Although I know it may be easy to believe that my life is a quiet, peaceful little existence in remote Alaska, sometimes it’s more like a circus. This last week was a circus sort of week. On Monday night, just as my in-laws were headed to the airport to fly back to California, my daughter came down with an aggressive stomach bug. I won’t go into any more detail about this bit considering that this is a food blog and these sorts of topics are very unappetizing, but I will mention that Pastor Alaska’s MacBook Pro was out of commission for a while after one of her unfortunate tummy episodes. Pastor Alaska is very fond of his computer, so he wasn’t particularly thrilled about this turn of events .

The very next morning, after I was up all night with a sick little girl and really wasn’t feeling very well myself at that point, my 8-year-old son got a rock stuck in his ear at school during recess and they were unable to get it out. Pastor Alaska had to go pick him up and take him immediately to the doctor. The doctor, being unable to retrieve  the rock, sent my son to the emergency room. The E.R., also being unsuccessful in getting it out, put our son under anesthesia to make further attempts. Still no luck. Finally, he had to be referred to an Ear Nose and Throat Specialist in Anchorage. So, on Wednesday, while I’m still deep in the tummy flu situation with our daughter, Pastor Alaska drove our son the 3 1/2 hours (which ended up being quite a bit more than that due to several construction stops and pilot cars) up to Anchorage for a final attempt to retrieve the rock, again under anesthesia. Thankfully, they were able to remove the rock on the third attempt and our son is just fine now. Our daughter ended up being quite sick for 5 solid days and we ended up making a trip to Urgent Care with her before it was all over. She is also better now. I am worn out, but thankful .

I suppose that all this is to say that my life gets hard and messy and dirty and icky just like everyone else’s. Through all of it, I was lifted up by family, friends, and readers who sent prayers, well-wishes, and words of encouragement. I was supported by friends near and far who did things like pick up my oldest son from school, bring bottles of Gatorade to my daughter, and deliver post-surgery goodie bags to my son or visit him while he was in Anchorage. Life may be messy, but it’s always better and more bearable somehow when there are people who are willing to get messy right along with you cancer chinese medicine.