So Thankful....

This year was the first time I really enjoyed November and the whole thanksgiving season.

I admit I was often the German Grinch who felt that Thsnksgiving was a speed bump for me into getting into tne swing of the Christmas Season. 

However something happened to me and it made it all very very different and while I do to know what caused this change I love it!

It started all with me feeling the need to clean out our Home. We drove trunk loads after trunk loads to Goodwill. Our Bedroom and Closet alone donated about 1000 Books and 15 huge black bags of clothing. Our Office donated lots of educational materials, books, Computers and Cameras. 

Out of the downstairs Play and Gameroom came games, sewing machines, DVD's and video games.

This part took about two to three weeks and I can not tell you enough how liberating it felt. We still have ways to go with the attic but just starting it all was such a happy feeling.

Then came the FB Tradition of saying 'Thanks' each day for something in your life. That alone is so eyeopening as you start realizing how good life really is, not perfect but good!

Then came another very happy compromise :) I did start downloading my favorite Christmas songs to my Computer and syncing it with my iPad and iPhone. 333 songs that I have been listening to since about November 15. No I did not feel guilty as I love them and they make me feel happy and also grateful and that is what Thanksgiving is all about, right? I was validated as one of my Sattelite station  switched to 'Holly' at the same time :) I also started to work on Christmas Cards and gifts, because taking stress away from December is also a good thing in my eyes.

So in the end it was my merging and being able to enjoy both that made this such a great month.

I think we all need to stop being critical towards each other in how is the right way to celebrate this season. After all aren't Thanksgiving and Christmas close to the same feelings? We are grateful and we should focus on giving and helping those less fortunate. So to me it does not bother me to see Christmas Trees go up or hearing Christmas Music. If it brings joy to someone it can not be wrong and truly it hurts no one....

I loved November, even the snow that it brought us so very early, and I am now going to dive into my beloved Christmas Season. No Season is more magical once you have kids! Connor and Alexander are truly the two people that made me believe again and my creativity and imagination goes back into high gear thanks to two little people that still BELIEVE ❤️💙❤️

Grateful to each of one of you!

Love,

R A C A

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love this time a year because it reminds me each and everyday about all the things I am so thankful and grateful for!

I have been listing things each day on FB throughout November and while it always seems a bit strange in the beginning it is very easy to warm up and then I feel as if I can't stop posting- lol

As to the actual Holiday it really falls in the same pattern we had for years. No Turkey here today as Ron is flying and working as he does most Hollidays and will on Christmas as well. So the boys and I baked cookies, watched movies and just relaxed all day. Funny part is that my husband had a complete Turkey Thanksgiving Dinner on his layover in South America. It is really something to see what efforts Hotels around this world will do to accomadating Americans that are traveling.

For once this has been an AMAZING year for Connor and his battle against JDM! We as a family have proofen once again that we are the best and strongest when faced with pain.

I am so grateful for the people that surround me, my family, my friends. An amazing gift to have support of so many beautiful people. My husband and my boys are the pillars who give me my wings to fly and my friends are the once who make sure I don't fall.

On a more materialistic level how can I not be grateful for the live I am living? To not have one need! Well a CURE for Juvenile Dermatomyositis would fall under a need, but other then this I am living the life of a successful warrior (if you know me I am not really the princess type - lol). Thanks to my husband I have a beautiful family, live in a beautiful house in a beautiful State. I drive wonderful engeineered cars, have all the tech toys I could want and get to travel frequently. I can go out and buy us the foods we love without a second thought. Now I do NOT take any of it for granted and we do try to pay it forward. I like to think we have a great rythem of donating foods, clothing, toys and household items on a monthly basis and I also realize life will not always be this easy. It has been much harder in the past and we do not have the financial stability we used to have prior to JDM. So while the materialistic items are wonderful and fun the are NOT my strength and pillars.... I know if all that goes away tne warrior in me will still be strong!

