Our path to wellness: Autoimmune, allergies and more.

This article is in no way medical advice. If you have life threatening food allergies, Type 1 diabetes, asthma , or any other condition that requires medicine or medical attention please consult with your primary doctor or holistic doctor before quitting or making any changes to your treatment.

"I am sick and tired, but mostly just tired. I was put back onto steroids again after the 3rd reaction I have had this year.  I am so tired of being stuck at my house doped up on so many medications that I cant function. I just wish I felt better so I can go out with the kids."

This status was written 2 years ago on my Facebook! We were sick and tired, My household was  feeling run down and sickly. Most days the kids would complain of stomach aches and my husband and myself were exhausted. We had went to doctors to get answers, and came out with more problems. The list of conditions in this household is more than the occupants. The doctors just handed us prescriptions and allowed us to go on without even so much as a way to cure ourselves. I was defeated, what was causing us to get sick? Why even with organic foods where we sick? I sat down and started to write out the list of what everyone had and then started to research it.

Kason : Food allergies, Eczema, Asthma, Speech delay, Environmental  Allergies, sulfa allergies, sting allergies
Kaleb : Environmental allergies, suspected food allergies, food sensitivities
Kalli: food sensitivities, Possible celiac disease
Husband: Type 1 diabetes, neuropathy
Myself: Asthma, Eczema, dermatitis herpetiformis, Celiac disease, Mast cell activation disorder, histamine intolerance, food sensitivities , sulfa allergies.

Shocking right?

After MONTHS and I mean months of research I was amazed to find out that it was tied to one thing and one thing only! It is really quite simple and actually kind of shocking to me why doctors and medical professionals have not caught on soon enough. It was our intestines!! The majority of our immune system is located in in our intestines. After our intestines are damaged several times our bodies start an inflammatory response to everything, even the foods we eat most of our lives. So our intestines get bombarded by medicines, heavy metals, chemicals, poisons and other harmful things.  Imagine how much toxins we put into our bodies and how they get into us? You are actually exposed to 2,100,000 toxins throughout your day and you body can only expel out a couple of thousand at a time! These can enter in through our skin, noses , mouths , ears, by food, by drink , and by touching. It is almost impossible to avoid toxins. However by avoiding the most common sources of these chemicals and by healing our intestines  we may have a chance to stop or even prevent ourselves from developing these conditions. A lot of people are told that these conditions are genetic and it is very true! If your mother, father , and or grandparents where carriers of a disease there is always a high risk of it yourself. A lot of the conditions are passed down because of the inflammation going on in your mothers bodies while pregnant or even the damage to the sperm from your father. I am sure you are asking yourself is there any hope for healing what has been hurt? Yes!

Ok a lot of you are asking where do you start healing the damage?

1) Find your symptoms and treat them, do not mask them. That means if you have pain, find the root of the pain and find a way to treat it. If it is by essential oils then use them, if it is a deficiency then find foods that are high in the mineral or vitamin , then eat it. I know a huge cure for a lot of things is getting enough sun . Good ole vitamin D helps everything and every process in your body.

2) Detox!! That means flush your body out. Drink green tea, eat plenty of fiber (including brown rice and organically-grown fresh fruits and vegetables. Beets, radishes, artichokes, cabbage, broccoli, spirulina, chlorella, and seaweed are excellent detoxifying foods), Take vitamin C , take detox baths etc.

3) Eat healthy.. No I don't mean go on a diet, that could be one of the worse pieces of advice a lot of you are given. That means take out all foods that are processed, GMO laden and have gluten. If you want t go farther take out all fake sugars and maybe replace them with more natural or even drop them all together. If you feel froggy ( I love that saying) then even cut out the foods high in histamine and inflammatory properties!

4) SLEEP!!! I cannot stress this enough!! SLEEP people!! the recommended amount of sleep is 9 hours! That means you need 9 Hours of sleep to get your body to tip top shape.

5) Hydrate!! You need water to flush out the toxins or else they are stuck inside your body and they are hard to get rid of. If you are anything like me and hate just drinking water, then add a lemon, or lemon essential oils. Get rid of the plastic cup and get you a good quality glass bottle! I bought mine through lifefactory and have never looked back!. If you are a soda drinker, try teas! I drink green tea and add fruit juice to it to give me a boost of energy when I am tired. Try to not to get to the point you are all of a sudden thirsty, that means you are dehydrated. Drink water through the day, even if it is a 8 ounce glass every hour.

6) Get moving !! If you get up and move, that moves the toxins. If your sedentary it isn't going to help you much. You need to move just as much as you drink water and or eat healthy. A good moving body is a happy body!

