Full, full days

Phew.  Did you see that I back-posted a couple of days? 

It has been a chalk-a-block full week with Mom here every day helping me at home, running me on errands, running errands when I'm too tired to do my list, Dad picking up and driving kids to and from school and soccer and swimming plus him doing some work around the house for us and and and.   What on earth would I do without my Mom and Dad just showing up to lighten the load around here?  She walks in and starts tidying.  She sees a dish on the counter and just puts it away.  She reminds me to eat.  He texts to remind me he's picking up Miranda.  She sees a return and just takes it to the store for me.  How can I ever repay them?  Never.  But I will do my best to take that help with grace and a smile and a verbalized thank you and a hug and by getting CURED of this cancer!!!  Let's do THAT, God... I think THAT would be the best thank you gift we could give them!  I am so thankful for every piece of help that comes from so many directions...but right now I pray stamina for my parents, that they will not burn out, that their friends will reach out and go out with them (cuz they love that!) and do the legwork on the relationships while they are putting all their energy out to me.

The chemo-lag started to hit me yesterday.  I had a great sleep last night, stayed up too late watching part of a movie with Shawn, but that is time well spent so hard to argue against it!   Today I hope to make one small trip out before I start the hunker-down-and-rest that chemo will soon enforce.  As the doc said, there is just no getting around chemo exhaustion, every single patient on this chemo gets the 7-10 down days of sitting on the couch feeling like a lump and just plain disinterested or unable to do anything.  We have a feed-and-water Kristin plan in place this time, and a pain-management-plan, and I'm hoping that by keeping foods and drinks going in that I will not sink quite as low as last time!  God is good, it'll all work out as it should!

Today Kyle has his first 'away' game that is far, far away!   And I've got to tell you that THIS is the game that I've been waiting for since that little kindergarten boy started out in soccer all those 10 years ago... the Tsawassen game!  FAR away!  We were going to get Sbucks and enjoy the drive time together (I love family drive time!!!), watch the game, go for dinner, enjoy the drive home... seriously, been dreaming about this day for years!  And now, it's here.  And now, I don't know if it is a wise choice for me to go or not... I will see when we get closer to go time.  I also wanted to roll this into his birthday dinner with Shawn and I (his birthday dinner got flood-cancelled... we were bailing the basement when we should have been at the restaurant).   If I ration my energy carefully, we just might be able to do it... I still have my final chemo meds in me from last night (they give me a bit of energy) and perhaps that'll stretch out to include this afternoon's soccer adventure.  Maybe!  [smile]

It's Saturday, projects have been chipped away at all week.  The dining room table/scrapbooking chaos is looking less and less overwhelming.  Today I'm going to move the final 8 boxes out of the pathway and just tuck them out of the way a bit better (well, I'm going to get the little boys to drag those for me, but I'll supervise) which will give more space and allow us to actually eat in the dining room (our only table) once again.  Yay for family dinner with the entire family seated in one space!!!

Last night Shawn's Dad came and dismantled our mud room (we relocated that to a mezzanine in the garage last year) so that we can now build the mud room wall into a pantry for all the food and grocery stuff that a family of 6 requires.  Our kitchen is spacious but has little storage space and food in three seperate locations in this house is neither efficient nor functional!  I'm super excited for this one little change that I see making a huge pile of difference around here!   I wonder if I can convince Shawn to run out to the hardware store for shelving supplies before the game today?  Hmmm... [wink] he loves it when I add things to his Saturday morning!  LOL

I hope that your Saturday will be peaceful and restful.  Will you put up your Christmas Tree?  Ours went up Thursday night and it is our most beautifully decorated tree yet!  I just love sitting in my living room by the light of the tree!  Awesome and tranquil.  I love it!

May your day be great!
Kristin