Bug's decided to do a little baking, specifically pies. His first one was a recipe of his own creation. He convinced his sister to make the crust for him. He managed the rest. The verdict: YUM!
recipe for pooplpie pie
ingredients
one graham cracker pie crust
1 half gallon of chocolate ice cream
a chocolate sauce as long as its cold
a hungry person
step one:
cool the pie crust until cold to the touch
It happens. We can’t plan for it. That’s what makes it a crisis. It’s also what makes it life. Life isn’t a neatly planned series of events. That’s a textbook. Life is not a textbook.
In case you don’t read my main blog, I’ll give a quick summary of our crisis. In late February, my husband felt like he had a pill stuck in his throat. Allergies, thought the doctor, but he ordered blood work to be on the safe side given the family history of lymphoma. The blood work came back fine, but a lump appeared near Hubs’ collar bone. So, back to the doctor he went. This time, a CT scan was ordered of the neck. Just as they finished the CT and were ready to let him go, they said “Hey, let’s go ahead and do your chest while we have you here.” Never a good sign. Meanwhile, in these few short weeks of tests, Hubs began to swell up in the neck, chest, and back, and his breathing became labored. He also developed a chronic dry cough. By the end of March, we had a diagnosis and had started chemo. Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma of the Diffuse Large B-Cell variety. It’s the most common of the many types of Non-Hodgkin. His was staged somewhere between III/IV due to lung involvement, but his bone marrow is clear.
What does this mean for our homeschooled children? It means we’re learning a lot about cancer, immune systems, chemotherapy regimens, monoclonal antibodies, and learning to express a vast array of emotions, all of which are normal.
Our eldest child has a deep desire to have a urine sample from Hubs to view under his microscope the red urine output caused by the doxorubicin. So far, we haven’t followed through on that request. We need to check with the oncologist to make sure it would be safe to handle, even in a vial.
It’s also been a time for the kids to spend more one-on-one time with their extended family; grandparents, aunts, and cousins have rallied around to provide them with support during this time. This means outings, projects, and adventures they wouldn’t be able to do with us, and perspectives other than our own, all of which they cherish.
Teamwork has been another big change. I need their help more now than ever. Help with things that were more often done by the adults in our family have now become things we all need to pitch in to get done. Since they are now 10 and 12, this is possible, but hadn’t been absolutely necessary until now. I think they are beginning to take pride in some of their newfound ways of contributing to our family’s care and keeping.
Even in a time of crisis, the learning continues.
Image via WikipediaThis recovery process is making our days a little unpredictable. Bug had a 4-H Poultry meeting today, which we had to miss due to my health. Hate when that happens. But, flexibility is a good thing to learn. So, we changed it up a bit today.
Instead, Peanut took the dogs for a walk around the 'hood, which they desperately needed. Sam has gotten much easier to handle now that she's been working with him on a regular basis.
While Peanut was walking the dogs, Bug took his Boshi stick out for some execise. Later he came into my room to use the Stairmaster. He had fun playing around with the speeds to vary his caloric burn. We had fun joking about what those calories equated to--a kernel of corn, a lick on a lollipop, or a sip of soda. He stayed with it until he worked up a sweat.
Tonight, the kids worked together to make Pecan Encrusted Chicken. They took turns with the various steps, each taking over where the other wasn't comfortable. Bug doesn't like to touch raw meat, and Peanut doesn't like to handle hot things on the stove. Together, they are a complete chef! Yum!
Bug loves, I mean LOVES, shrimp. So, when I needed a little help making dinner tonight, it didn't take much convincing to enlist him. Peanut was in charge of the pasta, and Bug handled the shrimp with a little guidance from me.
He got to hone his sauteing, simmering, and deglazing skills. Adding the lemon juice to the melted butter, discussing why you don't want to splash butter over onto the gas burner, and what to do in the event of a kitchen/grease fire were all part of our impromptu lesson.
At the end, we got the tasty reward of a delicious dinner of shrimp scampi. I love it when science tastes so yummy.
