Winter Catch Up and Musings on Life

We had a huge snowstorm last week- over a foot was dropped on us, church was cancelled, Jason's trip to Indy was delayed, and it has been so fun to play in!  And even more beautiful to enjoy from the window.

Noah didn't really like the snow, but one-year-olds never do. 

Jason, Leah and Adam had a blast sledding one day, and several other times they've bundled up to play in the huge piles of snow in our yard.

Adam was sitting at the table reading one day (a book with foreign languages, no less) and he looked and sounded so grown up.  He is just the right age to be looking forward to kindergarten, and I am so, so glad that I've had this extra year at home with him.  I am going to miss him so much when he's gone to school all day!  We have recently discovered Monopoly Jr. and Adam has loved beating me "like a pinata" just about every time we play.

We picked out and signed Emma up for her very own preschool.  She is so excited to be going to the same preschool as two of her best neighborhood friends.  I'm glad she'll have her very own something to look forward to in the fall.

Our mornings start way too early, and I'm always so impressed and grateful that Leah is always willing to get up and moving on to school.  That's not to say she likes it or always has a smile on her face, but she gets there, usually on time, and always with an "I love you, Mommy!" on her way out the door.

 But we sure do love the weekends!

One day I told the kids that I would give hot chocolate to as many neighborhood kids as they could round up.  They ran and knocked on every door on the street, had a great time playing "Zombies and Hot Dogs" (a version of tag, as far as I can tell), and then I handed out a dozen cups of cocoa to some very happy kids.  My neighbor friends called me the "amazing mom of the day" but I kept telling them it was a purely selfish move in an attempt to get the kids out from under my feet on a beautiful day.  It was a win-win all around.

One Sunday morning the kids and I were upstairs and Noah started gagging, spitting, and choking something down.  Once he could breathe again he started sobbing and I was super shaken up.  I hadn't seen any food on the floor and we were near a box of Legos, so I worried that he had swallowed or possible aspirated something that wasn't going to digest.

A long wait and a quick x-ray later showed that there was no sign of anything foreign inside, but I have once again upped my vigilance on keeping the floors clear and my little guy safe.  It was around this same age that Leah broke her arm and Emma's face was burned.  One-year-olds are just not that interested in personal safety!

 For Family Home Evening last month we created "Helping Hands" that outlined some of the services we have done in our family, community, and church lately.

I've finally admitted that my iphone makes it very easy to plop down on my bed and surf the internet.  I don't enjoy sitting down at the computer like I used to, and it shows in my severe lack of blogging.  Winter is always a slow blogging season for me, but I especially feel the loss of desire and the sadness of falling behind on the blog this year.

Noah is 16 months old now.  Traditionally that means pregnancy time.  Jason and I talk a lot about whether or not our family is complete.  We both feel like it is.  We're in a fantastic place, and I have very, very little desire to hit the reset button all over again.  Another pregnancy seems like a tremendous undertaking, and I'm already so tired, so full, so happy.  We're so blessed, and we feel like our family is in a very good place just as it is.  I just didn't know we would get to this place so quickly, and that part makes me a tiny bit sad.  I'm not sure I knew Noah was my last baby when I was pregnant, nursing, and not sleeping, and I envy women who have that closure with them from the minute they see those last double pink lines.  We know that it's not a race or a competition, and that at some point we have to choose to stop having children, and we are combining that with a lot of prayer.  Knowing that the Lord has already entrusted us with four of His sweetest spirits is a monumental task.  And that's all I have to say about that for now.

Jason is exploring another new country this week.  This time it's Chile.  I've been comparing last year's relative nightmare to this year's relative ease, and I am pretty sure the biggest three differences are that we aren't experiencing subzero temperatures this year, so we're not homebound with constant school cancellations, I don't have a fussy, sleepless newborn this year, and I got to go to Puerto Rico just a few weeks ago, and I have my own trip to New York City just around the corner.  Compared to last year, this year has been a walk in the park.  It's still not my favorite time of the year, but we've done a great job of keeping busy, and all in all I'd say the Five Musketeers are doing just fine.