Beginnings

This fall is really feeling like a new beginning for me this year…for our whole family.

We had the most amazing time away. I’m not gonna lie, a camping trip with our family of seven and then add in a friend…..and it’s not really a “vacation” for the mom but still it was so nice to get away. Away from grouchy neighbors, away from the telephone and internet and electronics of all kind, away from a fast paced lifestyle, away from the housecleaning and so much more…..

We got up and ate breakfast and sat by the fire, then we went swimming. Then we sat around or chased the baby and then went swimming again. Ate lunch, swam some more, read some books, went swimming again. Ate some more and then swam some more….Made and ate dinner, cleaned up from dinner went swimming again, got the kids ready for bed, sat by the fire, watched the stars, went to bed and then started all again the next day.

All in all, it was pretty amazing.

We came home and the “clean up” after camping….well, it was HORRENDOUS and it’s taken us over a week and a lot of nagging on my part and our house is finally livable but the garage….well, let’s just say that we cannot park in there just yet. I’m praying that by this time next week that we’ll be able to park our van in the garage.

In all the clean up, I even rearranged our house back to it’s original place. When Geli got sick last year and Judah was born, I rearranged our house so that I could easily watch the kids in the kitchen while I was nursing. Basically I flipped the living room and dining room. With Jon in the hospital so much, it was just easier for me to be able to see into the kitchen to see what all the monkey’s were doing and that’s not possible when the living room is in it’s normal place.

I was so surprised how changing things back to their original place really made a difference in my mind. It really felt like things were getting back to normal……well, it’s more like redefining life. And even in the middle of this “new beginning”, we are still walking through Angelica’s cancer treatment.

Angelica is still going through chemo.

She has a monthly appointment at the hospital to get a shot of Vincristine and Methotrexate into her spinal fluid.
On Monday’s she takes 13 pills of Methotrexate by mouth.
Once a month she has to take a steroid for five days.
She also has a daily dose of chemo.

She does this until October 2012!

So, although we are in a less intensive phase, she is still actively going through chemotherapy.

Angelica is working towards recovering from this past year. She has definitely lost some muscle and is not as strong as she was before. But she is trying so hard and we are so proud of how hard she is working to overcome all the challenges that she has come up against.

This is going to be a good year. I choose to believe that.

I’m looking forward to see what this year brings.

Author: Patricia Culley

I'm the ringmaster of my own circus. Just trying to stay one step ahead of the monkeys.

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