There and back again......

A chemo tale....  

So...even though I really meant to do much better at my blogging, here I am.  Almost two months since my last post.  Have I ever mentioned the kid fast-forward syndrome?  Once I had kids, it was like my life was on permanent fast forward.  The older they get (and consequently the busier they get), the faster my life seems to fly by.  This year we have a senior in high school, two eighth graders and a sixth grader.  The first six weeks of school was filled with getting back into the swing of things, after school programs, cross country practices and meets, robotics, youth group, retreats, bible studies, etc.  Now that most of those things have settled down and we've ditched a few of them, life seems to be evening out.  Of course, that's when I got to start my next round of chemo.  I did round 1 of the infusions two weeks ago and it was not pretty.  They increased my dosage and I was hit pretty hard with some awful headaches, shaking and nausea.  I did my second infusion yesterday so we're praying that the side effects are better this time.  It usually takes 2 to 3 days to start seeing the worst of them so we will see how I feel tomorrow. 

In the meantime, I've had a few fun projects and activities.  Our baby girl is starting to grow up and will be a teenager soon so we decided it was time to make her bedroom a little less girlie.

Before

After

  

We did the updates while she was at a retreat for church last weekend and she was so very shocked and pleased when she came home.  I still have some art work for her walls that we need to craft and hang.  We are also going to get a few of these baskets to store her stuffed animals in.  She has finally pared her stuffed animal collection down to the bare bones...the ones she or we bought for her on our trips to Florida, her Nightmare Before Christmas ones and her Skelanimals.

We surprised my parents with a 40th wedding anniversary dinner.  They knew we were taking them out but we added some of their best friends to the guest list.  It really made their night.

And finally, one Saturday while Aidan was at robotics Jimmy & I took Ani to Rockford for their fall festival.  It's such a beautiful little town.  I could totally see living there once the kids are out on their own.  

I'm looking forward to the next few weekends and the fun they will bring.  This weekend my bestie & I are getting together with our daughters for a day of crafting.  Then Ani's new BFF will be spending the night and we'll go see Monsters University after church on Sunday.  The following weekend both of our other daughters are planning on coming out to join us for our annual football/Halloween party and then after that is Halloween at Abby's and then the Michigan/Michigan State game at Lea & Tod's.  I do love the fall...the time of year, the holidays and the time we spend with our friends and family. 

Back to School Prep

With a little less than a week before school starts, the back to school frenzy is kicking into high gear.  Registrations (this year, I registered nine kids for school...two of my own and seven refugee children), orientations, pictures, school shopping, supply shopping, hair cuts, and weeding out the clothes from last year that no longer fit.  And in order to make my life easier, I am also doing some food prep so there is less hassle once the busyness of the school year begins.  

I started with strawberries.  My husband drinks a protein shake every morning that consists of soy milk, peanut butter, and frozen strawberries.  When I can find a good sale on fresh strawberries, I cut the stems off, flash freeze them and then put them in serving size baggies so he can just thaw one bag each day.

 

After the strawberries, I made egg sandwiches & English muffin bread.  I found the breakfast sandwich recipe here and adapted it.  

Freezer Egg Breakfast Sandwiches

12 light multi-grain English muffins

12 eggs

12 slices of American cheese

1.  Preheat the oven to 350.

2.  Split the muffins open and lay them all on a cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes until toasty.

3.  Spray a jumbo muffin pan with canola and crack eggs in each one.  Use the tip of a knife to pierce the yolks.

4.  Bake eggs for 10-15 minutes until set.

5.  Remove eggs from pan and allow to cool.  Season with salt & pepper.

6.  Assemble sandwiches with one slice of American cheese and an egg between the English muffin.

7.  Wrap in saran wrap & freeze.

8.  To cook, microwave for 1 minute on 50% power.

And finally, I finished off my day of food prep with some freezer rolls.  This recipe makes enough rolls to last us about 6 meals so I only have to make a batch about once a month.

Whew!  That's a lot of work for someone who needs two naps a day to get by.  As a nice little break, my baby girl & I did a mama/daughter date yesterday and went to see Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.  It made Ani's day as she has read all of the books and loves them.  It was very good and neither of us can wait for the next movie.

Sjogren's....the gift that keeps on giving

My posts have been few and far between lately, and since God has blessed me with a meningitis-free summer so far, there has not been much health news to report.  But, with Sjogren's Syndrome being the wily autoimmune disease that it is, it would be too much to hope for a completely symptom free summer.  Sjogren's symptoms include dry mouth, dry skin, dry eyes, and at least in my case, reoccurring aseptic meningitis.  My worst symptom by far this summer is dry eyes.  My left eye is currently so dry that the vision is blurred due to erosion on my cornea.  See, I don't produce enough tears and tears are what removes the grit from underneath your eyelid.  If my body is unable to remove that grit with tears, it scratches my cornea giving me blurred vision and an uncomfortable sensitivity to light.  The ophthalmologist is not able to get me in until October so for now I'm continuing to use eye drops, ointment and warm compresses for comfort.

