Author Archives: Christie Perkins

About Christie Perkins

I'm just and ordinary girl (yes, girl) who loves life. After a battle with chemo, radiation, and two types of breast cancer I can't help but see the perks of every day. I celebrate life by writing and loving more deeply. Couldn't be happier. I live in Utah with my husband and four boys.

Are You Up To The Out-y 500 Challenge?

Posted on by
5

by Christie Perkins

So I woke up with bags under my eyes. You know when you can feel the droopiness in your muscles and and thighs (yeah, because my thighs are flabby fat not muscles… something like that. Moving on). Well I was in this state when I hit the floor running.

You see, I was so excited the night before that I just couldn’t sleep. I night plotted about all of the things I wanted to purge my house of. It all started with the recent return of a big family vacation. It was a vacation that I lived on 6 outfits (and underwear and socks of course), a dumbed down but sufficient makeup bag, and a deck of cards.

And I was happy. So stinkin’ happy.

Are You Up To TheOUT-Y 500 CHALLENGE_ _Winter is dead.”When I got home the first thing I was repulsed at was the amount of clothes that stood there decorating the vertical space in my closet. They didn’t even look happy to be there. I was suddenly weighed down by all these little things that didn’t matter. I didn’t even miss them a smidge. And I ate half the month in vacation plans on six outfits (which was a very good choice by the way).

Wow. You know, it was time to change some things because I was suddenly tired of all the little insignificant things in life that weighed me down. I suddenly recognized all my energy that pooled into the things that didn’t matter. Things like unhappy vertical decorations on hangers.

Over the course of the last 3 years cancer has taught me this great truth. Things don’t matter. And if it is gobbling your energy and time and it is not building anyone up, it’s time to ditch the task… or item. So, I have started what I call The Out-y 500.

Squeal.

I can’t resist. It’s just too much joy I’m going to burst. Continue reading →

How Not to Make Tamales

Posted on by
Reply

by Christie Perkins

How Not to Make TamalesSo. Um… I had good intentions. And as the saying goes “It’s the thought that counts.” And let me tell you I’ve had some really awesome thoughts. Ha. These thoughts never formalized into anything… not even a failure. And you know the power of failing. Some of my greatest strengths and funny memories have come from failing. Anyway.

I’m denying myself of some great opportunities here. Think of the stories I could tell.

Hm. Well. Here’s a classic recipe quirk of the infamous “Yeah, you know… I was gonna try that.” Here’s my version of tamales: Continue reading →

Guaranteed Picture Perfect Moments

Posted on by
1

by Christie Perkins

Sometimes we think we know what is best for us.

Yeah, we think we have it all figured all out. You know, it’s the perfect, flawless, plan. In our heads the picture is complete. We actually think we know all of the details of what is best for us. And then (because we claim the teenage syndrome of “all knowing”) sometimes question why prayers aren’t being answered. We wonder if we are being heard at all.

Guaranteed Picture Perfect MomentsBut if we step back we will realize that our picture’s not quite perfect: we are just a kindergartners attempting to draw the perfect picture. As an adult it is easy to see that a person has shoulders, not just arms protruding from a neck that’s the same size as our thighs and hips. And there’s more to a simple line for our lips. A scraggly lined lip isn’t really fire engine red but a soft muted mauve.

Experience and prior mistakes in our own drawings tell us so. (Well that and my high school art teacher… who knew the eyeballs are not actually positioned on our hairline?) Continue reading →

Yawn. My Stage 4 Cancer Update

Posted on by
11

by Christie Perkins

YAWN!My Stage 4 Cancer UpdateSo a lot of people are wondering what is going on with my treatments. This will be a highly unexciting post about the details of my life right now. If you want to skip out… I’ll catch you next week.

Wink. (And we can still be friends. I won’t even know that you dropped out.)

First, I need to clarify what stage 4 cancer is. Most people just nod and give me that far off look in their eye. It’s like trying to explain burns to me. Is 1st degree worst or 3rd? All these numbers cause me brain blunders. Continue reading →

Stop Swishing Around in the Bucket List

Posted on by
2

Christie Perkins

When it comes to bucket lists, I have a very tiny bucket. You know the kind that act as a Barbie house decoration rather than a dowsing pot? It’s small not because of the time factor (psh, we are going to squish a lot of time out of this cancer journey) but because my wish list is small.

I should do something about that.Stop Swishing Around In Your Bucket List 5 Things You Shouldn't Leave Off Your List(1)

Anyway. So, last week I was able to slop a little something out of my bucket. I squealed when I saw the river, who cares that I was in a car full of mostly strangers. Decades of my chained up wish list was finally breaking free. I couldn’t help it, the swirly twirl in my stomach just burst into sunshine confetti. Never mind the muddy river and 105 degree weather.

