The Groenewalds

05/08/2025

When an incoming second grader spots the typo…

30/07/2024

First day of school!

We’re homeschooling this year mostly because we don’t have much of a choice. Henry’s immune is seriously compromised and doctors don’t know why. We have appointments later this month to maybe get some answers.

In the meantime I’d like to invite you to join us on the adventure of homeschooling neurodivergent kids while I myself have adhd. Is this a bad? I mean, maybe? But homebound learning was not adaptable enough for Henry’s challenges so here we go. 1st grade and pre-school. Let’s go!

15/09/2023

update.

Little man started having staring spells again this week. It’s almost exactly 2 years since they started last time. But last time we didn’t know he’d had a stroke before. So everyone was very quick to check things out. We got into see neurology TODAY! I’m shocked! Anyway we have an MRI next week and 3 24 hour eegs next month to check for seizures.

He’s missed so much school but he’s very excited to go tomorrow. It seems like he’s doing better than everyone expected for the most part. We have a massive team meeting next Wednesday to discuss if we need to make any changes to his IEP (like 15 people will be there!)

I’m so proud of him and so grateful for him!

He’s starting to express his own unique thoughts about his body too! Stating I’m hungry, I’m thirsty. Just in the last month or so!

On Monday when he had his first staring spell after about 20 minutes he shouted, it’s ok. I’m better now. It was my brain. Which is so profound for him! And so helpful for us to make sense of what’s going on in his little body full of mysteries.

02/09/2023

Henry has neutropenia so one of the risks of starting school was getting sick… a lot. We talked a lot about the pros and cons. We met with the school several times.

Friday morning they told me 2 kids were out with fevers and I decided to let him stay because he’d probably already been exposed and we gotta build his immune system even if it struggles.

So today he hit a temp of 102.2 and we are now at the ER for the neutropenia protocol. What is that you ask? Blood cultures, blood, count and virus panels. Then he’ll get some IV antibiotics and assuming the blood work is ok - we get to go home to wait for blood culture results. If something grows - we’ll get a call tomorrow to come back to be admitted. That last step hasn’t happened since 2020.

I’ll keep ya updated in my stories.

01/07/2023

These were the hardest days. When Henry had his 3rd open heart surgery but honestly this whole last year has been hard. The one thing that has kept all of our spirits up@is looking forward to Henry’s wish. To go to Disney and meet Woody and the Gang. We go this fall and we can’t wait but already we want to pay it forward to other families.

This month we are focusing all our content creation on raising funds for Make A wish. Events for this week are in our stories. I’ll be posting everywhere a little extra this month too. Invite your friends we should have some fun times. Links are in my bio.

04/05/2023

In case you have missed past posts about streaming and are unfamiliar with how it works - here's what you need to know.

If you have amazon prime you can subscribe for free. This gives us a couple dollars every month you re-subscribe and costs you nothing. Create a Twitch account and then follow the link in the comments to subscribe. This also gives you ad-free viewing.

Another way you can support us is by watching the stream or putting it on to play in the background. You can have it play on a device (even smart TVs or just a background browser tab) Allowing the stream to play gives us ad revenue. With only a handful of viewers last week I made $4 just from ad views. More viewers = more $$ But it doesn't come from your pocket!

Chatting during the stream and simply viewing the stream boosts me in the Twitch algorithm to get more viewers who may be interested in my content.

So if you've been wanting to support our family during this difficult season this is a great way to help create a more sustainable situation for us.

02/05/2023

Did you know new videos have been posted to our YouTube channel? Check out the beginning of Season 2 now!

Yes, this is the real, actual beginning of season 2!Thanks for coming on this journey with us. You can support us by watching more videos and finding more of...

02/05/2023

I haven't posted here that we are streaming again. oops!

Catch my streams this week with the following schedule

06/04/2023

It just hit me. 5 years ago… this is not at all what I imagined life would look like.

I was actually pretty terrified that I wouldn’t be a mom any more. We had such a hard time getting pregnant with Henry. Then we we’re told he had a problem with his heart and there was a 35% chance he wouldn’t make it to his fifth birthday.

That number felt huge. But it made me fight harder.
That first year is a blur of exhaustion and hospitals and doctors and fear. So many hospital stays so many therapy appointments. John broke his leg just to make things more interesting… I cried over the dishes. I cried in the piles of laundry. I didn’t think that season would ever end. Daily life felt impossible. Feeding everyone, keeping them clean and clothed was all I had in me. But slowly routines were established. John got better and things got brighter day after day.

Reflecting back we are getting ready to celebrate that Henry has beaten the odds. He has not only survived but thrived. My worst fears in all of this was that he would have a stroke and develop autism. Both happened and we’re all still ok. We find ourselves in another season where daily life feels insurmountable. But the roles are reversed. John is drowning in dishes and laundry and toys. I’m fighting for health and doing my best to help where I can.

I can’t believe we made it to 5 years. I thought we’d be more stable. I thought life would make more sense by now. Instead we are living in the remains of so much trauma, hoping to find clarity and stability.

With bills to pay and groceries to buy we won’t be able to celebrate this big milestone for Henry like I had imagined. But the size of the celebration doesn’t dictate the size of the victory.

Thank you to the thousands of you that have prayed for Henry over the last 6 years. (While I was still pregnant with him too) thank you to every single one of you that have donated each time things got extra difficult. Or met practical needs in other ways with meals, gifts, or just lending an ear or a shoulder when it was all just too much. We wouldn’t be here without each of you.

24/03/2023

I cherish the time to pamper my princess.

Cut and painted her finger and toe nails today and she’s willingly wearing her glasses going on an hour. Now we’re cuddling watching her favorite show and I just want to capture this moment in a bottle.

Thank you for making me safe painting her nails - and “pink nails” is the only reason she’ll sit still for me to cut them.

11/03/2023

Incase you don’t see updates on my personal profile. We’ve been a bit quiet around here because we as a family continue to collectively struggle with health challenges and financial limitations. Just getting through each day is a difficult struggle.

Henry has been diagnosed with Autism and the resources we have here in North Dakota are very limited. We are looking to move at the end of this year to a state with more resources and a bit closer to a city.

Since we returned from Mayo Clinic in September my health has steadily declined. So far doctors have been unable to discover the reason for the decline but more doctors are getting invested in finding me help the longer I struggle and worse I get.

When I have a little energy I have been playing minecraft. It’s just enough of a puzzle for my brain to distract me from pain but not so stressful to make me more sick. I’ve been posting videos on YouTube and the account is starting to gain some traction. While I do hope to start posting to Growing with the Groenewalds when I feel a little better for now - this has been a good outlet. If you’d like to support that channel - you can check out the latest video.

Survival days 8-10Join my discord and get access to play with me when I play live. https://discord.gg/V4TyCBJdLive play is currently a bit unpredictable due ...

10/12/2022

Snacks for dinner and movie night.
A new weekly family tradition inspired by .smartt

Tonight we’re having mini pigs in a blanket, veggie and hummus plate, fruits and nuts plate, with a few chips and Oreos to share.

The kids eat so good since we started this tradition.

It’s an easy dinner prep and a fun time just enjoying a movie together.

Tonight’s pick was Henry’s Home Alone 3.