I'm Back! (Sort Of)

Okay. Sorry to leave you with such a vague explanation ("I'm taking a break...'cause.") So here's a more thorough explanation about why I decided to take a little blog break:

1) Judah almost had lead poisoning. When we took him in for routine lead testing, his level came back as 9.1. I don't know what that means, but it is much higher than the normal level of 2.4. So of course, we were ordered to go back to the lab for a different, more accurate blood test to see what the deal really was. That test came back with a level of 2.4. Normal. So the first test was obviously a) flawed, and b) intended to give me heart palpitations.

2) Abe got laid off. This is particularly hard (since we are a single-income family) and emotional, so it has required a bit of adjustment to Christmas lists and shopping and other expenditures, as you might imagine. It's a temporary lay-off, and he'll be back to work when there are projects for him to work on, but unfortunately, this is a very slow time in his trade. In the meantime, he's working on the house and getting underfoot. :)

3) We had to take Charis to the doctor because she had blood in her stool. I don't have any further elaboration on this, and everything seems to be fine, so apparently it was just a fluke, but given that items 1 and 2 happened within a day of this pleasant experience, you can understand our concern.

4) I was knee-deep in preparations and practices for our annual Christmas concert at church. It's a big deal for us, with three performances, and this year I wrote the script and had a duet, and it was the first year we've memorized ALL of the music, so I was particularly nerve-wracked in the days leading up to the concert. But it all went very well, I'm happy to report.

5) Aunt Connie was coming to visit, so I was cleaning. She arrived last Friday and left today. We had a great visit with her! She is a very pleasant and easygoing house guest.

and last, but most importantly:








6) I am pregnant!

So of course, the raging hormones inside me magnified the importance of all of the above items.

I am just now coming up on 12 weeks, the end of my first trimester, and I am gradually feeling less sick and less tired. I have been quite queasy with this one--more so than in either of my first two pregnancies--and more tired, but obviously more busy, since I spend most of my time chasing two small ones. You know, when I was pregnant with Charis, I was exhausted all the time, but looking back, I think I was just a pansy. What the heck did I have to be tired about? Now parenting two kids under 3 AND being pregnant--that merits actual fatigue.

(I have also been afflicted with serious pregnancy brain-rot, so forgive this discombobulated post. Sentences are difficult for me to form these days.)

We are getting excited about this one, but the excitement wasn't immediate. The timing of this baby wasn't our idea, but is only a reminder that God doesn't care what our ideas are--He just cares about His perfect timing and all of that. Knowing God has only our best interest in mind helps us feel confident that everything will work out as He intends!

Also aiding in the increased excitement is the fact that we just learned that some friends of ours are also expecting--and their due date is about 3 weeks away from ours. That in itself is cool enough, but consider this: they also have two children, whose ages are identical to the ages of our two. In fact, a mere 6 weeks separate the birthdays of both sets of children. God apparently has something in mind for our families in timing our children so close together, since we obviously didn't plan to have the same child-bearing schedule.

There you have it. I will try, in the upcoming days, to post more, but unfortunately, since I am making a lot of the gifts this year, that may not be feasible within the time I have available to me. But Thank you for hanging on and checking in! I hope to be chatting with you again soon!