5 Reasons Why I Love Taekwondo For My Daughter

My daughter Lucy is an amazing young lady. Seriously, she is the kindest, most caring, and gentle old soul that I have ever known. She's sweet and funny and always sees the good in people, even when they don't deserve it! She's been like that her entire life and she's almost 15. So that says a lot.

Unfortunately, this gets her walked all over more often than not. It gets her made fun of and ridiculed. It gets her treated like crap. And you know what happens when you're made fun of and treated like crap by your peers on a daily basis for years? 

Your self esteem plummets. You question everything about yourself. You second guess every single thing you do. You don't like yourself. You start to withdraw from the world around you. Cuz being a tween or teenage girl isn't hard enough on it's own, right?

Two years ago, we could see it.. We could see the spiral starting to go deeper and deeper and we knew we had to find something for her. She had done soccer in a local league but she got treated like crap and told daily that she sucked by most of her teammates because she didn't perform up to their standards. Her last coach was awful. I vividly remember him running them and running them and running them lap upon lap around the park on an almost 100° day. And I watched her stop running and stand in the middle of the field. I could HEAR her struggling to breathe while sitting in my truck. From all the way across the field. He was not even 10 feet from her and didn't even acknowledge what was going on. I ran to her and literally had to hold her up while telling her "BREATHE, BABY! BREATHE!" (We found out shortly after that, that she had asthma) And not one time did her coach even ask if she was ok. We tried to get her put on a different team, but they wouldn't cuz her jersey was already printed for that team. So we pulled her from the league.

Then one day, I saw a post on Facebook for Rising Star Martial Arts in our area. My cousin had a daughter there and I asked her about it. She raved about it so we brought Lucy for a trial class. She second guessed everything she did but for the first time in a long time, I watched her face light up with excitement. 

Lucy getting her white belt:

Watching everyone gather around her and clap and cheer for her as she got her white belt, I couldn't help but cry. THIS was what she needed. THIS was home. 

Over the last two years, we have watched her work her tail off. We have watched her become more confident. We have watched her still second guess herself, but attack her goals head on anyway. We have watched her make real friends. And the next belt she will be testing for will be her black belt. 

Here she is, after getting her red belt with black stripe. 

Ok, ok, I'll get to the 5 Reasons Why I Love Taekwondo For My Daughter now. 

5. It has had an extremely positive influence on her and her life. She can relate lessons learned from Taekwondo to so many different areas of her life.

4. She has made real genuine friendships with so many awesome people that share many of the same values she has. She is accepted for who she is. 

3. Nothing is GIVEN. It is EARNED. Through blood, sweat, and yes, sometimes tears. Through dedication and commitment. You earn it every step of the way and you NEVER GIVE UP. 

 2. She can defend herself. Let's face it, this world is becoming a scary place. There are so many sick people in this world and there is always the possibility of being thrown into a situation where she will need to defend herself. It eases my mind a bit to know that should the need ever arise (and I pray to God that it never does) she will be able to handle it. 

1. It has shown her the beauty, power, and strength of her body AND mind. It has shown her that she CAN do ANYTHING she puts her mind to, no matter how difficult it may seem. 

 For those reasons (plus So many more!!) I cannot recommend Taekwondo enough! I only wish that I had stuck with it myself for longer when I was a kid!

Edited later to add:
My beautiful amazing daughter placed Grand Champion at her Summer Tournament. Super proud mama moment!

Back On Track..

CHOOO-CHOOO!! 

ALLLLLLLL ABOOOOOOARD!!

This broad is back on track!

After having months and months of morning sickness in which the only foods that didn't make me sick were the crappy carbs that I had given up, I've had my baby and am officially back to kicking ass.

After all those carbs, let me tell you, it wasn't pretty. I gained back so SO much of the weight that I had lost. Granted yes, I was pregnant, but the amount of weight I gained was ridiculous and not healthy. And maaaaan did it mess with my head and my self esteem. In a major way!

I'm only officially A little over one week back into keto, but I am feeling so much better both physically and mentally.  I started a little "Getting Started With Keto" challenge group and we started last week Monday, but I screwed up and officially restarted that Wednesday. Did you hear me? Yes, I screwed up. I was tired, didn't feel like cooking, and hadn't meal prepped. We got fast food for dinner and I originally planned on having a nice salad but at the last minute I chose a pulled pork sandwich, on a bun *gasp* and I fries with cheese. And THEN do you know what I did?!?

I got my ass right back on track. 

Wanna know what I *didn't* do??

I *didn't* beat myself up over it. Wanna know why??

 Cuz LIFE HAPPENS, my friends! 

I ate well since then and drank my water (I had already been drinking my water since I'm nursing my baby) and BOOM! I dropped 12 lbs this week. So yeah, I'm pretty excited about that. 

