Just a Little Update

Hello friends!

It has been too long since I have written here! About a month ago I accidentally stopped blogging. I had planned to keep blogging once or twice a week as I had been doing in the fall, but this winter I struggled to keep up with writing. Now it has been so long since I have written here that I’m not quite sure where to start. Maybe the best place to start is a rambling update letter.

Blogging has been hard for me lately. On some days I’m just too tired to blog. On other days I have more energy, so I do something around the house or with my family, and then I’m too exhausted when I go to bed to be able to blog. And then there are days when I have energy in my arms to type, but struggle too much with brain fog to be able to write well.

I like to keep my blogging limited to times when I already have to be in bed resting. I have a very limited amount of energy, and I don’t want to spend energy on blogging if that energy could be put toward my family. I want to be a wife and a mom to the best of my ability, even when that means letting my blog go untouched for a while.

Relatively speaking, my health isn’t too bad right now. I’m not doing as well as I was in the fall of 2016, but I think I’m doing slightly better than I was in the spring of last year. I am extremely tired on some days, and on those days it is a mental battle to push through the fatigue and make my body walk around the house. But I’m not crashing, so no need to worry that my lack of blogging is due to a crash. It’s just a combination of good days, bad days, brain fog, and needing to spend time with my family.

I do want to get back to blogging, but I think I need to keep it simple for a while. I am considering sticking with easy blog posts and more of the "old style" blogging. Blogging has become so professional, and I need to let go of the pressure to write mostly professional articles and instead just have fun with my blog and connect with others. Maybe there are readers out there who need to read a casual blog as much as I need to simply write a casual blog right now.

Due to brain fog I have not been reading blogs as much as I used to. There are several very good, encouraging, and helpful blogs that I used to read regularly, but the articles are so long that it has been difficult for me to read them lately. Maybe some of you also need encouragement, but are having a hard time keeping up with long blog posts too. If so, then maybe my need to write short and easy posts is just what you need too.

I will continue to write for The Irresistible Church blog occasionally. I will share a link on Facebook when my articles are published there. Later on I will republish them here on Cranberry Tea Time for those of you who do not see them on The Irresistible Church. Other than my articles for The Irresistible Church, I plan to keep it casual here for a while.

So if I haven't been blogging, what have I been doing? Last month I went out for a little adventure with my family to a state park. The pictures in this post are from that outing in early March. I thoroughly enjoyed the time out and about with my family! I think it took me a week to recover from those few hours out, but it sure was fun!

In February I went grocery shopping with Will. It is amazing how fun grocery shopping can be when you are usually stuck at home! I had a whole lot of fun! Last week I was able to attend William's 5th grade choir concert at his school. They did a fantastic job.

I spend some of my time and energy each afternoon training Frodo. He's still a puppy, so we still have some work to do. He is also dealing with fears and anxiety, so he's a little harder to take care of than the average Morkie. It's exhausting for me on my bad days, but I do enjoy Frodo's company. We all love Frodo, and we are doing what we can to help him.

I still crochet as I am able, and I have a couple of projects to share with you in the coming months. I also have some good books that I have been reading (very slowly!), and I hope to review them here on my blog soon.

The other exciting thing for me is that I have been doing some ancestry research lately. That has been enjoyable, and it is something I can often do even when my arms are too tired to type. I just need a mouse to click around.

How are you doing, friends? What have you been up to this spring? What kind of posts would you like to see here on Cranberry Tea Time? What would you find encouraging or helpful?

Blessings and joy,
Rachel

Weekend Fun

You won’t believe what I did this past weekend! I can hardly believe it myself. I went down a water slide! Yes, that water slide you see pictured above. I have been having a lot of "good days" lately, so I put my energy to good use and played with my family!

We spent time at a pool on Saturday. I enjoyed walking around in a chilly pool for exercise, and I enjoyed relaxing in a hot tub. Most of all, I enjoyed a ride down the water slide!

