It’s Not To Late For a Gratitude Switcheroo

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by Christie PErkins

(Reposted from November 2015. Yep making this easy on me this month.)

Don’t just look for a reason to be grateful, give someone the reason to be.

howperkyworks.com (3)Typically the month of November is a time we focus on all of the things that we are grateful for. I love it. It’s so nice to evaluate the good things in our lives. To recognize all those things that have been squished against our noses but somehow failed to see.

So typically we find reasons to be grateful. We list them on construction paper turkey feathers, die cut leaves, or more permanently- in our journals, etc. We display them somewhere (well, maybe not the journal that could be… intrusive) so we can remember all the goodness that life offers. Regardless, it’s a snazzy little thing that softens our complaint list in the month of November.

It’s nice. It’s needed. Continue reading →

Neutropenia Plunk (And A Sweet Story of Love)

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by Christie Perkins

First off I must tell you that feel fine. I lack energy, but I always lack energy so it’s fine. I went to the doctor last week and got my results back from my cat scan. I’ve been feeling really good about it and rightfully so. I have found that for the most part it looks good. Nothing additional-tumorous to worry about. Yay!

I love emotional paydays.

neutropenia-kerplunkYet, my neutrophils are misbehaving. They’ve taken a plunk. So a little factoid here: normal range of neutrophils are between 2.5 and 6.0. Mine are a whopping 0.3 (yeah that’s zero point three). They call that neutropenia. (Puts your doctor in shock.)

It’s a bit lame as you get to evaluate your 4 walls while you wait for the neutrophils to get in order. Instead of me running amuck I’m stuck. I go lazy so they can go crazy. Meh. I avoid crowds, and germ infested guests, anyone with vaccinations (and carrying a live virus), and broccoli, cauliflower, and raspberries (because it’s difficult to wash thouroughly). So random right? And of course, I’ve been craving broccoli lately.

La-ti-dah. It’s a low key life when you are neutropenic. Continue reading →

Give Thanks for Fat Pants

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by Christie Perkins

give-thanks-for-fat-pantsGood news. Good, good, news.

I fit into my fat pants!

Yeah. I know. It’s not every day that you don’t fit into your pants that you get to laugh about it. But, quite frankly, I was tired of my flubber blubbering all over the edge of my pants. And besides this massive fat globules overhang was shading my feet from the sun.

Hence the white legs. Continue reading →

Want To Perk Up Your Spirit? Try This!

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by Christie Perkins

So lately I’ve been wearing some personality magnifying glasses that only sees my weaknesses. I sort of, kind of,… ok REALLY hate them. Every day it has this amazing power to pick up some new weakness. Well, I guess it’s not “new”- let’s face this- weaknesses don’t just flourish in a petri dish overnight. But, my ability to see what I am not is really annoying me.

try-this1Argh.

So, I got the half-brained brilliant idea to list all my weaknesses down. Wow. And as I listed them a full force of thoughts came rushing at me. The creative juices were loose. In fact, they were a little overly rambunctious. Calm down now. I knew I wasn’t very successful at many things but I had no idea that I really did stink it up this bad. Yeah, that took my depressed state down a few notches.

Not exactly the best idea.

Phew! I was glad my five year old interrupted me as my personal stink list pad was filling up fast with what I think bad. Gulp. Nice interruption. I didn’t want to go back to that little self-reflection activity. Continue reading →

Using the 5 Love Languages to Save Families

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by Christie Perkins

I’m a nonfiction junkie. I love reading self help books and text books. Yep, I’m a full on geek. And I also like a light clean romance book. You know the kind, the kind where the discovery of real love is realized…not just that state of the twitterpation station of life.

using-the-5-love-languages-to-save-familiesSo with my atypical spectrum of book likes, my friend gave me the perfect book: The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell. A perfect mix of knowledge and how to discover and express real love to your kids and family. Not just to be infatuated with our fabulous (and crazy driving destination) families but how to show them that we love them.

So geek it up with me.

Families need a little more love, a little more connections with one another, and a lot more work. So, no matter your situation: divorced, separated, happily married, existing in the same room with a legalized paper that indicates your married, single, with kids… or without, take a look at what Gary and Ross have to say. I’ll get to the details of that in a minute. But, I have tried a few of these simple techniques and have found a little more cohesion in our family. I liked the results.

Because no family is exempt from attack and every family is worth saving, no matter, no what! Continue reading →

Because the Little Efforts Count

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by Christie Perkins

So the easy way out was not to write today. But, a little something keeps coming to mybecause-the-little-efforts-count head.

I’ll get to that in a minute.

But, today I want the easy way out. The easy way out means I get to crawl in bed and smile about doing nothing. Ah… nothing sounds nice. The smile is only external though because I feel a responsibility to do something that I told myself I would do.

And that is to post a blog every week.

Every hurried, flurried, and scurried week. Even if the paper piles are flapping, the kids aren’t quite napping, and the crumbs are succumbing to faux sandcastle sculptures. I still have to post. Continue reading →

How To Cross the Bridges of Tomorrow With Confidence

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by Christie Perkins

she-turned-to-the-sunlight-and-shook-her-yellow-headand-whispered-to-her-neighbor_-_winter-is-dead-4So let’s be honest here.

I woke up the day I was to take my chemo pill with dread. I felt my chemo creepy crawlies coming on the few days before. The anticipation of the unknown was blown up in my mind. The list of possible side effects haunted and taunted me. And I knew that my life was crossing onto new and permanent territory.

I had to cross this bridge.

You see, up until this point the perks of my current life were highlighted and blaring in neon signs in my mind. They were good signs. Which of those signs would burn out when I crossed the bridge? Continue reading →

Chemo Pill and Death of a Grapefruit

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by Christie Perkins

First they tell me I can’t have blue cheese dressing. It would have been fine if they would Chemo Pill and Death of a Grapfruithave told me that the year before. I wouldn’t have even tried the mouth watering crave. Yes. I was like all of y’all scrunching my nose at the thought of moldy cheese. But, at first lick it pleased me and I fell in love with it. Thanks Dad. I should have trusted you the first time you tried to get me to try it. I should have known because I’ve inherited my dad’s taste buds on many other things.

(Seriously if you haven’t tried it you’re missing out.)

So with my initial cancer diagnosis and the start up of chemo I’m a little bummed about ditching my newfound infatuation, I had to break up with blue cheese. Those of you on weird food diets get my pain. I had to settle for ranch to avoid an elevated health crash. Continue reading →

Want a Vacation From Temptation? Try This Simple Trick

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by Christie Perkins

Want a Vacation From Temptation_Try This Simple Trick”Recently I’ve had the feeling that I need to help my kids and myself work on recognizing temptations. I had a bunch of other things I wanted to write about but this is the one that keeps clomping me in the head.

Over and over.

And since I’ve been working on trying to follow my promptings I guess I better ditch the other fabulous (but flopping) ideas and do this. So here you go: Continue reading →