An Update

Well, it has been awhile. How is it March?! Where has the time gone? Brian was sick most of January with pneumonia but he is all the way better now. We are all doing well. I am an exhausted mom. 

Life has been so busy. Reuben is in third grade, Becky has piano and I have violin lessons. Both kids do ballet. We pick up raw milk and try to make it to our nature co-op. And see friends each week for play dates. Sitting down at the computer has not happened! Even home-school is hit or miss with a baby. We will be taking the month of May off for our summer vacation this year and spending it gardening! I hope to have a big garden this spring and summer. But June and July will be spent finishing up third grade. Becky starts Ambleside year one this fall and Reuben year four!

I did finally record Esther's birth story but I have not edited it yet. Hopefully I can some time before she turns one, and post it to my YouTube channel.

Here is a little re-cap of the last three months. 

The kids at UVA

In January we went to UVA to look at Reuben's nose and get some more scans. On the X-ray they were able to see that he has really large adenoids. We are looking into some natural healing for shrinking those. Praying for healing for Reuben! I went by myself to UVA with three kids and stayed in an hotel for two nights and it was crazy fun. We walked everywhere! The reason I ended up staying two nights is it snowed when we got there! We all had a fun mini vacation and I'm glad to have some answers for poor Reuben's lifelong condition of not being able to breathe through his nose. I got food poisoning the last night which was not fun. Brian was home sick still with pneumonia. 

In February Brian finally started getting better when our car died for a week. My husband had to push my car though an intersection. It was scary (very busy intersection) but I felt so loved that he was there for me. After he pushed, by himself I might add--our car--he had an asthma attack and I used some natural remedies to help him. And we both thanked God for, one, him being right behind me when my car died (he was following me home) and two, him being okay after pushing my car as he was still recovering form pneumonia. The car if patched up and we are saving for a van!

Esther at Becky's Piano lessons 

Now it is March, and we are resting, enjoying the last little bit of the postpartum season as Esther's first year comes to an end in two months. Esther is having swallowing issues and we have an appointment to see if she needs physical therapy. She probably just needs more time. She's breastfeeding like a champ and  growing so much! I can't believe she is 10 months. I almost have a toddler, you guys! AND I'm almost forty. This is crazy. 

In other news, Reuben decided to quit playing the violin. I am bummed, but what mother hasn't had unrealistic dreams for their children? He is his own person, and after 4 years of violin he can pick it up when he's older if he wants. I am still playing. It has always been my dream. 

Life goes on and I keep creating pockets of stillness for our family in the madness. We have a wonderful family and a wonderful life and I am grateful every day. God is good. I think this will be a slow year for blogging...and a slow year for many things in general. Love you all!

A New Year

This blog has come a long way since 2010 when I was twenty-something and desperately trying to get into art. The years have gone by since then, and they have been very kind to me. After art, I have blogged through a really hard break up in 2012, meeting my husband, and our marriage. Our struggles with infertility, my foray into YouTube and knitting and crochet consuming my life... the birth of Reuben in 2015 and Becky in 2018. Covid. Homeschooling. Chronic Illness and depression, anxiety and healing (emotionally and physically) and Motherhood, Christianity and dealing with lifelong chronic illness...and now, surprise babies named Esther who are amazing. 

This year I turn 37. I will be 40 in three years! It doesn't seem that crazy anymore. 

Do I have any new year resolutions? Well, I would like to deal with my stress and enjoy this year. Even with a baby, a 6 year old and a 9 year old.  It's possible, right? Who right now are 8 months, 5 years and 8 years but all have birthdays next year. Big milestone birthdays! Esther will be ONE! Crazy to think, this time last year I was four-ish months pregnant and miserable with morning sickness--the idea of having a new baby a dim uncertain cloud hovering in my future. Now she is here, adorable and crawling everywhere (a day before Christmas she started that) and next May she will turn 1. God is good. And Becky will be six in just 23 days. A first grader this August. Reuben will be 9 in July and his last year as a single digit! They are all amazing and I am grateful to be their mamma. 

I have gained a lot of weight. I need to move my body and stop sitting around all the time...it is hard in the winter. I am okay. Just fat. LOL.  It's true! But I try not to worry about it and just snuggle and baby, nurse, and enjoy life. I can lose the 30 pounds I gained later...maybe next year. Maybe not. 

I want to have a better quiet time with the Lord and enjoy my family. Those are my resolutions, because I really do have the best family. And I am grateful for each and every one of them... I am glad I got to spend 11 years of my life with Brian, 8 so far with Reuben, 5 with Becky, and an amazing 8 months with Esther Rose. 

Here is to 2024 and God's plans, not mine. Love you all.  

Christmas 2023

I wanted a break this Christmas, but Brian got the flu. It is funny (in an annoying kind of way) when plans go awry especially since I really really need a break and was looking forward to co-parenting for a week instead of parenting alone while my husband works (or in this case, sleeps and coughs). I am exhausted. I am waking up 3-4 times a night to nurse Esther still! The kids are amazing but the amount of noise and questions in our house is at max capacity, and I am touched out. But my children are lovely, my home is clean and we have food. I made sourdough bread yesterday and we had it for lunch today with butter, an orange, fermented pickles and slices of cheese. 

Brian has been coughing all night. I finally got him to nebulize some colloidal silver and of course he has been taking all the over the counter cough stuff from the walmart drug store isle. Poor Brian. I know he didn't intend to be sick all of his break but its is. so. hard. for both of us! I am not sure who is having a harder time: Brian sick in bed with his new Playstation 5 or me downstairs nursing Esther and cooking and cleaning. This is a rhetorical question and perhaps I am a little bit jaded. HAH!

                                           

Christmas was great tho. In past years we have been very minimal for Christmas but I guess something broke this year because we bought way too much and now my house feels like a department store. Oh, well. We are rapidly outgrowing our house and I don't know what to do about it. I have been asking to move for about 6 years and...we are still here. 5 people in 1400 square feet. And no privacy. We will declutter and downsize some more, I guess! Really. We are all in on top of each other. I need to find a better organizational system. 

Oh, here I am complaining again! Anyway. My favorite Aunt came to visit and THAT was perfection! She came even though Brian was sick and I have been praying non-stop she does not get whatever nasty virus he has...

Life update: We start our second term of Year 3 with Reuben next week! I have everything organized and ready... we got a new roof the week before Christmas too! It was $9050.00 from Cenvar, a local company. So far it hasn't leaked again so YAY. (but woah what a price tag) They messed up our siding and fixed it (also YAY) but also little bit (I mean A LOT bit) of stressful. We only have siding on two sides of our house because...we are putting it on ourselves and also have three kids and no, I don't know what we are thinking. Do you? 

Life is busy and hard. I bought this book recently to try and help. But I think I actually need this one too. 

Here is to a new year!!!! Um....my new year resolution is "survival". Cheers! 

God is good.