Life as a Lewis

It may have taken 4 hours in the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center waiting room yesterday, but I finally got in to see Dr. C and received the news that my scan shows not only a few less tumors but a little shrinkage on one or two spots. I'm glad I didn't spend time worrying over scan results these past few days because that would have been a complete waste of time!  Brian says we can give complete credit to God because we certainly can't give credit to my inconsistent medicine taking skills. As in, I didn't have the heart to let Dr. C know yesterday that I didn't need a Tamoxifen refill because I'm so far behind on taking 2 pills/day. We're off schedule for the rest of our week with re-arranged music lessons, early dismissal today for Grandparent's Day, and no school the rest of the week (don't ask me how I feel about this). I'm working from home tomorrow, which is a good alternative to trying to find a sitter for the kids. Camden is offic...

Can you feel me exhaling as the weekend rolls around? Our family feels a bit like we've just completed a marathon. The last 2 weeks have been two of the busiest I can remember, but we've made it. Maybe not thrived, but we've more than survived and that's good enough. (Seriously, how do people maintain this kind of schedule for months on end?) Not only has Brian had parent teacher conferences every. single. night. (for 2 weeks!), but I worked for nearly 60 hours in 4 days last week, worked the church Riverfest booth, won 2 soccer games, celebrated Rory's 9th birthday, and managed all the regular work hours, practices, activities, day-to-day life, etc. Tonight is Brian's last parent/teacher conference; the 12-week Bible Study I've been leading/hosting at our house ended last night; Brian starts a new schedule (he will only be teaching reading from this point forward instead of 5 subjects), and I am hopeful that we can all just catch a breath. The ...

Mission accomplished: I am officially Jen Hatmaker's new best friend. Okay, maybe only in my own head. However , I did get to spend some quality time with her (sometimes being the CEO's assistant has its perks). I picked her up from the airport Thursday and thanks to a slow baggage claim and rush hour traffic, we spent over an hour chatting fast and furious. I then got to be her "person" for the 15 hours she was in Louisville and associated with our conference. Let's ignore the fact that she was sleeping for 7-8 of those hours; I was still her "person" for the remaining 6-7 hours. I was determined to give her a rest from all the fan worship and not spend the time raving over her books, blog, TV show, etc. I did not mention all of the many things we have in common - adoption, our husbands are church planters, cancer in the family, oldest of 4 kids, sarcasm, love of all things FNL. Or that I've read every word she's written, both in pr...

Just checking in briefly (because some of you worry) to say that we are all A-okay. Just super busy! I'm leaving today to work at the D6 Conference. Thank goodness for my parents who are driving in today in time to pick up the kids from school and will shuttle them around and be their referee for the next 4 days. I worked at the D6 Conference for the first time last October and was absolutely certain that I would somehow crash the conference. Thankfully, that didn't happen. My job is Green Room Assistant (yes, that means I get to meet and serve all the speakers - how fun is that!) and this year, my main goal is to become Jen Hatmaker's best friend. I have my copy of For the Love  handy and my selfie stance perfected. By the way, if you want to watch Jen's session live (or others), you can see this link for more info: http://d6family.com/d6-conference/

Our 3-day weekend flew by, and I really took no pictures to share. For memory-keeping posterity, however, I'm going to do a quick list so we'll at least remember Labor Day 2015. The weekend started off Friday with a very negative tone due to serious parenting challenge. We live in a tough, sin-filled world, and I'm guessing it only gets harder from here on out. Saturday Brian and Camden mowed the church yard, played racquet ball, and met Rory and I for lunch at Chick-fil-A after I received a cute hand-written invitation to lunch from Rory.  Rory and I took a good old-fashioned mother/daughter mall trip Saturday afternoon. (Sidenote: oh, my stars, shopping with an almost-9 year old is quite the adventure) Saturday night Brian and I dropped the kids off with Uncle Michael and Aunt Liz and went to FlipBurger for supper (a new Richard Blais restaurant in Nashville - it was awesome) and then on to Bridgestone Arena for the Kelly Clarkson/Pentatonix concert (also awesome). ...

The tension between siblings can be challenging at times. I feel like I spend alot of time playing referee and monitoring how the kids treat each other. I'm trying to move from forcing apologies, dictating how they act, etc. into more of a coaching/mentoring style. Recently, they had a bit of trouble sitting next to each other in church (seriously) so when we got home I had a gentle talk with them about God's call to love each other and then I gave them the assignment of writing out I Corinthians 13. I made sure they knew this was not a punishment, but more of a call to meditate on what God's Word has to say on the subject. And then I sat down with them (after I took the picture, of course ) and wrote it out alongside them. If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge,...

Last weekend Brian loaded up the kids and headed out (after a whole lot of packing - I mention this every single trip) for Rory's birthday camping trip. No, it's not quite her birthday, but the campgrounds close after Labor Day so the trip was early this year. Last year we forgot about the Labor Day closing which resulted in a back-yard camping trip that was not quite as thrilling as she might have hoped. Yes, she invited Camden along. This is yet another sign she is (a) social and (b) in desperate need of approval from her big brother. While I don't know everything that happened on that camp site, I do know they came home several shades darker from the sun/swimming in the lake. Rory spent a bulk of her time hunting for seashells, while Camden explored and played in the fire. An alarming amount of junk food was consumed, and when both kids called to talk to me at bedtime (mine, not theirs - they stayed up late), the sound of their joyful voices was enough to br...

Outside my window: While it's been a much warmer this week (as in 90's), we spent the final 2 weeks of August with blissfully low humidity, cool mornings and evenings. It was a little sneak peek of fall, and it was lovely. I am thinking: God sure knows what He's doing when He puts you together with your partner; He knew Brian and I were going to need each other in this life, and I am grateful. I am thankful for:   Brian's principal announced that Friday would be "Wear Teal Day" at their school in honor of me. (September is ovarian cancer awareness month.) I am thankful for new friends who choose to remember that our family lives with ovarian cancer. Last 3 purchases:   I've been too busy to shop so I'm having trouble thinking of anything here. I did go to a Jamberry party this week, and I have to say the wraps are much cuter than I was anticipating so maybe I'll jump on that bandwagon.     Dinner plans:   leftover tacos   Fut...

It's not that I expected my children to be music prodigies. We signed them up for lessons this fall because (1) they've been asking for lessons for as long as I can remember, (2) we had the means to pay for lessons, and (3) it's a worthwhile investment. What I didn't expect was how much time I was going to spend, as a parent, reminding them to practice, answering questions, setting the timer, ignoring the moans and groans when I remind them again to practice. I'm pretty sure Camden, especially, thought that he was going to pick up the guitar and drumsticks and immediately know what to do with them. I took piano lessons from age 5 through college, and I clearly blocked off the aspect of playing an instrument that requires hard work and consistent practice. It should come as no surprise that Camden and Rory aren't huge fans of practice because I have (as Brian reminded me) memories of sitting at the piano with a little egg timer set to 45 minute...