The past few weeks have been a true whirlwind, and I'm only now taking the time to stop (for a few minutes!) and update my blog. So. Much. Has. Happened!
In early August, my father was diagnosed with colon cancer. This was a blow. His mother--my beloved Grandma Polly--died of colon cancer in 1997. So of course there's a sort of familial fear. But fortunately, thank God, thank God, it was found early. (My grandmother's was only found after it had spread to her liver and lungs.) He was quickly scheduled for surgery, and that happened at MUSC in Charleston last Friday. He was released from the hospital on Monday. To our great surprise, he was eating real foods less than 24 hours after colon removal and re-sectioning. Excellent! So far, he's doing great. His surgeon is confident that he got all of the cancer, with clean margins, and now we await the pathology report. If it comes back showing that the lymph nodes they removed are clear and clean, then he will not have to have chemotherapy, which would be the greatest blessing and would absolutely make my year. Chemotherapy is so hard. I just pray, pray, pray he can avoid it. We are hopeful! We should know in another week or so.
I finally decided to give away my antique upright piano, and mentioned it casually to my neighbor, who mentioned it to a few of her friends. Well--one friend wanted it! (if you've ever tried to give away a piano, you know this is miraculous. No one wants pianos anymore, which is so sad!) This is a beast of a piano: ivory keys, weighs more than anything you've ever moved (truly), just an incredible instrument that is something like 125 years old. However, having two pianos in a house that is 1700 square feet seemed excessive. This was my piano from infancy; after my Grandma Nina died, my grandfather really wanted Finn to have her piano, because we have such sweet memories of them "playing" on it together. Grandma's piano was moved down here several years ago and resides in our living room; the old piano resides in our basement/schoolroom, primarily because it cannot be moved up stairs! I always joked that it would convey with the house.
In any case, I found a sweet Mennonite lady who wants it! And we lined up to have it moved the night before my family was supposed to go on vacation. In order to get it out of our house, we literally had to move every stick of furniture in our basement (schoolroom, sewing area/laundry room) except the sectional sofa. But that night we got our first rain in weeks, so we had to cancel the moving. But there's no reason to move the furniture back into place, so it's all shuffled right now, waiting for the big move--which is supposed to happen this evening. (I told her to send no less than six strong men. " At least," my husband confirmed.) Suffice to say we've been doing schoolwork at the dining room table this week, and I cannot WAIT to get my basement back into order!
We began school "lite" on Monday, since that's when Finn's online classes began. But lo, the learning curve was real. The software wasn't super-intuitive, and we had some tech issues on Monday. I spent an hour on the phone with my husband, who was chatting with the tech support, before we got it all figured out. Finn placed into French 2, and is brand new to the online class format, whereas his classmates all took French 1 last year and know what they are doing! But we're learning quickly. And his teacher told me he has a "beautiful accent," which is true. :) We've had to learn how to find assignments, navigate the group v. moderator chat, change our keyboard settings to be able to use French shortcuts, and a myriad of other random things that were quite foreign to us, little homeschoolers who typically just read books. But it is all sorting itself out, and I'm confident that Finn will do well. He came out of his first Biology class yesterday beaming and thrilled. "I LOVE THIS CLASS!!!!!" he enthused.
He's also loving his history readings, and we began listening to A Tale of Two Cities together on Audible. So we're off and running, and Spanish begins next week.
Finally, my family enjoyed a very nice "just the four of us" vacation last week. I'll post more on that soon!
Add to this activities, the last bits of pool time, ordering new countertops, a job change for my sister (a wonderful change!), and multiple doctor and dental appointments, and whew. It has been a month! I'm thankful for the opportunities and the commitments, and try to always keep my heart focused on what matters most, and feel genuine gratitude for a full and healthy life. Finn has four years left at home....I'm soaking it all in. I know it will pass by in the blink of an eye.
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