These steps are not the only things that my family and I have been doing. We have incorporated essential oils, paleo diet ( modified) and low histamine eating. I stopped using chemicals to clean and went through a company that sells products that use water and enzymes. For our family, switching over came a little late. My husband, my son and myself have conditions which all require medications. My husband is insulin dependent, I have to carry and inhaler and epi pen and so does my son. We all are on base doses of our medication and for us that helps not only us achieve our goals, but our financial health as well. I hope one day to have my autoimmune all under control. Even if I never do, I know that I did the best I could do to keep the damage to a minimal. My hope is that by eating better my husband can control his blood sugar and reduce the damage to his body.

I hope and pray that you can find wellness in your home through simple changes. I know they look very complicated, but in reality they are only a small life change. Please if you need any kind of help and or need someone to talk to , feel free to contact me by email at : mkmommy3344@icloud.com
If you are looking into essential oils or cleaning your house greener feel free also to contact me or go to theses websites to research or even buy products.
http://www.norwex.biz/pws/marymcdowell/tabs/home.aspx
Please contact me about the essential oils due to FDA regulations I cannot list the company name on my site
If you are interested on any of the sources I used or a more holistic lifestyle, please click the links below.

Sources:
http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/health-hazards-to-know-about/daily-toxin-intake
http://life.gaiam.com/article/10-ways-detoxify-your-body
www.joettecalabrese.com  ( holistic resources)
http://thepaleodiet.com/
http://thelowhistaminechef.com/
http://www.glutenfreeliving.com/gluten-free-foods/diet/basic-diet/

New year , New life, New changes....

We left off last August as Kalli started a new year of school. We had a wonderful start and Kalli seemed to blaze along well with her school year. She had several passing grades and was making excellent strides. We started her in Girl Scouts and let her expand her wings a little more by doing so. She loves the ability to hang out with each of her friends and learning so many new things. As the fall progressed so did the amount of stress with homework and paperwork. It is amazing how incredibly busy they keep 1st graders. We had barely gotten done with the first assignment when another harder worksheet would come in. I have my own opinions about common core, but that is for another blog. I feel like we are all going to suffer when our children become these overly stressed and overly worked adults. Kalli however is like her mother in a sense. She can blast through stressful situations without much noise, but when overly tired she becomes very dramatic . How I wish that I could have the coping skills she has when I was in school, maybe I would have continued on.  Kason and Kaleb have been doing well, or as well as they can get. Kason had his skin testing and we found out that he was still very allergic to peanuts and eggs... Tree nuts where negative, but the protective mama will always keep them away since we have had a history.  Kaleb has bloomed into a loud and moody 3 year old. Both of them sharing a room has been the biggest change in our house. Kason normally slept in his room by himself when we first moved in, then we moved Kaleb in early the next year. Most of the times I am climbing over toys and clothes, and scrubbing down walls that Kaleb thinks is fun to color all over.
Fall came and left without any kind of problem, however Christmas break was interesting. We all came down with the flu. It took about a week to move through the house and through each person. God bless one of my friends here in town , she offered to bring over essential oils for us to try. However  I declined ( stupidly) because I was scared that we would pass it on to her family. We however where out of luck for the Tamiflu ( which now that i think of it we are lucky we didn't settle) and so was the rest of town. I managed to look up online some natural treatments and came back with Elderberry.  Two days later we where able to celebrate Christmas without so much as a hiccup. After that I decided that we needed a new change. I made plans to start using essential oils and natural treatments and made plans for a class in February. Kason and I both where tired of being drugged and bogged down with the overdose of  meds that we took on a daily basis. When It was all said and done we where hopeful that this would work. It was an investments, but one of the best we had ever made. Gladly I can report that we are all on base doses of medicine ( with the blessing  of the doctors of course) and are thriving well. I am starting to do classes and will be teaching on how blessed as a family we are since we adopted our new lifestyle. Blessings can come from the more uncomfortable moments in life. Thank you influenza A for putting my faith into Natural medcine.

Health, Kids, life.. The last 5 months

We have been kind of blissfully in our own world the last few months.. Kalli finished her first her in school with a bang! She ended up bringing home every bug the school had within a few week period. We spent the better part of the week after school having our house sanitized from floor to roof. We managed to somehow inherit a ton of her classmates drawings and creations and we also had a ton of sugar ants from Kalli leaving her bag of candy on the floor . June was the start of the summer shuffle . We had every family member we could think of come and visit . We had cook outs and we had fun in the sprinkler . We went to the splash park and we also ate out and enjoyed the rather mild temps outside.  Kason had his surgery to replace the tube that had fallen out last fall and Kaleb had surgery to take out his adenoids , also they inserted tubes.  I also lost a early pregnancy .. It was hard and well for me I was a little shocked and heartbroken. I had a very faint positive on my birthday and by the 26th I knew something was wrong. It took 4 days to stop cramping and a week to get back to normal..  While my hubby thinks it was a bad test, I have never experienced something as painful like those cramps since I had Kaleb.

