again in 4 months, if we are blessed with a large enough house to hold everything. And I definitely don't want it going out on the porch where spiders and bugs can get into it. Ew! The rest of the boxes will go out there in the meantime though. I packed 1 box today and have 7 more to go. I have to figure out where everything goes again and we have new things to put in the boxes so it will be a great game of tetris. I hope to finish it up this week.

Meanwhile, the big news of the day was my holistic doctor's appointment today! I finally feel like I have hope again that someone really wants to get to the root of my health problems and not just medicate them! So, here are the results. Most of the my labs came back in the normal range, which is great! I do hold onto iodine, so I need to take a little bit to keep the levels at the right amount. The pills are fairly cheap and the issue is a minor one. Blood sugars was a tad high, but I got the labs drawn right after Christmas where I had eaten way too much sugar. I'm cutting back on sugar anyway to keep the headaches at bay, so no big deal there. Great news is that I don't have an issue with candida which is bacteria in your gut. There's no overgrowth, yeah! I'm glad we got that one done and crossed off the list. Thyroid came back fine as well, in all areas, TSH, T3, T4, etc so I'll stay on the dosage I have.

And finally, the big aha moment! I do not handle my B vitamins well enough for them to do their thing. It's a bit complicated, with lots of big words, and I understand the general concept of what she was saying. It's something that 1 out of 4 people have an issue with and it's hereditary. I'm particularly low on the B6 vitamin. That vitamin plays a vital role in converting whatever it converts in this "meth" something cycle that includes seratonin and melatonin. If I understand those correctly, that means, once I get that B6 vitamin back into normal range, it will help with my anxiety, depression, energy level, and sleep. Yeah! This could be the answer I'm looking for! The magic pill if you will! Probably not totally, but it's definitely a great new step! It's so satisfying to get these tests done and cross things off the list. And it feels great that I have done the right things because my blood counts were normal, most vitamins were normal, etc.

So, besides new supplements, one of which is temporary and costs a TON but will help me feel better until everything else gets sorted out, the next big test is the allergy test from a blood sample, not the 100 pricks on your skin test. I think it covers all the grass, mold, dust kind of allergens and about 12 foods. Unfortunately, insurance doesn't cover any of this and so it was a very pricey visit. However, I've spent so much over the last 7 years on supplements, chiropractors, massage therapists, acupuncture, etc. that it's just a drop in the bucket. I want to get better so that I can enjoy the kids more and we can make more memories. I don't want to die early because I didn't take care of my health like my mom didn't. Praise God that we have some cash flow to cover it up front.

Phew, that's alot. I hope you understand a bit of that. Otherwise it was a normal day with school and playtime and Abishai cuteness. It was cooler outside today, but still not cold cold like it is on PEI. Jared stayed home with the kids in the morning so I could go to my appointment and then he went to the office for the afternoon. We had a great supper of chicken and rice that finally tasted like chicken and rice. I bought gluten free cream of chicken soup, mixed it with water and rice and Italian seasonings, put it on the bottom of the rectangle pyrex dish as always, added boneless skinless chicken thighs and it cooked up almost to perfection. The recipe actually calls for a certain Uncle Ben's wild rice box mix and cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soup, but all of that has gluten in it. So we've been using sour cream and water and just made do. It was yummy!

The rest of the day in pictures:

Our flower in the morning.

Lovely colors!

Abishai was walking around with Clifford when he said, "Sticky." So he got a baby wipe and started wiping Clifford's mouth/nose and parts of his body. Aw!

Then he cleaned his own mouth.

And he cleaned the bus. He's definitely a Johnson like his great grandparents Johnson - neat and clean freaks!

It was only 45 degrees, maybe, but Mr. Canadian loves to peek outside anyway.

Keturah put the blanket down and Abishai got on his belly and organized his cars on it on the kitchen floor.

Because of all the balls all over the porch, I peeked over the railing to see if any had fallen through the railing. I didn't see any balls, but I did see a matchbox car! Whoops! How long has that been there! I told Abishai there was a car down there and he could very sad. He came inside and said, "vroom, vroom" in a very sad voice. So, I had Justin go down and get the car(s). Abishai and I watched him get it and cheered him on.

Abishai clapped and cheered for Justin like Justin was his hero because he rescued the cars! Thank you big brother!

Our flower, just a few hours later than the above pictures, opening up! Ah!

Justin was in my room and my closet door was open. He glanced into my closest and saw these BB8 lights in there and said, "Hey, what are these for?" Ugh! I should have hid them better! I wasn't saving them for anything, but still. Whoops! He loves them!

We got them on clearance at Barnes and Noble. Keturah was unhappy she didn't a gift, too, but that's life. I don't feel I need to make things even between all of them all the time. She did get her other Chinese lantern type lights back though. I'm just glad the lights work. Very cute!

Oh no! My favorite plates! Justin was taking down a different plate and didn't realize this one was on top of it. Crash, bang on the countertop. I didn't yell and scream on the outside, but I was sad on the inside. So, I immediately went onto eBay to see if I can get it replaced. And it's actually pretty popular and cheap. $15 including shipping for 2 of these plates. Yeah! And for the record, I have been an eBay user for 20 years! Yes, 20 years! That's crazy!

Because the Christmas decor wasn't put away yet, Abishai found the nativity scene again and was so excited about it! He especially loved the baby Jesus and started carrying it around. He even hugged and kissed it!

Jared promised Justin that they would start working on the Minecraft paperboard craft, so they started in on it, although it was really close to bedtime.

Keturah spent the evening reading in her bed.

Of course Abishai wanted to be right in the middle of the activity. He kept rearranging the "stone" blocks. He handled them pretty carefully and listened when we said to be nice to the blocks.