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A Year Ago:

Holding his head up so well was a big accomplishment!

And Now:

Phinehas is walking! He started about 2 weeks ago, and now can walk pretty much whenever he wants, though it’s still an unsteady business. Fortunately, he’s very adept at realizing his balance is going and falling backwards to land on his padded posterior.

As [...]

Well, there and back again.

Family Camp went pretty well this year, I thought. I had frequently aired the opinion that it was going to be easier this year, so of course, every time that we had any sort of child-related difficulty (and come on, as long as there are children, there will be child-related difficulties) Michael [...]

Monica was having trouble, so I suggested she use the packaged bubble wand. It didn’t work much better for her.

The idea came from the June issue of Good Housekeeping. They wanted to do it right away, so even though it was still cool and overcast they made some and went out first thing this morning to [...]

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My dad took this picture less than a week before her birthday. Monica seems to think that turning three is QUITE a transition point, and keeps telling me of the things that she is allowed to do, now that she’s three. Most of them are of her own fabrication! It’s startled me lately to see how [...]

I follow a 6-weeks-on, 1-week-off year-round school schedule. But, although last week was supposed to be our break week, we kept chugging along so that we could have (drum-roll-please) a two week spring break! Next week is Easter week, which is schedule as a holiday for us, regardless, so I bumped the two weeks together, and [...]

Well, he’s finally on the move! At a little over 9 months, Phinehas finally figured out how to move forward (he’s been moving backward and sideways for a long time). He started army crawling two weeks ago, and this week he’s really started experimenting with those interesting and sometimes unpredictable legs to start crawling on hands [...]

It’s a gray time of year. Although the sun occasionally breaks through, it’s mostly been cloudy and rainy. Add to that Michael’s 6 days a week, 10-12 hours a day work schedule, a plaguish sort of cold that took our family by storm, followed by a spate of ear-infections with a broken collar bone thrown in, [...]

It’s been two months already since Christmas! Only ten more months to go. Amazing how quickly time flies, now that I’m getting older. Not as old as my husband who is turning 29 TODAY. 29! Nearly 30! Definitely in the “late 20s,” and he kissed, “mid-20s” good-bye quite a while ago. I, of course, am still merely [...]

Yes, I expected to get all caught up with blogging after Christmas. And here it is the beginning of FEBRUARY already, and I have written one measly post (mostly pictures) about giving my baby a haircut. Woo-hoo.

But after Christmas, see, it took a whole week – well, two actually, to “dig out” of all of [...]

It’s not his FIRST haircut – that was right before Christmas, when his father objected that, from the back, when wearing a little green velvet holiday jumpsuit, he looked like a girl. It was true. But that was just quick trim around the collar. His hair was long enough to start falling in his eyes, as [...]

Well! That was probably the shortest “series” on thankfulness, ever (a month ago)! That wasn ‘t because I wasn’t thankful for much, I want you to know – it was because all of the other things that I’m thankful for, notably my excellent husband and 4 beautiful, healthy, bouncy children, keep me so busy (and perhaps a little [...]

I tried out a new recipe tonight, Meatball Soup at About.com. Michael and I liked it pretty well. Judah was OK with it. Ezra and Monica were not in favor. But that’s about normal, for Ezra in soups, and Monica in general. They ate it (most of it) anyway.

Michael suggested grating parmesan on to each serving, [...]

Yes, my firstborn is seven years old. I know to those of you whose babies are 30 this is no great shakes, but I’m shocked: like I never expected him to REALLY get to 7. Kind of how I feel about being married for 10 years next August. Is this really me? Can I really have [...]

He can sit now AND roll both [...]

December is a busy time for us. It seems like every weekend has at least one, if not two events, what with church-related Christmas events, Judah’s birthday, and other holiday-ish activities. Then the weeknights start to fill up, and before long you’re wondering if there’s a single night free for you to go shopping without any [...]

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I just prepared a pomegranate for the first time this afternoon to bring to a Baptism party. I’d never done one before, but googled it and followed these directions and viola, it worked great! It really was almost no mess, and didn’t take too long (though it seemed like a long time as I was rather [...]

From The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley, p. 20

Put it another way, an hour of work today earns you 300 days’ worth of reading light; an hour of work in 1800 earned you ten minutes of reading light. Or turn it round and ask how long you would have to work to earn an [...]