I learned to surround myself with people that are grounded and supportive and I truly feel blessed. However no life goes without ups and downs and the biggest loss came with the death of my Dad in June. Nothing had me prepared for this cruciating pain and feeling of loss. Never can I put adequately into words how grateful I am to have been his daughter and for having had the greatest Dad I could have been given. His presence in me is strong and I learned that his confidence in me lives on and in a strange way I feel stronger then ever. Ironically when I was faced with one of my worst nightmares, loosing someone I love with all my heart, I also learned that it takes and breaks my heart but it does not destroy me. I miss him and cry more frequently but also bring him back alive in my heart by asking and reacting to situations with his voice in me.

Yesterday Connor had a checkup at The Children's Hospital in Denver/Aurora and the news are wonderful! He will go from 1 ml of Prednisolone to 0.5 ml daily and from 0.9 ML of his Methrotrexate Injection to 0.7 ML each week. He was given the choice of trying the oral version again which he was on prior to his Flare last year but he declined and said he will stay with the injection. How proud I am of both my boys! So much older then their years when it comes to medical dealings but still precious little boys when it comes to believing in magic! The greatest gift of all!

So my request to you if you have not done so this month. Sit down and write down 10 things you are grateful for and see the snowball effect. No, it will not take your pains and worries away but it puts it all in relations to what the choices are......

Hugs,

R A C A

Gearing up for the Holidays ❤️

It's ironic that my first entry in a while comes while sitting in the waiting room at The Children's Hospital. We got very lucky in regards to both, Connor and Alexander, receiving PT back to back each Wednesday. It makes for two hours in a waiting room for me but it also means just driving down the Mountain once each week :)

We also made a change in tne Boys Cottage School Program and they are now going one day a week from 7:45 am to 3 pm instead of twice a week from 11 am to 3 pm. The boys love it and so far I think the setup is wonderful...

 Well, especially for me as it is almost shocking how much I get done in 7 hours by myself!!! A dream for any homeschool parent - lol

We are also extremely busy preparing for the Holliday Season :) I will be getting my Mom in about two weeks and we are more then excited and happy about this! The boys will be playing the Grinch in the School Christmas Play and while they are excited about this as well they are also very nervous now realizing how many lines they have to learn... One thing our boys do not lack is ambition and confidence - lol

One huge part about our daily life right now however if the newest Fundraiser for CureJM and our part has been selling paintings to raise money. We had several paintings ready to sell that the boys had made throughout the year but we were thrilled and surprised to see how much interest there was and now we are all painting to keep up the demand. Even I picked up the paintbrush and love drawing little Stick Figure paintings with writings on them. Connor has picked up on this and has done amazing work in this as well! Alexander makes great action paintings and I am so proud of their creativity and joy in expressing themselfs.

If you like to see some of the Artwork we have made then please visit Artsonia and look at the Gallery 'Painting for a Cure'

http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?exhibit=720601

We also have an FB Event where you can purchase paintings available for sale and you would directly donate the cost to CureJM, it is public and listed under 'Paintings for a Cure'

https://www.facebook.com/events/1427942177423977/?ref=ts&fref=ts

The link to donate to the boys cause is

http://www.crowdrise.com/curejm-holidaychallenge/fundraiser/ankesmith. So if you find a Painting that has not sold yet on the Event Page then please write your interest under neath the Painting and MSG me your mailing address.

Now there are several other CureJM kids and families offering wonderful art products and sales and with the Holliday Season around the corner it be such a great way to buy a gift and in return give hope for a Cure by giving money for a Research! Have I mentioned yet that a few weeks ago CureJM was awarded the Gold Star for being one of the most outstanding Charities! Run by volunteers/Familes who want nothing more in life then a Cure!

So I will end with a couple of more links for you to please look at and see if they are offering something that catches your heart ❤️

Paracord for a Cure

https://www.facebook.com/events/549423788473099/?ref=ts&fref=ts

And Mary, Martha & Myositis

http://www.livingwithjuvenilearthritis.com/2013/11/mary-martha-myositis/

I wishing all of you a wonderful Holiday Season and that the joy will trump the stress that often comes with it. We are very much looking forward to the next two months but it will also be a challenge how to deal with the Hollidays as well as it will be our first without my Dad and of course it will be the 4th year anniversary of Connors battle with JDM. It all started in the end of November in 2009 and while time has taken some of that fear away I still feel a coldness creep into me when we get closer towards Christmas. 2009 and Christmas will always be tne one that I thought we loose Connor. 

Hugs,

RACA