I feel like I'm back in control and can't wait to get back to where I was last Summer and then surpass it!

Be sure to keep an eye out because I'll be resuming my What I Ate Wednesday posts!

Till then, look at this bit of yum! T-bone steak with a pat of butter, an Italian sausage, and roasted asparagus. So good!

When I See You Smile

"When I see you smile
I can face the world
Oh you know I can do anything
When I see you smile
I see a ray of light
Oh I see it shining
right through the rain
When I see you smile
Baby when I see you smile at me"

~song by John Waite~

Why You've Been Hearing Crickets Over Here..

 So, if you follow my blog, I'm sure you've noticed it's been really quiet over here. 

Well, first, things got busy. And I was seriously feeling miserable and exhausted while pregnant. Busy + Exhausted + Miserable = quiet Ry. That's just the way it is. Lol I couldn't even think straight long enough to pop on here and string together one small paragraph. 

Then, I went in for my twice weekly Dr appt at 37 weeks and my blood pressure was a bit high again, so the Dr said "yeeeeah, we're just going to play it extra safe and send you to go get induced. TODAY. 

The whole car ride home my 6 year old kept exclaiming "Oh mama! This is SO exciting! I can't believe I get to meet my baby sister early!" God Bless her heart. She was so excited and *my* mind was a jumbled racing mess. 3 weeks early?! I had nothing ready at home. Hell, I hadn't even packed my hospital bag yet. Nevermind the fact that I really really wanted to avoid being induced again so I could have a drug free labor/ delivery. No way could I do that while being induced. It's so much more painful! 

Well, little did I know, I could and did go drug free. It was not easy by any means, but damn it, I did it! 

After a very long and uncomfortable day and night, the next morning, my Dr checked me and I was only 6 cm dilated. I was SO torn on wanting an epidural cuz I had issues with my last two but was worried I couldn't get through the delivery without.. he told me "if you want one, now is the time. Cuz you're probably going to go quick from here on out." I said "ok, let's just do the epidural cuz I don't know how much more I can take!" But the anesthesiologist was in the O.R. and wouldn't be out anytime soon. Meanwhile, none of us realized just HOW quick I was going to go cuz not even 10 minutes after my Dr left my room, I called my nurse cuz I was feeling a lot of pressure. She checked me and I was only at 8 cm. She left the room and I'm not even kidding you, not even 2 minutes later, I KNEW.  

Suddenly I felt crazy pressure and had the worst contraction by far, so strong that I could literally feel my eyes roll back and I seriously saw stars.. (no joke, my hubster remembers that look on my face very well!) I grabbed my belly with one hand and my hubster with the other and yelled "OMG! CALL THE NURSE NOW!!!" "Why? What's wrong?" He asked. As he pressed the call button, I growled " CALL HER NOW! THE BABY IS COMING NOOOOOOOW!!" 

The nurse ran in and said while starting to check me "you can't be ready yet." Which turned into "oh!! Yes you are!" She calls for help while scrambling to get things ready, but my baby girl wasn't waiting for anyone. I could feel baby making her way into the world and I grunted "I'm sorry, I swear I'm not pushing, my body is doing it on its own!!" (Who the hell knew that was a thing?? After 3 previous kids with whom I pushed for soooo long with, I sure didn't!) Within about ONE MINUTE we went from "she's crowning!" To "oh!! There's the head" to "there's the body!" as I let out a guttural scream and my amazing nurse caught the baby. 

Talk about a whirlwind!!! Definitely a delivery I will never forget! My hubster kept looking at me and saying "I can't believe you did THAT with no drugs. Babe, you're Superwoman." I just smiled and shrugged and told him "not really. Lots of women do that all the time! But really, I still can't believe *I* did it, either."

My beautiful Gwendolyn Rae came into the world weighing 7 lbs 4 oz and was just the sweetest little bundle of joy. 

We went home after one more night in the hospital cuz I was bleeding a bit more than they liked at and after the delivery. Gwen was a bit jaundiced but they let us go home as long as we brought her to her pediatrician the next day to get checked out. 

The day after that, we got the call that her bilirubin levels were higher and to bring her to get them tested again. We had just gotten home from that when we got the call and was told they wanted us to bring her in to be admitted for phototherapy. I was a crying bumbling mess, as I never had to do anything like that with my other kids. I was worried sick. But after a day, night, and another day under the lights, her levels dropped and we got to go home. 

Its been a month now and we've been readjusting to having a baby in the house again. And we're seriously loving every minute of it. We have truly been blessed with a great baby. 

So there you have it. I'm still busy and exhausted, but we're finding our groove, are blissfully in love, and our family is complete.