The night before last my little O (now 3 years old) went to bed and threw up, with frequent wakings throughout the night. Needless to say, I got very little sleep. Usually that result in Zombie-Mom the next day. This time was a little different, however. I was tired, but my brain was alert and my mood was resilient. I even managed to sort through my last month's worth of paper piles on my desk and take care of lots of little to-do's while little O rested through the day.

Today I didn't set my alarm, as I thought I might need to sleep in to make up for the night before. I did wake in time to go to taekwondo, so I went. I'm still sore from Tuesday's class were we did break-falls (ouch) and double kicks (which my knees haven't acclimatized to yet). It was a gentle day today with lots of forms and just enough kicking the bags to get the sweating requirement fulfilled.

Nobody else has gotten sick, and I'm very glad for that. This makes the third immune challenge I've been exposed to since pneumonia, and the third victory, as nothing has slowed me down.

I never thought I'd say this, but I love this season of the year.

In my recent hypochondriac diagnostic odyssey I had an abdominal ultrasound and we did find an ovarian cyst. It's no longer bothering me one bit, but it is another motivation to be super compliant to the explorer diet. Hormonal imbalances are a common problem for explorers, and I have a personal and family history of them, so here's to finding balance. If my fall mood could be balanced by diet, then anything can.

I'm thankful for my overall health, recent progress, and my progress in the last 9 years. 10 years ago you could not have convinced me that I'd be in the position I'm in now...I've gone from needing more than 10 hours sleep a night, constant and slow-healing back and joint pain, constant need for antidepressants and difficulty even climbing a set of stairs. Now I have a family with two busy children and one very hard-working husband, a fairly clean house, and I am doing Martial arts. (As I've learned this last year, just any gluten-free diet doesn't achieve those results, even though gluten was a big problem for me. Diet can be so much more powerful than just what you don't eat.)

I have to make it all the way to black belt, that would really be something.