September Chats

Excuse me, but how am I already doing this again? I feel like I JUST wrote August Chats like 4 minutes ago, and here we are at the end of September. Confused, please explain ASAP.

This has actually been a BIG month for us – hence my lack of presence on the blog…whoops, my plan to plan ahead did not go as planned. Nahmean? Hopefully I can get back on track with that…starting with this post. Hi!

Some major things have happened this month – all good things!

The Boys

Alright, some exciting updates here. To give you a SUPER quick and way too un-detailed back story, Colt has basically been sick for 5 months. We have been struggling – A LOT – to figure out what’s going on. We had him on all kinds of medicine, and we are alllllways at the doctor. He’s had 4 ear infections within three months, and we even had a surgery scheduled to have ear tubes put in. Other short backstory on Ford, (warning: if you are grossed out by anything digestive, stop reading here), he has been having constipation issues since he was 6 months old. We have tried EVERYTHING, and the only thing we’ve landed on that works is Miralax, which is an adult digestive aid. It sounds extreme, but it’s just fiber and we only give him a few teaspoons, but regardless…that’s been happening for over a year and a half.

That’s my short (ish?) back story. SO – a few weeks ago, a friend of ours that’s in our life group told us that his friend’s baby was always sick, they took him to the chiropractor, and it made a huge difference. I was like, you know what? At this point, I will literally try anything including burning sage and creating poultices with yard leaves and spreading them on his forehead, soooo bring on the chiropractor! He gave me the name of the exact lady his friend’s baby went to, and we scheduled an appointment for Colt.

While I was filling out the paperwork, they asked two separate times if he had experienced any bad falls in his lifetime (meaning over 3 feet). Colt had a BAD fall, a little over 3 feet, in April. That kind of jolted my brain and got me thinking about when all this sickness started. We went back through all our texts with Seth’s parents to see when we started mentioning lots of health issues with him.

Y’ALL. No joke, there was not a SINGLE mention of illness or ear infections before his fall. And then after his fall – back to back to back to back ear infections, tons of sicknesses that wouldn’t seem to go away, and lots of medicine and antibiotics.

I was like…there’s no way those could be related, right?! So I went to the appointment, and she gave me all the deets on why a misalignment in the spine can cause alllllll kinds of health issues. She checked his spine and found a BIG misalignment in his neck. She adjusted it and we came back 2 times more that week for more adjustments. You guys, he’s been SO happy, his runny nose and cough have (mostly) cleared up, no signs of a new ear infection yet, and he just seems to feel so much better. She checked his ears at his adjustment today, and there was no fluid build up. That has been the first time that anyone has said “no fluid build up” in five months. Since we’ve started going, we’ve gotten him off zantac (reflux medicine), one of his allergy medicines, and we plan to cycle him off his next one soon.

And THEN there is Ford, and this one is even more crazy. I told her about his constipation, and she wanted to adjust him too. His appointment was on Thursday, and I had taken him off Miralax a few days before as a test because we’ve had him off dairy, but it was not going well and he was SUPER constipated. She adjusted him, and by the time he went to bed that night he had filled TWO dirty diapers. And since then he’s had normal digestion. With no Miralax. NONE.

WHAT IN THE WORLD I AM SOLD AND WILL NOW BE SWITCHING MY CAREER PATH AND GOING BACK TO SCHOOL FOR CHIROPRACTY (IS THAT EVEN A WORD, PROBABLY NOT).

Honestly I’m still in total disbelief that any of this is making any difference let alone COMPLETELY changing their health.

Wowowowow that was a long update but that’s been our biggest life change this month.

THE BEACH LIFE

Earlier this month, we went to the beach for an entire week with Seth’s family. It was wonderful and we had so much fun; I’ve now decided that the beach is where I’m going to reside for the rest of my life.

The boys did 50% great. Ford was OOBBSSEESSSEEDD – he didn’t even nap the first day because he was so excited. Colt, ehhhh – not so much. He wasn’t a huge fan of the beach. But can you blame a non-walking baby for hating super hot weather, sand, and salty water? It wasn’t his favorite. So that was a bit stressful, but overall it was wonderful.

All the New People

Now that we are putting down roots in North Carolina, it’s a different experience from our military moves. Moving a lot makes it hard to really invest in deep friendships since you know you will be gone in a few years or less, and if you do make friends, chances are THEY will be gone pretty quick too.

So since we moved here, I have been SUPER trying to seek out friends and invest in those friendships. It def gets you out of your comfort zone, but I have met some wonderful humans. My strategies:

Playground stalking. If I am at a playground or another area with kids, and I see a mom with a kid or kids similar ages to mine, I jump on that like I’m trying to pick someone up at a bar. Some of my closest friends here have been those people.
MOPS. Have you heard of it? It’s a nationwide group of moms that meets every other Friday at a church. And there is childcare for your kids. This one is recent, the new season just started this month, but I’m loving it so far and meeting some great people!
Life Group! Seth and I decided to start leading a life group through our church that meets in our home every week. It has been amazing so far! This one is new too, our first meeting was 3 weeks ago. It was a intimidating decision to make because it feels weird to “lead” a life group when you in no way have your life all together (who in the world does??). But we are mainly there just as consistent hosts and facilitators for a group that loves Jesus and just wants to do life together.

#Noms

I’ve been on a hard mission to eat ALL THE FALL FOOD even though it’s legit still like mid 90s here…if we eat the pumpkin, the fall weather will come.

We are taking the kids off dairy and moooostly gluten right now (we’re about 3 weeks in) to test for any sensitivities – because ALL THE HEALTH ISSUES I mentioned earlier. I’m suspicious they both have some dairy issues that hurt their little bellies.

So that has been an interesting journey. When you take out dairy and gluten, it makes it waaaay more challenging to figure out what to feed your kiddos! This is coming from someone who gave my kids a pretty consistent meal of a Pb&J + a cheese stick for lunch.

Also, dairy free stuff is expensive. Ghee? Coconut yogurt? $$$$. So I’ve been making that stuff myself. Making ghee is actually awesome – WAYYYY cheaper and waaaaay tastier IMO. The coconut yogurt I haven’t quite hacked yet. Mine turned out too thin, and my second batch accidentally got baked in the oven at 425 – whoops (you are supposed to keep it in a warm place while the yogurt making process is happening, so I keep mine in the oven with the oven light on. And guess who forgot that it was in there before she preheated the oven for dinner? 👋).

Third batch is 24 hours in right now – we will see. Also, it’s not even that much cheaper because probiotics (one of the main ingredients in homemade yogurt) are expensive!

What have you been eating this month? Some things we have made recently:

Roasted radishes (tried them?? They are similar to roasted potatoes – BIG FAN).
Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon Tahini Sauce
So. many. pumpkin. muffins. Finally created the perfect recipe! Coming to the blog in October.
Looottss of Simple Kale Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette – it’s the perfect side all year long!

And that’s about all that’s new, folks! I’m flying out to Las Vegas tomorrow to visit my brother and sister-in-law’s new baby, and I’m pretty pumped to smell her head an inappropriate amount of times all week. I hope you have had a wonderful September! Let’s do some recipe recaps.

September Recipe Recaps

A whopping TWO recipes went live this month (yikes), so picking which ones to feature is easy 😂. Good news: they are both BOMB.

What to Make in October

(So happy to write those words, this is my absolute favorite month!)

What’s in season in October:

Beets:

Brussels Sprouts:

Sweet Potatoes:

PUMPKIN (yas):

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