June was about the same as May since we caught a summer cold.

July began with a 4th of July party and having fireworks . We loved spending time with friends and family. July also brought answers to our lives. My husband and I have both been struggling with health issues. We got news that shattered our world , but then again brought us hope. My husband was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. He had been loosing weight and looking very pale and unhealthy to say the most. At first they where thinking type 2, but when they noticed that oral medication was not working, they did more tests and found that his pancreas was not producing any insulin at all. Once they started an insulin called Lantus, we started to notice a big difference in him. He gained back weight and also felt like he had more energy.
August was just as eventful and hectic, doctors visits and getting ready for school. Amongst all the
commotion my father had a heart attack and my mom had to go back and forth to Dallas to visit my
grandmother who was ailing and getting ready to pass. We again had a house full of people and enjoyed visiting with each one. I had a scare when I ate shellfish and ended up in the ER . I will write more about my food allergy/ health issues later. Kalli started back to first grade and had an excellent first week back!!

While much  more happened than that,  those where the things that impacted us the most...
Until next time!!

When your the forgotten, your really the remembered.

 I am going to be honest with you, I was never a celebrity writer ( has 20,000 followers) . I have always felt like I am writing to air. I am one of those invisible moms. I am that woman you pass in the store and think looks like she has more problems than a pop stars scandal. I have always looked at life like it was one big book. I think the most annoying part of it is  that out of all that work, no one will likely read it.  Here I mindlessly write the thoughts on my mind, hoping that one day I will have something left behind that will leave my children to be proud of. I tried in so many aspects of my life to be popular, from singing ( I'm surprised they don't run me out of church service) to art ( yea mere blobs and sketches). I was never the talented one, I am surprised I didn't knock over the entire line of ballerinas during many of my fruitless dance recitals. I fear that there is this new generation un talented who feel useless . The ones that feel like we are just there and watch as others gain a sort of fame . My search for acceptance and being "somebody"  was when I sang my little heart out for practice at school and had to miss the talent show because I had strep. It was trying to have someone pick me at school during dodge ball.  It was trying to buy all the cool clothes in school and listen to the pop stars which have since disappeared or have more issues than they can count. I have had people used me as a rug and walk on me , laughed at me and done things to me that would be cruel and unusual and would be short of a law suit these days. Back then it was acceptable to throw things at a classmate, or throw water on the floor so that they would slip. I have had a person treat me like I was nothing and hurt me and take the one light that still was shining at a tender age. Those things seem so distant, maybe they should so that the scorching pain won't hurt so bad. As a mom I hope I never want my children to feel that kind of loneliness and pain. I hope they are successful and become the top of their expertise. I hope to be the mother of someone who despite had a rough start will be the biggest blessing to millions and remember where he/she came from.

I tried to keep a diary with me of all the prayers I wrote so that maybe I could let someone know how to get through these things. I wrote those prayers with tears. Years ago a woman took those from me and ripped them in front of my face and told me I would never make anything of myself. I had hope I would prove her wrong and after one failed relationship that ended me up as a teen mom, I wasn't getting far fast. I met a man and fell in love, but it wasn't for me. He was gone and never talked to me. I met another and he was just not my type.. I focused on my sweet child , and made her life my priority. Then one night another person walked into my life. My eyes started to focus a little. It's almost like being nearsighted and looking out and not being able to see clearly. I had another child and he fell ill and again I feel like my words, talents and anything I did was the right thing. So here I was thinking maybe I could write like I used to. I tried and still am. 

The thing is fame isn't for everyone , some of the greatest people in the world are not discovered until they have been gone for awhile. The beauty of things are often so fast to come and go. I think Steve Jobs  had it right. He kept fighting and now is the legacy of the very thing I am typing on. I think many of the pop stars and the people that gave their lives to better others where not famous. Instead they where a work of art. So rare and so unique that no one noticed them until their flame had been blown out.  So here is to all the misfits out there that feel like we are nothing to this world of short fame and fortune. We are the lights that God leaves here just so they can get a glimpse of his biggest plan. I thank all those who told me I couldn't do it. I think being a mother of three says I accomplished something. I am married and have a huge and wonderful family, both here and in spirit!! 

