Seasons of Change (Part 1)

Hmmm. I think my "title" might be a little bit unfair as I doubt this post will be as deep and meaningful as it *might suggest :) However, I was all excited and ready to go a couple weeks (?) ago when I started my blog and wrote my first post and then...beep...beep...beep..beep..beep-beep-beep-beep-beeeeeeppppp..... flatline. Well, I don't want my blog to die so soon, so I decided since I don't seem to just magically find the time and, more importantly, the ideas to write about that I better just hop on and make a little magic of my own! Ha! So, this is going to be a general post about a few of the big (and a few of the not-so-big but equally important) changes in life recently, along with some musings of future changes I am anxious to implement as well.
First off, if I were to try and list ALL the changes in the life of myself and my family over the last eight months (ish) it would take many weeks and many posts and although someday I would love to document this time of great growing in my family, this is not that day. So, where to start? I'll start with the two biggest and most important changes we've made so far. First off, the family *diet plan, or to put it more honestly, the lack there of. The biggest plan I had for our family's diet a few short months ago consisted of, "we need to eat something, preferably today, hopefully a few times. Ha! Okay okay, maybe it wasn't THAT bad as I've always had an aversion to the pre-packaged type frozen meals and fast "food" style of nutrition (HA!) but aside from that I put almost zero thought into maintaining any kind of "healthy" or "balanced" diet of any type for myself, the kiddos, or the big man on campus around here.
As I have been so incredibly sick over the last two months I have had ample time to read and peruse MANY wonderful blogs, articles, and other educational information on eating healthy, organic, balancing nutrition, etc. I had no idea the kind of JUNK I was eating and allowing my family to eat all this time! I'll admit it ladies, I'm completely ashamed of myself. I figured we had a fairly healthy food-style but as I said, I didn't put a considerable amount of thought or effort into it at ALL. That has ALL changed!! I am so happy to report that not only was the transition much much MUCH easier than I originally thought it would be (I was totally overwhelmed by all the things I didn't know, was doing wrong, needed to be changed, etc) but the benefits have been immediate and astonishing! Now, just a year ago I would have never guessed I would have said that!
I can say that in a family of five, with 2/5 of us having major health issues and obstacles that sick time in this house is a regular hurdle to be cleared. It seems that for the last four years (at least) someone, or everyone, is sick... *big sigh. I just thought this was "normal" and I suppose in a warped sort of sense, it was "normal" for us. I just figured that with the above mentioned health "issues" coupled with three small children in school (germ-magnets; the schools NOT the kids), that sickness was merely a necessary evil of having a 'young' family. Boy oh boy did I learn a thing or two!!! Well, actually, just TWO... but what a HUGE difference two things can make! Simply by being more concious of the ingredients I use, and a little planning ahead of time to make sure that the meals/snacks each day had the "good stuff" we all need to get and stay healthy... well, that change alone caused me to see an immediate decline in the "sickness factor" of my family! Once I took that change and coupled it with "big-change numero dos" it was like night and day. Seriously!
Which leads me right into the second big change 'round here these days.... removing the germ magnet.... again, I'm talking about the school not the kids!
The other thing that has changed over the past several months is my opinion on the necessity (or complete and total LACK THERE OF) of sending your kids to a "traditional" school setting; ie public school, private school, charter school, magnet school, etc. Now, my oldest son actually began to partially homeschool mid-way through last school year, during his 6th grade "transition" period into middle school. He didn't "transition" well at ALL, and after much uncertainty I finally made the decision to attempt a home-schooling situation with him. Everything is always so much harder for that poor kiddo because he's my oldest, and so with him (as all you veteran mama's out there will know) everything is *new and *scary and *overwhelming and *uncertain, etc.
Now, I say partially home-school because at the time he left the public school system last year I knew ZERO about home-schooling and so I wasn't true-blue home-schooling him, as it turned out, I was just having him do public school work, at home. However, this huge time of growth that the Lord Jesus has brought me into over the last year has led me into some pretty powerful 'truths' about the nature of our public schools, and the sad sad way I've been failing ALL my kiddos by letting those brilliant beautiful little miracles just rot in the sad, failed human "experiment" we call... duh, duh, duh... public school. 
Honestly though, in more seriousness, I really truely didn't know anything about the benefits of home-schooling, the  JOYS of home-schooling, and even more importantly the biblical importance of "training up" ones OWN children. However, the Lord Jesus has been gracious enough to my darling children to "school" their MOTHER in this area... and so as of last week... all THREE of my
"babies" are now doing a 100% traditional, Christian curriculum-based, home-school. We are LOVING it!!! And again, the health benefit to our family... INSANE!!! We haven't had even ONE child-related winter-sniffle sickness at ALL in the last three months!! (Btw, that was even before the 'last' of the duckies made the final permanent transition out of the public 'fool' system, haha!) I am looking forward to many many MANY happy, fun, HEALTHY days ahead.
It's only looking "up" from here on out! Now please don't get me wrong, I am not at all saying that I think this adjustment will be without it's challenges, trust me, I've already had to hurdle MANY of those! Including an indignant and difficult staff at my middle son's elementary school (the final 'piece' of the family puzzle that left his school two weeks ago yesterday), they are doing everything they can to make this change a nightmare for me. However, I will 'fight the good fight' with them over the rights to MY SON and I WILL WIN. He's not a "paycheck" or a "commodity" (which is exactly how I'm SURE they view him, and the ONLY reason they give TWO HOOTS whether he's at "their" school...) he's a precious gift that God gave to ME (n-his-daddy-2!) to raise and I intend to do exactly that! I will update everyone on how that whole saga plays out. Oh, the drama. Ha!
Oh goodness, I can see I've already got myself a novella going here and I'm not nearly through the points I started out intending to make... so I'll just do a wrap-up of sorts and leave the rest for another day...such is life :) I want to say that the two main sources of this new-found wisdom in healthy eating habits and home-school education come from a beautiful couple I've never even met, or spoken to... but who the Lord none-the-less used in order to help facilitate the changes I'm sure he's been wanting to see in me (and mine) for a loooonnnngggg time comin'. So this is my little "shout-out" to them, from my ever-grateful heart for all they have (albeit unknowingly) done to better my family's lives, and no doubt that they will continue to do.
So, thank you, from the deepest place in my heart, Mr. and Mrs. Steven Anderson for everything you do in Christ, with love, that impacts the lives of little 'ole people like us. I'm sure I'm probably one of 1000s who have been blessed by this beautiful couple/family simply because they weren't afraid to stand up for the TRUTH in God's Word and speak it, pulling no punches. For the "good pastor" and his no-holds-bar sermons that have thundered right past my incredibly thick skull straight into my heart like an arrow of God's Truth, and for his beautiful wife for her candid, informative and riveting blog-posts that are ever-teaching me, and a shining example of a true "woman of God" that I can strive to follow as an example. Thank you Jesus, for people such as these! Rare jewels in a dirty world are they!!
And so I'll say goodnight and hopefully (maybe?) tomorrow I can write a "part two" to talk about the coming changes I am anxious, eager and admittedly terrified to make in the coming weeks/months/years... I hope this finds all that read healthy, happy and full of the joy and peace God's love can offer. With love in Christ!