just a little quiet celebrating over here

I'm not really sure where or how to post this little random bit of happiness, so I'm going to share it here, for the few people who read this blog and for my own little record of memorable moments in the course of our life.

Our children all went to the dentist for the first time today! They did great. It helped that the whole place was designed to make children happy. It was designed around an ocean theme, with the clownfish Nemo being sort of the centerpiece of that. There was a ship to play on... prizes to choose from... even small televisions on the ceiling for the kids to watch while they got their teeth cleaned. They were completely mesmerized. I think the TVs were more effective than using nitrous! Especially since the movie playing on the ceiling above their respective seats was "Finding Nemo."

Sidenote... I watched "Finding Nemo" with Rilla last spring as a special treat while we were doing our oceans homeschool unit, and she cried and hated it and thought it was terrifying because of the whole business of Nemo's mom and siblings being eaten at the beginning of the film. (This is what happens when you raise sensitive children, by the way... every Disney film is terrifying. Although we are also reading straight through the Old Testament, and Rilla's most recent request to be reread is the story of Samson... go figure.) Anyway, Rilla has been warning her brothers ever since watching "Finding Nemo" about how horrible the movie is and how they shouldn't watch it until they are almost grown-up. So of course the boys were sort of morbidly fascinated with getting to watch part of it on the ceiling at the dentist's office today! But I digress.

The truly exciting thing for me that came out of going to the dentist's office was... drumroll please... no cavities!! All of the kids are cavity-free!! Yay! I am super excited about this. If you've been following along at home, you may know that our lives have been rather tumultuous over the past several years, and in the midst of that, I haven't been as gung-ho granola with the kids like I probably would have if life had been a little calmer (which, yeah, I recognize may be a good thing). But I've still been deliberate about trying to cultivate healthy teeth through their diets. I am quite restrictive about candy or sweets, we haven't bought sugar in like a year, I feed them homemade bone broth whenever I get the chance, I always soak our oatmeal and make sure the kids have vitamin D supplements and/or cod liver oil alongside oatmeal for breakfast, we eat butter from grass-fed cows and drink unpasteurized or low-pasteurized milk... that kind of thing. I do usually brush their teeth once a day, but never ever twice, and basically never floss them. Although I did floss them tonight, as they are all pumped up for flossing after their trip to the dentist and getting cool little happy flosser things.

Sidenote again... we do eat sugary foods occasionally, mostly when sharing meals with others, because even though I believe it's terrible for you, I'm not willing to destroy the work of Christ or hinder fellowship among Christians for the sake of food. Also, I may or may not have personally eaten the majority of two huge bags of M&Ms over the weekend that I had bought as rewards for potty training (don't judge... the potty training situation is rather desperate around here... desperate times call for desperate measures). So, I am not great at actually staying away from sugar unless it is nowhere in my house.

But! The point being, I am feeling a little bit victorious and a lot bit thankful about the kids' teeth being so healthy. The kids each got to enter for the "cavity free kids" drawing or whatever, and I kinda thought... hey! I think I should get an entry in that too. :) I am just so glad that they have healthy teeth, and I do feel like I had somewhat of a role in that! Because even if I have the occasional M&Ms binge, they do not. There was also a certain fluoride debate that took place on my Facebook wall several years back... something I'm not really feeling like starting up again, ever... but I am pleased... not smug, people, just thankful and relieved... that despite my crazy no-fluoride-for-my-kids-thank-you-very-much stand on the matter, they all have healthy teeth. So far. And yeah, I know that could change. And although Abe has incredibly good teeth spacing, and Zeke's are alright, it does look like Rilla will need braces eventually... so I am not quite a "win" in the Weston Price book... saying that tongue-in-cheek, everyone.

I guess I am especially happy because of my own dental history, and how that is impacting me even now. I had thirteen cavities when I first went to the dentist at age thirteen, and my mouth is full of mercury amalgam fillings. Having gotten more into natural health stuff in the last decade, I am now terribly disappointed about having all these mercury fillings in my mouth. (Is that why my hair is going gray so fast? Is that why I'm losing my memory? How will it impact me long-term? Agh!) I am hoping that I will be able to get my mercury amalgams replaced with composites in the near future, but even that is rather scary. Anyway, the kids are little, and of course they may get cavities and need (composite!) fillings eventually, but I am really happy and thankful that they have healthy teeth to start with. This parenting thing is so hard and crazy sometimes, and sometimes it feels like we are making all these intense choices and doing all this hard work alone in the dark, without really a glimpse of whether it will turn out well in the end, that I am just relieved and tremendously thankful for this one glimpse at this one area that says, yeah, they are developing well, yes, they have healthy teeth, yes, all that work at making bone broth and soaking oatmeal and staying away from sugar and whatnot really is having a good effect on them for the long-term, and yes, I should keep it up, and not become weary of doing good, and all that.

If you'll forgive me for indulging in one more item of thankfulness for the kids' health, let me just add this. Abe and Rilla had optometrist appointments a few months back and so far, they both have perfect eyesight... both slightly far-sighted, just like they should be at this age. That too is a relief and blessing. Keith and I both have terrible eyesight. Mine is particularly awful... like 20/700. We both had to have glasses from a young age. So to have our kids have really excellent eyesight... honestly, I consider it a gift from the Lord, but I do think it also has to do with some of the nutritional choices we've made along the way. And that's not to say that they won't ever need glasses and so forth... or fillings... but it is to say that for now I am thankful, and motivated to continue making good nutritional choices on their behalf, even when it gets hard or makes other people think I'm a little bit weird!

And can I add one more bit of thankfulness! This one is not about the kids so much, although I think it will affect them too. Keith's Christmas gift to me was to begin working out with a personal trainer of my choice, which I sort of swapped for a family membership to the YMCA. We got signed up yesterday and went and worked out today.

Did you catch that part? Keith and I went and worked out today! Together! With, like, amazing workout equipment and stuff! It was soooo great! We dropped our three children off with professional childcare people at the Y... for free... and then we worked out! Whaaaat! It was like a date!! We have seriously never, ever in our marriage been in a place where we had both the facilities and time available to actually work out together in a workout center. And although I used to do a bit of walking/hiking with the two older kids in the stroller when we lived in north Idaho, I have not worked out with actual workout equipment since college! I didn't work out today like a standard workout... it was more like going around, remembering how equipment works, using things like the hip adductors and abductors and whatnot and remembering that I even have those muscle groups. It was fantastic. My whole body was just so, so happy to finally get to stretch and work a little bit. I am so, so excited about this! I have been feeling so very old and tired, and I have been so very out of shape, and I feel so renewed and thankful. I was really needing this, and I am really, really thankful that it is possible for us to do this right now.

The local Y is quite new. It has a nice swim area where we will be able to take the kids and also enroll them in swim lessons. It has a rock-climbing wall for ages 4+, a free childcare area for kids ages 6 and under, fitness classes included for adults, a very nice workout center... nicest I've ever worked out in... and a gymnasium. I'm just super thrilled right now and tremendously excited about actually being able to go and work out, both going by myself with the kids and letting them hang out in the daycare area, and being able to go rock-climbing with Keith sometimes or work out together, and being able to all go swimming together! What a crazy, wonderful thing!

Okay, I'll finish up now, but I am just so happy, and I wanted to share it somewhere.