Friday Five Currently | Week 7

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Happy Friday!  Long time, no see.  Unfortunately, life happened in a major way.  So I decided that in order to preserve my sanity, I'd take a step away from the blog, YouTube, and social media.

Now that I've gotten a better grip on things, I'm feeling the creative juices flowing once again.  So I'm back!  Let's get right into this.  Here's what I've been up to.

Currently . . .

Dealing |  So the reason I an extended break from everything is that I was dealing with a breast cancer scare.  Breast cancer is a big deal in my family.  My paternal grandmother passed from breast cancer and I've had several family members (female and male) on my maternal side battle breast cancer as well.  Some of them defeated, some didn't, and some are still battling.

The good news is doesn't appear to be breast cancer.  The not so good news is that I didn't have the best experience with my first set of doctors.  I had a precedure done to drain some fluid from my first lump and the recovery was almost disasterous.  

Now I still have the first lump, a second lump has started to grow next to the first, and I have a scar from my first precedure that has left me more self-conscious than I thought I would be.  I love v-necks, but because my scar is visible in most of my v-neck shirts and tanks, I've been living in the same 3-5 crew and high scoop neck shirts that I own in an effort to keep it hidden.

Appreciating |  I have to admit that I have one of the greatest best friends in the world.  We don't talk everyday because she has a ton of things going on in her life right now from being a diabetic single mom to caring for her son who has a rare gentic disorder as well as helping her dad care for her mom who's battling her 4th round of breast cancer.

Anyways, we were checking in with each other on Monday night and I updated her on my whole situation with my breast lumps.  Long story short, she related my story to her mom and her mom shared my medical details with her breast cancer specialist (with my permission) and I have now have a potential diagnosis, treatment options for that diagnosis, and a recommendation for new doctors.

I can't put into words how much I appreciate them for doing this.  I've shelled out hundreds of dollars to a primary care physican who referred me to a surgeon that I also shelled out hundreds of dollars to as well.  And neither of them were able to appropriately diagnosis me or really listened to my concerns or each other for that matter.

My old primary care physican thought I had two separate issues and recommended me for surgery to have the lumps removed, but the surgeon didn't want to operate and only treated me for the one issue it "looked" like I had.  Even once he cut into the lump and commented that it was more than what he initially thought it was, he didn't try to do anything further.

So fingers crossed that my breasts are lump free by Christmas and I'm not in the poor house!  Also, fingers crossed that I'll have insurance because with this current administration trying to roll back a lot of the regulations of our current healthcare bill, my insurance could drop me for a pre-existing condition.  This is all still so scary and uncertain, but also looking up at the same time.

Reading | I was in a bit of a reading slump for a while.  That really sucked because reading has always been my go-to when I needed an escape.  Thankfully though the slump has passed and I've been reading ALL the books.  I recently finalized my Summer TBR.

So far I've read:

• The Color Project
• Half & Half
• Taming the Highland Bride
• Chasing Grace

I'm currently debating what books I should read over the weekend, but I'm thinking it's going to be Mommy Burnout by Dr. Sheryl Ziegler and Guarding His Heart by Synthia Williams.  Let me know in the comments what you're reading or if you've read any good books recently. 

Fixing Up |  Listen this fixer upper life is not for the weak.  We've been really been trying to tackle the outside so that we don't look like we have the worst yard on the block.  Thankfully, we don't!  But Mother Nature won't let us be great.

I was out in the yard cutting back bushes, raking up the million and one leaves we have, and decided to try digging out one of the stumps we have on the side yard.  My daughter decided to come help and y'all a snake came out of nowhere and was pretty heading straight towards her.

I had a shovel in my hand and acted pretty quickly.  Needless to say after the kids said a few words over the copperhead that I had just sent to snake heaven, I called it a wrap for the day and we've been indoors ever since.  I saw my kid's life flash before my eyes.

I'm not new to snake territory because I grew up in the country and my brother and I used to dig up snake nests from our childhood property to stop them from getting inside (it happened once when we were kids).  However, my kids are city kids.  They still have much to learn about country life.  Plus after my experience with the doctors here and the locals referring to the hospital as nothing more than overpriced bandage center, I can't chance my kids getting any vemonous snake bites.

This sucks when you're in vemonouse snake territory though.  Anyways, the Mr and I waiting for a cool weekend to come through that we can go snake hunting and make sure we don't have any hiding anywhere else.  Then, the kids can roam the yard free again.  The good news is that this has motivated us to finalize details for our snake fence for the front and back yards!

Things are falling apart indoors as well with all of our sinks suddenly springing leaks and the electrical trying to act up.  When it rain it pours, but we're not quitters and we're still thankful for this roof that is over our heads.  I love the challenge.  I do wish everything wasn't going bonkers at once though, especially with my health issue.  Kudos to Chip and Joanna because they make fixer uppers look like a piece of cake.

Manifeseting |  I've been really working on this whole manifesting good things into my life technique.  We've been on Summer Break for about 3 weeks and the kids have been asking when we're going to do something fun.  They specifically asked to go to a water park and the World of Coke.

The waterpark was doable because there are a variety to choose from in the area.  However, with the money we shelled out for my doctors and stuff around the house, we just weren't going to be able to swing a trip to Atlanta for them go to the World of Coke.  Instead of givnig up though, I decided to put some of manifesting techniques I've read about to use coupled with some heavy praying.

Well, it paid off because we got invited to visit Great Wolf Lodge!!!  And I scored FREE tickets to the World of Coke via a giveaway!  All of this happened over the last few week and a half.  I'm so excited.

Credit: PWP Studio Corporate Event Photographers

I think I'm most excited to check out Great Wolf Lodge because I've been a guest at the World of Coke a few times already.  Coke was a long-term partner of my parenting blog.  However, these were kid-free events.  So while the kids tagged along to Atlanta, they never actually got to see World of Coke and take the grand tour.

I'm looking forward to sharing this with them because we're huge Coke fans.  No team Pepsi over here!  Now if only I could manifest a winning lottery ticket or a shopping spree at Lowe's for renovation supplies. 🤔

Well, I'm off to work on manifesting a visit from Chip and Joanna Gaines and a swimming pool!  I'm joking.  I need to get some work in on my new manuscript #ProjectBlackScot.  I'm so excited about it and can't wait to share more.  Cheers to the weekend y'all!

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