Greetings!

My goodness, it's been way too long since I've written here. Honestly, I've been too tired to type... not literally, but too tired to sit down and get my thoughts together in a coherent way.

Life is so very, very good here. God continues to prove Himself faithful day after day.

Life has also been very, very full for the last couple of months.

By the numbers:

• Eight family members' stuff packed and moved to another state.
• A couple of hundred boxes unpacked (mostly.)
• Four visits from out of town guests.
• Fifteen inches of snow, a 35-year snow, which mostly snowed us in for two weeks.
• Two major leaks in the roof caused by ice dams.
• One Christmas.
• One Nasty virus working through five of six children over the course of a week (a dozen throw-ups, lots of diarrhea, three runny noses, one ear ache, one case of shingles...)
• One ruptured appendix.
• Five days in the hospital.
• One six year old birthday.
• One gas fireplace repair.
• One water softening unit removed from our home.
• One visit from the DishNetwork repairman.
• Five super-fun evenings with new friends over for dinner.
• Two new drivers licenses.
• Four new license plates.
• One mortgage refinance.
• One new, very large job.

It's all good. This week is finally shaping up to be "normal," which is such a timely blessing. We're actually "doing school" for the third day in a row, which is so encouraging! We almost have a routine established! Wow!

God is so kind to stretch us and grow us and take us where we never imagined we could go. We are all still thrilled to be here at Jubilee. Mary is healed up and eating and playing again. We're all finding our way here. I couldn't be happier and more at peace.

But I could be more rested...

Mary's birthday, a couple of days after she came home from the hospital was fun. The kids made masks for the party.

Here are a kitty, lady bug, and golden retriever:

Here are the cute faces behind the masks:
Mary decorated her own cake with a couple of containers of colored sugar. It was very pretty... and very crunchy. Just the way we like it! Sort of like eating cake at the beach.

Thank you so much to all who have been praying for Mary. It was a wild ride, but she seems none the worse for wear now that it is over. We are so thankful!

I'll try to post more often. I have lots of great pictures to share and daily adventures, too!

Ahhhhhh...

It's been a couple of rough days for Mary, but I am delighted to report that she is doing much better!

She actually smiled for the first time in days and is starting to be interested in eating and drinking, too. She hadn't eaten anything for three days, so I'm expecting the food will begin to give her a bit more energy.

Thank you for praying. It's been pretty tough for my little sweetie.

This morning the surgeon told us that it had been an especially bad perforation and migh take a few extra days to stop hurting.

As for me, I'm so thankful that I grabbed a toothbrush on my way out the door on Saturday night... but I'm really looking forwaard to a shower!

Thank you, again for your prayers.

New Adventures

I'm actually posting from my cell phone!
Which would be much cooler if I weren't sitting in a room on the pediatrics unit at Kennewick General Hospital.
MARY HAD HER APPENDIX REMOVED THIS MORNING!

I KNOW! CRAZY, HUH?

Her appendix was perforated, so it looks like we will be here for a few days.

She's just been out of sugery for about an hour, but she's doing great. She's feeling so much better than before!

Life just never seems to get dull around here...

Prayers for a quick, uncomplicated recovery are appreciated. Also for smooth logistics with the rest of the family, work, weather, etc.

I should have plenty of time to post in the next few days... if my thumbs don't fall off.

God is good!

Happy New Year!

Wow! A new year is upon us.

I know... I'm not the first to notice, but sometimes it takes me a while to catch up.

Life has been full and busy here. Since last I wrote, the virus that made sweet Daniel puke in the night has worked it's way around through five of the six children, scattering some puke here, an ear ache there, a cough and runny nose for that one. You know, just general viral yuckiness.

The snow has been spectacular, as well! We enjoyed a couple of weeks of fantastic, cold, fluffy snow. I have some great pictures, which I'll get uploaded eventually.

When the snow melted a bit on our roof and then the temperatures stayed low for so long, we sustained some ice damage to the roof of the home where we are living. This resulted in lots of drywall damage in the garage - luckily that's all the damage there - and soggy carpet in the boys' room. It took us a while to figure out that leak. Who expects a leak to dampen the floor of a second story room, without dripping from the ceiling?? Strange stuff.

And, of course, we had a lovely Christmas. We were snowed in and unable to attend any church services, which was disappointing, but we had a great time opening presents and celebrating together here at home.

All that to say, it's been a very full couple of weeks. Sleep has been often-interrupted, children are suffering a bit with cabin fever. Life has been good and crazy.

At the beginning of the really cold weather (single digits for several days and nights in a row,) I got out the felted mittens I knitted a couple of winters ago and had Micah try on the smallest ones. They are a perfect fit! So sweet! And he loved them... until we actually went out to the car and then he summarily tugged them off and did NOT want them back on. I also found the pair of mittens that didn't felt evenly, which I had made into slippers and put those on him at the same time.

While he was delighting in them, I seized the opportunity to grab a few photos of his cuteness.



Funny how photo shoots with toddlers always seem to end this way.

Blessings on your New Year!