A quiet moment…

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It’s the end of a tough week here. The cancer situation continues to impact our lives in ways we’d never imagined.

Lisa’s spending increasing amounts of time in Belfast looking after her mother. It’s a life of shopping, doctor and hospital appointments and tending to her mother at home. She fits in work when she can, but it’s difficult for her. And, as I know, when you’re embroiled in a situation where a parent has cancer, your taste for other things in life tends to dry up. You become absorbed in the crisis.

I’ve effectively become a full-time house husband – which has its up- and down-sides. Mostly downsides, to be honest. I spent a full eight hours on Friday cooking, cleaning, washing clothers and dishes and preparing the house for guests who were staying over. I should be working too, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find a window of time in which to get anything productive done.

To cap it all off (moan, moan), I’ve got this weird insomnia thing going on at the moment. I go to bed, then my arms and legs get restless and I end up bouncing around the bed trying to get comfortable. A couple of nights this week, I’ve ended up going downstairs and watching TV until the sensation fades and I drop off. Usually around 4:30am.

The house-husband role is a bit of a daunting task. But it’s becoming necessary. We’ve no idea how long this situation is going to continue for, and we need to set up some kind of routine for the kids. They’re feeling Lisa’s absence, and they’re becoming difficult as a result. Especially the older two – 8 and 6 respectively – are not responding well to coming home and finding mum missing.

As this looks like an increasingly long-term thing for us, I need to step up and stabilise the house. That means thinking about meal plans for the week. Knowing what’s coming up for the kids – appointments, various classes, what homework needs done each night. I need to keep the washing of clothes and dishes running smoothly – we’ve never been good at those. And of course the house needs to be kept clean. But the worst part of the last couple of months is our diet has become abysmal. We’re eating crap daily because the mealtimes aren’t being planned.

On the dinner front, I’m thinking about meals that we can make batches of – chilli, stew, things like that. These’ll get us started while we refine the menu and learn how to make healthier and tastier meals. Any ideas? Tell me in the comments!

(p.s. I know this sounds like a ‘me me me’ post, but I can’t really speak for what Lisa’s going through. I do think it’s important to mention the knock-on effects though, which is why I’ve written this post from my own point of view.)