To Be Happy at Home

Questions to ask myself when I start to feel overwhelmed/bored/stressed/stir-crazy:

1.  Have I taken care of first things first?  Have I prayed, studied the scriptures, showered?  I can't always do those things first, because sometimes I am needed before I have had time to properly prepare for the day, but I find that when I do them as soon as I can, they make all the difference in how my day goes.

2.  Have I done my duty?  Am I caught up with cleaning/dishes/laundry/meals?  Have I spent quality time with my children, encouraged my husband?  Am I putting my best energies into these relationships that matter most?  President Monson said, "Happiness is found in the path of our duty."  I have tested that and found it to be true.  I don't find happiness by running away (though sometimes I feel like it).  I find true happiness by doing my duty more fully, with my whole heart. 

3.  Is there someone I can serve?  Taking an opportunity to make a phone call or visit to someone who needs it can take my mind off my own problems and put things back into perspective, plus it just makes me happy to make someone else happy.

4.  Is there something I can learn, some way I can improve?  Taking a class or learning a new skill (when the opportunity arises and the time is right) or developing my talents can work wonders for me when I start feeling stagnant. 

I know that true, lasting happiness and contentment are found when I give my time and attention to those things that matter most.  I know that God wants us to be happy, and He will help us when we do what He has already asked us to do, wholeheartedly.  I think that is true whatever our circumstances are. 

Encopresis

Encopresis 

Our son Joshua got really sick in April 2010.  Lots of kids did right then; there was something going around, some kind of stomach bug that caused dehydration very quickly.  Joshua got sick on Saturday morning, and by Sunday at noon he was so dehydrated that he had lost a quarter of his body weight and was lethargic and barely alive.  We did not know what to do--we thought that since he had stopped throwing up, and just wanted to sleep, that he would finally be able sleep it off and get better.  We were wrong.  He was dying.  Thankfully, my mother-in-law, who is a nurse, felt prompted to stop by our house on the way back to Pinetop and check on him.  She told us to take him to Urgent Care, which we did, and were told to take him to the Emergency Room.  I thought he was going to die on the way to the hospital, that's how lethargic and weak he was.  (And of course the freeway was under construction and the drive to the hospital took forever that day.)  He ended up spending two nights in the hospital with an IV, getting re-hydrated.  We took turns staying with him in the hospital and taking care of our other kids, one of whom was a nursing baby, which meant that most of the time it was John in the hospital with him.  After he came home, we found that his health problems were not over; they were just beginning.

Joshua's first bowel movement after being sick was so difficult that in passing it he tore something slightly, and for months afterward every bowel movement was painful.  This was, naturally, frightening for an almost-four-year-old, and he coped by trying to withhold his bowel movements, rather than letting them out and having them hurt.  He quickly got where he wouldn't use the toilet at all.  He was too afraid.  He would hold it as long as he could and then go in his pants.  This led to constipation, which led to a host of other problems--daily stomachaches and growth delay (caused by malnutrition) being the most serious.  We spent a year and a half trying to figure out what the problem was.  We knew it had started with his illness, but didn't know if it was intestinal, or allergies, or what.

Finally, in October 2012, I read a book, Diaper Free, on an unrelated topic, but which had a phrase that clicked with me--megacolon.  That is what happens when someone is constipated for so long that their colon becomes stretched out.  I searched that term, late one night as I was up with my 9-month-old baby, and found the term encopresis, which matched exactly all the symptoms we were dealing with, and made complete sense.  I found a website called encopresis.com that outlined a treatment plan (Soiling Solutions), bought one of their books (The Clean Kid Manual) secondhand on eBay, and we got started.  (I did check with our family doctor first, and she verified the diagnosis and suggested similar treatment.)

The results were almost immediate.  He had not been growing--he was five and a half and still wearing 3T clothes.  We started treatment in October or November and by December he had started growing again.  I have never been so glad to see one of my children needing new clothes!  The daily, hunched-over in pain stomachaches disappeared.  Before treatment, he would leak poop, just a little bit, and then sit on the toilet and not be able to go.  When he did have a bowel movement in the toilet, which was rare, it was huge and obviously painful.  Over time, as we did the daily treatment hour, we saw his bowel movements decrease in size until they were normal again.

It has now been a little more than a year since we started treatment.  Things have changed for the better.  He still can't always go on his own, but most of the time he can, as long as his diet has been good (homemade whole wheat bread is essential for some reason).  His bowel movements are normal size again.  He still doesn't like to use the toilet, and won't go on his own most of the time.  I don't know how to help him over that hurdle.  I think he just doesn't pay attention, and now that he is physically able to use the toilet he will get to the point of taking himself eventually.  I hope so.

This isn't the kind of thing you can just talk about, and I am hesitant to do so, because I feel like people will be grossed out and just not want to know all of it.  But when it is your child, and you are the one desperately seeking answers, you wish more people would talk about it so you can find out what is wrong and what to do.  I am sharing our experience in the hope that you will understand three things:
1. This is a real problem that kids will not just "grow out of".  It is heartbreaking and challenging, but it doesn't have to be permanent.  Treatment is available and effective when done right.  It can get better.  It may not be easy, but it is possible.
2. Everyone has problems.  Some people's problems are more visible than others, but whether they can talk about them or not, the problems are real and very challenging to that individual/family.  Please don't ever assume that anyone's life is perfect and problem-free, because I can guarantee you it isn't.
3.  All parents make mistakes, some with far-reaching effects on their children and others.  I have cried and agonized over how we took care of Joshua in his illness, thinking that if we had just been more persistent in giving him fluids drop-by-drop or if we had realized how bad it was and taken him to a doctor sooner or something, we could have avoided all of this grief.  But, the fact is, we did the best we knew how to do.  The Atonement of Jesus Christ covers not only our sins and their effects, but also our mistakes, and their effects on those we love.  I know that in time or eternity, my son will be healed.  I also know that we have traveled this road for a reason.  We learned things about our son that we needed to learn, and were able to make some needed course corrections that have brought us to a better place than we were before.  Joshua is happier, and our relationship with him is stronger, than before.  We understand his needs better, and we are better able to meet those needs.  I am grateful for the things we have learned and the ways we have grown as we have worked through this trial with our son.

Dirty-Faced Angels

Four little angels with sweet, dirty faces,
Four little angels in my backyard--
What could I ask more than I have been given?
What could I ask more than things as they are?

All that I ask is that these little people,
Cheerfully digging and building and such,
Feel gently blessed by a father who loves them,
Know Mother's kisses and kind, tender touch.

I know their world will not always be gentle,
And to their virtues will sometimes be blind.
Please let our home be a place of uplifting!
When hope they seek, may it be what they find.

Here in our humble nest may they find shelter,
Until they're grown and must be on their way.
When life's strong winds would drive them helter-skelter,
May what we've given them still be their stay.

What It Looks Like Around Here

What it looks like when the 8-year-old makes the biscuits:

And when the 3-year-old and 5-year-old have a little too much time to themselves:

And when the baby is happy:
 

The end.  :-)

Let's Go Fly A Kite!