Today, I was going river rafting. Continue reading →

How this Baseball Coach Taught Me to Coach my Kids

Posted on by
Reply

by Christie Perkins

I have learned a great deal about coaching kids through others. Sometimes kids fall. Sometimes they mess up. Sometimes things don’t go quite right. Our response is crucial to their learning process of who they are. Of the many great coaches we have had in life, one moment stands firm in my mind. I feel impressed to share it with you today, not last week like I was going to.

Someone needed this today.

We all have coaches in life. Sometimes we are the coach. Sometimes we are the player. I learned something great through one of my boys’ baseball coach. I believe it is key to how we coach our kids, especially when they mess up.

“She turned to the sunlight And shook her yellow head,And whispered to her neighbor_ _Winter is dead.”(3)It was pouring rain. But we were playing ball anyway. Too many games have been cancelled this year already. And since the game started out dry that was good enough.

I huddled under layers of blankets with the denim quilt as my oversized poncho and hair destroyer. Lovely. The afghan wrapped around my arms and legs kept me mostly warm with frequent blasts of cold air finding its way through the holes.

Sly comments about a holey blanket in this mad weather kept coming back to me. Again, and again, and again… and I could see the obvious mistake. They were absolutely right. Continue reading →

5 Tips To Avoid a Boring Lolly-Gag Summer

Posted on by
1

by Christie Perkins

Summer is just around the corner. (Squeal!) But it’s not long before the kids slip into a brainless slouchy boredom slump. And all of my entertainment ideas are stumped. We go from bliss to fists in a few short weeks. Yep, it’s true. My kids fight (please send me tips if your kids don’t).

Humph.Avoid a BoringLOLLY- GAG SUMMER(1)

I’m excited for summer anyway. I love hanging with my kids. I love schedule drops, late bedtime flops, and night walks with my guy and the kids. Ah, the sweetness of summer time.

But what to do about the long unplanned days? For me, I love to put a focus on the day. I’ve done it for years and the kids seem to like it (I’ve even been surprised that they liked the organization day- probably because we drop chores that day).  Check out what I did last summer here. Continue reading →

How Dealing with Cancer is Like Building a House

Posted on by
6

by Christie Perkins

If you have ever built a house you know the deep ditch neuro pathways you carve from overthinking details.

You even sometimes dream about the process… or have nightmares.

“She turned to the sunlight And shook her yellow head,And whispered to her neighbor_ _Winter is dead.”(1)You have lived in other places and you quickly categorize what you like and don’t like. You adopt and adapt from previous experience the things you should do for the next house. But some things you take for granted, like the placement of plugs. You don’t really think about those details because someone else does the thinking for that.

Unless you’ve had a bad experience with that.

In my last house I had one light switch in a bedroom that was vacationing halfway down the wall. Ok. Maybe not that far. But, you would practically jab your armpit with the door frame before you found the switch… and I always prayed that a spider wasn’t playing boogie man as I felt the wall.

That’s crawly (not to mention creepy). Continue reading →

Gain This Super Power in Just 5 Minutes a Day

Posted on by
4

by christie Perkins

You all know people with super powers. We get all googly eyed over their amazing abilities. They are everywhere: Service Sweetheart, Listening Lister, Jammin’ Jamie, Dinner Pro Joe… yadda, yadda.

One Super Power You Don't Want to Go Without How just 5 minutes a day can save the day!Ooh, and I like it when they save the day. I’ve been rescued from overwhelming yard projects, worries and woes, awkward dance moments (lets face it… all my jigging and jiving wrinkles the faces of innoncent bystanders), and drive by dinner drop offs.

I love other people’s talents. What would I do without their strengths? And a little craving enters in and I think to myself, “Hm? What kind of super power do I want?”

The possibilities are endless. So I fine tune my thinking, “What would be one of the greatest super powers I could have? And better yet: What super power could I pass on to my children?” Continue reading →

Kill The After School Cereal Snack With This One Hack

Posted on by
2

by Christie Perkins

So. Everyone with school age kids loves a good deal on cereal. Am I right? Maybe it’s just a boy thing. I don’t know. The double dollar box stock is incredible but it disappears as quickly as it’s docked. Or so it seems.

Kill the After School Cereal Snack With This One Hack!It immediately becomes a prey to the after school chow down.

I frown. It would be nice if my amazing food stretching skills actually stretched into something more than a couple of weeks. Eeeks! I even try to hide the stuff but their sniffer is quicker than my thought process. Maybe if I actually prepared some fancy after school snack I could avoid this fiasco in the first place. Meh. But I don’t.

But, now that I think about it, I’m doing them a favor. I mean, really, just think of worst case scenario and living in a food deficit moment. My boys will not be waiting for their silver platter slathered in neatly arranged food chunks. No. They will search and scrounge up food to feed the bear growling in their stomach. They will survive because they will know how to hunt. Continue reading →