Posted By AmyD. on January 5, 2009

I am dreading this week. This week we have to return to UCLA with Ethan for a follow up appointment. We have all had enough of that place. They took great care of Ethan and his doctor (I am less than thrilled with the doctor he saw initially who didn’t really know his ass from a hole in the ground in terms of advice on Ethan and his activities, etc.) now is absolutely awesome. He’s been through this, personally, and is celebrating 30 years being cancer free with two kids and happy family. He’s a great inspiration to Ethan.

Of course, we also need to be super, duper happy that Lance Armstrong managed to get his girlfriend pregnant accidentally. It sounds lame – but for testicular cancer survivors it is HUGE, really!

But, I digress, sorry.

Thing is? Christmas is done, the decorations are down. It feels so good to just clean the house, focus on mundane tasks like cooking or laundry (my laundry is 100% caught up for the first time in months! It’s awesome!) or mopping. We’ve cleared out junk, cleaned closets out, hung valances that were long overdue to be hung. Give me a dust rag, it beats the hell out of traversing the grapevine (the mountain range we have to go over to get to L.A.) and not being sure what was going to happen on the other end.

Sometimes it takes being yanked out of your life for a while to start to love and appreciate all the little boring details that keep everything functioning and running smoothly.

Then, there are the kids, they have gone back to school and back to a regular routine. No more waiting for the other shoe to drop. Now the boring things are important, homework, reports, book reports, whatever! Let’s do it! By the last Friday of Christmas break, Ethan was suffering from cabin fever and just itching to get back to school and function like “a normal kid.” All I want is to get them back to their normal lives that don’t involve worries like, “is my brother going to have chemo? Is he going to lose his hair? Is he going to die?”

And we are finally there. It’s over. Just this one last doctor’s appointment and then 6 month observation. It’s truly a beautiful, beautiful thing.

I once thought that nothing good could come from Ethan’s ordeal this year. Instead I have found at least one good thing, the appreciation I have for normal, boring, routine, and everyday. The peace that comes from knowing everyone is healthy and safe.

We feel like we have a new lease on life. Our top priority this year is loads of family time, fishing trips, camping trips, and possibly even the road trip that Ethan and I have talked about for years.

For the first time in my life, boring is good, normal is good.

Life is great.

Categories: Family Antics
Tags: boring, cancer, Ethan, housework, life, mundane