Life Lately: Dropping Like Flies

That pretty much sums up my kids this week. I have been to urgent care twice and to our primary's' once. Later today, we're off to the specialist. I guess when it rains it pours. Last Friday my son mentioned he wasn't feeling too hot. By Sunday I was exhausted from sleepless nights and constant crying. Off to urgent care we went. Turns out he had dime size ulcers in his mouth that had become infected. That infection spread into his ears, causing quite a bit of pain in my little guy. Thank goodness for drug stores that are open on Sunday's, because illnesses operate 7 days a week, you know.
Fast forward to Wednesday: Liam finally made it back to school. Here I thought to myself, Great, I get things done and get possibly get to the mechanic. Ho, ho, ho! This is when someone noticed my daughter grabbing herself. After a brief conversation with her, I was on the phone with my primary doctor. (We'll keep that visit private.) Off to the drug store!
On to Thursday: I noticed my oldest daughter's ear was yucky and full of gunk. Oh dear! It was obvious she had an allergic reaction to the earrings she was wearing and there was an infection. I took them out, soaked her ear lobe in peroxide (mostly to loosen the gunk so I could remove the stud), and wiped it down with a dab of antibiotic ointment. Huh, I thought, that's strange. Where is the earring back? I looked, pondered, then realized one small piece of information. When I put her earrings in, I specifically put the metal backing on, then put on a plastic back so the earring wouldn't dig into the back of her ear at bedtime. I looked. Here's the plastic backing, but where is the metal back? Eyes wide, I touched her lobe, noticing how swollen it was. I could certainly feel a knot in it, but was it just infection? Off to urgent care we went! Sure enough, the doc took an xray and came back, saying, "It's in there." That earrings' back lodged itself into her ear lobe! Oh my word! 
So today we're off to the specialist to see about getting that earring back cut out of there. I have yet to see the mechanic. Thanks for indulging in my week with me. Tomorrow I will finally get a day off. So stay tuned as I prepare to share the awesomeness that will be tomorrow with you. For now, have a great Friday and safe weekend.
Toodles! Steph

The Best Way to Love Your Body

For some time I have been suffering health issues. Minor things, but things I knew were not the norm for me and I thought could use some attention, so I sought medical treatment. I left the doctor feeling more discouraged than I did when I walked in the door. Have you ever faced the struggle of having to justify yourself to someone? Not just once, but over and over, until all you begin to feel is sheer exhaustion? That is how I felt when I left.  Most of my life I have been criticized for my size. I am an exceptionally small person and doctors grill me on this. The ironic fact is, I never suffer from body image until others point out the negative things about my body. I don't, on a general basis, look at myself in the mirror and feel disgusted by what I see. Do I like being my size? Not really. Pants are a joke to shop for! I get tired of having to convince doctors there's nothing wrong with me, it's hereditary — here wanna see a picture of my parents and my brothers? I dwelled on this for some time. I prayed, asking the Lord to allow me to not be offended, but to take my doctors advice with a grain of salt. I was challenged a couple days ago when a woman in the drug store made a snide remark about my size, but then quickly backtracked and apologized. Never have I had anyone apologize. More prayer.  And then God showed me the verse above, reminding me that my body is not my own, it has been bought with a price, and that it is not for me to worry about who my body impresses as long as it glorify's the Lord. I need not worry about measuring up to any statistics or standards, because they are nothing more than an average for the population. My God is not average and does create "average" things. He does not create people to be average, either, as we are created in His image, the ultimate Holy of Holies! In that, my body was made perfect. It is simply my duty to maintain the health and integrity of it during my temporary stay in this little shell. So that, sweet friends, is my Fitness Plan: To Love my Body As Unto the Lord. There is no greater way!
XO, Steph

Free Photo Collages to Spruce up Your Blog Posts

 Images/Template © EW Couture

For those of you who didn't catch my guest post on Be Creative Mommy, we talked a little about our Exceptional Blogging series. In our last post about building an Exceptional Blog, we talked about the importance of eye-catching photos. One way to do this is by creating collages or story boards. It's your blog, so tell us your story! Collages are not only appealing to the eye, but they help break down some of the "clutter" an over abundance of photos can create in a single post. Sometimes you get lucky, and of those 76 photos you took, a good 20 came out stunning. Of course you want to show off as much of your hard work as possible. Why wouldn't you? You invested your time and effort into capturing great photos. Show off as many of them as possible with photo templates.

I did some of the hard work for you and rounded up 85 FREE blog boards for you to begin telling your stories in various eclectic ways. Each of the attached links are PSD (Photoshop) files. If you read through our original post on Exceptional Blogging, you'll see we talked about investing in your blog and investing in Photoshop. It's not daunting, I promise! You can even follow along with me on the blog and read up on our Photoshop tutorials. I would be happy to share a tutorial, showing you how to do use these. All it takes is the knowledge of layers and clipping masks.

Polished Picture Web Boards || Ginger Pixel Storyboard Templates || Elizabeth Halford Blogit Board

Paint the Moon Vintage Frames || Paint the Moon Storyboard || Kimla Designs & Photography Blog Board Template || 

Fly Design Fly Blog Board || Betty Red Design Mood Boards || EW Couture Storyboards

Pugly Pixel Photo Layouts || Simple As That Collage Templates || Paislee Press Project Life Photo Templates

Simple Scrapper Photo Templates || Persnickety Prints Project Life Photo Templates || Maybemej Photography Tags and Photo Templates

Maybemej Blog Templates || Maybemej Photo Book Template || Silly Grrl Designs Photo Collages

Paislee Press Project Life Photo Templates || Kayla Aimee Digital Scrapbooking Photo Template

XO,
Steph

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