Don't Panic! and other random cancer thoughts

Sleeping baby pictures always calm me down.  And why am I in a panic?  Because I have a lot to do, what else?  Having five kids keeps me busy.  Homeschooling five kids keeps me even busier.  Homeschooling five kids, feeding 49 poultry-birds, going to baseball games, and caring for Grandad makes me so busy I don't know what to do.  Now that M has injured his knee to the point I had to take him in to the ER and I don't have him to rely on because a man on crutches can't hold a baby or carry anything...well, you can say I'm ready to panic (and yes, I know that is a run-on sentence; it illustrates my point).

Grandad has radiation treatments in town every day.  Today he starts chemotherapy.  This is great news because a few weeks ago the doctor didn't think Grandad would be strong enough to withstand chemo.  A few weeks ago he almost died!  So we are thankful to be driving him back and forth every day.  Radiation takes about 15 minutes and is very easy for me to handle with all the kids.  We have a system, every one has a job, and the people in the waiting room love watching the kids play.

Cancer is such a weird, scary thing.  While I sit in the waiting room at the cancer center, I feel a connection to everyone else sitting there.  We are all waiting...waiting to see if our loved ones will survive...and it is stressful!  I'm thankful for the 15 minutes of childishness my kids bring into that room.  They scamper and play and exclaim about the fish and say funny things and chase D around and remind us all how precious life is.

So, as I read one of my favorite poems (Babies Don't Keep), I get my focus back into place and get ready to seize the day!