Project 365, Week 20

In hard-week rankings, this one is way up there! The break from doctors I enjoyed while in Florida was short-lived...as a family we had SIX doctors appointments. In five days! We've had many years when we haven't had six doctor visits in the entire year. My MRI, the Sloan visit and a follow-up with my radiologist, the girls well-child visits, and the dentist for Shaun.

Thankfully Shaun and the girls had good reports, although it was sobering when the pediatrician asked if anything new had come up in the family history. I feel so bad that my kids will have cancer trailing behind them.

My appointments left me anxious in the preparation for them and disappointed and devastated in the aftermath. I let my emotions dictate many of my actions and as a result it was not my best parenting week.

My collection of photos this week feels very disingenuous, so we'll call this a "Facebook pictures post"....just the shiny, I-have-it-all-together ones, since I didn't take pictures of me crying or the instance I yelled at Amanda and called her a brat (how did that word even come out of my mouth??), or the times when I told R I can't deal with this (you!) right not now...I need space. There is not a picture of my distracted brain that operated with a two-minute attention span.

I fought for gratefulness and to see the blessings. They were there, but it was a hard week.

May 10

I was so happy to get home from Florida to find my lilacs were still in bloom...so fragrant and pretty!

May 11

I met my sister and brother at my mom's to celebrate Mother's Day.

Always good to get back into the routine and one of my favorites is walking the kids home from school.

May 12
Sweet school boy.

It was a beautiful evening to sit out at soccer practice.

May 13
Post NYC photo, walking back to our car. We had a lot on our minds and hearts at this moment, but its part of our story so I wanted to document it.

We were home from NYC, had gotten the kids to bed and had decided to spend the evening watching a movie when the phone rang. It was the police department telling Shaun that the garage at our building 30 minutes away was burned to the ground and could he come fill out a report.

It did, in fact, quite literally burn to the ground. That garage is where we housed things like the snow plow, snow blower, lawn mower, tools, etc. This is a picture Shaun took the next morning in daylight of our used-for-two-seasons snow blower.

May 14
When you have kids, life goes on...I love that about them. Here they are playing some form of zipline dodgeball. Its harder than it looks...I tried it.

2-0...who would have thought??

May 15
Amanda came home from school, excited to do a science experiment with Aiden only he wasn't here because he'd done his nursing home ministry with Pop and Kiki. Instead, she figured out she could facetime him.

There's a beautiful walking path where the girls have soccer practice...a quarter of it is private and pretty like this, and on the other portions I can watch the girls play. Its so great to be out and active.

May 16

Amanda's not going to fit in this cart much longer.

I got the garden planted. Last year, to the casual observer, we had very marginal success. Except it was an exciting project and we all enjoyed the process of watching things start as teeny seeds and with some care, turn into actual plants. The kids loved to go out and see what was growing and Aiden especially loved harvesting. All that I consider to be "a win", so we're dabbling again this year.

R and Quinn did not attend either of their proms, by choice, but for R's school's prom night they got dressed up, took pictures with their friends and then didn't go to the prom, just the after party. Its confusing to me, but maybe that's because I got the story from the guy involved instead of the girl? Anyway, I think they look great together.

Sisters and teammates.

No one scored during the quarter Amanda was keeper.

Blurry picture of Aiden with grandmas.