Thankful for a husband who takes the time to help with my arm. As long as I get up with him in the mornings, he makes time to help me wrap morning and night.
Thankful for a Christ child born, a tree full of gifts, a family to spend the holidays with, a table full of food.
Not thankful that the tree is put away already. And the pile of stuff I keep adding to of things that didn't quite make it back into the Christmas boxes in the garage. Dang it!
Thankful for what will be about 36 frozen crock-pot meals. The picture doesn't show the 20 or so pounds of chicken parts. Thank you, God, for below freezing temps a few days ago so I could just leave that on the back porch! The site I am using for this round is www.whoneedsacape.com.
I used another site during radiation, but most of those recipes turned out pretty bland. I had to buy a whole lot of spices for these recipes, so it should be interesting dinner at my house for the next two months. I still have about 6 or so recipes to assemble, right after I buy some more garlic and find some more time!
Thankful for one more round of Mealtrain.com, too. While I am trying to be prepared, let's get real, it's much nicer when someone else cooks!
Thankful to be winding down this year. While I have chosen to be thankful through the crumminess, it has not been the year I wanted. The boys both noticed that while there were gifts from Mom and Dad and Santa too, there wasn't as much as in years past, for more reasons than just money. We have tried to give them experiences along the way this year, but those are sometimes forgotten in the wrapping paper frenzy. Tamoxifen mood swings didn't help any of us in the last week, either. A year ago, we had thoughts and dreams to be in a new house by now. Maybe, hopefully, prayerfully, next summer. Anyone want to buy a great little 3 bedroom house with a huge garage? I didn't have a thought in the world of changing jobs a year ago, but am starting grad school in a few weeks (Masters in Healthcare Informatics through SIUE and BJC) with the vague plan to work my way out of patient care at some point. I have no idea what my arm will look or feel like after surgery next week, but I am sure that I need to plan for the future and not be schlepping patients to CT scan (or coding them on Christmas) when I am 65.
Thankful that God forgives when I am angry, and selfish, and frustrated, and angry, and want my life all fixed and better NOW. Did I mention the mood swings? Yeah, I am not winning "Mom of the Year" this year. And it's all about me. And why do my kids have to learn the hard lessons so young? Yeah, angry amidst the blessings. But this week we've had some good talks about chore money, hard work, spending wisely all year long and saving for stuff you really want, as we have tried to put a positive spin on Christmas. Dang it, Clark Howard, and Dave Ramsey, and Suze Orman, it was much easier when Santa just mindlessly swiped plastic! So a learning opportunity for the big kid, a blessing amidst the crumminess.
Thankful for one more year surrounded by a great community, two churches, friends, coworkers, family, all holding my little family together, every single day.
Maybe I should clarify some of this. Sometimes, I just need to vent. I am not looking for anything from anyone to fix my kid's world. He asked for a 3ds xl and a specific game for Christmas. We gave him a DS several years ago, and the boys managed to lose most of the little tiny game cartridges after a while. I think he traded it in maybe last year for who knows what at Gamestop. When he asked for the new version (and basically that's all he asked for) this year, I could not bring myself to spend $250 on that. So the aunts and uncles and Santa and the parents all teamed up for giftcards for him. He is still a little short. Last year, Santa would have just swiped plastic and been done. The more we do that, the less we have for a nest egg to build. What I didn't realize is how much he has picked up on the balance between bills, no paycheck for no work, and trying to be frugal and realistic for the next two months. He has been upset the last couple days about asking us to help him pay for the only thing he really wanted, and worried that if we helped him, that was taking money away from the weekly bills. He will be fine with life's decisions, and was talking on his own about waiting for his birthday in the spring to get it. There is money tucked away for life, and it's not the end of the world if we don't get to build this summer either while we try and rebuild my body and income and our dreams. It's just been a hard couple days of parenting, and disappointment for him caused by me and my own stubbornness, and sometimes Christmas isn't Hallmark. Stupid cancer. I want to give him the world carefree, not lessons in budgeting, planning and saving. But when he spends his chore money on silly xbox stuff throughout the year, I don't have as much sympathy. Sometimes I don't know the right parenting answers, and sometimes there just isn't a right answer.
