This was a blog about my adventures with Joe. Then, along came Nia. Four years later, along came Stage 3 breast cancer. Fast forward two years, and I'm now caring for my dad while he fights his own cancer battle.
A month ago we were in Tahoe for a week. A glorious wonderful, end-of-that-stinkin-cancer-year week. I'm finally getting around to pulling my vacation photos off my camera. Snow and winter already seem so long ago...
Trip highlights: Playing in the lake despite the chilly weather, learning to skip rocks (me & Nia), games, books, riding the tram up to the top of the hill at Squaw Valley, chocolate birthday cake, hand-crafted nature earrings, lots of movie-watching, and my friend of 31 years coming for birthday dinner -- we had so much fun I forgot to take any pictures. :) (Thanks, Megan!)
It's been one year since I found that fateful lump.
One year of discovery, diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. Between finding the lump and being diagnosed, Joe, Nia & I took a trip to Tahoe to celebrate my 35th birthday. Tomorrow, we are heading to Tahoe again. A bookend to the cancer year, and a kick-off to my 36th year. Cheers!
~~~
The lump...
Getting the port for chemo installed; my first surgery...
The day before my first chemo treatment...
And now, growing my hair back; getting used to the new me; getting stronger every day...
Getting an early start on packing for a mid-week trip to Tahoe...
... and enjoying lots of one-on-one time with my little one, like over twin "bowls of soul" at Verve. :)
I had a doctor appointment on Friday that came up with this result: NED -- "No Evidence of Disease." Celebrating and remembering the important stuff this weekend.
Hope your weekend is going well, too! Let's carry this stress-less-ness into our work week tomorrow, eh?
We woke up to heavy frost this morning. Cold but beautiful!
Over the weekend we had the opportunity to go play in some real snow over in the Bass Lake area, where my brother Dale lives. Nothing like saucer-ing down a frozen road!
More pictures from our trip here. From Nia's first driving lesson in the Mule, to roasting marshmallows, to a Bald Eagle site seeing trip on Millertown Lake, to snow. :) Big thanks to Dale, Ella & Amy for the memories!
This sweet little heart garland came to life between dinner & bedtime last night. I think it is my first official Valentine's Day decoration. Ever.
I'm really happy with how it turned out. I love a craft that takes less than an hour and looks like a million bucks. I'm sure I'm quite unique in that sentiment. ;)
Supplies:
Crayons (for melting)
Vegetable peeler
Wax paper
Iron
2 towels or pieces of fabric
Heart-shape stencil
Pen
Scissors
Needle
Thread
I made six small garlands using 4 crayons -- blue, green, yellow, red. My garlands are 3-5 hearts each.
Step 1: Heat the iron. Meanwhile, unwrap the crayons and shave them down as best you can with the vegetable peeler into piles on sheets of wax paper (I did one pile of yellow & red shavings, and another of blue & green shavings). At a certain point shaving the crayons will stop working and you'll just break them into small pieces (don't worry if they aren't tiny).
Step 2: Layer another sheet of wax paper on top of your crayon pile. Give yourself a lot of room for the wax to melt and spread. Put your wax paper and crayon shavings sandwich on top of a towel. Layer another towel on top of the whole thing.
Step 3: Iron until you don't feel any lumps in the crayons anymore.
Step 4: Using your heart stencil, trace hearts all over your wax paper and melted crayons (you will not be peeling the wax paper away -- the hearts would become too fragile and flake apart).
Step 5: Cut out your hearts.
Step 6: Thread your needle and "sew" the hearts together in a string, tying a knot around each one to space them evenly.
{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by SouleMama. You can play, too!
This week I was SICK. Not sure if it was the flu or what, but it kicked my butt for a few days straight there. Fever, headache, sore throat, muscle aches, nausea. Ugh.
So at the beginning of the week, I was remembering fondly the weekend trip my kiddo and I took up the coast to the zoo. It was a day filled with moments to savor...
As a mom, it isn't easy being sick. I mean, it isn't easy for anyone. But I find it harder as a mom because my child still wants/needs me. She hates to see me in bed during the day. She hates that I'm not reading to her at bedtime.
Being sick brought back a lot of memories of being sick from chemo, too. That was unexpected and a little startling for me. It made me realize how deeply those months really affected me on a level that will always be with me. Vulnerable, stripped to the bone...
So yesterday afternoon when I discovered I had turned the corner on this illness and that I had energy and good spirits, Nia and I undertook a little cooking experiment that she'd been asking for for a couple of weeks: to make mint chip ice cream.
A rainy afternoon in the middle of winter seemed just right for this kid-pleaser. Especially since the mint is growing so happily right now in the rain. And who says ice cream is for the summer only anyway?
It turned out really good! I only had a spoonful, but from all the happy sighs around me, I knew this was a keeper!
Homemade Mint Chip Ice Cream
All ingredients are best organic, and the milk products are best pastured.
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 c. sugar
3 c. heavy cream
1 TBSP vanilla extract
2 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
Approx. 50 fresh mint leaves, chopped finely
1 bar of dark chocolate (I used 60% Ghiradelli), finally chopped (I used an electric chopper)
Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, use a hand mixer or immersion blender to combine the milk and sugar until the sugar is dissolved, 1-2 mnutes. Stir in the cream, vanilla, peppermint extract, chopped mint, and chopped chocolate.
Turn on your ice cream maker (the bowl should be pre-frozen), and pour the mixture into the bowl. Mix for 20-25 minutes.
Transfer to an airtight container & freeze for at least 2 hours. (After two hours it will still resemble soft-serve; freeze overnight for more frozen ice cream).
{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by SouleMama. You can play, too!
Sorry, couldn't resist the title. Could have easily been something much more tame, like, "Give Her Something to Do With Her Hands" or "A Sweet Little Nutcracker." Anyway. You get the idea.
For Christmas, Santa deposited into Nia's stocking this wonderful little olivewood nutcracker and a bag of walnuts. Nia made quick work of those walnuts and we are now on to a 2 lb bag of mixed nuts: hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, pecans, almonds, and some more walnuts.
As you can see from the picture, I keep the nuts and the cracker right on the kitchen table next to the fruit bowl for a little protien boost whenever the mood strikes. She visits it a couple times a day.
She can't crack it initially on her own yet, but after one of us adults cracks it the first time, then she can do the rest of the cracking and shelling. The design of the nutcracker is perfect for small hands -- rather than squeeze to crack the nut, she twists, which seems much easy for her.
And how satisfying to hear that crack and feel the shell yield under pressure!
I'd recommend it to anyone -- young or old, big or small.
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