Life In Bullet Points

Cancer stuff-

• Ian is in-patient at Children’s, getting Chemo Round 6.
• We’ve decided, along with his oncologist, that Round 7 will probably be his last, rather than (the typical for Medullo) Round 9.
• If all goes well, and the plan doesn’t change (again), Ian should be done with Chemo around September 21st, rather than the mid-December it would’ve been…
• Finishing Chemo will be awesome, a huge step completed, but with his Posterior Fossa Syndrome, he will still have a lot of rehab therapies ahead of him.
• My sister’s little boy, Tenney, is really having a tough time with all of his chemo side-effects (his protocol is more chemo-intensive than Ian’s), but his latest scans did show continued improvement, the cancer/nodules remaining in his lungs is/are continuing to shrink, but we want to see it all disappear!! Please join with us in praying for that?
• #stupidcancer

Summer stuff-

• Jaron & Liberty have been away at Bible camp this week, I hope they’re having a fantabulous time, but I am eager to have them home again tomorrow afternoon!
• Soccer season starts this week for Varsity & next week for the younger teams.
• Ian is not ready to play, which is a major bummer as it was a huge goal of his, to play his senior year soccer season, but his coach told us he’d love to have him participate as a manager, so he can be with the team for as many of the games as he is able, and even some practices when he’s feeling up to it
• Liberty & Grace are very excited to try their first year of a team sport, signing up for the local Christian school’s 4th-6th grade soccer team. Their practice schedule is much less intensive than the varsity team, so I think we will survive the crazy busy fall season
• Jaron was not interested in soccer, but is very interested in archery. We missed the summer lessons session, and the place we are looking at (mostly because it’s close enough!!) only has advanced classes in the fall, so we may look into something else for now (??), and then try to get him signed-up for the beginner session that starts back up in January. In the meantime, he needs a bow, and maybe some quality bonding time with a couple of his uncles, who both happen to be quite handy with a bow…
• Hope has been having a blast with some “play appointments” since being evaluated for her SPD issues. We’ve learned a lot about what makes her tick, and more importantly, what helps her focus. Much more on that coming up…
• Mercy, Joseph, and Faith (and most of the rest of ‘em) have all been growing like weeds and just plain old enjoying getting outside (when the weather and mosquito level has been tolerable!) to run around and get completely covered in dirt and sweat, signifying a day of good fun, usually topped off with a popsicle of varying flavors
• Field trips have been non-existent, mostly due to a combination of our therapy appointment schedule, the crazy heat wave, and the random acts of summer storms happening to roll through every time an outing makes it on the calendar. We have something planned next Thursday, and I’m really hoping it works out, but I am not going to hold my breath… (’cause you know, I would pass out way before next Thursday…)
• My attempt at a garden, was, well, let’s just say that I probably don’t even qualify for “An E for Effort” this year.
• But my parents happen to live up the road, and their garden is overflowing, so, you know, it’s zucchini heaven around here

Homeschooling-

• We sort of homeschool year-round, and I think of our school year calendar being July through June, and I had every intention of starting up a new, hopefully much better than last year, homeschool year the first full week of July. Well… we’re still trying to ease into the swing of things. Enough said.
• After several talks with Ian regarding whether he’d be able to handle some more online college classes through Northwestern College, he finally decided that it would be better to just be happy with the free college credits he earned his junior year, and to try to keep things simple for finishing up his senior year.  He still has double vision, has trouble holding a pen or pencil to write (still struggles to write his name legibly), and has a very short attention span, especially when it comes to reading (which used to be a favorite pastime of his), add to that his short term memory issues, and, well, the simpler the better this year.
• We’ve decided to use a couple subjects of Switched on Schoolhouse, so he can do the work on the computer. He can still type, it may be laborious for him, but it’s way easier than writing by hand at this point.
• We’re also hoping to try the One Year Adventure Novel for his final English credit. He’s always loved good literature, and enjoyed the story-writing assignments he’s had over the years. We haven’t ordered it yet, and it costs a pretty penny, but we’re hoping to figure out a way to get our hands on it one of these days soon…
• I have high hopes for this year (admittedly, manifesting in high pressure on myself). I know we had A LOT on our plate last year, but I had really hoped to be able to keep up with a lot more of the homeschooling through it all. We ended up looking very nearly like radical unschoolers much of the time, and yes, Mythbusters and Prototype This were often considered science lessons… I’m definitely a relaxed homeschooler, but I really feel like we didn’t get enough done last year, especially with our girl who struggles the most. We have some definite plans in place to keep her moving along, and hopefully catch up and soar this year!
• With all that we’ve been learning about Sensory Processing Disorders, I’m excited to see how the many ideas I’ve been given and we’ve been playing with will incorporate into our schooling days.

Other stuff-

• As of yesterday, I’m 24 weeks along…
• I made the best zucchini brownies. The kids were in chocolate heaven (I made a chocolate buttercream frosting to top them off, crazy decadent, I know!) and they were eating their veggies, too!
• We’re not TV watchers (yes, we watch movies on netflix & dvds), in fact we normally don’t even get any TV reception, we don’t live close enough to town for cable (not that we would want it, but we don’t even get the choice), and we’ve neverfelt the need for satellite TV, but every now and then the D-I-Y HDTV antenna (not even kidding, IT Guy made it after watching a YouTube video, it’s ugly, but it works) comes out of the garage…
• Everyone has Olympic fever, which, I guess, is ok for now.
• Less ok are the low-grade fevers that Baby Faith & Mercy are running today.
• I never used to worry about minor colds & other such viral crud.
• I started to worry some as the asthma issues became chronic, and sometimes serious…
• With Ian and Tenney both going through chemo, I worry about every single sneeze & cough, and every single mystery fever…
• I can’t end with a sad face, so, let’s see, on a happier note, we were gifted a (new to us) used piano! It’s not actually in our house yet (it’s being stored at my husband’s business in town, keeping the racks of servers/computers company ), but it will be here soon! I hope!

And what about you? What have you been up to? I’d love to hear about your summer highlights (or lowlights)!