 Beyond the dry eyes, lately I've been suffering from insomnia (which goes hand in hand with my Fibromyalgia and which is why I am wide awake at 2 am on a Tuesday night) and some meningitis symptom flares, mainly headaches and nausea along with some dizziness.  At the end of last year my rheumy, Dr. H, decided that my next course of treatment would be Rituxan, a chemotherapy treatment used in some cases of lymphoma and rheumatoid arthritis.  Understandably, I was concerned about the idea of an IV chemo treatment (I was already on the pill form of Methotrexate) and I sought a second opinion from a rheumy in Ann Arbor.  My pesky little B cells are the reason Rituxan was recommended.  It is theorized that the B cells in my body are somehow egging on my immune system to continue to attack my body which results in the meningitis.  Rituxan is supposed to deplete my B cells and give me a period of less systemic issues.  The negative (well beyond the obvious whole chemo thing)?  It does not permanently deplete my B cells.

 Yes, it's true, they do make an E-Card for absolutely everything!

This informative article discusses the relapse rate (about 80%) for those who are treated with Rituxan.  My rheumy explained that my treatments would be once, two weeks apart, every six months.  We are now nearing the end of my first six month period and that is likely the reason I have been having so many symptom flares as of late.  After my first round of treatments, I started to feel hopeful and definitely caught a case of selective memory.  Now I recognize that this is likely my reality for a very long time, so I just need to get used to the ups and downs.  I can bear any ups and downs as long as I remember that God is with me and will be my strength in all things.

I can do all things through him who gives me strength.  

Philippians 4:13 

More Summer Fun

We have been kid free for nearly one week and in that time I have been a complete and total bum.  Yes, I did some chores.  Some laundry.  Some grocery shopping.  But what I've mostly done is read, and Pin, and nap, and read, and maybe Pin a bit more.  I'll admit I needed the down time and some space to unwind but I feel like a sloth.  

In order to placate my sense of guilt I did my chores this morning, made a batch of granola and decided to post some more summer updates, photo journal style.

Celebrating the 4th of July

Zoo for AniBelle's birthday

Visiting Mom & Dad at the campground

Summer movies

Family beach day at Millennium Park

Bowling with the whole gang

Third Annual Bauer/Chase Trip-Chicago Bound

Eating in (not so polite) style at Ed Debevic's

Best father/son shot of Tod & Cam-photo by Jimmy

Whew!  We've had an amazing, busy summer and it's not over yet.  My kids come back next weekend and then it's time to cram in some more summer fun in between back to school shopping & way too many registrations and orientations to attend.

Birthdays and the busyness of Summer

I know, I know.  I said I would start posting more regularly and then I dropped off the face of the blogging earth again for over a month.  Y'know, I always thought that being a stay at home mom would give me way more free time than I had ever had before.  Now it just has me wondering how on earth I pulled everything off when I was working 40 hours a week!  It must be said though that back when I was working, my energy levels were much higher.  Now that the lovely SJS has taken root so deeply, constant naps and resting in the recliner are a daily reality for me.

Regardless, I must soldier on because life doesn't stop just for me and my lil' illness.  There are birthday celebrations to be had, zoo visits to make, bowling parties, movies to watch and annual trips to take.  

Our baby turned 12 earlier this month.  She is the only one left that is not a teenager and I know that this next year will just fly by and then I will officially be old with a graduating senior and my youngest a teenager & in middle school.  

Ani requested a luau theme for her birthday party this year.  Thanks to Pinterest and the Dollar Tree, it was doable and I think all the girls had a great time!

 The food spread for the party

The watermelon shark

Beachy cupcakes

The girls in their luau finery

Ending the evening with a fire in the pit and some s'mores

Slacking again...

Seriously, where does the time go?  A few weeks ago I was promising y'all that I would keep up and that lasted all of how many days?  Five?  Ha!  I'd like to say that things are going to slow down, but who am I kidding?  Nope...it's all a question of motivation and prioritizing my time.  Must. Get. Better. At. It.

Our baby's 5th grade graduation

Kids off at NTS Camp

 

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

The fam and I were headed to a friend's house for a cook-out over the holiday weekend and I needed to whip up a side dish recipe.  A big focus for some of these friends is healthy eating...and one of them is a quinoa addict so I went through my pantry to see what I had available.  I wasn't able to find any recipes out there that matched what I had on hand, so I whipped up my own Mediterranean twist on quinoa salad.

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

• 2 cups water
• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup Garlic Expressions dressing
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1/2 cup Kalamata olives, chopped
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/2 fresh lemon, squeezed

Directions:

1. Fill a medium pot with water, add quinoa and kosher salt and bring to a boil.  When the water boils, reduce heat to low and cover; simmer covered for 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and keep covered for additional 5 minutes without lifting the lid; then fluff with a fork and set aside in a large mixing bowl to cool.
2. While the quinoa cools, dice all the vegetables and chop the olives.  Add the peppers and olives to the cooled quinoa and squeeze the 1/2 lemon over it.
3. Whisk the red wine vinegar and Garlic Expressions dressing in a small bowl.  Pour over the quinoa and mix. 
4. Add feta and toss well.

 Even though this was tossed together at the last second with what I had on hand, it was a big hit and I probably should have doubled the recipe.  Enjoy!