Ride the Wave of Goodness

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by christie Perkins

Life is not a constant tumultuous wave of trials, as it sometimes appears to be. Even in a life with stage 4 cancer. Every once in a while there’s a splash wave of goodness that comes your way.

You have to be watching for it.

Ride the Wave of GoodnessLast month was tough for us. We currently babysit this cancer by periodically popping our head in on what is going on. We expect good behavior. But sometimes we find a mess we have to clean up. And sometimes, with some assistance, these messes resolve themselves.

I head into my cat scan a little concerned. My hip has been hurting much more within the last month and my legs are going numb. It’s all a strange sensation- these playdough legs. I wasn’t quiet ready to eyeball my current situation but here I was facing the day. Slight tightness constricted my chest as I waited for the CAT scan to pop it’s head in on me. My breath quickens. My mind tosses around the “what ifs” in my head.

So I pull out my handy back-up plan: I pray. Continue reading →

Survival Tips For Shopping With Boys

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Shakes, Deals, and Lizard Tails

by Christie Perkins

(reposted from 7/29/2016)

2014 Horney Toad 008Shakes, and deals, and lizard tails (oops)… that’s what shopping with boys are made of.

Have you ever gone clothing shopping with boys? I don’t know what it is but there’s something mis-wired in their brains that turns them off to shopping. If I allowed it, there would be grown men and boys sitting and a tantrum-fitting on the floor of the store trying to induce a man made clothing tornado.

But, they don’t. They know better.

Me. Well, I could spend hours in a store checking everything out, trying on clothes and making the best selection. But, a major miscalculation occurs when one mom takes four boys shopping. Continue reading →

Are You Up To The Out-y 500 Challenge?

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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 →