oh my where have i been?!  thanksgiving was literally yesterday, and yet how is it that half of december is already gone?  i’m so confused.  and so behind. this is where a normal person would skip over the posts that were never got to and get with the program and post all the happy christmasy stuff because we are in the middle of december now.  and we all know how depressing it is to be posting christmas stuff in february. i get that.  i do.  i am normally the go-with-the-flow, laid-back, it’s-all-good kinda gal.  except that there’s this one teeny, tiny part of me that is just the teeniest, tiniest…

our thanksgiving this year was once again a simple affair with just our family since phil was post-call the day of and has to work the rest of this weekend.  but i like the low-key time to spend together just the same. and even though it’s just us, i still like to make it a special affair and try to make as much of it from scratch as i can. adding a new kid every couple years kinda complicates the whole cooking all day thing though. but i’m happy to report that this year was my best yet with the brined turkey, the creamy mashed potatoes, the cornbread-apple-sausage stuffing, the…

last month, we had the privilege of dedicating lauren and jonah at our church.  this was something i had been wanting to do for lauren but the timing never seemed to work out.  and then jonah joined our family.  and then we thought we would be moving away.  but then the Lord led us back and everything fell into place as is always the case when it’s God’s timing and not ours. the sunday we picked to do the child dedication also happened to be grandparents’ day at church. that weekend also happened to be the one time my parents would be staying over at our place since they had…

lots to catch up on a variety of subjects but short on time to get caught up.  i get the feeling that may well sum up the next decade or two of my life.  huh. well, no time to dwell on that either.  : p so, homeschooling.  so far so good, i’m happy to report.  though i’m currently going through a major identity crisis in terms of curriculum and just recently changed up pretty much everything.  but more on that later.  for now, i just want to zero in on one thing.  er, person. lauren. she is the bowling ball thrown into my juggling act of bowling pins. i can’t…

phil has always been very, very good about planning both dates and family outings for us.  rare have been the times we’ve gone out without his having something up his sleeve for us.  so much so that it usually doesn’t even occur to me to ask what we’re doing or where we’re going because i know it’ll be something really fun (for family) or really good to eat (for date nights).  so i’m pretty content to just wait and see where we end up and so far, i have yet to be disappointed. it’s something that is easy to take for granted, because it’s something he’s always done for us. …