The Grass is Always Greener!

My four girls are growing up. Brianna is 15, Tori almost 13, Emaleigh is 8 and my baby, Kalli will be 5 in a couple of weeks. It seems like just yesterday that they were born.

I just LOVED it when my girls were little! Oh, the little chubby arm hugs and open mouth kisses!!! Sweet, sweet times.

Thinking back, I wish I had realized then how quickly those times pass. How quickly they would grow up.

I remember the struggles of having young children very well. The sleepless nights, not being able to go out when you wanted to, never having a clean house!

If I had it to do over again, I would care less about the house and going out and just spend more time absorbing the girls! They don't stay little for long!

I am trying to make sure I absorb the stages that they are in now though! Learning from the past :) Teenagers are soooo incredible!! I definitely am enjoying sharing that journey with Brianna and Tori! I love watching Emaleigh learn more about the world around her and seeing what her interests and passions are. Kalli just makes it day fun! She is either sooo happy, or sooo upset!!

If you are a mom of a little one and happen across this blog post, I would encourage you to just slow down and take the time to memorize every day! It goes by so fast and before you know it, they will grown!!

Several years ago! A couple of the girls were still in the preschool age group!


Now they are all out of it :( But entering new stages!!

Side Effects!

I have shared how we have been working really hard to eat foods with the least amount of processing that we can. The reason we originally decided to do this was as a desperate, last ditch effort to stay away from medical intervention.

I have had this stomach pain for the last year that has been getting worse. It happened pretty consistently every day or two and has gotten worse over the past year. I originally thought it was the gallstones that I have, but it did not follow the pattern that gallstone pain does. So anyway, every couple of days, I would end up in bed for a couple of hours in pain. Kinda hard to do with 4 kiddos!!

About 6 months ago a friend suggested giving up cheese and dairy to see if it was related to that. I totally did NOT want to go that route, as cheese is my favorite food! In November, I remember going to Olive Garden with a bunch of friends and eating the baked ziti. Within 10 minutes my stomach hurt so bad that I had to go home and miss out on the rest of our fun evening!

Then and there I decided that I would be willing to forgo cheese if it would help, so I gave it up. Well, it worked fabulously for about 3 weeks and then it started occasionally hurting again despite the lack of dairy. So I was stumped!

I kept a food journal and found that it occurred at seemingly random times, so that was no help...until last week.....! I can't remember why, but the thought kept occurring to me that maybe it was a reaction to some chemical in food. Something that was in many of the cheese dished I ate (which would account for the decrease in frequency when I gave up cheese).

So with encouragement from William and the girls, we decided to all give it a go! It definitely has to be a team effort for us just due to the amount of work!

I am happy to report no stomach pain since we began 3 days ago! One of the things I would eat that always, without fail made it hurt was cheese pizza. Well, we had that on Sunday night and I felt fine!!! Woohoo!! Great side effect so far!

Then we have my sweet Emi! She has had trouble with intestinal blockage for the past 2 years. Nasty, yucky, embarrassing problem! Now I am about to get into some gross, mom details, so skip down a couple of paragraphs if you want to! Because of the blockage problem, her bm's have always been liquid. I would take her to the doctor thinking she had severe diarrhea, just to have them tell me she is blocked! I always thought that was weird!!

Anyway, she started having a tummy ache today and I kid you not that girl has gone potty 20 times!!! She was amazed that bm's could be solid!! Sad isn't it? I think that what she was eating before was a lot of the problem. Another great side effect!

Well, now that we have all of the digestive talk out of the way, let me tell you what we ate today!! It was yummy!!!

Breakfast - eggs, homemade hash browns, homemade tortillas (super easy and sooo good!), with apples and yogurt!!
Lunch - a piece of homemade bread with peanut butter and some strawberries
Dinner - spinach/chipotle chicken, spinach salad with strawberries and almonds, corn and homemade tortillas. For dessert I baked these little pastry shells and stuffed them with yummy berries!! That was a hit!

Now, the eggs and hashbrowns were great, but they were kinda greenish! I am pretty sure it was because of the potatoes and potato skins.

I was really nervous making the tortillas, but they ended up being so easy and we just loved them! I was also nervous about the pastries because I have never made any, but that was pretty easy too!

