Circles Of Sunshine: A Journey To Better Health (& some DiY Love)

Welcome to Wellness Wednesday where I share what I have learned and am still learning on my journey to better health!

And since DiY projects bring wellness to my mind and heart, I will occasionally share one of those too!

Today, I would like to start by telling you a little bit about myself, my health history and journey. I will be brief but my hope and my heart is that by sharing this, I can possibly help you too.

I have suffered from allergies and sinus problems my entire adult life. I used to only suffer in the Spring and in the Fall. I could always expect to be sick with at least one sinus infection in each season.

As the years went by and as I took more and more rounds of antibiotics and allergy and sinus medications, my seasonal allergies became all year around. It became the norm for me to have sinus headaches often (sometimes turning into migraines) and be able to do nothing except lie in a dark room with a warm washcloth over my face. These headaches would often last two and three days at a time.

Along with the headaches, I was constantly stopped up, had a continuous stream of drainage down the back of my throat, and just did not feel well.

A few times my sinus infections turned into pneumonia and then pleurisy. I felt sick and tired, well, most of the time. However, as miserable as this was, this became the "new normal" for me. Even when you don't realize it, you begin to accept it and deal with it.

For me, life was just so busy and ever changing with the wonderful blessings (4 healthy babies and 6 pregnancies in 6 years) as God continued to grow our family. Life was hectic and full and my body was being put through it!

About 6 months ago, I finally decided that I was sick and tired of being sick and tired all of the time! Now, I had decided this before and have prayed many times that the Lord would either heal me or direct my path in this....His timing is perfect. But this time, I had finally had enough and was ready to do something about it, no matter how drastic it might be. I prayed again that God would either heal me completely or that He would please show me what I needed to do and that He would bless that.

The weekend was approaching and we had family coming into town for my oldest son's 7th birthday party. On Saturday morning, my mother-in-law and my three beautiful sister-in-laws all loaded up and went out for some yard sale and treasure hunting fun! Boy, did I ever find a treasure! I happened upon a book entitled, "90 Day Immune System Makeover." I picked it up and asked the lady how much she wanted for it and she smiled and said, "Oh sweetie, you can just have it." Well, there was nothing to lose there, free book....which was even better because for those who know me, I am not one that sits down to a book in my free time. I sit down to a project if I have free time!

Let me tell you....as soon as all of the family left our home that weekend, I began reading the book and I did not put it down for two days until I was finished! This book was exactly what I needed!

And this is where my journey begins.

I will share details later, but I will leave you with this.

I was taking Benadryl, Sudaphed, Zyrtec and Ibuprofen almost every day. I have not taken any medication in 4.5 months now and I am half way to my total weight loss goal.

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Now for the second part of my wellness! DiY projects seriously do my mind and heart good.

Today , I am going to share some super cute and easy baby gifts with you!

You will need:

Plain white onesie (mine are from Walmart)

Fabric scraps of your choice

Iron on letter (optional)

Stitch Witchery (fusible bonding web)

Sewing machine

To make the tie onesie, you simply draw out your tie onto paper and cut it out. Then, use your paper tie to trace onto your fabric choice. You will need to choose and trace onto two pieces of fabric- one for the tie and one to go under the tie. Then, you stack the ties and sew them together. I went around once with a straight stitch and then another time with a zig-zag stitch.

*The edges fray a bit when washed which I personally love.

To make the initial onesie, you choose your fabric pieces, cut them into varying sizes of squares and sew them together. Again, I used both a straight and zig-zag stitch.

Lastly, you cut pieces of your stitch witchery tape (shown here) and place them on the back of your tie or initial squares and iron them onto the onesie following the instructions for the stitch witchery.