Muddy Rain Boots

The last couple of blogs have been of a very serious nature, so I thought this week I would take a break from blogging about our cancer journey and do something fun instead. I wrote this blog a couple of months ago, but had not shared it with y'all yet. Hope you enjoy! 

Looking back over my lifetime I can not ever remember us having such a cool, wet summer as we have this year.  Usually we are burning up by the end of July and all of August with no relief in sight. It is normal for our light bill to be sky high with running the air all the time, for the grass to be brown and "burnt up" and for everyone you meet to be completely miserable.  This summer has been completely different!!  Of course I'm not complaining, I mean the weather has been great and it has giving us lots of chances for playing outside.  We have enjoyed every chance we have had to get muddy!  It sure is fun to get those boots out and get them dirty.  We love to tromp through the mud and splash in the puddles. It has been so rainy here that our pond has almost overflowed.  We love to walk around the bank and hear the water squish while our dog swims and chases frogs.  I heard somewhere as long time ago that rain contains vitamin B-12.  I don't know if that is true or not, but it gives us one more good excuse to be out playing "in the rain".  

Of course when I was growing up we never wore rain boots or galoshes as some call them. We just always ran around barefoot for the entire summer and sometimes we do that too. 

So get out there and enjoy all the rain and mud. Take the time to squish, stomp, and make mud pies with your kids. They will love it and so will you. 

*(I have to remind y'all of this: If you can hear thunder you can be struck by lighting. So please don't play outside during a thunderstorm.)

"That's my "two cents worth", what's yours?"

...And The Battle Continues!

Let me apologize for being absent from blogging, but I'm sure that y'all understand the reasoning.  When I left off last time my daughter had not yet completed her first round of chemo, so let me catch y'all up. She went that Monday and finished up that round of therapy and was able to return to school for 1/2 a day on Tuesday. On Thursday she had her blood work done and her WBC  counts were almost nothing. She had to miss a day of school and was very unhappy about that. Finally on Tuesday of the following week her counts were back up and she was able to go to school for the rest of the week. It was so good to pick her up from school and see her run to meet me, what a blessing the Lord gave us. We were able to go with her Sunday School class last Saturday to a local amusement park, it was so good to get away for a few hours and not think constantly on our situation.   She had to return to the hospital this past Monday to begin round two of chemo. We spent three days there, but she did so much better this time. Her number one complaint with the chemo is that she just feels so tired all the time and that just when she feels like she is getting back to "normal" it is time to start all over again.  I have to take her again today for her injection to help build up her WBC and RBC counts and then Monday for the last treatment this round. It is a 22 day cycle that will just continue to repeat until she is cancer free and we are hoping and praying that time will come sometime soon. Through all of this I have been reminded daily of the verse,

Psalm 46:10a 

 Be still, and know that I am God:

I know that the Lord is looking after us and helping our entire family through this. He has blessed us with an amazing hospital, doctors and nurses to care for her.  He has allowed us to live close by so our family is not apart during this time. He has giving us family and friends to encourage and support us. His blessings and mercies have been too many to name and I thank him everyday for each of them.  Her battle is not over and she is fighting this cancer with all she has in her, but she knows her strength comes from the Lord and he is with her. Sometime within the next two weeks they will do more scans to see how the cancer is responding. It is very hard to wait so long, but I know that the Lord is taking care of her and  I know that he still can do miracles, which is exactly what we are looking for. Thanks to all of you for the prayers and please continue to say them for us, it means more than you will ever know.