#2014in5Words

Each December it’s natural to reflect on how your life has changed the past year.  Remember those Christmas newsletters that used to be popular but now that everyone’s on Facebook and Instagram no one needs to recreate their timeline on paper?  I kind of miss those letters.  Most of the time they just covered non-consequential things – where you went on vacation, what was going on at work, some cool thing your kid did on the soccer field.

Then you’d occasionally get a letter from someone who had a crazy year.  This was one of those years for me.  Let’s see, I:

• Turned 40 (ugh)

  

• Celebrated my 10th wedding anniversary (yay)

  

• Won 2nd place in a pole dancing competition

  

• Ran my first Spartan Super Race (with my husband, friend Lori and her husband)

  

• Learned how to do a split (almost) for a fitness competition

  

• Published my first fitness book, She’s Losing It!  (You can buy a copy here:  She’s Losing It!)

  

• Watched my youngest child started kindergarten (waaaaaay!)

  

I was kind of loving 2014 and looking forward to my first fitness competition (gymnastics! splits!) and stand up comedy (get friends drunk so they laugh at my amateur night show!) But everything changed one day in July.  My mother was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and had to move in with us.  From that point on my life revolved around her care and the emotional roller coaster that is cancer.

Everything changed. 

But then look at my mother’s year.  If I experienced her year I would stay curled in the fetal position and not open my eyes until 2015.

• January – June.  Life as usual.  Drove on her own to the mall and restaurants with friends, going on trips to Atlantic City, active in the church senior group.  Loving being an independent 75 year-old Jersey Girl
• July 1 – Collapsed and went into hospital
• July 31 – Diagnosed with advanced lung cancer; given 12 months to live
• August 1 – Put house she lived in for 45 years up for sale.  We completely renovate the house in two weeks (paint, hardwood floors, carpet, tile, new roof, etc.), plus purge and pack everything.

  

• August 15 – While at the airport to move to Texas (to move in with me) she trips over Rylee’s suitcase and hurts her hip and knee badly.  Now she has to use a walker
• September – Started chemo.  Lost her hair.  Felt awful for a few days after each weekly infusion. Doctor says she will be on chemo for the rest of her life.

Despite everything, my mother still laughs.  Some days are hard, very hard, but she’s still hanging in there, enjoying her grandkids and working with a physical therapist to walk again on her own.

So when I see hashtags that say #2014in5Words, I can’t help but think of my mother and her strength.  When I think of what she went through, these are the 5 words to describe her year:

Everything changed.  I’m still standing.

 

How about you?  If you were to describe your year in 5 words, what would those words be?

Lisa

Lisa Traugott is a Mom’s Choice Award winning writer, fitness blogger, wife and mom of two. You can read more about her in her new book, “She’s Losing It!” available at Amazon.com.

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