Monday, August 11, 2014

Monday, August 11, 2014

Tonight's picture was taken on August 10th of 2009. Mattie was readmitted to the hospital and with him, he brought Sunshine. Sunshine was the name of his stuffed animal -albino boa constrictor! He received Sunshine from his good pal, Jocelyn! Jocelyn gave Mattie Sunshine as a gift after she found out about his terminal diagnosis. She knew how much Mattie loved meeting a real albino boa constrictor during his seventh birthday party! A party which was held at Campbell's house, a good buddy of Mattie's from kindergarten. Christine, Campbell's mom, held a Reptiles Alive party for Mattie in her backyard in June of 2009, and it was in her backyard we got an up close and personal view with a real Sunshine! Upon admission that day, Jocelyn surprised Mattie with his own Sunshine snake! He loved Sunshine and to this day, Sunshine remains perched on top of Mattie's bed! Sunshine reminds me of Mattie and Jocelyn! We lost both of these two fighters to osteosarcoma. 


Quote of the day: Transformation occurs when you open your mind to experience freedom. During the process, you transform your thoughts which enable you to leave behind old habits and negative thinking. You are then able to conquer your fears and remove self doubt. This irrevocable transformation allows you to be seen in a new light. It reveals your unique characteristics and truthfulness. ~ Amaka Imani Nkosazana

This is the last day I am posting about the kitchen! Somehow this has been a major transformation for us. It has only taken us over a decade to do this to the kitchen!!! This evening we replaced the light fixture! Funny how lighting can transform the whole look of a space. Peter has wanted to get rid of the old kitchen fixture for years. But I never thought it would make that big of a difference. Tonight I see I was wrong. These pin lights are angled on certain features in our kitchen which really give the space a lovely glow. There is something to be said about transforming your space. For me transforming my physical space this year has been important for my mental health and well being. I thrive on organization and order, and I also find that brighter colors help with my mood. Since I spend a great deal of time working from home, the space that I work in has to be conducive to me. 

As I mentioned last night, I collect hot plate tiles from all the places we visit! I have LOTS of tiles! Not all of them are up on the walls! We try to display them in the order we bought the tiles! I snapped a photo so you can see just what I am talking about! Each and every one of these tiles had to come off the wall this weekend, get washed and dried, and then of course get rehung after the paint dried. This wasn't an easy process by any stretch of the imagination despite the fact that this is a small space! 

Hopefully we are done with physical home transformations for a while now. Since we have been at it for a YEAR! It has been exhausting! It was the year I tackled and cleaned out Mattie's bedroom, and it is a year I will never forget. I tackled it alone, without a team of help. One of the hard realities a grieving parent has to face on a continual basis is the simple notion that once your child is gone, in many cases one's support network dwindles. It gets smaller with each successive year that Mattie has been gone! I will always be incredibly thankful for the support we received when Mattie was battling cancer, but it has been challenging for me to learn how to manage going from such intense 24/7 support, to what I have today. This is something I rarely talk about on the blog, but it is definitely noteworthy, NOT BLOG worthy BUT book worthy.