Holidays 2014

What a busy week! The holidays have our calendar full. Looks like cancer won’t be slowing us down! I started the week trying to take Raine to the gingerbread village decorating party for Valley Emporium, but he only lasted about ten minutes (long enough to pick out our candy decorations, eat a bunch of them, and then lay down on the floor and tell me “I want to go home.”) I’ll try again next year and hopefully have better luck.

We waited in line a few minutes to see Santa and when it was Raine’s turn, he told me he wanted to walk up to him by himself. I sent him up and Raine ran and hugged him. Once in his lap, he informed Santa what he wanted for Christmas and where he lives. Haha. 

Raine has helped daddy decorate the tree, played with daddy’s holiday musical brewhouse, enjoyed treats from an elf each morning when he wakes up (counting the days down to Christmas) and made cute crafts at daycare. He also picked out presents for each of his family members at the Young Artists Craft Fair at the library.

This has been my mantra lately. I saw it getting shared on social media and it stuck in my mind. My greatest task is to believe that I can manage this all. Of course, that has meant letting go of actually doing “it” all, but I’m okay with that for once. Our social worker pointed out that she sees all women do this: They have families, jobs, personal interests and they think they can keep doing it all and add caregiver/managing an illness to the list. It doesn’t work out. It’s impossible! Something has to give. For me, it has been work. I am no longer on the schedule at the store in Mac, and my own business has been operating at a much slower pace. So I just keep at what I can, bit by bit. The occasional night out or glass of wine is soothing. Massages are a genuine God send. In the meantime, Dan was back to work as soon as his severe fatigue wore off. He is putting in shorter days but working nonetheless. And together we are trying to tackle everything-making To Do lists and taking naps when we can to have stamina for Raine. We are thrilled to have Jim and Char back for ten days. Everything is better when mom and dad are around, right? I am so grateful for them.