Well, so much for regular posting...

In December I had so many things I wanted to write about: further thoughts on children, on marriage, thoughts about Advent, about the Theotokos (mother of God) and evangelical fear of her, and just a general "family update."  None of that happened.  Oh well.  We had a wonderful December all the same, and January has been very crazy.

We have been renting a little (kinda run down) house for about a year and a half.  It wasn't perfect, but it worked.  Enough room for our stuff and close to work.  But it was on a death hill with a hidden driveway and no fence around the yard.  Not the most ideal circumstance when you have three small children who seem to not hate sunshine as much as you do.  So we have been keeping our eye on the paper for other rentals.  Ideally we would love to buy again (I miss home ownership for many many reasons) but we don't know if this job is long term or short term yet and would like to have a better idea of that before committing to a mortgage.  But on January 6 my husband found an add new to the paper that day about a house in the area we wanted, big enough for the whole crew, and even in our price range.  We saw it on the 8th and then moved in on the 16th.  All really fast considering on the 14th we didn't know we were moving and by the afternoon of the 15th I had maybe two boxes packed.  But we have an amazing church family and they came over Friday evening (one family) and then a whole crew saturday and just got it done.  Really amazing.  So now we are in this incredible new home that I love so much and that is starting to come together.  It is a lot more space than what we are used to and I have discovered that after over a year in a one story place that I am out of shape.  These stairs are killing me.  And they are trying to kill the baby.  She thinks she is hot stuff and one of the big girls  and just should go where ever they do.  Which means going up the stairs- usually quietly and fast when mommy's back is turned.  We just got our washer and dryer here yesterday.  So picture if you will a family of 5 (with one baby in cloth diapers) and 2.5 weeks of not doing laundry.  It is scary around here.  But my husband assures me he can get them all hooked up tonight.  Hurray.  Last week I bought the big girls new jeans just so we had enough clothes. (some might suggest going to a laundromat, to be honest it didn't occur to me....)

So that is the first part of the summary.  The second is that the girls and I are going to Idaho for a month starting next week to spend time with my Dad.  He is in the end stages of congestive heart failure, and although this might not be the last time we see him, there is a very good chance of it.  Both of my brothers will be there too (we all have the same dad, but different moms) and I am looking forward to all of being in the same place at the same time.  That has only happened once before and it was 16 years ago now.

All that to say, I have a lot I want to write about.  But might not for awhile.  Although I just saw the movie "The Return of the Daughters" and have much to say about it and would love to process that out loud here.

If you are still around, thanks for reading!