It's been nearly a month, but I am only barely finding time to blog all about this motherhood milestone:
My first baby girl started (all-day) kindergarten.
She couldn't have been MORE excited about it. As hard as it was initially to drop her off for 6.5 hours out of the day and while it was sad to see how lost Lila was at first without her big sister and best friend, I couldn't be more excited for Kenadie.
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| The bestest of friends |
She won the lottery with her amazing teacher, Mr. Schaff, and Kenadie has really been loving school and is soaking in everything like a sponge.
Within the first week, Mr. Schaff came to me and said that he'll be pulling Kenadie and two other students aside periodically to work on some advanced reading since she is so far ahead that she is already getting a bit bored.
She has been loving the challenge of the little books she brings home to read. It makes my heart happy to see her so engaged and excited.
It's also been nice to have a forced routine of getting everyone up early, sitting down to eat breakfast together as a family (since Garrett is rarely home before the kids go to bed), and being ten times more productive by 10am than I usually am during the summer. The regular routine has also helped Soren start to take actual decent naps (hallelujah!), which is turn has helped me to spend time with this little toot
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Our new routine has also allowed me more time to do a little schooling of my own!
Every other fall Garrett and I have to renew our professional licenses (my nursing, his chiropractic). In addition to paying a sweet chunk of money for the license renewals, we are both required to complete a certain number of continuing education credits. In the past I have stuck to nursing courses that have been very familiar to my work: cardiac monitoring for the critical care nurse, oncological nursing care, nursing care for the Alzheimer's patient. This year, I opted to take somewhat of a different course:
I have been thrown into the world of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, and Homeopathy.
It is an entirely different world for me!
I think about health and disease in terms of the immune system, T-cells, B-cells, antigens, and pathogens; so my brain is hurting trying to look at health and disease in terms of heat/cold, damp/dry, qi/blood, wind/stagnation. I have to admit it is like learning a new language and while I am no stranger to natural home remedies and alternative medicine (since I have a chiropractor as a husband), this has been much more in-depth than I've ever experienced.
I am learning a lot and it is crazy to think that while this is my "alternative medicine", it is (and has been for millennia) THE medicine for a great percentage of the world's population.
While I still respect and appreciate modern/western medicine for the millions of lives that it has and continues to save with its incredible knowledge base, technology, and life-saving drugs,
there is something to be said about not letting go of the herbs and natural remedies that have worked well for thousands of years.
Tonight's chapter: The Chinese Way to Women's Health
Happy school year, everyone!
1 comment:
Hi, Holly. Your writing is fabulous. So happy that your eldest started kindergarten and so happy she loves it as much as she does. Maxx also started kindergarten, and he, too, loves it and is learning so much. I still say your kidlet and my "sort of" kidlet need to grow up and find each other. They would have the most awesome children, themselves!!
I love reading about eastern medicine, etc. and I hope you will blog a lot about what you are learning. Perhaps, it will light a fire under me to learn more about those things. Riddled with chronic and severe pain and disease, I am always looking for ways to improve the quality of my life. Thank you for sharing what you are learning!!
Love to you and yours in your neck of the woods in Alaska!! Utah is beginning to cool down at nights, still vibrant and hot days. I love this time of year. It is wonderful to be alive!! Cheryl
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