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I identify myself as a mother first. I love kids! When I was young all I wanted to be was married and raise a family. To this day I love being around and play with little ones. Don’t get me wrong I just need a fix I don’t want to go back to raising them. I have four of my own that are now young adults. Michael who is 24, Katy 21, Lily 18, and Jason shown in the picture above with me is now 15!
I have my Bachelors degree in Early Childhood Development and prior to having kids worked at the local Community College’s Early Childhood Development Center. At the college the students were given hands on experience working with preschoolers. The program prepared them for jobs in the early education field. I stopped working when I had my first child (Michael) at 23 years old. From that point until 5 years ago I was a stay at home mom. Currently I work two part time jobs that I love. I am back at the college now working with the students who had AEP’s in High School but now need executive functioning help in college and I am an office manager for a functional wellness doctors office.
The journey into the functional wellness side of health care has shaped all aspects of my life. It is now my passion! Unfortunately like many people we had to find out the long and hard way that traditional medical doctors don’t have all the answers. In 2009, at the time, my 8th grade daughter Katy gained 40 pounds in a month and had a surgery to remove an ovarian cyst the size of a 12oz can of pop. We were told by the University of Chicago’s lead of pediatric OB that she was fine and that girls gain weight when they hit puberty, and that we should not make her feel bad about it. At that time we knew we need to search for answers else where. Long story short she was later diagnosed with Insulin Resistance, Leaky Gut, and a Thyroid problem. This diagnoses came with the help of a few local Functional Medical Doctors and the Cleveland Clinics Functional Medicine Department. It took over 4 years to really understand what we were dealing with and several more years to figure out how to get her better. Now she is off thyroid medicine and has great quality of life.
So what business do I have writing a blog? Over the years I have developed a large network of friends. It started out with a play group I joined when my oldest was born where the moms helped each other out to navigate raising our children. There is a certain comfort, strength, and knowledge gained in these friendships. Now those play group kids have all grown up and are starting to have families of their own. Over the years new friend groups have been developed and evolved as the kids have progressed thorough school, college, and life. I have been blessed to be apart of soo many relationships. I have found that I have a keen interest in other peoples lives. I love to listen to their stories and try to help with whatever challenges they are currently facing. I have found that much of the issues people are dealing with today such as; anxiety, depression, obesity, and a slew of medical issues revolves around what we put in our bodies. Starting out as early as how we prepare our babies for vaccinations. I hope this blog will help those simply looking for a healthy dinner idea to others who are desperate for answers/direction to major health issues.