Media Fast, Pregnancy, Christmas, Etc..

Hello to one and all! I hope your holidays went smoothly and were filled with families and love!

Well, Christmas time is here! I did a bit of a media fast over the last 6 weeks. Call it my Christmas-lent! I went off blogging, instagram and facebook. Though I have been checking facebook the last couple weeks, but not posting. I’ve learned that The bigger struggle for me is in the out-put on social media, not the in-put! Haha! It's not the first time i've done a media fast, so it's not super mind-blowing for me anymore. More of a necessary evil for every-day life. I have ADHD and I know that gives me an addictive personality. So to keep my social media in check, I tend to take breaks from it. It's the same reason I tend to do better with extreme diets (Like keto) as opposed to "eat well and exercise". One requires real focus, and one I can slip (get distracted) pretty easily.  Anyways, that is that!

I'm also pregnant, in case you weren't aware. Baby #3, boy #3 :) . I am due January 30'th which makes me  35 weeks along in this photo! I am almost 36 weeks now.

 There's two important "week marks" for me. 32 weeks (when i went on bed rest with Josiah) and 36 weeks (when Josiah was forced into this world by c-section cause of my pre-eclampsia). Date 1 has come and gone thankfully! and date 2 is only a few days  away! This pregnancy has been much healthier than my other two so far. Though it’s not without reason. This pregnancy would have landed somewhere between my other two boys I believe, if I hadn’t made the decision to eat keto, and if God hadn’t blessed that choice. By 22 weeks, I was getting blood pressure readings of 140/90 at home, higher in the OBGYN's office. They wanted to put me on blood pressure meds, and I pleaded with them not to. That’s when I went on keto. My blood pressure dropped to 120/70 in the same day, that first day of keto during pregnancy. I shed the water-retention, and the rest is history. It was clear to me that this was an important part of this pregnancy. So now I take my blood pressure daily, so I have something to show my OBGYN to assure her the in-office readings are higher than my average resting heart rates at home.

It does seem as though my blood pressure is beginning to rise, now that I’m almost 4 weeks away from d-day, but the reality is, pregnancy hypertension is caused by a mal-formation of the placenta and there is litterally nothing you can do about it. My heart will continue to push harder and harder, as my placenta ages, trying to force nutrition through a slightly mangled chunk of space. (imagine trying to suck a very thick smoothie through a kinked straw. Thats roughly what's going on between my heart pumping and the "Notched" chunk in my placenta. They are able to test for these notches during a fetal assessment, so we do know that I have some.).  No amount of diet and exercise can fix this. The only fix is to remove the placenta (aka child birth). What keto is doing, is keeping off the water retention and excess weight gain. This, at least, helps my heart to not have to work harder for THOSE reasons. But if my pressures are going to spike, they will spike. So please keep this in your prayers. As I’m phasing our my aspirin therapy these days, my pressures are definitely rising. If this keeps up I know I’ll be on blood pressure medication at my next appointment. So please pray. I would really like to make it to full gestation.

Side note: Aspirin therapy is a medically researched and prescribed form of prevention for pre-eclampsia. By using blood thinners during placenta-formation time, it can potentially help the placenta to form with fewer issues. This is used as a therapy for preventing Pre-eclampsia as well as for people who have frequent miscarriages related to the placenta not attaching well.

Anyways, i’m not going to waste this blog post on sharing all the wonders of keto during pregnancy. But safe to say it’s medically safe. My diet is approved by my obgyn and is only slightly lower in carbs than what a person on a gestational diabetes diet would be recommended to eat.  So worry-not my medically stressed friends and family! Haha! What I am doing is safe and healthy for me and baby. I’ve gained about 15-18 lbs in this pregnancy and I hope to keep it limited to that if I can (But if I gain, I gain. Baby comes first). The change in my diet has also had an impact on my immune function I believe. So far this winter I’m the LAST person in our family to catch viruses as opposed to the first. As an asthmatic I’m generally the immune-compromised one around here. I’ve even skipped a couple of bugs all together. If you were around for Sammy’s pregnancy you will remember how insanely Ill I was with viruses and asthma. Lots of cortico-steroids, puffers, antibiotics, hospital visits, prednisone, bruised and popped  ribs...etc... not pretty. I thank God for protecting me this time around. I don’t know what his plan was last time with all the illness... and that’s something He and I have had to work through... but I am thankful he’s sparing me so far this time.

