An Official End of an Era

I've spent the last few months cleaning out my basement. We have a sizable crawl space (though I can stand upright in it) under the dining room. We use it for storage. One side houses our Christmas stuff and my Mom's stuff. The other side houses all of our stuff, including all of my work toys and resources and the many boxes of clothes waiting for Connor to fit into them (a friend handed down her sons clothes to us - we won't have to buy him clothes again for the next 3 years or so....literally)

I am trying to get the crawl space into a more organized, easy to access what I need area, which includes my files. I had 8 portable file box for my educational resources plus a giant plastic file box for personal files.

Before Christmas I went through all my resources and freecycled anything that wasn't useful for Kindergarten. I had a lot of stuff that was more appropriate for preschoolers as well as for older kids. Task one complete - 8 file boxes downsized to one file cabinet.

Then I went through my personal files. 

When I had my home daycare I had paperwork for everything. I felt keeping a paper trail of everything was good business sense as well as security for both me and the parents. Also, on the chance of being audited - I kept all my financial records for the daycare and will so for 7 years.

But when I was cleaning out the files I thought it was time to purge my daycare files. This meant my handbook. My enrolment package. My schedule. My menu. My brand new, beautifully designed, custom made by Amanda logo.  7 years of hard work, in the recycling bin.

It was a little sad. It really was the end of an era. I'm not saying I miss doing home daycare - I don't but for a while it was nice to have something that was all my doing. I was proud of my daycare and I think it was a good place.

For a nanosecond I debated offering my services as a consultant to those wanting to open a home daycare - just so that I wouldn't have to scrap all that paperwork - the reflection of my hard work but then I thought harder about it. Sure the paperwork reflected what I did but a better reflection is the kids that were here. I'm still in touch with a few of the parents of kids who passed through here and they are great kids. And their parents were happy with the care they had while they were here and with what their kids learned. And I think the simple fact that the parents still keep in touch with me says it all.

Still - I hate to be recycling all that useful paperwork....

What's New With You?

I've officially finished my first week of radiation. That means only 4 more weeks and I am officially done my treatment and move into maintenance.  Yesterday was a busy day, I had to go for my herceptin treatment at Rouge Valley Centenary and then my radiation at Lakeridge Oshawa. For none locals these are two different hospitals in two different cities. Fortunately I'll only have to do that once more.

Part of the possible side effects with herceptin is reduced heart function. It's something they made me aware of during chemo and something they monitor. I had that infamous heart echo in November. It will serve as the baseline and then I'll need to have one every three months for the duration of my herceptin treatment. I was reassured when, at my last chemo I overheard my oncologist talking with another patient who is also having herceptin. She apparently showed reduced heart function in her echo and the Dr decided to cancel her treatment until she could see the cardiologist. I overheard him on the phone with the cardiologist and he'd said while all the literature says it's a possibility it's the first time he's ever seen it happen. And, how do I put this nicely....my Dr is old. He's been at this game for a while. So if you consider how many patients he's had over the years who've been on herceptin and that was the first time he'd seen it....I'm feeling good about my odds.

At any rate, when filling out my ESAS I mentioned shortness of breath (primarily from things like going upstairs, etc). I also mentioned to my nurse that I have a phlegmy cough - left over from my last taxotere treatment.  My oncologist decided he wanted me to do my next heart echo before my next herceptin treatment just to be on the safe side. He listened to both my lungs and heart and said they sounded fine but better safe than dead.

Besides that, I've found a whole new fun craft and have been working hard on them. I've been making scrabble tile pendants.
 Here's a few...

I've made about 20 so far, you can see the rest here. I'll be listing them in my Etsy store when I get a chance but until then you can buy one by messaging me on FB.

I'm also working hard on the Spring Tea Fundraiser.  We've been pounding the pavement drumming up donations for the silent auction. Although, now I'm thinking an auction is not going to be logistically possible. we have two tea sittings so the people from the first sitting would place their bids but then would be outbid by the people in the second sitting and not have a chance to bid again. So, I think we'll take all the items donated to us and use them for a basket raffle. This means people can buy as many tickets as they like (they'll be sold in bulk - so like 10 tickets for $5) and they can then put their tickets in the jar that corresponds to the prize of their choice (so if you want to win the iPod you put your tickets in the iPod jar or if you want to you can split your tickets into multiple jars)

They do this type of raffle at our church bizarre and I love it.

I got my official back to work date. I get to go back on April 2nd. I'm so ridiculously excited! I am nervous - I noticed yesterday that after a day of running around to appointments I was exhausted by 3 pm and I worry about my energy levels when I get back to work but I'm sure I'll manage. And if I have to be an old lady and go to bed right after Connor goes to bed for the first few weeks, I will.

So that's what's new with me. What's new with you?