The New Year, 2013 started out great in our home! We had big plans and much to look forward to. I was on top of the world with my health and fitness and meeting my goals. Homeschool was going great with the kids and I was gradually getting more organized in every area of life! Then boom! The challenges hit! One after another! Our oldest son had an accident and was hospitalized. He recovered quickly and we moved on. Then we had a drought on our island and all water was shut off for over a week. As if that wasn’t enough, my son (the same son who had the accident) got sick, which we later determined was from contaminated water during the drought time. Days in the hospital and a slow recovery followed. During that time, our oldest daughter broke her finger playing basketball. Yeah, the ER crew was really getting to know us well at this point. And then came the day I woke up at 3 AM to find my face swollen four times it’s normal size, which the doctors agreed was an allergic reaction, most likely from ants I’d been bitten by earlier in the week. The allergic reaction turned into cellulitis within hours and the doctor told me there was concern of it going into meningitis as my head was swelling! Another long hospital stay! Ok, if you’re reading this and thinking, “what is wrong with you guys?!”, well, we do live in a third world country, a small tropical island in the South Pacific where bacteria literally runs rampant and multiplies instantly. Bad water, bugs, germs, and bacteria are a part of everyday life for us and while we usually have a good handle on it, this time it all seemed to hit us at once – yeah, literally at once – everything I just mentioned has happened since January , 2013! And this is only March!
Challenges come. Life WILL throw you a curveball from time to time. Flexibility is key and seriously, it doesn’t do anyone any good to stress and fall apart over it. This is a lesson I’ve had to learn and re-learn many times over the years. And one I’m sure I’ll have to continue learning till the day I die. Am I giving up? NOPE! Yesterday I got back to my workout routine, my first workout since my hospital stay. I’m focusing more on what we eat – we normally eat pretty healthy but now I’m even more aware of what we’re eating. Good has come out of these challenges whether I saw it at the time or not.
A quote I came across recently says this: “You can’t control the curve balls life throws at you, so you have to learn how to control yourself and change quickly to make sure the curve ball doesn’t knock you out.” – Mark Edwards. So stop stressing over what you have no control and focus on what you can change – YOU!
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