Almost a Year

Wow!  What can I say?  Time flies when you're a busy momma!  I've been spurred on to renew this blog by my children and meeting a fellow blogger who asked me if I have a blog.  Well, yes, but a severely neglected one. : )

I know that my children enjoy looking back at old posts and it is nice to document our lives, even if I have no followers.  Not really the point.

Anyway, recap…

Baby Grace was born in May on Mother's Day!  It was also Dan and Will's birthday.  So, I now have 3 children born on the same day.  What are the odds?!?!

She was and is such a sweet, mellow baby; such necessary traits for #7. ;-)  Here's a recent picture of her starting to crawl.

Let's see… what's new with the kids… well…

Will started the rowing team last fall.  He's really enjoying it and would like to stick with it through high school and join the varsity team.  He's quite good at it, so we hope to find a way to make it work financially and with the busy rowing schedule.  Will is still homeschooled, but will attend our local high school in the fall.  He's really looking forward to it.  After months of looking at different options and discussing those with Will, we realized that he really wanted to attend the local high school.  We also believe that it will be a good fit for him.  

Will's in the middle in the black shirt.

Anna still loves horses and visits Sunny (our horse) every Thursday to train her, groom her and just love her!  She would go there every day, if I let her.  : ) Anna has been playing violin for a year now and joined the local youth symphony in the fall. She has played a couple concerts and we have so enjoyed watching her grow in this skill.  Anna is also homeschooled and will continue in the fall.  Both Anna and Katie are also part of a Keepers of the Faith group (think Christian scouts).  They are in a small group of lovely young ladies learning about Christ and what it is to be a godly woman. 

Katie is our budding artist.  She was taking some great art classes at a local art studio in the fall.  Unfortunately, she has had to stop the art classes since starting 4th grade at our local elementary school.  Since the art classes were in the morning, this was no longer doable.  I really enjoyed homeschooling Katie, but we felt that allowing her to try public school at this time was ok.  She has been asking to go and after talking and praying about it, we felt peace.  She started after the Christmas break.  Since she had never been to public school before, she had a lot to learn and get used to.  She really loves it, though.  Not sure if she will continue in the fall, but it's quite possible.

Daniel has grown so much this year.  He started Kindergarten at our local elementary school in the fall and has both excelled academically and matured a lot.  Daniel is so sweet with Isabel.  They are "best buddies" and I love to see how he takes care of her and plays with her so kindly.

Nate is a silly little 3-year-old.  He has a sweet side, but also is working through his frustrations with not getting his way and sometimes feeling pushed aside by the arrival of Isabel.  Even though it's been over 2 years, we can see he has "issues" with her.  He is either super sweet with her or he's pushing her off the swing!  He's getting there, though.  He attends preschool 3 days/week and enjoys his time at school.

Isabel has had yet another surgery since last spring.  Her last one was in December to fix her left arm/thumb.  The cast just came off 2 weeks ago and she is learning to use the thumb since it has been moved again to hopefully be in a better place for her to gain a pincher grasp with her pointer finger.  She attends preschool 5 days/week and gets much-needed therapies while there.  It's mostly occupational therapy.  She is extremely bright!  Isabel is very sweet-natured and wants nothing more then to be helpful and right by my side.

Grace is our little baby.  She is loved by all, of course.  Grace adores Maddy (our old golden retriever) and Maddy puts up with the "cuddles."  Grace is very mobile as she has mastered crawling and has started pulling herself up.  I'm sure she will be walking by 1.

And that brings me to the new baby arriving this July.  Huge surprise!  Really!  I found out late last year and honestly had a lot to settle in my mind about it.  Both Jim and I felt complete after Grace was born. We know that given our ages, Grace was a gift and we were so grateful for her arrival.  I was ready to move forward as a family of 9 and become a mentor for my older children as they transition through teenage years to adulthood.  I was ready to get back into shape and feel healthy again.  Grace's pregnancy was really hard on my body.  (Old age!)  So, when I found out that I was expecting again (and so soon after Grace's birth), I struggled.  I'm now 16 weeks and with the passing of time and seeing her little face on ultrasound, I have renewed strength to embrace this pregnancy and joy.

There's so much more I could share about the last 11 mths since my last post, but it would take far too long.  Not only would it be a marking of events, but a reflection of my continual journey with the Lord.  This last year brought ups and downs in different areas of my life.  Through it all, I knew that God would never leave me.  I knew that he would take his time with me to gently reveal what he would have me learn about him, about myself and the treasures found in his Word.

I hope to keep this blog updated.  It's been good to mark this place in our lives and look forward to all that is in store for us this year.