4 D Farms: It's Been A Doozy

It has been a doozy of a remaining year. I left ya’ll hanging in October and I apologize. We celebrated Halloween, had a few wienie roasts and bonfires. We have been enjoying grandbabies and time with Dad being off for Winter.

These girls like to be doing everything I’m doing and I love it.

We have had some unusually warm weather this time of year. There are days we could literally let all the windows up and doors open. We are just now getting some cooler weather. However, we did have a storm that came through with severely high winds and it blew down powerlines and trees for miles. Our county was damaged for about two and a half weeks. Dakota was working 16-18 hrs a day with our local electric company that he works for. Those guys were taking shifts and the community pitched in and helped feed them 24/7. Fast food places would send employees out with food and feed crews. In one area it blew down over 100 poles for miles. Homes went for weeks without power. Dakota would come in exhausted and cold or wet. The girls would already be in bed and he would get up about 4 to 5 hrs later and go back out again. It was finally over and they got some rest.

We had a sad event around the first part of November. Dear Hubby lost one of his brothers. He had been sick for years and just got tired of fighting it any more. He discussed things with his daughter which is a nurse and he said he just wanted all machines off. They called in all the family and we watched him take his last breath. He was finally at peace. David is doing good and the rest of the family is too. Nanny (my MIL) has a huge mass in her stomach and they ran a biopsy on it and it came back non cancerous. However, with her age and other medical issues they can not do surgery. It is something she is coping with. She has lost so much weight and it is constricting her eating because it is making her feel full all the time and she is only eating like a bird. We are all getting worried about her. David is one who has always taken care of his mom. He is worried but he hides it well.

I’ll get ya’ll caught up on everyone.

Dakota finally got his promotion at his job that he trained for. He is now an Apprentice Lineman for our local power company. He trained and went to climbing school back in Sept. (see last post). He loves it and says its so different. He likes the pay raise too. We are very proud of him.

Jossie (DIL) is doing great. She has another semester in the books. She passed with A’s and B’s. She did alot of studying and homework. It all paid off. Her next semester starts in a few weeks. Only two or three classes. Three days a week but her class is only an hr and a half long for each day. She is having some medical issues too and seeing some drs until they can find the problem. Hopefully they can find it soon.

I had a rough time until I finally decided to quit taking my blood thinner. I had enough of the side effects which come to find out was my problem all along. The minor chest pains have subsided, the shortness of breath has quieted some, the headaches are less and less, heart palpatations are not as bad, and the brain fog got better. This is not mentioning what it does to a females menstral cycle. My decision was made when I had my last cycle right before I stopped taking them. My cycle was atrocious for 28 days. I was getting weak and feeling awful. My dear hubby was getting very worried because I came to visit one weekend when he was out of town and I was getting weak. He did not want me to drive. I made it ok when it was time to go home. The day after I got home I quit taking them. The very next day, the bleeding stopped. I have not looked back since. Then, I went to my RA dr and we discussed going down in mg on my RA meds. There are alot of side effects to it too. Methotrexate is an anticancer drug. It is right up there with chemotherapy and we all know the side effects of that. I just had enough of not feeling good. I talked to him about starting Tumeric and he said it was fine with him. You can read all the benefits of Tumeric if you research it. It has also helped my leg feel better that has the blood clot. Tumeric is a natural blood thinner. My leg doesn’t hurt as bad. I do have to keep taking Iron supplements to keep my red blood cell count up. I have decided to start eating better. Cutting out alot of sugar, processed foods, incorporating more fruits, veggies, nuts and such. I spent all last year not feeling good and not getting to do alot of things I enjoy doing. So, we will see how this goes.

Dear hubby is home for the winter, hopefully, unless he gets a phone call out of the blue to go out again. He has discovered that he is in the prediabetic stage. I have been worried that this would come one day. You see, his dad was an incillin dependent diabetic. He also had heart issues and high blood pressure problems. He passed away in March. Last summer, Dear hubby started noticing he was not himself. He had no energy and felt awful all the time. He was coughing it up to getting older I guess or hormones. He tried several things but not getting much better. What was suppose to be a fun eventful summer, came to sleeping alot and no motivation. Back in the fall he was working with this guy that noticed some symptoms. He was in the Prediabetic stage too and found help. He has been a coach to dear hubby and has helped him recognize alot of his symptoms and told him to try some things. Dear hubby did, and it has worked. His coach has been a God send. He has to stay away from sugar and he is watching his fats and carbs. It has made a difference. So…… we decided we can help each other. There are things I have to stay away from and he does too so we are changing some things. We are substituting sugars, we are substituting the flours we bake with. We are buying more fruit and veggies. He has been checking his sugar once a week and he is getting it under control. He has done more since he has been home and been more motivated not to mention he has lost some weight. So, maybe this will be good for us.

