Health + Wellness

So I challenge you this summer to set some goals.  And to make it more fun, I’m framing them into something I’m calling the 1000 – 100 – 10 challenge! 

Long story short—the process was the same—IVs, screaming, tears—but this time 3 injection sites instead of 1. It was an outpatient procedure, and we were home the same day. The whole process went a little smoother (on mom and dad’s end anyway) because we knew what to expect.

Perhaps if I hadn’t been so confident, I might have heard the discussion about the amount of pain that comes with a C-section. My post is not meant to scare anyone. But I’m hoping that by sharing my experience with pain, those of you who go through a C-Section are a little better prepped for the pain than I was.

We all know laughter is an amazing thing. It boosts our immune systems, alleviates pain, and reduces stress. So why don’t we do it more often? Why do we take ourselves so darn seriously?

When I ended the blog last time, I found myself sitting in the office of a pediatric rheumatologist with my 4-year-old daughter, whose knee was the size of a softball, wondering how in the world we ended up here. We had been through knee aspirations at the surgery center, specialists, testing, etc., with no answers yet. Did kids really get arthritis? Or–was it something worse?

March is National Nutrition Month and the perfect time to think about ways to improve your family’s eating habits. We can always do better when it comes to feeding our children and ourselves. My husband and I have experimented with various ways of eating in the past, but now that we’ve added children into the mix, meals (and eating in general) have definitely changed.

All the reasons we really like this easy-to-make, grab-and-go recipe. And bonus: it includes everything from veggies to fruit (avocado) to whole grains to protein! We call it “Not your Grandma’s Chicken Salad” since we’re replacing the often-used mayo with savory avocado.

Back to sleepless nights…this time for completely different reasons. Even though we may not get eight continuous hours of sleep in the foreseeable future, an optimal wake-up time is still within our reach. An optimal wake-up time? Let me introduce SmartWake by Verlo.

Trying to think back to that hectic time in our lives, I can honestly say that I don’t remember if it was the orthopedic surgeon or our pediatrician who recommended that we see a rheumatologist. Again, we were dumbfounded, looking for answers and logic in a situation that seemed anything but logical or explanatory. As I sat there that day, I remember staring at the bio of Dr. David Keim. A rheumatologist? For a 4-year-old? How did we get here?

Ah, February. The month of love and hearts and chocolate and roses and … Whew! With all that plugged into one month, it’s easy to understand why February is also American Heart Month. To help celebrate, our team of Mealtime Mentors has rounded up some of our all-t <p>Whew! With all that plugged into one month, it’s easy to understand why February also is American Heart Month. To help celebrate, our team of Mealtime Mentors has rounded up some of our all-time favorite heart h