yowza!

I just realized I haven't written since May! That's just unacceptable, but, I have been a little busy. Let's see, I finished chemo July 7th, had the first of two reconstruction surgeries in September, had an emergency surgery a week later, and then just had the last one yesterday! Woo hoo!! Almost done...I'm in the home stretch.

This time last year I was walking around with a tumor - unsure of what was going to happen. Crazy what can happen to you in a year. This time last year, the doctors were telling me it was just a simple cyst and there was nothing to worry about.

Now, a year later, I feel like the breast cancer expert. I spoke at my kid's school for breast cancer awareness month. That felt  a little weird. What do you tell a group of 9 and 10 year olds about cancer? They seemed to only know about their grandparents who died of cancer and their dogs that had tumors. But I left that classroom feeling brave and strong.

My body is still not yielding to my whims, but eventually, I pray, things will be back to normal. Or at least, maybe I'll yield to the new normal.

So now I just want to focus on the rest of this year. Thanksgiving. My favorite holiday all year is coming up quickly and I'm so excited for it. I created this awesome spreadsheet last year to manage what was cooking and when and what appliance would be used at what time...it's a thing of beauty for people like me. I love excel spreadsheets - I think they can make everything look great. And, it does make me feel just a little bit in control.

There are a lot of changes happening in my family - exciting, scary, thrilling, life-altering changes - it could be stressful, but miraculously enough, I'm not feeling any stress...first time in many years that I'm actually feeling true peace. It's as though God is just tying up all the loose ends. It's a great place to be.

Consider it pure joy,  my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. James 1:2-3