Dallas is doing good in school. We had an issue with him back in early fall. We started noticing mood swings, crankiness, isolation, weight loss, and doing things that he just knew better to do and was raised better. I was coughing it all up to hormones and peer pressure. Well, peer pressure does have alot to do with it. You see, parents, if you have teenage kids please, please pay attention to their behavior. After much fighting, crying and yelling, we finally had a break through. Dallas broke and finally admitted that he has been suffering with insomnia and anxiety for two years. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? How as a parent did I miss this. I felt so awful that I did not notice he was so helpless. I felt awful. I cried, I mean, ugly cried. I felt awful I was not there for him. Parents, again, please notice their behavior. Teenagers have so much these days to deal with that we did not in our generation or previous generation. Worse peer pressure, bad influences thanks to tv, internet, video games, social media, etc. Our teenagers are pushed at such an early age to think about college and what they are going to do when they graduate. They start pushing this on them in elementary school. Trust me, I know. Its all about testing scores now. I wish we could just get back to teaching and letting them just learn and enjoy being teens. Ok, that is another soap box. Teens are dealing with alot more today than we ever did. Dallas has always been easily influenced and I have always tried to pray the Devil away but no matter how kids are raised, they still have decisions to make when mom and dad is not around. We can’t control everything in their life. I am a parent who wants to fix every ones problems. When they want let me, I stress, bad. We are on the mend, hopefully. We found a natural sleep aid and a natural mood enhancer for him. We do not want to go the chemical route and him get dependent on them. I have been making make ahead breakfasts for him to make sure he eats in the mornings. We keep fruit out at all time. We make sure we talk to him and ask him to come to us and open up more. He is doing alot better. He has a pretty good little girlfriend. We really do like her. Right now in this stage of his life, she is a God send. She gets Dallas. She can read his moods and knows what triggers him. She can change his mood in a heart beat. She keeps him on his toes and keeps him out of trouble. Well, minus a few mishaps. These kids are gonna give me gray hair. Teen capers you could call it.

You can see we have all had our share of battles in 2019, but thank the good Lord, we recognized them and with his help we are coping and fixing things. We will see what 2020 brings.

November rolled around and that starts my cooking and baking for the holidays. I start preparing for meals two weeks before Thanksgiving. I have Nannys to cook for, and church potluck, then the past two years we have hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house with my mom and dad. Then first thing after Thanksgiving, we break out the Christmas decorations and decorate. Then it is cooking and baking getting ready for meals for Christmas. I was literally in my kitchen for three weeks. I wanted my families Christmas meal to be special so I put my Kitchen Aid mixer to the test this year. I broke out the Pasta roller and Ravioli maker. I’ve got to play with the ravioli maker somemore and tweek some more. I made homemade Ravioli and Lasagna. I had 5 lasagnas and my big 10 qt pressure cooker full of ravioli. I was exhausted but it was memorable. The girls helped me make sugar cookie nativity scenes. We had so much fun.

Dallas had been cutting his wisdom teeth. All four at one time. I took him to the dentist and found out one was coming in wrong and had to be pulled. He was a trooper especially under loopy gas and numbing medicine. The dr asked him how he was doing and he said, “I’m walking on sunshine.” So the dr said he would just play that song for him. lol

Mistle Toe Ball came for Dallas at school. He looked so handsome. Yes, he went with a swollen jaw from having his tooth pulled the day before.

We celebrated Dakotas 22nd bday.

I was determined to do more this year at Christmas time because last year I was just having too many medical issues that kept me home alot. I got the decorations all up and decorated the house. Last year I did not put up my small christmas village because the girls were smaller and, well, you know. This year I said, what the heck. I only had to say no a few times and that was it. They loved it

Poppie even got them their own little tree to decorate themselves.

We went to Christmas on Main in a town close to us. We actually went two different nights because Dakota does not do crowds well,he gets impatient and the line to see Santa was so long. So, we saw what we could the first time and we just planned to go back another night and see the rest and get there as soon as they opened all events and Santa was first on our list. It worked.

We made sure we made it to our local parade too. The girls were actually in it.

Atleigh was on the float with mommy and Caroline was in the truck with Daddy.

Dear hubby and I celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary. We always love to ride and see christmas lights on our date.

We did christmas a little different this year. We had our christmas with Dakota, Jossie and the girls on christmas eve morning. That way no one was so rushed around Christmas morning. It worked out good for us and my momma and daddy came and we will probably do that from now on. We had a good breakfast with Grinch pancakes for the girls.