Will helped me climb all the way up the stairs. The steps were shallow, which made the climb easier for me. I move slowly up stairs, so there were quite a few kids and teenagers lined up behind me by the time I got to the top. But they were all patient with me, and no one complained about the slow person! :) 

Once I made it to the top, I got on a raft and rode down a dark and twisty water slide! I flipped upside down when I landed in the pool. I got water up my nose. My head was spinning. It took some time to fully regain my balance. But I did it! And it was so much fun!

After going down the water slide, I relaxed by the pool and watched my family play. Adelaide had a lot of fun on the little water slide.

I love to play. It is one of my very favorite things to do. If I have energy for it, I will go all out to have fun. And I sure went all out this weekend! I had a migraine the day after playing at the pool and going down the water slide. Too much activity always flares up my migraines, but this was a mild migraine considering the intense activity from the day before. I am still extra tired and sleepy from the weekend, but I am doing very well all things considered.

In the past two weeks my health has started improving again. I have been regaining strength and energy more quickly than I did this fall. I am so glad for the improvements. I still have to spend the majority of the day resting in bed, but I am able to do more when I am out of bed in the afternoons. My energy levels now are about what they were in June of last year, which is a significant improvement over where I was in February.

There are many ups and downs with my dysautonomia, and I am glad to finally be on the upswing again. I am trying to not get too excited about the extra energy, though. I want to make sure I keep my hope firmly rooted in Christ and not in the hope of more energy and better days. When I place my hope in better health, I am always disappointed. When I keep my hope in Christ, it anchors my soul, enabling me to weather whatever dysautonomia storms come my way.

Choose Joy Weekend

A few weeks ago my family took a weekend trip, and it was so wonderful that I just have to share it with you! In January there was a Choose Joy book signing in Sioux City, Iowa. I live too far away from most book signing events to be able to attend, but this one wasn't too far away! Will said he could take me. 

I was very excited about it, but as the day drew nearer I kept wondering if I should actually go. I was so tired, and I knew that the trip would set me back and make it even harder to recover from Christmas. In the end I decided to go anyway. I knew that it would cost a lot physically, but I also knew that I would regret it if I didn't go. So we packed and planned and prepared. And we traveled to Sioux City, Iowa for two nights. It was a wonderful time away. It was a weekend for choosing joy, escaping the house, having fun, and dealing with the consequences later. I have spent the past three weeks recovering, but it was worth it!

During my Choose Joy Weekend I kept thinking about Sara and her quote, "I especially choose the French fries." It was a physically taxing weekend, but I determined to choose the joy, the relationships, the conversations, and the fun. And I chose the French fries twice!

The day before we left on our trip I had an IV to help me make it through the weekend. During our trip I put on a lot of make up so that I wouldn't look so tired in pictures. I still felt tired, weak, and exhausted, but at least I didn't look like it!

One of the best things about visiting Sioux City is that they have a Chick-fil-A! We had supper there on Friday night, and I chose the waffle fries. :)

On Saturday afternoon I went to the Choose Joy book signing, and I got to meet Mary Carver, who co-authored the book with Sara Frankl. Mary blogs at Giving Up on Perfect and is a contributing author at (in)courage. It was a delight to meet her and have her sign my book. She was just as sweet and kind as could be.

Earlier that morning while I was sleeping in, Will had taken the children to walk around the mall. Adelaide came back at noon excited to tell me about the carousel in the mall. She asked me to ride it with her, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to ride a carousel again. So after the book signing that afternoon, we went to the mall, and I rode the carousel with my children. It was fun to get to do something so normal with them, but the ride itself was not entirely pleasant...

What you can see is a moment of pure joy and delight with my children. What you cannot see is that I was dizzy, nauseated, and struggling to sit upright, and it hurt to sit on a carousel horse. But I chose the joy. I chose to have fun in the moment and pay for it later. I rode the carousel because my dear daughter asked me to. It is a memory we will always cherish.