By the grace and love of God, I'll be his legacy... Forget the 20,000 followers!!!

It beginning to feel a lot like Christmas?

Normally I am in full swing by now and have music on with Christmas carols and the feeling of joy and happiness in my heart.. This year has been a little harder to get that way since the first cold snap hit Abilene last week dumping sleet and ice on us, moving my parents in the house in said ice and sleet , cooking a meal fit for 12 and only having 7 eat, and going out with the grumpiest people on earth on Black Friday and making it out with half of what we needed! I am just now getting the tree up and my ideal setup would have involved some sort of easy transition into the insanity of sparkling bulbs and tinsel. This year it is moving in boxes and boxes of stuff that makes me loathe the ideal of EVER moving again. My husband seems to think that it is fun filled moving to a new neighborhood and then trying to find my way around the city I have grown to love over the last two years I have lived here! I think that people do what they have to do in order to get by and mine is getting black trash bags and filling them full of clothes to donate and toys to give to the church so that they will have more things that babies can drool on and have fun with. In my head I am imagining a table with a red tablecloth and a house full of laughter and happiness that will start in less than three weeks as Christmas will come and go like the other Holidays this year!! My reality may be the screaming of kids fighting over the red spoon that my youngest uses on a daily basis and the sounds of war coming from my bedroom while the husband plays another round of Call of Duty .... 

This week I will start the festivities by digging out every imaginable decoration and smile as my  house fills with the scent of Cinnamon and the house is decorated with everything to help my spirits . Next will be the trip to the Abilene moms premier/ my favorite things party and then onto the parade of lights!! Hopefully by the end of those things I'll be right where I need to be. No my house will not look like the newest edition of Better Homes and Gardens, but one can only dram of the dreamy look of a fireplace lit with stockings and garland on every imaginable surface in the house. 

The Real Thanksgiving : What media and Black Friday has done to the once giving holiday.

So I am sitting here watching TV and noticing the amount of Black Friday ads. Its sad that we have went from a country of sitting down with family and enjoying the bounty's of the year, to now a shopping spree to buy a new 60in Smart LED TV half the price it was before. We have went from giving to a whole bunch of Scrooges!!  As a child ( probably 7) I remember the smell of the turkey and the laughter of my family as the kids played in the backyard. I remember the prayer of thanks we said to God and the closeness we had. The last Thanksgiving  I had with my grandmother was 3 years ago, the last one with my Family was 5 years ago. I have lost touch with most of my family... Most of it is differences, some of it is being too busy. I long for the Days Santa was in December and that we had to wait for the best sales to happen on Black Friday.  I wish the old days would come back for a few days so that my children can feel the same way I did. I cant wait to see the countless news stories of people running to get the TV that they wanted and end up getting in the mess of push and shove. I cant wait for the news that consumers are still not quite getting bottom dollar on these early sales only to find out they could have bought it for twenty dollars less a week later.. I cant wait to do my last minute shopping just like my mom did and still be able to make my daughter and sons Christmas just as special. I am going to stay home hugging my children and enjoy the Parade and sip my coffee and then focus on the next big day....

Moving and The Holidays

I am so glad to be done with the apartments from the 8th ring of Hades!!!! While Most times I am grateful that I have a place to live but the level of privacy was slim to none.. The staff there until the very end was rude and awful to my family.. I am so glad to moved and into a house! We are now the proud renters of a 1,600 sq ft house.. I am so ready for the holidays and ready to start anew.. The only complaint I have is that the traffic makes it hard to get places in a hurry.. I am so glad to have a Yard and trees as the other place was a concrete prison.. I was given a place that I could move around a breath... Now I can sit and read the Dallas Morning news, Abilene Reporter news and my Facebook with full view of a beautiful yard and the kids playing.. I somewhat hope that we can get snow this year so I can stare out the window at that. The Holidays are approaching fast and I am planning Thanksgiving dinner ( even though my Kitchen is no where near unpacked or ready)  and Christmas!!! I am dreaming of a house filled with warmth as my family ( the hubby and kids, my parents and my FIL and his friend will be here). I think I am looking forward to trying to Hide the gifts from the kids so that they wont eve have a clue of what we are doing..  The hubs is trying his best to Make his shop Happen and well since we had more stuff than we thought we are having to move it around and get it started.. I know we are going to the Parade again this year and we are going to dress more warm than the last year because it got down right chilly. I am ready to play Christmas music and decorate the house with all the lights and smells of the holidays. It doesnt seem real that 2013 is almost over. I am glad however to ring in another year and another chance to live life the way the Lord wants me to. So here is to moving , the holidays and the new year!!!