Fall Allergies and Prayer

Fall allergies. The literal bane of my existence when I'm trying to live my best pumpkin spice life. I'm pretty sure Fall is my favorite season (this is coming from someone who doesn't pick favorite things but that's probably another blog). However pretty much every year I have some form of allergies. (If you're dealing with allergy symptoms too, the Mayo Clinic has helpful information about allergies and treatments.)

The first couple of years I lived in town after getting married I don't think this was the case. And last year I had my son in the middle of august and he had some allergies when he was tiny but I don't think I did. Moved to town makes it sound like I was raised on a homestead but in reality I just mean I moved to a city of 15,000? 15 minutes away from the town of 500 I grew up in. But that, again, is probably another post.

Anywho, these allergies are really bumming me out and also causing me to be in such a slump. I just felt like I had made some progress on consistently keeping my house cleanish, and now everything is a wreck and I'm way behind again.

Potentially the most aggravating part is that my worst symptom has been a sore throat from sinus drainage. But it's not like my nose has been running and I've been ignoring it/sniffing it back in (like a kindergartener). No, my body has decided that I have no choice, this snot is just going to backchannel down my throat and cause some of the most severe throat pain I've felt in a hot minute.

I don't have any tonsils and I don't remember getting strep throat enough to warrant getting them taken out but I'm assuming there was some bad pain involved🤷🏻‍♀️. I was a sick kid and I pray every day (at least I should) that my baby and any future babies are happy and healthy and way less medicated than I was my entire youth.

My husband and I both had to take a lot of antibiotics at different times in our growing up years, but we both find we have continuous negative effects. In no way am I saying if my child ever needed medicine I wouldn't give it to them, I'm just about finding the least harmful remedy for an ailment and also targeting the root cause.

I'm still learning this because I come from a highly medicated family. A highly medicated, fast food, blah blah blah family which has led me to become what I believe is called a "scrunchy mom." And I even thought about using that name in the title of my blog/website.

All of this to say I have now used natural remedies, a good amount of over the counter meds, and finally prayer to try and thwart these allergy symptoms. And isn't that the key right there. "Finally prayer." This reminds me of what I've learned about finding peace in the midst of chaos—even when health challenges threaten to derail my pumpkin spice life.

Call me Britney because oops I did it again. I do it over and over again. Oh Lord, help me to not overlook coming to you in prayer. It always seems to be my last resort when it should be my first move. Help me to reset my crisis response Lord to seek you first.

I'm sure you've heard this story a million times before and probably lived it a thousand yourself. That's true for me as well, but here I am. Stuck in the same human habits. But ya know I don't have to be, and neither do you. We can create reminders for ourselves to take everything to Jesus even if it feels small and like we can handle it ourselves.