A Mick’s up of Mountains

Do you ever hear a song that takes you back to another time and place?  I have a song like that.  Toby Mac’s "Burn for You" helped me hike a mountain, and I remember that experience every time I hear the song.

It was a climb that took me 2000 feet higher than the starting level of 6530 feet of elevation I was already not used to.  The place was Colorado Springs, and the mountain was the  Manitou Springs Incline.  Amazing!  It was quite a workout, going that high in the span of 3/4 of a mile, in less than an hour, and in air thinner than my lungs are used to.  We hiked the Standard Loop, jogging back down the mountain in rocky terrain.  What a rush!

That kind of sounds like life, doesn’t it?  We might find ourselves in unfamiliar circumstances, climbing and working hard to reach the summit, but it seems like forever while it’s happening.  We don’t know what to expect when we get there.  What does God have in store for us?  Why are we going through this trial?  We are huffing and puffing.  We are stopping part way up, trying to get the cramps out of our muscles, trying to keep from whining about the pain.  We might have someone there by our side, cheering us on, motivating us to keep moving, because it’s worth it when you reach the top.  They know, because they’ve been there.

Sometimes knowing someone is there along side of us helps.  We'll take all the help we can get.  We want to have secure footing on the heights, don't we?  Maybe you've heard of a book with a similar story:  Hinds Feet on High Places  Don't let things distract you.  Don't let discouragement drag you down and cause you to bail out.  Keep with it.  You'll feel great when you finish!

When you finally take those last grueling steps at the top, you turn and see a beautiful sunrise.  Think about it.  Would you have seen such a spectacular sight, if you hadn’t gone through what you just did?  You’re seeing the sunrise sooner than you would have if you stayed at the bottom of the mountain.  What a treat, and what a relief!

Now that you reached the top, don’t collapse and lay there doing nothing more.  It’s time to use that momentum to go on to the next stage of the journey.  God just might be using that experience to send you on to someone else going through something similar.  It could be that you’ll be cheering and coaching a brother or sister in their journey.

Whatever the mountain you’re climbing today, hear me and others around you saying, “Keep climbing!  It’s worth it!  You can do it!”

“The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.”

Habakkuk 3:19 (NIV)

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The fun after the climb

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Mick's up with the Cold Results

Hang on!

“The human spirit can endure in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?” Proverbs 18:14 (NIV)

We made it through the week!  Yay!  It’s the weekend!  Did it feel like you’d never get here? 

Maybe you feel like the Praying Mantis that went along for a ride to the store… on the outside of our car!  That tough guy hung onto the side-view mirror that entire 5-mile drive.  My daughter, even though a little afraid of the idea of the bug getting close to her, kept a close watch on it, cheering it on.  “Hang in there, little guy!”  We encouraged it, and it would look at us through the window, like it understood, but at the same time communicating, “What have you done to me?!”  Even while we ran in to the store, it stayed in its temporary home.  So, of course, the drive home again included, “Hang on!”

That’s our encouragement to you, too.  Hang on!  You’ll make it!  It’s not much further!

I can encourage you, because I’ve been encouraged.  We made it!  Remember the experiment in Monday’s post, Mick's Scoop on Sugar?  (I promised you an update.)  Even though our household started off the week with a bunch of sickies, feeling like we couldn’t be more miserable, we kept up with the Vitamin D3, increased water intake, soothing hot tea, sunshine when we could get it, sleep, and decreased sugar intake.  We made it!  We’re feeling better!  Our experiment certainly was not scientific, nor was it planned.  However, since over the past year we have been so faithful with our chiropractic care, nutrition, and overall healthier lifestyle... and have not felt this sick for this long during this same year, until our recent hiatus, we can now, even more confidently, say the 5 Essentials make for a healthier, happier family.

Enjoy a mom's perspective in this Mick’s up Life’s collection of blog posts, to get a handle on the 5 Essentials.  Then do your research and make the choice to live life as a healthier you... and have fun truly living with your healthy family!

Hang in there!  You can do it!

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Mick's in the D3

OK.  Are you ready?  Get those mouse buttons prepped for clicking.  I told you I'd get Vitamin D3 information to you, and today's the day!

A source solely dedicated to getting us information about Vitamin D3 is the Vitamin D3 Blog.  The posts there tell about Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Myriad Diseases as well as Vitamin D3 and Influenza, among other very important topics.  It is mentioned in the "Influenza" post that the recommended daily allowance of D3 is much lower than we truly honestly need, and so a higher dose for maintenance is suggested, as well as a higher dose for giving your immune system a boost.  I've heard it suggested that at the sign of a sniffle or cough, increasing your daily D3 intake to be 1000 IUs per pound of body weight will help in the fight.  It can be summed up at this page about Vitamin D Therapy Protocol.  Personally, in our household we take 5000 - 40,000 IUs for daily maintenance (since we have a variety of ages and sizes), and then we follow the 1000 IU/lb protocol when necessary.  (As you can figure from yesterday's post Mick's Scoop on Sugar, this has been one of those protocol weeks.)

"VitaminD reduced flu by 50% vs 8% reduction using antiviral drugs."  This statement is from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and it is also sited in an article by Maximized Living and The Times.

Would you rather watch a video and listen to the information?  Check out what Maximized Living has to say about it.

We cannot get D3 from food.  It's best to get it from sunshine.  However, as I sit here indoors, typing on my computer, and you sit reading this, most likely indoors, also, we are not getting our daily dose of sunshine.  The sources I like to use for getting Vitamin D3 to my family are Maximized Living (with probiotics) and Vitamin Shoppe (liquid form is handy).  Wherever you shop, be sure to pay attention to the type of Vitamin D (needs to be D3), the number of units per dose, and what's in the ingredients.

Please leave any comments and/or additional information in the section at the bottom of this post.  Also, remember to mix it up with the poll in the left margin.


Until tomorrow...
Enjoy the "shimmering heat in the sunshine" Isaiah 18:4 (NIV) and be "like a well-watered plant in the sunshine." Job 8:16  (NIV) 

Well, OK, maybe not just like the descriptions in those verses when read in context... but a least get out and enjoy some sunshine!

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