Project 365, Week 38

I duck out of life for a week with treatment and then hop back in and its becomes increasingly overwhelming to fit two weeks of life into one, and with limited capacity. My best is what I'm giving it and that has to be enough. I turn my heart to gratitude and try to stay in the "I get to" headspace.

September 14

Nathan and Aiden completed the new office space and were moving cabinets, hanging signs, etc. Amazing the transformation that happened in two weeks. They did such a great job!

Speaking of building projects, this is our church's new campus-in-the-making. Shaun and Aiden worked up a good sweat helping with some heavy lifting.  Someday soon we'll be having church in this room.

September 15

From the rising of the sun...

...to the going down of the same, the name of the Lord is to be praised.

September 16

Shenanigans and office re-arranging

September 17

Coffee and ground school work at the crack of dawn.

September 18

I'm getting to know the staff at the local cancer center. I've had cancer longer than most of them have been working in oncology so I imagine my appointments go differently than the average. 

Excited for another season of Teen Bible Quiz. Kind of unbelievably, this is the 10th year for Aiden and me. It has been a great joy. 

The insanity of the week is not represented in pictures but you could ask, how crazy was it? It was so crazy that Shaun asked me on date so we could see and talk to each other AND I did not say let's just stay home. 😉 

September 19

Much of my week was spent being a part of money-making opportunities for Daisy. Lots of cleaning, painting, yard work in various places. This day it lined up to work with Shaun and Aiden, too.

September 20

I've come to expect that some rogue items will make my to-do list the day before treatment days. The strangest things become imperative, almost always related in some way to my house. This day it was decorating for fall. 

Check-in photo from the host of the football Sunday boys crew. Football in the rain!

 

Project 365, Week 37

The "circle of life" sat with me this week. The freshness of new life, the brevity of life on earth...its all such a mystery, but one worth pondering frequently.

September 7

Our first Labor Day weekend in more than 20 years to not have LobsterFest, since we moved it to June this year. I wore my throwback shirt in memory. 

Happy Birth Day to my great-niece, Elia. Sweet Maddy-Girl is mom to two girls now.

We were pleased to get a reservation on a holiday evening. The weather was perfect for our annual tradition of dinner on the Connecticut River. I'm thankful for these ladies...we've done some serious mourning and rejoicing together....and hoping for eternity. :)

September 8

#51

September 9

No picture.

September 10

No picture.

September 11

No picture, although I did spend some time reading some 9/11 reflections. I recall 25 years ago I was enrolled in a Current Events class, so we had to read the newspaper. The New York Times published a special series called Portraits of Grief. For weeks and weeks and weeks that semester I read through obituaries, trying to honor the people who were plucked out of their everyday lives on that horrific morning. Twenty-five years later and it feels all the more impossible that it happened.

September 12 

This is one of my weekly accidental photos, but its fitting. I ventured out, just kind of along for the ride with some of Shaun's day as I worked to re-gain strength and mental clarity.

We stopped to see progress on the new HR Block space.

Then we walked through our future church campus building. There are still desks and chairs in all the offices and it was a bit eerie honestly. Once, not too long ago, the building was buzzing with important office work and people who dedicated the best parts of their day to their work. 

I couldn't help thinking of the verse in Ecclesiastes. I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless-like chasing the wind. This life is brief, fleeting, impossible to hold on to (why do we try to hold to it so tightly?) What matters, really? What is going to count for the rest of all time?

September 13

Opening Football Sunday...our family enjoys fall with the NFL! Avery and Jack hung at our house, Aiden's group gathered to play and watch and Amanda met Jason and his family at NY stadium

 

Project 365, Week 36

We welcomed September, because its here whether we like it or not. Without any kids in traditional school and without kids playing fall soccer September has a very different feel to it.

August 31

Daybreak at the golf course from my sweet boy who is always thinking about me.

September 1

HR Block Corporate asked Nathan to separate his office from Hale Financial after we've shared space and staff for ten years. Such a long story with so many thoughts and emotions. But he signed the lease on the new space and got to work. Levi helped on the first day and Shaun pointed the boys in the right direction. Then Aiden worked right alongside Nathan for the next two weeks.

September 2

Part of Amanda's job description is 'nanny'.

She lead a prayer during their mid-week service, link here. Love watching this girl become.

September 3

With their car down for the day, I did a significant amount of driving the kids to and from work. Thankfully it was one day, thankfully I have the flexibility.

September 4

No picture.

September 5

Heavy parenting weekend. We did some work at the apartment building that's been a summer project. 

Laryssa sent me this of Aiden.

September 6

Such a pretty Sunday afternoon, so the kids opted to do their family fantasy football draft at the lake.

While they played games, Shaun and I took the baby down to the water. Snuggling a baby, looking out at the water, talking with my man...good stuff.

Project 365, Week 35

Life. Wow. 

This week there is lots of Amanda as she got settled into her first week back at Summit. And our household walked through another chemo week and other opportunities to trust God when our eyes cannot see. 

August 24

The empty bedroom down the hall. 😢

But she checked in, all dressed up and ready to report for her first day of work. It made me laugh because I was with Avery at the office and saw they were twining 300 miles apart.

This was a tough day of praying and waiting and trying to stay busy and distracted. It a weighty honor to bear one another's burdens.

August 25

Amanda's corner office with a view.

We took a sliver of time out to celebrate God's mercy and to grieve loss. Bearing one another's burdens.

My sister hosted a blessing night...a chance for the people in Renna's life to speak truth and blessing over her and to call out the good and beautiful things in her. Renna is the last to finish homeschooling through 8th grade and to move on to a high school. Six children my sister has homeschool over these many years. She is a wonder.

August 26

I have never been able to just wake up and go headlong into the day. Always I have needed to get up early. to move my body, to sit slowly with a cup of coffee. To read my Bible and talk to my Jesus, to remind myself and to sing of his love and goodness and might, to get out in nature to witness the sunrise or listen to the leaves rustling or the birds chirping or notice the different shades of green in the grass.

(This would be embarrassing except that I'm 50 years old and am growing more immune to embarrassment with each passing year). The fact that I do these things does not mean I'm a super star. It means I'm super sinful and fickle. In no time, I can construct my own little kingdom where I am the center and the ruler. I begin to "tweak" my theology to make it more pleasing and containable, I am prone to despair. My defaults are selfishness, impatience, judgey-ness.  My mental health starts to get off-balance. Not a formula, if I do this then I'll get a certain result, more a rhythm and way of life that tends towards the right direction.

On ordinary days when I need to be loving to my family, on treatment days when I head into the valley and all of life in-between...I require a lot of work!

Treatment #50. 

August 27

Every other week Amy faithfully loads our refrigerator with enough food to get us through the week. And sometimes she puts flowers on my nightstand. So much love and devotion.

August 28

No picture

August 29

Shaun's morning check-in picture from the lake.

August 30

Amanda's roommate from last year arrived on campus and they were SO happy to be reunited. Shayla is an RA this year and Amanda is an intern, but they are still in the same dorm which means they'll share lots of late nights together.