I cannot believe it is Spy Wednesday already. Or Holy Thursday, depending on what time zone you are in.

My Lent has been closely tied with the difficulty of Zach's classes. This was a particularly hard trimester, simply based on his workload, which was over 30 credits, I do believe. He did make a more concerted effort to spend time with us in the evenings for most of the tri, but midterms and finals are always hairy. On top of that, the issue with his class schedule for next tri became an added burden here at the end. As it turns out, the decision regarding whether or not he starts clinic next tri and does the herbs has been made for him - regardless of the herbs, he has to modify his DC schedule, so he's going to keep up with the herbs. It's been very frustrating, and means that he won't graduate with his DC class, but it's out of our hands. He just came down and told me that he passed the herbs exam today, so there are zero issues continuing with that.

Through all of that, and for the first time in a long while, I have felt the grace of prayers - my own and those of people kind enough to pray for us. I have handled daily frustrations with more gentleness and patience, and been able to relax a little more and enjoy my sweet babies. That has been a huge blessing. I have also been waking up earlier, and trying to get my day started before my needy offspring are demanding things from me. (That has not been very successful, since they have also been waking up early, but oh well...at least I am up.)

The antics of these two are simply too precious to miss.

There is so much more I wanted to say, but it will have to wait for another day when I am not so tired.

A blessed Triduum to you all!

Love,

Jess

Happy First Day of Spring!

Or, if you are living somewhere like us, happy...? We still have snow on the ground, and it flurried for a bit this afternoon. I know that warmer weather is coming, but I am beyond ready for it. We have had a couple of  beautiful days. We were able to walk to the library and post office the other day, which was amazing.

The other day I had all kinds of things I wanted to write about:
The mozzarella I made a couple of weeks ago, and my attempt at cream cheese (which I haven't given up on, I think our house is just too cold and it's taking longer than the recipe said it should). We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with the shepherd's pie recipe from Feast! (which they have for the feast of St. George, just FYI), and last night we enjoyed spaghetti (using spaghetti squash) and brownies with ice cream for the feast of St. Joseph. We managed to complete all seven of the Seven Sundays of St. Joseph this year, which was a great blessing. I dragged the chickies to a noon Mass, since it was also my in-laws anniversary and I wanted to offer Mass for them. Our friend Ryan joined us for dinner, and Rosary after, and it was wonderful.

Yesterday I made my very first Craigslist purchase. A week ago I found this awesome futon (the nice kind with wooden arms), and the girl said it was available, so I set it up to drive down the next day. Just before leaving, I texted her to get her address, and she responded. Then she emailed me saying that her roommate might want it for her new apartment. I have turned off the email notification on my phone for Lent, so it was after rearranging and removing seats in the van, and driving 45 minutes, that my knock was greeted with, "Oh, you didn't get my email?" Seriously? You couldn't text that to me. I told you I had nearly an hour drive. I was really upset, because aside from the trouble I went through going down there, I really wanted the futon. I ended up making a fun day of it with the kids - we (window) shopped, and then went to the park and ate yogurt and crackers and it was great. Anyways. To yesterday's purchase. It isn't as pretty as the other one, but it was only $30 (!!) for a solid wood frame and mattress. It needs a cover to make it more attractive, but that is easy enough for me to whip up one of these days.

We are nearing the end of this trimester and it can't come soon enough. Zach could use some extra prayers - he has to take a test to be able to skip the required physics class for the AOM program, and he already has a ton of stuff going on with finals. If he doesn't pass the test, he has to decide if he wants to modify the DC so he can take the physics class and keep the AOM, or drop the AOM, which would make me really, really sad because he has worked so hard to do both programs. It would be a no brainer if the pricetag on modifying wasn't another $15k.

