New Year Update

Jen and I were talking last night about how easy it is to forget whole stages and seasons of your life.  She recounted that she had found an old journal from 2014 and had read the entries about her kids.  Libby was just 2 years old.  In the trenches of that situation (with 4 kids ranging in age from 1 to 5), no doubt she thought she'd never forget some of those times.  The reality is that, though she may never forget that her theme from that era was "exhaustion" or "dependence on God," she had forgotten that Libby used to grunt at people and other such things.  It made me remember that I have a blog, that this place is so useful, that when I want to, I can look back and remember the events that I thought I'd never be able to forget, and yet I do. 

So here's what I need to remember for now:

1. We made cards for Josh's birthday yesterday, and I, in a moment of uncharacteristic abandon, let the kids haul out my big craft box; the one with all the spools of ribbon, the stamps and stamp pads, and reams of multi-colored card stock. It's basically potential chaos in a box. Seth can't read yet, and so he happily-though-ignorantly stamped up his card for Josh and beamed with pride when it was finished.  He held it up for me to admire, which I did.  "Get Well Soon" it said in beautiful calligraphy, stamped in blue ink.  How appropriate.  Turning 38 had made Josh a feel a little queasy. :)

2.  Noah missed an obscene number of questions on his math assignment yesterday, and when faced with the grade, proclaimed, "Those dumb people who write math books! Don't they know I already know all this stuff! It's so boring and way too easy for me! I make silly mistakes because I'm just so bored with it!  They need to make it harder!"  Um, exCUSE me?  We had a little "chat" and then he went to correct his errors. Crying. Bemoaning how he's expected to do so much, and how this is Way. Too. Hard.  *blink, blink*.  That memory is not going to be a pleasant one, but I record it in hopes of having a much brighter report someday.  I hope to be encouraged in a few years by the fact that he has learned a little humility. (Please, God!)

3. Little E.  She'll be 15 months on the 10th of Feb.  Walking. Running. Fussing.  Oh my, the fussing. Thankfully she goes to bed easily when it's time, and will even say, "Bye, bye!" when I put her in her bed (but think "Ba, ba" like a southerner would say it!).  She can say, Hot, Hi, Bye, Uh-Oh, Ball, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting right now.  She signs Please, Thank you, All done, waves hello and goodbye, and points to her diaper and says "Uh-oh" when she needs to be changed.  Potty training should be on the horizon shortly I would think. :) She is, like her brothers were at this age, exhausting.  Into everything. Climbing, reaching, falling, you name it.  What happened to the GIRL I ordered when I filled out the form? :)  I know for a fact that I circled, "Sits and colors for hours" on my order form. Ahem.

4. I just finished a book called Teaching from Rest.  If you are a homeschooler or a mother, read this book!  It changed my perspective totally.  Now I'm reading Loving the Little Years (again) and it's really good too.

5.  We signed Noah up for baseball instead of soccer this season.  I think it will be really good for him, because he has never played before. The practices are really long, so we'll see what that does to our week.  Right now, we have baseball from 6-8:30 (!!!) on Mon and Thurs nights, in addition to church on Wed nights.

That's not all I want to remember, but it's all I have time for at this point, so it will have to do!