School's almost out!

Just a quick note to update as it's again been a while. I've been really busy with all kinds of things and am hoping to come up for air next week when Z. is done with school. A. started work this past Monday (YEAH!) so I'm back to the picking up after school thing (awww, I was so spoiled this year with A. doing the drop off and the pick up most days), but it's the last week of school so I really made out :-)

Lots of cancer stuff going on lately, most notably that a friend is moving into hospice (to the hospice facility, she's been in hospice at home for a while now) and I'm really sad that the end is near. We're new friends, we just met a few months ago, but we've gotten close quickly. My emotions are all mixed up between thoughts of her and thoughts of myself and thoughts of my late sister. A few days ago I twisted and turned while lifting heavy things at the grocery store and my lower back is unhappy. This on top of stress is causing pain and the pain reminds me of the pain I had last fall that ended up being diagnosed as a recurrence. So my mind is going to places I'd rather not go. I've been trying to use the mindfulness practices I learned in the research study I was in recently (for women with cancer and stress) in dealing with all of this stuff. I do think it helps, along with the (mostly) daily meditation. But it's still been hard.

Some nice or should I say flattering news. I had some paintings up at The Wellness Community's Celebration of Hope last week (there was a small show of work from Open Studio) and a woman expressed interest in buying both of my paintings. The works in the show weren't for sale, but I was summoned from my lunch to meet her and we exchanged emails. It took me a while to contact her and I haven't heard back from her but it doesn't matter. I don't really care if I actually sell them, it was just nice that someone wanted to buy them. I still have to photograph them, but they are two acrylic paintings on canvas paper that are entitled Pain and Relief. They were painted on the same afternoon last fall, a few weeks after my back pain began (I was pretty much in constant pain at that point) and I painted the pain in one and the imagining of being pain free in the other (abstractly).

Z.'s 10th bday is this Sunday. 10 years!! It was almost 9 years ago that I began having symptoms of stage 4b vulvar cancer and here I am seeing her 10th bday. She is definitely not my baby anymore. Puberty has hit (for real, menstruation, pimples, and definitely the moody hormones) and it's challenging, but I am so proud of who she is and how she's grown. She's strong, confident, knows who she is, smart, creative and passionate.

Well, off to bed, tomorrow is Pet Day for her class at school and poor Calvin is going to have to make a trip to school in his cat carrier (where he will stay) and be around dogs, hamsters and whatever else the kids bring in. Meow!