If you pray though, please continue to keep this pregnancy in your prayers. I am having a difficult time keeping my numbers reasonable the last few days. I'm sure it has to do with the fact that by body is fighting the long-winded cold that the rest of my family has already dealt with... But none the less, it's raising my blood pressure readings to low 140's/90's again, and I see my OBGYN on thursday this week. If it doesnt' go back down before then, I'm very certain, i'll be on that slipperly slope of blood pressure meds, tolerance to them, followed by maxing them out before getting serious symptoms (usually from the meds more than the blood pressure) that require baby to be born earlier than it wants to. So please please pray! :) 

To change gears a bit... It’s also Christmas time! We have had a very nice Christmas so far this year. Christmas went long for us this year, as we didn't have christmas with Curtis's family until the 29'th and an extended gathering yesterday still. So for us it’s been one of those 12 days of Christmas! Hehe!

 I love Christmas. Probably too much. I don’t try to make it all spiritual anymore either. I fully admit that I simply enjoy being festive and celebratory! I love that this is a time of year when different faiths and beliefs can actually unite and you know that everyone is able to celebrate SOMETHJNG, even if it’s not the same thing that I celebrate. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still very careful to include Jesus in everything we do, especially for the boys. But in all honesty If I analyze the holidays, it’s utterly ridiculous to me that we spend more time on Jesus’s birth than we do on his death and resurrection. As Christian’s that ought to be our bigger holiday really. And I do practice lent, to prepare my heart for Easter. Some years I fast between Good Friday and Easter, other years I do a personal retreat day etc... my faith is incredibly important to me and I place its value where it belongs. But Christmas... well it lands somewhere between “keep the sabbath holy” and one of the many many arbitrary feasts that God declared the Jews to celebrate in the Old Testament! I think God wants us to party, be silly, be merry with friends and family. Let loose. I don’t think everything needs to be a huge emotional epiphany. And honestly, trying to make Christmas be serious has always given me stress. But just like we delight in seeing our children delighted... God delights in seeing us celebrate Christmas! Even with Santa and all his reindeer! :) he wants to see us delighted in the gift of his son. And it’s really just that simple. So simple a child can do it just as well as you or I. (If not, better).

So... on that note... as a generally self-proclaimed “maximalist” (opposite of a minimalist), we take advent very seriously in this home! :) my boys made themselves mail boxes last year. Painted them, decorated them... and every day of advent I put a little surprise in it! Usually a Hershey kiss, a dollar store craft, and a small letter about the day and our devotional reading for that day. The boys love it and look forward to it every morning. Saturday’s and Sunday’s are family-related activities instead of crafts. It might be a gathering, it might be decorating the tree together, playing a game together... we also did the Fred Penner Christmas concert this year and Prairie Theatre Exchange’s “munschtopia “ play.

So by the time Christmas Day rolled around, I’m pretty “Christmassed out”! Hahaha! But we carry on, because it’s important to me that my boys understand that a “day” isn’t Christmas, Christmas is about the season, and the time we spend with family, and celebrating Jesus birth. Just like each of them might have a couple of birthday parties (one with family and one with friends) on days other than their birthday, we can celebrate Jesus's birthday on different days too!

We’ve had lots of fun though. And part of that has been how well this pregnancy has gone thus-far. Curtis has also been able to take some time off work this last week, and that has been so good for the boys and I. They are both daddy’s boys 100% so they have been thrilled to have him around. And so have I. His patience and parenting skills are far less hormonal than mine these days! So it’s been a real blessing all around to have him home more.

Our next big adventure is New Years! We are actually going to a family-friendly party last year. We did one at our place last year and it was a lot of fun. This year, friends of ours took up the torch and are speer-heading things, which is wonderful! No it won’t go till midnight, but hey. Young parents can’t stay up past 10 anyways without passing out from fatigue haha!

