Today was exhausting. Each day is, really. I wake and wonder how on earth I will do all that I want or need to do, and by the end of the day I’ve only done a bit of it, and I wonder how I’ll get up the next day and keep pushing forward.

It’s an awkward place I’m in.. this waiting place before surgery, because part of me wants it here tomorrow and part of me wants it to never come. We are packing our week full of summer fun, trying to catch all the time together we can before our lives change yet again in the whirlwind that cancer is.  Read more... (720 words, estimated 2:53 mins reading time)

She sat beside me this morning on the swing and we raised our arms high, signing “I love you” to Brian as he drove off to work in his Chevy truck (please pronounce that with a hard “ch” not the soft “sh”. That’s what Brian does to make me laugh, and if y’all feel anything like me these days, you need a laugh). “Double love!” Bella shouted as he drove away, “No, love FOUR times!” Then she curled into me and whispered, “Daddy. I just want Daddy here, too.” We are all feeling it, this need to be together. To grab every moment.  Read more... (484 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

This morning, I stood at my kitchen sink and stared unfocused out the window at the dewy yard. I couldn’t see the ragged canes of our black raspberry patch straggling through the yard, because yesterday morning some of our former youth and college kids came with their father and cleaned it all up for us. I thought for a moment about what an incredible blessing it was, how humbled we are to be loved so much.  Read more... (406 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)