Definitely some yummy food! I talked with the girls about us slowing down our eating and actually taking the time to enjoy the flavors and colors of the food that God made for us to enjoy. As in the other posts, we are still really enjoying working together! The girls are getting a kick out of learning to cook some of the new food!!
I am going tomorrow to buy a heavy duty mixer that should be very helpful!

Happy cooking!!

Cooking up a Storm!

Boy howdy, I feel like I am cooking all of the time! Actually, I guess it really is not that bad!! Breakfast was mostly cooked the night before, lunch was easy, but dinner was a doozy!!! I keep forgetting that I can't just whip together a dish of manicotti! I need to make the sauce first.

Today we had:
Breakfast - granola bars (I had to cook these the night before and let them cool.)and vanilla yogurt (I bought the all-natural tub from Kroger)
Lunch - crackers (I bought the all-natural ones from Kroger), some different types of cheeses, grapes and a variety of nuts.
Dinner - stuffed manicotti, green beans (frozen kind), and homemade garlic bread

I was amazed again by the amount of work that went into dinner! We started preparing at around 5:00pm and ate at 7:00pm!!! I am wondering if I can keep this up once spring break is over and school starts back. The good thing is that I am making extra of the sauces and freezing them.

I have to admit how much I love working with my girls though! We each grab an apron and go to work! Today Tori made the bread (YUMMY!!) and green beans while Brianna stuffed manicotti (this was fun!!)and grated cheese. We had a good time visiting while we were cooking!

Tonight I am thinking about what a blessing it is to have children to work and share with!

Health Nut!!??!!

I know what you are thinking! Health nut is not in the top 10 names you would use to describe me! Okay, more like not in the top 100!!

Well, for the next 30 days I am going to be a health nut. Well, maybe not a health nut, but definitely a healthier chef! We have decided that for the next 30 days we are going to attempt to eat foods that are not processed...at least for the most part!

So today I made my menu for the next 2 weeks and went to the store to buy everything. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it did not cost as much as I thought that it would. We did buy some convenience foods, but I tried to by all natural/no additives or preservatives convenience food.

We started the 30 day challenge with this menu:

Breakfast - pancakes and scrambled eggs
Lunch - skipped it because we ate a late breakfast
Dinner - cheese pizza

Now, I have not given up white flour yet because I have not had time to learn to cook with whole wheat flour, but I figure it is better than nothing!!

So pancakes were great and easy because I am used to cooking them from scratch. The pizza was more of a challenge.

I had to find a recipe for the crust as well as the sauce. Something else I found interesting was that a block of cheese has many fewer preservatives than does shredded cheese.

What was really fun about the pizza is that there were enough steps for each of us to help! Tori made the pizza sauce (which was wonderful!), Brianna shredded the cheese, I made the crust and Emaleigh cooked and strained the spinach.

I found that we had a really great time working together and we all enjoyed the meal!!

Merry Christmas!

We choose this time to celebrate
The birth of one so small

Who would have guessed on that glorious day
He would become our ALL?

He grew in stature to become a man
What kind of man would he be?

The one that is to save the world
By hanging on a tree.

God became a man that day
In flesh for all to see

Guess what? He would have done it again,
Even if it were for only me.

So when you feel like you are worth
Nothing to man kind.

Remember that He who created the world
Had you on His mind!

Update!!!

Wow! It has been a while since I have written!

Things have been going great in the Huckabee home! In fact, the reason I am updating is that I wanted to share the results of my last post, when I was in the hospital.

The performed a lung biopsy on the last day I was there and came back telling me that they still believed I had something called MAI, which is a rare lung infection. The treatment was 18 months of a chemo type drug cocktail with many yucky side effects.

Well, during the biopsy they cut our pieces of 6 different masses that were found in my lungs and sent them off for biopsy. The following day, when I got out, a friend was coming over to prayer over me. All the week before we had been fervently praying for complete healing from this. Well, as she walked in the door, the pulmnologist called and said that though he still thought I had MAI, when looking at the biopsy under the microscope, the cells appeared to be healing themselves! He was surprised because this infection does not normally work like that. Of course, I told them that I was not surprised!! Praise the Lord!

Well, 6 weeks later they performed another set of CT scans and the lung spots were all completely gone! And there was no lasting damage!