I did decide to do some New Years resolutions this year. They mostly center around self-control and my addictive personality again.  They sound extreme, but like I said at the beginning of this post,  extreme works better for me than moderation. So my game plan is this:
1)  no Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or BLOGGING for a full year. (social media fast)
2) no online shopping whatsoever for the year. If I really need it and can’t get it in store, Curtis can buy it. And if he won’t, then chances are, I don’t need it! Haha! But the main point will be to be more aware and get things in stores where I’m price conscious, and it’s inconvenient. :) Less impulse spending, if I have to drag a newborn and a 3 year old along to go buy it!!
3) no Netflix, movies, or YouTube-ing (other than to take my blood pressure) before the boys are in bed at night. This one I already do, but let’s be honest... I’ve been a "new" mom twice now. I know that the temptation for Netflix marathons during those sleep deprived breastfeeding days is strong.

The goal of these three resolutions is pretty clear. To reduce my screen time in a healthy way. And by doing so, increase my face-to-face time with my family, my on-the-floor play time with my kids, and to make my transition from 2-3 kids go smoother. Instead of sacrificing the time my kids get, by dividing it by 3 after baby comes, it’s my own personal distractions that need to go. Not their time with me. So I’m hoping this will help with that! And of course, when we remove the other pulls in life, it allows God to pull us deeper instead. When we remove the chaotic chatter of social media and all the voices that spin in our head as a result, things quiet down. We are forced to actually think our thoughts and process them instead of distracting ourselves from them. And in those moments, we can sometimes here a new voice, the voice of Christ... And that’s a voice I’d like to hear more and more clearly every day.


Well, I think that just about sums up life’s moments for the last while! I wish you all happy holidays and New Years! :)

Family update

(I appologise right now for my spelling and grammar. If it bugs you, file a complaint with "blogger" about their spelling and grammar check. it's not great lol)

Boy! It has been a whirlwind month for us in the Harder household. I should probably back track though, since I haven't written one of these for a while. i'll toss some random pictures from the last little while throughout the post to keep you interested!

Summer with a sandbox and retro tractors galore!

This summer was fantastic! Really. Not a negative thing to say about this summer. The boys loved it. They played outside almost every day, including the rainy ones. Curtis built a huge in-ground sand-box around a play structure we scored off kijiji. we stocked up on old rust-bucket tonka trucks, and thats all you need for a flock of happy boys!  I had fun in the garden, and curtis...well... he found trees on sale in july.... so like...15 trees later!!! haha! We planted plenty of new trees in somewhat strategic places (for curtis's master-plan for building a deck and an addition... its a 10-year-plan lol).
3 apple trees, 2 lindens, 3 elms, an oak, 2 maples... I'm missing some now...but lots!!

Sammy always finding a new way to play

We also started to tame our out-back (Curtis is not a fan of that name lol), the back 1/3-ish of our yard that was farmer-field. Curtis mowed it regularly to help grass grow in, we tilled and planted a bunch of berries (Saskatoon, raspberries, strawberries) and a couple sour cherry trees. The idea is to keep the wasps behind the tree line. And in the fall, Curtis dug up a bunch of ditch-pine's and planted those around the perimeter. So we'll see if those took or not! I also popped in some acorns and silver maple sappers... who knows what'll come back! :)

My little garden thieves all summer long!

 The garden was a blast for me. Switching from a small square foot garden, to a large in-ground garden was a big adjustment. Luckily I find weeding somewhat therapeutic, and I took on my mission with the thistles like an Olympic athlete... But more on that in my gardening blog to come! :) The boys loved it, and I'm hoping to grow green thumbs in them yet!

Josiah started preschool in the fall

 Josiah started preschool in September which was a big change for us all! R O U T I N E! something I hadn't had in 4 years! So that took some adjusting, but it's been good. He was so excited and proud.

Another big change was christmas. We declared our claim over christmas morning, as family time. That was such a good idea!

Opening Stockings with Daddy

We were very relaxed and enjoyed our low key time together. It made the other gatherings more enjoyable too, knowing we had special time set aside for our own family time. Our Christmas was pretty basic and simple, but that's what made it special. I also did a pretty involved advent activity with the boys so that stretched out the season, and helped teach Josiah what it was all about.

 

Finally a decent family photo!!

