Challenges for Challenging Times!

What a week! That might be my new catch phrase.  But really more like, what a month.  The Hamel house has been in the throes of medical stuff all month long! Just as I am recovering from surgery and returned to work yesterday, Patrick came down with some sort of cold virus and The Man had to take him to the urgent care last night! Good news, young P doesn't have the flu. Bad news he is on steroids to curtail his uncontrolled coughing.

 Side note: if you have any surgery that is done through your belly button, I do not recommend wearing pants with a button and a zipper on your first day back to work. Learn from my lesson. If possible wear a flowy dress- no belts!

If the current weather forecast holds, in a few days I can crack a window opened during the day and try and get some of the sickness out of our house. I don't know about you, but I am really looking forward to March!

As you all know, I love to read and I also like challenges.  Lucky for me, my public library is doing a 20 in 20 book challenge! I just found out about it and so I am quite behind.  I need to read from the categories listed above  by the third week of March. Eek!  Anyone have any good suggestions for a Classic Children's Book or the Classic book by a Female Author?

I spend time during my surgery recuperation reading Moving Forward and it's a great memoir. Karine Jean-Pierre has that can-do spirit I love to see in people. Spoiler alert- Karine is also a runner!

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent and while I don't go to church; I do still enjoy a good Lent. This year I am giving up nothing! Nothing I tell you!  I've given up enough over the past year. Instead, I'm going to use Lent as a reason to focus on cleaning out all the drawers, bins and closets in my home. Spring Cleaning in increments of 15 minutes per day, join me!

You Know What is Super Annoying?

Not being able to talk! That's the new phase of my almost-over cold. I have laryngitis.  If I speak, I sound terrible. I don't feel terrible, but obviously my vocal cords disagree!


I sound more like Bowie when I attempt to speak. It's been rough answering the phone at work, but I'm healthy and I can do all the other aspects of my job so there is no reason to take off work, especially since I have to take off for surgery next week.

Do you realize how difficult it is for me not to be able to yell at The Man?  He can't hear me talking half the time when I am able to speak! How is he to know when we need to leave for work if I am not yelling, "five minutes! we have to leave in five minutes to catch the train!"

And the kids, I can't do my usual questioning of how school is going and make my jokes. Parenting teenagers means bugging them and making them laugh. I can't do either right now.

Poor P keeps asking me if I am ok.  What a good kid. Then I have to croak out, "I'm fine, I just can't talk." Then he says, "What?" as he takes out an earbud. Then I give him a look and shake my head. Then he says "Are you OK? You look upset?"  Then I have to re-croak, "I'm fine. I just can't talk."

I can't even communicate properly with the dog.  Over the last year, I have mastered a special no that I use to get Bowie off the bed when he jumps on it. My no has been very effective up until now.  However, the last few days my no sounds like a Peter Brady voice-changing impersonation, and Bowie isn't falling for it.

Sigh.  The only silver lining I can find is that the laryngitis is great distraction keeping me from getting worried about surgery next week. It's always nice to have a more mundane temporary annoyance to focus one's energy upon.

Yesterday Nothing Bundt Cakes was in our lobby peddling their delicious bundt cakes.  I purchased a Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cake. I ate the whole thing and it was scrumptious.  I regret nothing!  

Then for dinner, I made steak which is a real rarity in our house; we have red meat about once a quarter. Since I couldn't have a conversation with anyone while cooking, I tried my hand at plating food instead. 

You can't see it here, but that steak has a nice crust and is deliciously rare inside. 

Happy Valentine's Day !!💕💕

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Colds and Flu Woe Woe Woe

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OMG I'm so tired of having a cold.  I suppose I should be grateful I have not gotten whatever Dear Daughter and Oldest Child had since they spent a fun 24 hours vomiting. I hate puking. Hate it!

For the record, guess how many times I threw up during chemo? Zero. Anti-nausea drugs are amazing.  This morning Middle Son texted me from upstairs to let me know his stomach hurt and he thought he was going to throw up. I googled symptoms of appendicitis and I think he is in clear. Which is great, last place he or I want to be on a Sunday afternoon is an ER. Ugh.

Blech, cold medicine. These look innocent but they are hard to swallow. The package said they are smaller than they used to be and I shudder to think how bad they were before.

 Also, my cold laughed at these pills. 

Valentine's Day is coming up on Friday and I set a little goal for myself. This week I'm going to make sure to wear something shades of red every day of the week. Friday I think I might get a dozen Krispy Kremes for the kids or maybe I'll go to Nothing Bundt Cake for me! 

Keep your fingers crossed that this cold decides to leave me ASAP and I'll keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't head over to your house!

Xoxo -Victoria