I'm not Lazy, I'm just Messed Up!

For many  years now, I have thought myself a lazy person. I needed a solid nine hours of sleep each night and often still needed an hour long nap in the afternoon. Even with all this sleep, I would get tired easily. I couldn't do too much labor intensive work or I would be wiped out. It was no big deal to me. I figured it was just because of my asthma. I have been precluded from many activities due to asthma. I came to terms (mostly) with that when I was a teenager.

I thought I was just made to be a lazy person. We are all given some ucky things to deal with in this life. I decided that asthma and laziness where mine. I came up with ways to cope with this, to work around the weaknesses.

I've done pretty well.

However, I've come to learn in the last four weeks that I AM NOT LAZY!!

I've been taking some Thyroid meds for a couple years now. They have not done a thing for me. I've learned with my asthma that no change is often a good thing. So I just kept taking them.

Except, over the holidays, I talked to my sister in law Kay. She and my sister have the same Thyroid diagnosis problems, which are opposite of mine. Anyhoo, Kay and I were talking and she was telling me how the Doctors were trying to figure out which dosage of X medicine was the right dosage for her, but in the meantime she was SO TIRED and felt SO LAZY. After talking with her I wondered if maybe my dosage wasn't the right one.

So, after all the ENT appointments dealing with my Sinuses, my Doctor started playing with my thyroid dosage.

HOLY GUACAMOLE!!!

The change in me is AMAZING!

I can sleep for SEVEN hours and feel great!

I don't need naps in the afternoon!

I don't get ginormous headaches in the afternoon!

I have energy to get my work done and to play with my kids!

And after I have worked hard, I don't just want to lie down and die anymore!!!

My doctor adjusted the dosage about three months ago, but it took a while to get all through my system and for the changes in my body to take place. What a difference!

It really hit home about four weeks ago. My new dosage had run out and I was waiting for a refill in the mail. I had about two weeks between the two. I had still had some of the old dosage and thought, well, I better just take the old dosage so that I at least have a little of the drug in my body. It only took a week on the old dosage for all the good changes to go away. I'm actually quite grateful for that backslide!! It proved unequivacally to me that...

I AM NOT LAZY! My body is just a bit Messed Up!

I have my refill now and the changes kicked back in. It is so, so nice to know that I'm not lazy. It is so nice to know that a small adjustment in medicine can make such a huge difference.

Thank Heavens for Modern Medicine! It is truly one of the best blessings in my life. :)

4-H Values

Our family joined 4-H this past year. It is a great organization and my kids are having a wonderful time.

One of the requirements for showing at Fair is attendance at Community Club meetings. At these meetings the business of the particular 4-H club is conducted. Reports are made on things like how much money has gone out of the club and how much money has come in, events that are coming up, service opportunities available, and so on.

Recently, they have started reporting our members' results at various animal shows. Attending these shows has been quite the eye-opener for me.  "How so?" you might ask.  Well, let me tell you...

When showing swine, beef, or lamb, you strut that animal all around a ring, showing off the animals to the judges and audience. The judges look at the size of the body. They watch how the animal carries itself, how it walks, how it stands. They judge their personality and demeanor.

The animals are then taken back out of the ring by their handlers. The judges then "call-back" the animals that they liked. Those animals walk the ring again while the judges scrutinize their every move. This process goes on and on until finally the judges declare a winner. A winning animal is worth a lot of money. That animal is quite a prize!

What's so astounding about this process...

It is just like the try-outs/auditions for actors, models, Miss America, and more! In particular, it reminded me of the musical "A Chorus Line".

Now, I feel that I must make a disclaimer. I am not trying to belittle anyone. I'm not bringing this up to bag on anyone or any organization. Frankly, I love watching the Miss America pageant every year. Mostly, I love see the gorgeous gowns and imagine how I could make them for myself but modest. Haha!

The reason I'm posting this is that I am amazed a the similarities between the two processes. Anyone who really knows me knows that I love to see how things are connected. To see how things have evolved over time. It seems to me that the one process evolved from the other. Can't you just picture the original casting directors--people who had maybe grown up attending Fair and seeing how the animals were judged--adjusting that type of judging to fit their own purposes? Because that's what I see!

I wonder if that's how it actually happened. So interesting!

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Another great thing from 4-H: it is teaching my kids wonderful values and skills.

For example, one girl proudly reporting how she did in a show said:

"Well, I showed my goat at XYZ Show. I didn't place. But I didn't get last place like last year either."

We all clapped and cheered for her. It was great! She might not have won, but she was getting better and that's what counted.

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Also, our family is getting ready for Fair. It is crazy! We aren't doing animals this year. Thank goodness! I don't think I could have handled all the time and effort required for an animal. I'm too busy with my dear children. :)

We do have projects that have to be finished though. Anne and Rose are sewing their hearts out to have their quilts ready. Joe and the girls are all testing recipes to see which will be best to enter. They have a pre-Fair contest coming up next week for cooking. Anne and Rose are in the same category, but they're being good sports about it. They are just hoping that one of them places and they don't care which one. Hooray for being good sports! And sweet Joe is in the non-judging category. 4-H doesn't let the little kids be judged. They feel that the little ones can't handle it. I completely agree. My little Joe would be quite discouraged if judges told him his entry was too dry or a bit under-cooked. The bigger kids, while not liking the criticisms, don't get discouraged...they take the criticism as advice and use the information to make their cooking/baking better the next time.

I'll post pictures and results after we finish the contest next week.

We are loving 4-H!!!