A Corner Table in My World

February 4th has never really been a date with ominous undertones in our home but a series of (truly) unfortunate circumstances through the years has made it an increasingly important one to mention, to acknowledge, and in our way observe. All of you should know that February 4th is considered “World Cancer Day.” Or you should know, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade or so. It’s an internationally observed day intended to raise awareness of cancer and to encourage it’s prevention, detection, and treatment. (source: Wikipedia )  In this day and age practically every person has, in some way, been affected by cancer. Honestly, I think it’s probably a pretty rare thing nowadays that a person wouldn’t know someone who has had cancer, or someone who knows someone who has. We definitely don’t need six-degrees of separation to find a link.  Here in the Corner Table House cancer is a disease that we’ve become increasingly familiar with. Both Heli D...

To many people it will have seemed as though the Corner Table Family simply disappeared off the face of the planet in 2018. At least so far as our blog presence suggests anyways. You’ll have seen us online if we’re connected on Facebook, and if we’re connected IRL you’ll know that though we’ve been quieter, we are alive and kicking. 2017 was, to be blunt, a killer year for us. It was full of extreme highs: Little Sister’s wedding, Little Prince’s arrival, and Baby Bee’s birth to name a few. But it was highlighted by a number of extreme lows. Little Prince’s Spring birth and the fear and uncertainty that clung to us like living shadows for months after. Grandpa’s accident on the farm last fall and the outright terror we experienced during the days immediately following. Auntie Ell’s declining health throughout the year, and her eventual death in December. Then just before Christmas the foundation of our world here in the Corner Table House was rocked to the cor...

November 11 th is always a time of reflection. Or it should be. You don’t have to be sad and cry, just take a moment and reflect. You don’t have to go to any ceremony, just think. You don’t have to share your thoughts, your feelings, your history, or whatever. Just remember. Remember that while war protects, it ravages; it kills; it destroys. Remember all the reasons that wars have been fought in the past, it’s successes and it’s failures. Remember that whatever the reasons, wars are fought by men and women, just like you and me, who have families that still feel their loss. Today of all days, just remember. 

I will be getting back to telling and sharing the story of Little Prince’s arrival soon but as you can imagine, as I’ve mentioned more than once, life – normal, day-to-day life – in the Corner Table House is hectic. Honestly hectic is putting it mildly, chaotic is fairly often a more accurate description. It’s a chaotic that Heli Dad and I have become accustomed to, and though every once in a while, we need a day (or even just a few hours) to stop, breathe, and regroup, it’s a state of being that we’re good with. It is simply our life. Sometimes, and lately those ‘sometimes’ seem to be occurring far too frequent, our happily hectic, chaotic existence becomes something just barely shy of too-much-to-take. In some cases, those instances that push our limits are extremely happy ones: such as Little Sister’s recent wedding (which I will post separately about as soon as I have a chance) and the mini-mountain getaway we got to experience while attending that event. In other cases, happy...

As I return to the telling of the story, this time I have nothing particularly deep to say as introduction. Knowing what to say and what to share, or what not to, is sometimes harder than I anticipated. I’ve written this blog and written about my kids and family for a long time. Yet in all that time I’m not sure that I’ve shared many things that have affected me so profoundly. Every one of my birthing experiences lives in my memory – with points of highlight that shine brightly in my mind – but this one, Little Prince’s birth, beats more strongly, its intensity blinding still and at times as fresh as though it were yesterday. Anyways...  I lost track of all that was going on around me for a couple seconds here and there. I lost hold of Heli Dad’s hand as nurses, more than were originally present, surrounded me, and while at the same time the OB climbed right up on the bed with me. They worked together quickly for a couple minutes, shifting me this way and that physically tryin...