 Kaiser turned 1 year old just yesterday! :) hard to believe this big dummy has been with us for a year already. He's smart enough to love and dumb enough to love lol! Definitely not the sharpest tool in the shed, but still a German Shepherd, so easily trainable and fiercely loyal. He's a big suck though, so dont let his size throw you off. Kaiser passed basic obedience prior to going insane with hormones. He's levelled out since then, but has developped a pretty serious tail-chasing problem.  I'd be worried ,but it's not like we walk him or give him anything to do all winter so.... we really brought it on ourselves. We're getting him a "special new collar" ;) to help jolt him out of it when he starts his spin-cycles. So far, we've gotten as far as training him that I personally dont like the spinning. So he doesnt do it around me. Its mostly when he's excited about something like the kids going down the slide, or the snowmobile turning on, etc... He's also had 2 $400 ear infections...which has been a real pleasure... :( so on those two notes, we've decided we'll fix him this summer. Not breeding material, but we love him to bits!

Our very own snow dog!

 Josiah's birthday also happened in January! We've had his friends party a couple weeks ago, and his family is coming over this weekend to celebrate. We did a snowmobile party, and it happened to fall on that gorgeously warm weekend! And since we live outside wpg, we still had enough snow! The kids and parents spent hours outside having fun.

Snowmobile birthday!

 Josiah wanted banana pops instead of cake (if you've never tried it, you have to! Freeze halved bananas with a popsicle stick in the cut side. Once frozen, dip in melted chocolate. I swear, you never need ice cream again...you're welcome!)

Josiah turned 5!

 And that brings us roughly to now! Sammy has been a fun little trouble maker lately. I feel like he's phased himself into "terrible 3's" a little early. He's gone from ignorant cave-man defiance, to willful and intentional defiance. And with such a strong will and personality, it's been a bit of a trick. Josiah was a follower, and his personality worked well with our parenting style, but we'll have to change things up for Sammy since he needs more control to function properly. It's all a work in progress.

He's potty trained though! And it was a cake-walk! I dont take any credit for that though. It's just straight-up his own independence that made it so easy.

The most recent thing on our plate was kindergarten registration for the fall! Being outside Winnipeg presented it's own challenges like figuring out our catchment schools, busing etc... Curtis ended up taking a day off work so we could take a tour of our top 3 schools. Dugald (french immersion), Oakbank (our catchment) and Calvin Christian (on the table for obvious reasons). We really haggled back and fourth over this one, and ended up choosing Oakbank, because it was over-all the best school from what we could see. The academics were high, lots of supports and resources, excellent music program and growing opportunities, a high focus on moral values, and (somewhat irrelevant to the decision) a Ukrainian language program! Weird right? well...

Josiah at children's museum with his new best friend from preschool.

Haha! We put Josiah in the Ukrainian program! Neither of us speaks Ukrainian, and it's not our  cultural background (other than what the Russian Mennonites stole from the Ukrainian culture). It's nothing like french immersion though. The principle said that by grade 5, maybe 10-15% of the year is taught in Ukrainian. So it's a much slower learning curve and there's also a focus on the culture. So they do lots of cultural field trips and events to learn about the culture. We thought this was a neat little addition since it still grows the language part of the child's brain without being an overwhelming immersion experience (which some kids are fine with, but i'm hesitant about, knowing josiah's personality, learning style and academic level currently). He will still take basic french, so I'm curious how the dual-language-learning will go. we may end up just putting him back in english for grade 1, but we figured it was worth a try! :)

well, that's about it, other than me eating dairy/nut-free Keto, but that's not terribly exciting, just difficult. It's just my "next thing" (i've come to terms with it... I'm a "thing-doer"... lol). I'm working on what I suspect is a "leaky gut" issue by eating keto (look it up... too complex to sum up what it is lol), plus eliminating dairy, nuts, caffine and vinegars other than ACV and citrus juices. Sounds specific and random but it's not. Basically the idea is to not consume anything that could cause inflammation in your gut for 3 months, take some suppliments like probiotics and magnesium to help tend to the gut and let it heal up, and then former food intolerances, and body aches and pains should disappear with the return of those foods within a healthy intestinal track. Hey, it's worth a shot, and if it doesnt work, it was still good for me in the end. :)

Thanks for reading! Have a good night!