Mother's Day

Good day/Bad day?: Pretty good

Happy Mother's Day! (FYI, it is not a Hallmark holiday, has some more meaningful origins than that...) Had a good breakfast out, then headed to the zoo, then a nap, and an evening hanging out and playing. Wish I felt better, but it was still good. Olive liked the flamingos, prairie dogs, bison, polar & grizzly bears, giraffes...it was a lovely day for it, and yay for free zoos! Thanks, Ben, for giving me some breaks, and thanks Bruce & Kathy for the nice gifts!

I want to take this day to thank the mothers in my life for mothering me through this. Without my own mom, you have stepped in to nuture me, watch out for my well-being, bake for me... This is for you, the incredible moms, aunts, sisters, grandmas, friends, in-laws, that have all adopted me and let me know that it's okay to rely on the love that's out there and that it comes with no strings attached. That's what all you moms do so well. Not to discount the fellas--I've got an awesome group of those looking out for me, too. But this process has brought all that it means to be female front and center, and as I've lost pieces of that physically, I'm more aware of the other parts of that.

And Olive has certainly added a whole new dimension to me and my life, too. Turns out I'll put my body through a whole heck of a lot to be able to hang out with her & Ben a lot longer. She brings out parts of me I never knew I had. Being a mother is darn cool (if exhausting!). She gives us a lot to be proud of.

And so I head into the home stretch. About 2 more weeks of radiation, then a little lag time as I recover from that--it's way more cumulative than chemo. Getting there.

Olive's word of the week is "octopus". She at least gets all the syllables right, even if she throws in an "e" ("eat-o-puh"). Didn't get to see one today, though.