Skip forward if you have no interest in my anger towards this education system...
Most people don't know that it takes 3 years and 4 months to become a chiropractor. They go by trimesters, and there are 10. The Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine program is 9 or 10 trimesters, too. I can never remember.
Most people also don't know that it costs as much to become a chiropractor as it does to become a medical doctor ($150k). Yet the average salary for a chiropractor is probably half of what a family practice doctor makes.
 A lot of students are here because they couldn't make it into medical school, and they have no business being here, either. This education would not have to be so heinously expensive if they were more selective about who they accept.

Zach works incredibly hard. Last trimester he took 34 credits and managed to finish the tri with a 4.0 in both programs. But it took a lot out of all of us. When I hear about some of the idiots that spend all of their time drinking and barely passing classes it makes me positively livid, for a multitude of reasons. Plenty of people think chiropractors are quacks, and some of them are. And then some of them are just morons who have no place being any kind of healthcare. But there are also people like Zach who truly care about helping people and who have interests far beyond just cracking backs. He will have to fight against the stigma that follows chiropractors, though, and that really irks me.

Why didn't he just apply to medical school, you wonder? Sometimes we wonder that, too. However, at the end of the day, Zach would rather be trying to help people stay healthy than writing them prescriptions. If he were a medical doctor, his dream would be to be a surgeon, and that isn't really family-friendly.

Enough of that. It's on my mind because we were talking about it today. Sometimes you hear these horror stories of people who have graduated and are making zero dollars and you get on your knees and pray that that isn't you in two years. I mean, we know the first couple of years will be rough. There really isn't any getting around that. But once you get established somewhere, you can do pretty well.

On a happy note, Evie is on the verge of cutting her second little tooth. I am eternally grateful to the good Lord for not letting teething interfere with our night sleep. I can deal with the fact that she won't nap for more than 20 or 30 minutes at a time during the day, but I couldn't make it if she were up at night. We had one night this week where she woke up a few times and cried for a minute and then started nursing, and that was my worst night of sleep since I can't remember. (Of course, I have also been extra tired since the time change.)

Right now this sweet thing is asleep on my lap, so I should get myself upstairs and snug under the covers while all is quiet.

Love,
Jess

"We are pleased to...

...accept your application for the Acupuncture program beginning fall 2013!"

I don't remember if I mentioned that Zach had his interview with the Dean of Acupuncture last week. It went really well, and the man was impressed with Zach's knowledge of acupuncture. He was also impressed with how Zach wants to use it in his practice - mainly as a treatment for infertility (acupuncture has a much higher success rate for treating infertility than IVF). Most people are just looking to make extra money, and their focus is sports medicine.

It's going to be a lot of work doing two programs at once, but if anyone has the dedication to see it through, Zach does. I'm so proud of him. If he can keep up with the chiropractic and acupuncture and still have good grades, he will get to do the Oriental medicine/herb portion of the acupuncture program.

It was exciting news to start off our anniversary weekend!!

I am so blessed.

Congratulations to...

...my smarty husband, Zach, for making it to the Dean's List last trimester!

Zach and Tony posing for me. Tony was being so cute!

He worked very hard and I am so proud!

In honor of that achievement, here are a few things you might not know about chiropractors...

Contrary to widely-held belief, chiropractors treat the whole musculoskeletal system, not just the spine. They do soft-tissue, shoulders, ankles...they aren't simply "back crackers."

Chiropractors are trained to give a full physical exam. In some places schools hire them to do the exams on their athletes.

In Oregon they are even licensed to deliver babies! In some places they can also perform minor surgeries.

They are trained in nutrition, and can give nutrition advice. Did you know that medical doctors receive no training in nutrition?

The education a chiropractor receives is the same science curriculum as medical school. NYCC has one of the best anatomy labs in the country - many medical schools have modeled their anatomy labs after the one here!

Now, not all chiropractic colleges are equal, and there are some wacky philosophies out there, but overall, chiropractic is great preventative/wellness care! (A must for pregnancy. I loved going while I was pregnant!)

Tony being a model patient...doesn't happen very often!