2014

Life’s Journey {Thoughts From Me}

December 30, 2014 by Dana

The world can change in a blink of an eye and life can change in a simple heartbeat. Nothing stays the same and we must always keep going. Moving forward, looking for the next step, the next path we should take to continue on.

Life’s a journey. It’s a time traveled, well walked path that takes us onward even when we aren’t ready to move on. Things end, new things begin and somehow we all make it through.

We aren’t given a choice to live. We are born. We move inch by inch every day to find our worth in this world. Our existence and purpose is ours alone to glorify that which we cannot see.

Simply put, we live because we are born to live.

There is no magic way to get through the days. There is no winner. There is no competition. We are here to be here for one thing only: God’s Glory.

Sometimes we forget this and need just that small reminder where we are slightly knocked and sometimes pummeled by the trials set forth upon us to make us into better people. Our lives are ours to live but they are ours only to bring forth the beauty of the Human Spirit and breath God in the day to day for others to see His existence and His love through us.

God is the most important aspect of this World. All things must come back to him. Life cycles until we find Heaven again, from the beginning through to the end.

God is the glory and the joy of the world. Faith in Him leads you to where you should be in life. Never give up hope. Hold on to that single mustard seed of Faith and let him show you where you should go as you travel through this journey called Life.

Merry Christmas {Photo Reflection}

December 25, 2014 by Dana

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

December Update {Epilepsy Awareness}

December 11, 2014 by Dana

It’s been a month since I posted on the blog. I really was feeling burnt out and just needed a long break. Plus I was sick with strep for two weeks and simply did not feel up to writing anything.

My life is ever chaotic but full. There is always so much going on. It’s never-ending but I’m thankful we have so many activities to keep us busy.

Jackson has therapy every Monday in Charleston right now but that should be ending soon. It’s for his Parent – Child Interactive Therapy and it’s been amazing for us. His therapist is so impressed with our family and how quickly we have achieved our goals. It’s been great for me too because it’s assured me that I have this Momma thing down. Parenting comes easy to me even when I feel like I’m barely keeping it together. I always knew I was born to be a Momma.

Jackson also has therapy on Tuesday’s where we always have. He’s my third child at NextStep. They are amazing to work with.

Last week, Jack was fitted for braces and shoes for his feet as requested by his wonderful therapist. The braces fit inside his shoes and help with his arch support. They keep his ankles from twisting and help him balance better. At least that is the hope. If these don’t work, he will get ankle supports to help him gain strength in his legs and feet. The goal is to prevent him from having similar issues as Emmalee has.

Laycie began back with her speech therapy last week as well. She’s officially done with physical and occupational therapy. Her speech is still challenging though so she will continue with that. I really need to get her an appt to have her tongue tie checked and discuss surgery options for it. I just dread having her suffer with having that done.

She has a neurology appt on Monday. We will see how she is doing and if she has lost any more weight. If so, she will be switching medications again which is always a challenge for her. The doctor had some suggestions for us that we will discuss at this visit. Not sure what they exactly are but I trust his opinion on the matter.

Winston and Emmalee are doing great as always. At the neuro Monday, I will bring up Emma’s followup for her feet so we can see where we are on that. I’m so past ready for the doctors to get rolling with a treatment plan.

So that is our most recent update. Life is just so busy right now and Christmas time is always exceptionally busy for us. Hope you are all well! God bless!

Never Give Up {Thoughts From Me}

December 3, 2014 by Dana

In life we must keep on going until we find our destination and never give up on the journey that takes us along the way.

Snake Oil Party Potion {Crew Review}

November 13, 2014 by Dana

We received from Out Of The Box Games a copy of the extremely fun game Snake Oil Party Potion for review. This game is designed to be used with children and families age 8 and up. It retails for $14.99 and is a ton of fun to play. Look for it at a toy store near you!

Have you ever heard of Snake Oil? Snake Oil is a term from the olden days that was used to describe fake health products. In the good old days, salesmen or Charlatan’s would go around putting oils or liquors into medicine bottles and convince customers they had the cure for you! They claimed their oil would bring relief which was often untrue but by the time you realized it, these Snake Oil salesmen would be long gone and your money would too!

To play the game Snake Oil Party Potion, you should have 3-6 players. It takes about 30 minutes to play a full game. The game is designed to be used with those who are age 8 and up.

First you need to choose a Customer. The customer chooses a customer card. The customer cards are blue on one side and green on the other. They choose which side they wish and that is the role for the game. Some of the choices are Mad Scientist, Life Guard, Waitress, Astronaut, and more.

There are two sets of Word Cards. These are used by the players to create a product for the Customer. You must combine two word cards to create the potion. As soon as the player is ready they can begin to “pitch” their product to the customer. A customer can cut the “pitches” off if they are too lengthy in tone.

After the players have all made their pitches, the Customer can reward the Customer card to the player with the best sales pitch. The player to the left of the original Customer then becomes the next customer and the game continues until everyone has been the Customer at least once. At the end of the game, the player with the most Customer cards wins the game.

Snake Oil Party Potion can be combined with the original Snake Oil game as well. This allows you to expand the game further, making it even more fun, as the cards for each game are different. The more people you play with the more fun the game.

We used this game as something fun to do as a family. My kids loved it and laughed so hard while we played. It is now one of their absolute favorite game to play. You should see the hilarious combinations they come up with. And practicing sales pitches has been very beneficial to their speech and speaking in public.

I also included my 6 year old in playing this game with little problems. I helped her and she jumped right in playing along with us. She loved being a part of the group and being able to play along.

Snake Oil Party Potion from Out Of The Box Games is so much fun!!!