St Patrick's Day and the Sneaky Leprechaun

In my quest to celebrate EVERYTHING in life post cancer diagnosis, we started doing the "Leprechaun" every St. Patrick's Day. I think he's normally supposed to create messes, but I don't want to have to clean them up. In the past we have done green balloons on the kids bedroom floors, made green streamers hanging from doors, used washable paint to leave "footprints" on the toilet. The favorite of my children has been the scavenger hunts.

Sean along with Zach and Ben were camping over St. Patrick's Day weekend, so I wouldn't be able to do it for Zach and Ben, but didn't want them to miss it. Zach and I came up with a plan that he was going to do it in the motor home while I did Josh here at home. Another problem is that we usually do Rolo's for the candy, but now Josh has braces and can't eat that. So I made a brace friendly treat this year and made it easy so Zach could do it in the motor home!!

Josh's treat at home. 

Treats in the motor home and then a photo with the "mess"

Floor "mess" I simple purchased pre-cut clovers from amazon for around $5 as it was the easiest way for the leprechaun to make a mess that's easily cleaned up in the motorhome. After picking Sean, Zach, Zach and Ben up from their camping trip we made our way to Sean's high school BFF's house for their welcome baby party.

 There's almost nothing as sweet as a new baby

However seeing my husband and son hold the baby, may be sweeter than holding him myself!

Recipe for Leprechaun treat:

It's so simple that I'm sure I don't need to add the recipe, but here it is.

I purchased one can of Wilton Color Mist in gold and followed the directions to spray it on golden oreos. (Yes I know they're already gold, but I wanted them really gold and regular oreos just don't color as well). I sprayed it on the Oreos which were placed on parchment paper.

The color mist is fairly pricey ($4-$5 a can) and doesn't last very long, but I was able to completely cover 15 cookies. Which worked out to 5 each for my 3 boys!

Then I made a rainbow out of MnMs because skittles which I usually use are an off limits food for Braces! The brown MnMs even looked like purple in the rainbow, and one of my boys asked how I got purple MnMs!!

Plain golden oreos, if you do regular oreos plan on using at least 2 cans of color mist

Directions are also on the color mist bottle. I purchased mine at Walmart, but have seen them at craft stores as well.

And after one coat, then I flipped them and sprayed the other side.

Happy Half Birthday!!

Two days ago, on day 3 of this 4th chemo round, it hit me that the day before (March 9th)was Zach’s half birthday and that Josh and Faith’s were 4 days away (March 14th) when Sean would be out of town in Florida for work. Feeling like a horrible mom for forgetting, I decided we could celebrate by going to the movies as I could sleep and then out to lunch where we could buy them each a dessert after wards and “celebrate” it that way. Our usual way is for them to pick what they want us to make for dinner and to celebrate with a mini cake or large cupcake bought from the store. This year, on chemo, my getting all that done was impossible. So we made do with the movies and lunch at BJs with pazookies.

I know what you’re thinking...”half birthdays,” so let me explain. In my attempt to live life to its fullest we celebrate everything and the way I see it is by celebrating half birthdays, that’s more birthdays I’ll be able to celebrate with them. Knowing you’re not going to live a long full life like most really puts things into perspective and is what makes me want to get busy living!!

I’ll admit that I pushed myself way too hard. It breaks my heart that I lay in bed the 5 days a month that I’m on chemo. I really don’t want my kids to remember me like that. That thought breaks my heart and brings tears to my eyes thinking about it. Thank God I have such an amazing husband to care for them when I can’t.

All 3 boys at the movies to watch Black Panther. It was PG-13 and we almost never let Ben see those movies and are just now starting to allow Zach to watch them as Josh started in 6th grade. It was definitely too intense for Ben, but the other 2 really enjoyed it. Faith has already seen it twice (and this was actually Josh's 2nf time).

Josh and Zach were the only ones to go to lunch with us, but Faith is eating super healthy currently so she isn't eating out and no desserts. Both Josh and Zach ordered a Pazookie from BJs, but Ben and I finished them as they were stuffed!!

Once home, I got a photo of my 3 half birthday kids. and then one of all of them! I love how much they love each other!!

My 4 babies!!

And, just so you know...round 4 is complete!!! Only 2 more chemo rounds to go!

Half Way Baby!!!

My 3rd round of chemo was delayed because my platelets were low. They were 96k when they had to be at least 150k, so I had to wait a week and start chemo after they went back up. Waiting that week worked!!

For those who don't know, my chemo is 5 days of oral chemo (no having to go to the hospital and sit in a chair for hours) and 23 days off. Each session is 28 days or basically a month. I am not allowed to touch the pills, because they're a strong poison, but I swallow them, so they sit in my stomach, which has always seemed strange to me.

As my chemo was delayed this round, it ended up working out perfectly because Sean went to Mexico fir the weekend with his high school best friend, Victor and Victor's family. So, I wasn't home alone with the kids on the weekend of my chemo. I also have a half marathon I want to run on March 4th, so this will push back next month's chemo and I won't have to cancel my half marathon!!! Win-win, right there.

So I started my chemo a week late and got through it again without getting the flu this time, like I did last month. As this is my 3rd round of chemo, I am now HALF WAY BABY!!! SO happy for this little milestone and to finally feel like I'm counting down!

This is how good (ok awful) I am at blogging and how well my brain works...I am half way through round 4 and just realized that I never “published” this one. So much for one a week!! I’ll try to be better. I have several blog posts in my head now.