A shower?? .......Nah.
I saved the above as a draft ohhhhhh like nine months ago. And it's still funny. To meeeee. :)
Things have been busy. Someone once said "busy" stood for Being Under Satan's Yoke. I mean, yeah that could be true. But not necessarily. Either way, that little acronym is a helpful reminder to remember the great God who I am serving and to keep myself grounded by talking to Him and reading His word. And I often fail at that, even in non-busy times.
Here's a little summary of life in the last few months...
In April we sold our house, Donald went to Kenya, I took the kids to Charleston, and our little girl turned FIVE!
In May, we bought a house, Donald traveled to New Jersey, Donald and I went to Hawaii (sans kids...whaaat!), we moved out of our house and moved into a friends house.
In June, we went to the beach with my family, moved out of our friend's house and into our new house. And I got to go the beach again with my d-group girls (who are about to start their sophomore year in college!)
July was just trying to unpack. And catch up with people.
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"Bye Daddy!!!" |
And now it's August and life has come to a screeching halt. The boys and I got hand-foot-and-mouth disease. Oh man. Not fun. Just think about cutting the inside of your mouth with razor blades and then gargling with bleach. Pretty much what it has felt like. I had over 25 sores in my mouth at one time, and eating would just make me cry...actually, sometimes just sitting still would make me cry! The boys were much tougher, and other than Eli waking up at night in pain, they were champs (minus some grumpy attitudes, which weren't remarkably worse than normal).
Anyways, I don't share this with you to bring pity....God was at work! Imagine the things I learned about myself during this time!! Can I be joyful amid pain? Is food an idol in my life? What about my children? Can I still be the mom He asked me to be when I'm not feeling great?? Does my happiness come from my Creator's love for me or from the friends and family I was isolated from and missed like crazy? I am so grateful for the things He showed me during this time. Annnd even though it was hard and overwhelming at times, spending the last two weeks of summer at home with the kids before the rat race of fall began was a gift! I just had to keep my attitude in check :)
So yeah, don't feel sorry for me. But do feel sorry for any friends who may get it... and avoid them like the plague. ;)
Moving on....The kids are so big. So big. Here's a little update on each of them.
Landon- Wow. He's almost two! He started walking in May when he was 18-months. The latest of the children to walk but has certainly made up for lost time... Chases the other two everyyyywhere. Definitely has the little-brother-gotta-keep-up-with-big-brother-and-sister thing going on. So.. a late walker but an early talker. He repeats everything anyone says and has started talking in short sentences. He is quite the comedian and finds himself hilarious. We get lots of laughs just by looking at his expressive face. Landon's favorite foods are eggs, crackers and fruit... and of course he's a huge fan of sweets... Like his mama. Eli and Landon share a room in our new house, and that is going well. Usually they will inadvertently wake each other up in the mornings, but at nighttime they will generally fall asleep even if the other one is talking or singing or whatever else.
Eli will be four in a few weeks. What. He is still a happy, smiley boy, but has found himself crying for silly reasons lately and has recently told all family members at some point in time that they have "broke his feelings." So we are working on his heart in that area. He loves sports, like a ton, and plays basketball in the driveway most days and has just started his first baseball season. He was a pro with the plastic bat and ball combo, so the smaller metal bat is a new challenge. He hasn't gotten too discouraged yet with the swing-and-a-miss... he will get there. Eli is our social kid who doesn't like to spend time alone. He desires to have a playmate always, so he will certainly miss Charley once she is off at school. He will have to learn how to play better with Landon, who is not quite at the "playing-with" age, so I'm sure it will take some time.
Charley, on the other hand, is totally fine with playing by herself. She has rest time while the boys nap (which, Eli has just dropped his nap, btw) and spends at least an hour playing in her room after she and I read together. She is the creative child and loves art, dancing, inventing, performing, writing "books," and imaginative play. She will start taking dance after Labor Day, and is super excited. She takes good care of Landon as her level of patience with him verses with Eli is much higher. He, Landon, often bites, hits and pulls hair, unprovoked, so how she is patient with him, I'm not sure. I mean, she still screams bloody murder if any of the above offenses take place, but she forgives him quickly. If Eli even looks at her wrong, the two of them quickly decide that they are enemies.... we working on that as well. I will say, however, that the last few weeks of summer I have seen them (finally) getting to the age where they can go up to one of their rooms and play together. Even Landon will join them, but sometimes I will find that they are excluding him because he is destroying whatever they are playing with (which is how he earned the nickname 'Godzilla').
Charley starts kindergarten this week!! Hard to believe. I am excited for her and not crazy emotional...yet. I think it may be harder for me if she ends up not enjoying it, which is not what I'm expecting. She loved loved loved preschool, so I'm hoping the transition will be easy. But we will see!
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Landon often asks to sit in our "yaps" |
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Here's our family at a neighbor's birthday party. We are making a fairy house, if it isn't obvious. |
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We got to see our cousins for a brief visit a few weeks ago! Jrew just turned five and Jazz will be four in December... annnd Baby Girl Rose is due in October! |
In other news, we have a new nephew, Addison, who was born last weekend, and as mentioned in the caption above, we will have a new niece in October. Actually TWO new nieces, because my sister is pregnant and due then as well!!!!! We are so excited!!!! Praise God for the sweet little babies. Can't wait to meet them!!!