First Half of the Week

I thought I'd divide my typically Friday blog post this week into the first half of the week and the second half (the chemotherapy half).

Charlotte experienced its first temperature dip of the summer, respite from the very humid 90s. On the first morning waking up in the high 50s, the children completed the traditional ritual of donning their coats and hats, and Thomas (5) asked if it would snow that day.

We've had some good times noodling around in the kitchen. John (13) made us chocolate eclairs.

Mary (11) has been perfecting her avocado toast. She also made us her homemade chicken soup this week.

And we finally used a wonderfully whimsical "dirt kit" a friend of ours gave us a couple of weeks ago just to brighten our day. The kit contained instant chocolate pudding, gummy worms, and Oreos, along with plastic serving cups.

A certain someone lost his third tooth, with a fourth hanging on perilously by a thread.

The children have been working for at least a week on inventing a new board game, playing it, and working out the kinks. I think that is so cool.

Chris spent last weekend in Atlanta with his dad, him having just lost his wife of 57 years and then within a week, losing his last remaining brother. Conrad was truly a rare example of kindness, generosity, devotion, and tenacious work: a very special man. I've never seen such romance between a married couple, even after he and his bride Arlene had been married for 69 years.

While Chris was gone, Thomas's immune system should have been pretty decent (for cancer and all), so we did go to Mass. I only manage to go every few weeks because of this situation. Thomas was a very dapper little fellow and we ended up choosing to sit in the gym where it is being live-streamed and there were only 16 people widely spaced in the entire gymnasium. What we choose to do for Mass may change as the fall is beginning and many more illnesses than just COVID start to spread.

Dapper Thomas on the way to Mass

After Mass, a bunch of children were catching numerous of these strangely cute caterpillars climbing all over the maple tree right outside of the church office. I always take photos of good catches and did so that day, which let me identify the caterpillar back at home.

Oh my! This appears to be Megalopyge opercularis, or a Puss caterpillar. 

Below are some quotes pulled from articles I read:

• This alarmingly dangerous insect can be found in many parts of the United States toward the end of summer with other garden pests.
• Although these slow-moving creatures look a bit cute and cuddly, if you touch one you could end up hospitalized or worse.
• When you come in contact with it you’ll feel immediate and intense pain.
• Many people say the pain inflicted is worse than you would experience from a scorpion sting or contact with a jellyfish.
• In addition to being painful, exposure can cause a sudden reduction in blood pressure, vomiting and/or seizures.
• If you are allergic to insect venom, coming in contact with a fury puss caterpillar can send you into anaphylactic shock and may result in death.

Some resources:

• https://plantcaretoday.com/puss-caterpillar.html
• https://citybugs.tamu.edu/factsheets/biting-stinging/others/ent-3010/  
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalopyge_opercularis

Believe me, I emailed our parish secretary and the head of the homeschool co-op to let them know about these attractive nuisances right where all the children gather!

I gathered the children for a Morning Meeting to get education on these alarming caterpillars as well as on baby copperhead season, which has just commenced locally.

On Labor Day, we took a lengthy nature walk at Anne Springs Close Greenway: click here to read all about it.

Our family narrowly missed suffering another tragedy this week when my beloved aunt came within the width of one paved street from losing her home and her life to wildfires in Oregon. I won't share details of her story without permission, but you can imagine the terror of being out of communication with her while following the news stories for 24 hours and watching on the fire map, seeing that the fire had leapt both interstates and the red was covering exactly where I knew she lived. Please pray for the tens of thousands of displaced people right now, who have nothing but the clothes on their back and are often even sleeping in cars.

News Coverage

• “Basically, it looks like Phoenix and Talent are pretty well devastated,” he said. “It looks like a lot of damage for those little towns.” (Wildfire cuts swath of destruction in southern Oregon; Phoenix and Talent ‘pretty well devastated’)

• The images are horrifying: Satellite images show Phoenix and Talent, Oregon, have been nearly wiped out by wildfire

Thomas has been a sweet pea, learning his Kindergarten lessons, building trains down our long hallway, helping me vacuum up the bucket of dirt his three-year-old brother brought from outdoors onto my carpet.

One night, Thomas placed his St. Jude electric candle by his bed and--after the praying and placing of relics and holy oil on his belly that we do nightly--he insisted on falling asleep with his hand touching the candle.

On Wednesday, Thomas had his Wish Discovery Visit with the Make a Wish Foundation. These visits used to be done in person, but are currently being done over Zoom. There were very cute moments, such as when the wish lady offered us Disneyland and Thomas had heard of neither Disneyland nor Disney characters, and then he refuted the wish lady and told her that "super heroes are not real!" You should have seen his blank stare when she mentioned wishes involving meeting celebrities. (As I sit here challenging myself, I think it's possible that the only actor names our children could come up with are John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart.)

We shall see whether it is approved or not, but Thomas wished for a camper (see his drawing below, the words written by his big sister). That way we could travel as a family to interesting, fun places without having to rent two hotel rooms everywhere we go.

I'm four for four being an emotionally vulnerable mess on the night before chemotherapy begins anew. At least this time I anticipated it, accepted a meal from a friend (reducing my stress resulting in less barking at my innocent family). I feel compelled that I have to do all the laundry in the house (four or five loads yesterday), make everything as perfect as I can, catch up on all the thank you notes for gifts people have given Thomas, clean out the refrigerator, place a new grocery order, and so forth. Basically I act like I'm preparing my family to be without me home for weeks! And then I don't sleep that night: not the best maneuver before needing strength for eight hours in the chemo infusion center. 

Thomas experiences none of this: He is happy and looking forward to seeing his medical team, especially Miss Haley, playing with new art supplies, and explaining to his siblings about the medical things that will be done to him. At five, he still has never said a word about connecting the dots that after these days of chemo, he will feel yucky and be vomiting.

That's our family update before I pack a bag to entertain a five-year-old sitting in a chair the entire day!