Carrie's Update

School: Last week, I received an email from PCC letting me know that I had made the Dean's List for the winter term. This wasn't something that had ever occurred to me, so I was surprised and it was nice to know that my hard work combining school and parenting and housewife-ing had paid off! The way this term is going so far....I don't know that I'll make it again, but it's early still. I'm just struggling a bit to find the time to get everything done. I could use some prayer about that, as I've been feeling quite overwhelmed over the past two weeks.

Shoulder: I completed eight weeks of physical therapy for my shoulder and it's just about back to normal. I do have some limitation on my range of motion if I try to stretch my arm up over my head and can hear/feel some scar tissue crunching around if I try it. There's also some near-constant discomfort (not pain) in my shoulder, but it's very mild and isn't restricting any activities. I got the all-clear to begin exercising again and building strength back up in my right arm. I've been working out every other day for a week now and it's going really well. It feels good to move like that again even though I am still guarding my shoulder quite a bit, just out of fear of injuring it again. I hope to have the comfort level back up soon so that I can finally sign up for ballet classes.

Food: Odd thing to update, I know. But I made a choice a few months ago that has really surprised me. When Lent came around, I decided to give up fast food. I hadn't eaten any fast food in nearly two months at that point anyway, so I figured it would be pretty easy. It was, until I got the stomach flu and then was craving burgers once my appetite came back. But I held on through Lent and even past it. So, after about four months of no fast food, we found ourselves out at dinner time last weekend and had already promised the boys ice cream from McDonalds. We decided to go ahead and get dinner while we were there. We limited ourselves to dollar menu burgers only, no fries or soda. While eating my first fast food burger in four months, I discovered that it tasted horrible. I could barely finish it - it was THAT unappetizing. Since then, I've eaten at least one salad each day (I had two today). It's been surprising to me how my taste for things has changed over the past few months. Junk food does not taste very good anymore, although I can't say that I've stopped eating it entirely. I just don't eat much or else I start feeling ill. We've also discovered that our Costco is carrying more and more organic food all the time. I don't usually buy organic because of the increased cost, but at Costco, I'm paying about the same as I would for non-organic at the grocery store because I'm purchasing in bulk. These are food changes I wasn't sure I'd ever make, but we're slowly seeing a difference in how our bodies react to the things we eat. I'm loving this change!