The biggest highlight of the weekend was spending over two hours with Sara's sister, Laura. The moment when online friendship steps into real life is a beautiful thing. Laura and I talked and talked, sharing about our lives and about our sweet Sara. I never had the opportunity to meet Sara in real life, but I heard about her hugs. Shannon said that Sara "hugged so tight that you never wanted to let her go." And Laura hugs the exact same way!

On our way back home on Sunday afternoon we drove through Le Mars, Iowa, the Ice Cream Capital of the World. So of course we had to stop at the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor!

Adelaide and I wore our houndstooth scarves, which was fun. It was the first time we had worn them together outside of the house.

As we finished our drive home, I enjoyed looking out the window and taking pictures of the fields. It was wonderful to escape the house for a few days and see the outdoors. The time away with my family was special, and meeting new friends was such a treat. I have had a lot of hard days in the past six weeks, and the Choose Joy Weekend was a bright spot in the midst of it all. It has taken me a few weeks to recover, but I'm glad I went. The whole weekend was overwhelmingly wonderful. It is a memory that I will always treasure.

The Mini Adventure

This fall I have been working on recovering from the toll that the summer took on me. I have had to spend a lot of time resting, and I have been more homebound than was previously typical for me. Two weeks ago I was itching to get out of the house, but was so tired that I wasn't sure how it could happen. We decided that I should have IV fluids, get some extra rest, and then do what it took to get outside. The IV infusion was just the boost I needed to be able to get out of the house for a day.

The outing was absolutely wonderful. I got to see outside, take pictures through the van windows, see a national monument, and spend the night in a hotel. It was a delightful escape! I had to spend time recovering after we got back home, but it was so worth it.

As we started our drive, William and Adelaide said, "It's The Great Adventure!" I laughed and said, "Oh no! This is The Mini Adventure."

We went to Pipestone National Monument, and it was beautiful! The fall colors were stunning and the air was nice and chilly. My parents have taken William and Adelaide there before, but this was the first time I was able to go and ride on the trail. We skipped the museum because I have seen that before, and I wanted to put my energy toward being outside.

The trip was so fun that I wanted to share it with all of you. Some of you may have already seen a few photos from our trip on Instagram. Here are a few more. I hope you enjoy them!

I had fun watching Will, William, and Adelaide hike to the top of the waterfall.

I sat at the bottom of the falls and waved.

William and Adelaide had fun hiking, and I had so much fun being with them!

While we were at Pipestone National Monument we picked up a 4th Grade Pass for William. Did you know that every 4th grader in the United States can get a free pass for the family for all national parks? It's a great deal! You can learn more at Every Kid in a Park.

I know that many of my readers are disabled, so I also want to share about the Access Pass with you. I wish someone had told me about this 10 years ago! If you are a U.S. citizen and have a significant and permanent disability, you can get a free Access Pass to all national parks. The pass will give you entrance to any national park or federal recreation land, and you can also bring up to 3 other adults in for free with you. Children under 16 are always free. You can learn more about the Access Pass here.

After seeing Pipestone National Monument, we went to a hotel, which was a treat because it let me see 4 different walls. :) I also got to watch the sunset from our hotel room.

What a wonderful trip it was! Thanks for letting me share it with you. If you want to see more pictures from our drive that weekend, you can find them on Instagram.

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My New Favorite Seat in the House

In July Will and my sister, Krista, rearranged furniture in our house so that I could have one of my recliners next to the big sliding glass doors in our office. This allows me to recline and watch William and Adelaide play outside. Previously I had to stand at a window to see the children playing in the backyard. I could never watch for more than a couple of minutes because my blood pools in my legs when I'm standing. Now that I can lie down in a recliner and see out the window, I can watch them play for an hour (on a good day).

