Let me explain - no, there is too much. Let me sum up:

So. Towards the end of last year, my world fell into a dark, dark hole. I got the phone call that every one dreads - my mother was diagnosed with cancer. Very rare. Very aggressive. So many questions, no answers forthcoming just a barrage of tests and no real details in sight. To get her as strong as possible for the fight ahead, she and I enrolled in the gym and three days a week til her surgery (9 Dec 11) she and I went to the gym. It wasn't much, in the grand scheme of things, but it was time with my mother whilst we waited out the storm that was brewing. She's had surgery and now is waiting to start her chemo and radiation treatments, which will kick off in the next week or two.

My American sister, Cherie, dropped everything and managed to squeeze several weeks off to help out over the Christmas/New Year period, and indeed just went home yesterday. What a blessing her visit was - one week after she arrived, I fell out of a door (long, embarrassing story right there) and fractured my right humerus (the greater tuberosity). Talk about painful AND debilitating - I can't drive, write, type (well, one-handed), sleep or eat properly. Her visit meant that my mother had 24/7 care during the worst of her post-surgery recovery, doubly important since I am now useless as an assistant.

I had finished uploading the January muse the night before the injury, so I am grateful that I was able to be up-to-date with The Muse as it would have just capped off my misery if that had gone to custard. But the time off with my own daughter during her school holidays has been crappy as all get out. Being 8, she gets cabin fever pretty easily, and all I can do is not a whole danged lot. She has done very well, and shortly it will be my husband's turn to care for her for two weeks... heh heh heh.

I have an image that I found on pinterest (oh, what a dangerously time-consuming place that is!) that pretty much sums up my feelings about 2011:


It is highly likely that you won't be seeing a whole lot of me til my wing is healed (approx 10 Feb) but at least you know why.