Moving into Advent

We had a blessed Thanksgiving, with a great trip to Tennessee and visit with Clint's family, and yet another picture with the kids' great-grandmother. I'm always thankful for every year that they have her and get a chance to visit with her.
Right after Thanksgiving was Eric's birthday, my first baby boy is now NINE YEARS OLD! Robots & Legos ruled the day, and cake, of course!
On the way home we celebrated the first Sunday of Advent with our friends, the Christiansens. It was wonderful to see them, and we were glad to break up the drive for Gabe's sake.
After we arrived home, it was time to prepare for Katie's birthday, and her Very Special Surprise--A visit from Grandma! She was shocked and thrilled, and we all had a weekend to remember with my Mom. The visit was followed immediately by Katie & Eric's piano recital, which I was prevented from attending by my friend, Mr. Migraine. It received rave reviews from Clint, though, so I am proud of my budding musicians.
Tomorrow we'll be putting off the daily grind one more day with the Feast of Saint Nicholas. Whew, I got tired just typing all our business up, let alone living it. Look for pictures soon.

What happened to 2008-2009?

Maybe you've noticed that there is only one post in 2008 and NONE for 2009. Let me explain. In 2008, at the ripe old age of not-quite-forty, we conceived Gabe(the little guy in the picture). We had pretty much surrendered to the idea that three kids were it for us, but God, with the assistance of a great doctor, had other plans. So, most of 2008 I was nauseous or exhausted, and not up to blogging because pregnancy had become very scary to me due to our losses in this area. So, after teaching my kids less than I should have and taking a nap and choking down a little food, I was done.
In 2009, Gabe was born. That's enough to keep anyone busy, but my busy-ness didn't agree with Gabe, so he was diagnosed as "failure to thrive" and caring for him became an all-consuming job. After we got him back on the road to healthy & thriving, it was time to begin school and start planning on how we would manage to sell our house, as we'd outgrown it. That and the holidays polished the year off for us, and here we are. All the kids are fine, and we've just celebrated 5 months in our new home.
I know a lot more happened in those years, but that's all I can write for now.

The battle of the mommy bulge

I'm back at Weight Watchers and learning as I go. Apparently, I can have a few drinks a week AND go out to dinner once and if I do some tracking, still lose weight. I hate this battle, though. It just drags on and on and on, and the end is so far in the distance I can't even imagine it. My big fear is that this is how my kids will remember me: "Mom was always on a diet."

Anyway, I guess like the spiritual life, I just need to persevere, and focus on the here & now, which is the only time I really have, isn't it?

Busy Time

Is there ever a time of year that I won't be busy, I wonder? The onslaught of what needs to be done right now seems neverending. I just opened my calendar to November, and it's strangely blank. I'm pretty sure I've avoided filling in the things that have come up because I don't want to see how overwhelming my schedule is becoming. This year we've really tried to keep the focus on the kids' schooling, so I haven't volunteered to be in charge of anything, and I've kept my daytime commitments down to almost zero. The kids have been making steady progress, but I've not seen the expected decrease in whining. Well, I guess that's the next thing to work on, then, isn't it?

We did make time for Halloween, here's the crew before setting off for trick-or-treating.
From left to right, we have a Medieval assassin, cowgirl, cowboy, and King of the Nine riders from Lord of the Rings. They had a great time!

School begins!

We're back at homeschooling again. I didn't think we'd still be at it, but God is good, and here we are. Day one was short(the teacher was sickly), today went better. The kids have mixed attitudes. Katie's thrilled to be back, and looking forward to staying on track. Eric won't admit it, but enjoys having a more structured day and something productive to do. Philip is looking forward to reading and trying not to get discouraged when things don't turn out perfectly. Gabe is happier today since we gave him his own "desk." I'm proud of all of them, and so thankful for our new schoolroom(we moved). So, here goes!