Tue., Feb. 12

I have a heavy heart tonight. Stage 4 cancer has been diagnosed in a breast of a young woman (age 39) in my 'peripheral' life [very close to Mom and Dad, Clint & Sydni, Ed & Loree, etc.]; she and her husband tried for years to have a baby, and God finally blessed them with not one, but two children in the past four years! Sadly, Baby #2 has to be in leg casts right now because of a health problem, so their family has had a lot to deal with. Not only the breast cancer, but also cancer spots on her liver. She gets a chemo port put in on Wednesday, and they start her chemo that same day, tomorrow. :**(

This news follows on the heels of news of my mom, who is being referred to an oncologist because of what the surgeon pulled out of one of her breasts last week ... something 'pre-cancerous', seems like, although none of the doctors is yet shooting as straight as we wish they would. Honestly, I'm pretty sure it's because at this point they still simply don't know the answers to all our questions.

I have been uncharacteristically emotional today. Not buckets of tears or anything, just a smaller-than-usual amount of patience, very few giggles/laughs, and probably half the word use. There was another dog poop tracking issue today ("pooptastrophy"), though it wasn't a terrible situation. Thankfully Jeremy was here and was able to help me coach the children about it. This involved us instructing them in far more detail about the effectiveness of their poop-pick-up tasks as well as watching more carefully when they are in the back yard ... at least until the doggies get better at doing all their business in the proper corner.

We had a C.A.R.E. Group meeting this morning. Afterward, Elaine took us out to lunch. Since Chili's was too packed we opted for Chinese. I rrrrrrreally like Chinese food, but I'm wondering if the MSG in it is what has thrown my emotional regulator out of whack. I have suffered today from gastrointestinal upset as well, so it wouldn't surprise me. Gr. MSG!! I HATE that stuff!!

I added something to our calendar, throughout the year, that was suggested by a Flylady group member. She's a grandma, and said that between the rooms of all eleven of her grandchildren, from families of all levels of income, the same problem is evident: TOO MUCH STUFF. She said she wants to copyright a bumper sticker that reads "Children Grow Quarterly!" Grow physically, and in every other way. I really like the idea of reviewing each of our children's rooms once every three months. I've scheduled it to take place about a week after each official season change. It might not be able to be done all in one day, and it should be done in incriments of no more minutes than 15 at a time, but ... I want to do that. If nothing else it will be good to get the children into more of a 'purging' routine, and by that I do NOT mean an eating disorder! :) Maybe purging in the other areas of their lives will fend off an eating disorder!

Natasha greatly helped me clean up the downstairs after supper tonight while Jeremy and Justus were upstairs doing evening routines. It is this problem of having the 'mud room' be the same room of the house as the 'dining room' -- of how the unprotected back patio comes straight into the too-small dining room. She wiped the table and did a GOOD vacuum of the dining room, moving furniture, etc. Then the children and I did a thorough pick-up of downstairs. Yay.

They read library books for about an hour this evening while I was cooking. They played outside a bunch today, too. Both children are wearing their watches now every day. Justus even wears his to bed, "Like Dad does." -cuuuuuuuute- I have told them that I appreciate being told many times per day what time it is. Of course, Justus can tell me only at which number or between which numbers each hand is. Hey, hey's 5! Gotta start somewhere! However, all this 'telling time' business has me thinking that we might be able to graduate Natasha to the next level of proficiency of time-telling. (She's been doing half-hours for a couple years, but I think she would now enjoy the challenge of figuring out exactly which minute the clock is telling!! Fun!)

This afternoon, once I got the C.A.R.E. Group cards addressed, I let N stick the stamps and return labels on them.

Before bed tonight I am going to mix up a muffin recipe to bake in the morning. I clipped it from a magazine. "Brown Sugar Rhubarb Muffins"; they have walnuts in them. It sounds really yummy to me. Since rhubarb freezes so well, we still actually have rhubarb from MT! lol However, once that runs out, I plan to purchase it from the grocery stores here during the spring when its price is low, and re-stock the freezer. We like rhubarb in this house.

I'm not sure if I've explained the Ladies' C.A.R.E. Group, on-blog. When we lived in Oceanside, one of the elders' wives organized a group she called C.A.R.E. for short, Christians Actively Reaching Everyone. The idea was to pull together as many women as possible (most convenient time is usually the hour before Sunday evening services) once every couple weeks to review where everyone is at and see what can be done to build up the body, any visitors, and/or our neighbors or community folk. This would include signing cards to be mailed out, arranging meals to be prepared and delivered, nailing down which group members were willing to commit to making which phone call, or who could go with another group member to visit those who were sick, spiritually struggling, enduring family transitions, etc.) It was Marilyn Lastrape who I first heard talk of the C.A.R.E. Group, but Cathy Thomas carried it on after the Lastrapes moved away. I was happily surprised when a number of ladies in this congregation jumped at the opportunity to pool and organize our efforts, and although it is a pretty small group, "depending" (4 or 5, but sometimes goes all the way up to 8 or 10!), it has had an amazing effect on many folks ... if their responses are true. :) So, yes it's 'work', but it's good work, and definitely worthwhile work.

Oh. One more thing I've been wanting to blog about. The other day while driving in town I saw a very large 'pump'-type truck, you know the type -- huge tank, bunch of equipment at the back.... "B & M Septic Services."

The children wanted to know why I had burst out laughing uncontrollably. It took a lllllllot of explaining! They didn't know about companies using initials as titles. They didn't know what a 'BM' is. They didn't know about septic tanks. When my explanations were done, I told them I had just seen a truck with the company's title on it, "B & M Septic Services." Natasha busted out laughing. Justus said, over and over, "That's a gross name." I said, "Well, it's gross and funny." He replied, "I think it's only gross, period."

Also, Justus is doing okay having a No-Nap Day more and more often. He's down to maybe 2-3 naps per week. But last week he had two long, hard No-Nap Days in a row. That next morning he informed me, "I NEEEED a nap today." I said, "Oh? Yes?" He said, "I'm bummed out from having those two No-Nap Days." 'Bummed out??' Since when does he know what 'bummed out' means? I said, "What do you mean, 'Bummed out'?" He said, "I'm tiiiiiired from having those two No-Nap Days." 'Bummed out.' Okay!!?!