So this week, as I have been participating in tons of fun Christmas activities with my family, I keep remembering where we were this time last year. I remember how scary it felt for us and how lonely the hospital feels, especially this time of year. I remember the look in my girls eyes when they walked in with their face masks, gloves, hat and hospital gown on. I remember how desperately I wanted to touch them and feel their warm skin.

I remember how huge of a blessing it was to have friends step in and do fun activities with my girls when I could not. I remember a special friend bringing flameless candles and food up to the hospital so William and I could celebrate our
15th wedding anniversary together, despite us being stuck up there! I remember special people bringing Christmas decorations and music up to my room to make it festive. There was even someone who brought up small gifts for me to give the girls when they came to visit.

I remember the lessons that I learned. First and foremost, even when we are isolated from everyone else, God it there. Not only is He there, but He cares that you feel sad, worried, scared, etc. I learned how important it is to listen to the gentle voice that tells you to reach out to people and how much of an impact a small act of kindness can make on a person. I learned that life can change directions on a dime and we absolutely can NOT take a single moment for granted. I learned that God hears us....ALWAYS!

So during this Christmas season I am going to hug my girls a little tighter. Smooch on William a little more! Fret less when my cookies burn. Forget about finding the perfect gift. I am going to take the time to sit in front of the fire longer. Play baby dolls with my girls more! Care less about what people think about my wrapping job, my house, my clothes, my kids clothes, my decorations and my gifts. Care more about making sure that absolutely EVERYONE in my life knows that I love and appreciate them more than they can imagine. And most importantly, during this Christmas season, I am going to do everything, and I mean EVERYTHING for His glory!

Merry Christmas friends!!

The Answer Before the Question!

God is absolutely amazing! Just the thought that He cares enough about us to WANT to spend time with us and communicate with us is unfathomable to me!

I am going through a fantastic book called Praying the Names of God by Ann Spangler. I love the book! Each week you learn one of the many names that God goes by in scripture.

Last week I studied Adonay, which means Lord, Master. The week was spent taking time to read scripture that points to what a blessing it is that we have Adonay as our Master and the promises that go along with that. The week was spent learning how I don't need to know what comes next, I just need to know whom it is I obey. He is everywhere and will not leave.

This week I studied Yahweh Rophe, which is the Lord who Heals. Monday and Tuesday were spent studying the promises of healing and how sometime we forget about the spiritual healing and dwell on the physical. I jokingly asked the Lord if he was trying to tell me something :)

Tuesday night I started spitting up a lot of blood. At one point we could not get it to stop so we came to the ER. While doing a CT scan of my throat, the scan happened to pick up a bit of my right lung and showed something suspicious. They sent me for another scan and told me that they thought I had a very severe lung infection and were bringing in a specialist to look at it.

We were completely shocked as I have no cough and feel great, other than the blood thing (which I thought was due to a recent bought of strep throat). They admitted me into the hospital where I have been every since in isolation. The reason for the isolation was to rule out TB, which they have, but they won't release me from isolation until 3pm this afternoon.

What they think I have is a type of lung infection that is not too common and is present everywhere and on everything. It is not contagious and usually people that are immune suppressed are the ones who get it.

They are going to biopsy it at 3pm this afternoon and we hope to be home tonight! The results could be in on Monday, but if they have to grow the culture, it could take 6 weeks. It is a slow growing infection so that is okay to wait that long.

The treatment is long, about 18 months, and not easy from what I understand. We are praying that when they go in today, it will be wiped away and we will not have to go down that road.

When we found this out on Wednesday, I could not breath from fear. We had not slept the night before because of all the tests and I was absolutely overwhelmed with fear and desperation at the situation. They said originally that I would be here until Sunday and I was so sad about all of the Christmas activities that the girls had that I would miss.

We chose to not let many people know because I just needed time to pray. I kept hearing the Lord remind me of what He taught me last week. He is my Master and knows the plan and result even when I don't. I was not alone, nor was I left to toss in the wind.

Then over the past few days He has taught me more about the Healer that He is and has shown me so many promises that I can call on!

As I look this morning over this experience, I can't help but thank Him! The Creator of everything, absolutely everything that is good and right and loving, cared enough about me and my wishy-washy feelings to show me answers before I even knew that I had any questions or needed any answers!