I had to let Will and Krista take one of my bookshelves and half of my books down to the basement to make room for a recliner in the office, but the sacrifice was worth it. I love lying in my recliner and watching the children play outside. This is such a treat for me! 

In the fall, when the children are in school during the day, I am hoping that this recliner will be a place where I can work on scrapbooking as energy permits. And maybe I'll even get to watch the children play in the snow in the winter! There is much to look forward to with my new seat by the backyard windows. :)

Fancy Teatime

"What better way to suggest friendliness - and to create it - than with a cup of tea?" 

- J. Grayson Luttrell

A couple of months ago, Adelaide and I invited our friend, Bethannie, over for afternoon tea. To make teatime even more fun, we decided to dress up and wear hats!

Adelaide wore her new fascinator that we had made the week before. She also wore clip-on earrings from her Great Gramma. She was so excited to wear earrings and a fascinator for the first time!

What a treat it was to have Bethannie come over for a fancy tea party! We had a wonderful time!

Making Little Hats

Last year was a particularly difficult year for me health-wise. Recovering from my "crash" in the winter of 2014 has been a very slow process, but I am excited to say that I am finally making some progress! In the past two months I have had some definite improvements. I have not needed to spend as much time in bed, and my migraines have been lessening in frequency. My body still tires quickly, but at least I have enough energy now to push myself a little and regain some strength.

When I started feeling better in March, the first thing I did was pull out my craft and hat making supplies! For about three years now I have been collecting supplies for making little hair-pieces and fascinators, and I was so excited to finally have enough energy and enough supplies to make a few little hats. I didn't have the energy to make everything in one day, so I kept the hat-making supplies out for a week and worked on them a little bit each day. Adelaide helped me with some of the hat-making, and we thoroughly enjoyed our girly and crafty time!

These are the four little hats that Adelaide and I made. The top two are for me, and the bottom two are for Adelaide. My hats are feather pads that are secured onto headbands. I also added two antique pins from my Oma. Adelaide's little hats are fascinators, and they will secure onto her head with an alligator clip.

Here is a close up of the black curly goose feather pad on a headband.

These are Adelaide's fascinators. She helped to pick out the feathers and buttons and ribbon. The pink fascinator is her favorite.

We had such a fun week making fancy little hats together. And soon after creating our hats, Adelaide had an occasion to wear her new, pink fascinator! A friend came over for fancy tea, and we each wore a hat. I will share tea party pictures with you next week!

German Christmas Cookies

German Pyramide and German Christmas cookies

When my parents were visiting recently, my dad taught me to make Spekulatien using his family's recipe. I have always enjoyed baking, and it was especially fun to learn to make German Christmas cookies using a family recipe.

If you look up "Spekulatien" on the internet, you will most often see it called "Spekulatius." My dad's family always called it "Spekulatien" because that is the plural of the word "Spekulatius," and they always wanted more than one Spekulatius! I grew up calling it "Spekulatien," and I never knew until last week that not everyone calls it that!

Spekulatien is traditionally made using a wooden mold. After pressing the dough into the mold, you have to bang the mold on the table so that the cookies will fall out. My parents knew that the noise of banging a Spekulatien board would be too much for me because of my chronic migraines, so they gave me a Spekulatien roller!

After rolling out the dough with a regular rolling pin, the Spekulatien roller was used to imprint and cut out the Spekulatien shapes. It was a nice and quiet process.

Spekulatien

Carefully transferring cookies to the cookie sheet

Ready for baking!

Spekulatien fresh from the oven

Later on that same day we made Lebkuchen, another type of German Christmas cookie. Adelaide had so much fun helping us. She loves to bake anything with me.

I don't have my Oma's recipe for Lebkuchen, so I used this recipe. It is delicious! I have found that it takes about 1 cup more flour than the recipe calls for. I also add a glaze to the cookies when the come out of the oven. 

Lebkuchen

Lebkuchen and Spekulatien

What is your favorite thing to bake during the Christmas season?