Yes, I'm still alive...haha.

Well, as life would have it, I got busy. I might have even forgotten that I had started a blog. I go 3+ years without even a peep and then I finally have something spark my memory and WAH-LAH! I'm writing a new post. With sincerest apologies to my very small crowd of followers, I'm going to try to do this a little more often than once every 3.5 yrs. Yes, I did say "try". No promises. I'm flaky like that when it comes to new ventures that take time and forethought. Well, where are we now? It's the beginning of Fall 2012.

Ashley is now 8 years old, actively involved in her 3rd grade school year. She is a thriving young artist as well, taking some new classes at a local art house. She's super-tall (of course) and with a new short hairdo--she's as beautiful as it gets. Yep, that's the mommy in me talking, but I think I'm spot on in that judgment.

Hannah is now 6 yrs old and in her 1st grade year at public school, attending at the same school as Ashley since last year. It's nice to see her walk into the school building in the morning with her big sister by her side. Hannah used to have such a hard time focusing and being a part of socially structured activities unless it was entirely her idea. Now, she's a social butterfly. Affectionate. Never meets a stranger. She has a giggle that sparks joy in your heart. With freckles lightly spotting her cheeks and a gap in her front teeth (she lost'em both this summer), she's as cute as it gets. Again, I'm biased but right nonetheless. Right?! :)

My baby Ellie is 4 now and growing like a weed. Just like Ashley and Hannah, Ellie's at the top of her growth chart for height. Stand her beside her precious little best friend Ry and she looks like a giant. With  blonde hair and blue eyes, she regularly gets compliments for being such a pretty little girl. She's certainly an angel but oh--she can be a little spit fire, too. The girl knows how to push til' she gets her way. Ellie has started to our church preschool this fall for two days a week. She loves it. She begs to go when she's not there. I think she likes being busy, to tell you the truth. When she's home with me, she plays and watches a movie or t.v. show. She even helps me out when I'm doing projects, but I think she's just plain bored most of the time. School's been a great new activity for her. She's growing so very quickly. It's hard to see your baby  growing before your eyes.
Ron's staying busy at work as usual and having some challenging days that help him with personal character development as well as managerial skills. Of course, you notice that I never said his recent days have been easy. He's learning to pray his way through the days and enjoy them as the moments arise. It's always a wonderful thing to pray for your spouse--I'm taking those opportunities and making sure I'm faithful to do just that. Ron still enjoys his online gaming. League of Legends is his current passion. He needs something to keep his mind busy so gaming and reading are his regular hobbies. I'm still regularly awed at how intelligent he is.
My life as a stay-home mother and wife is still always a work in progress. Some days I feel like I've accomplished great feats just getting one or two things marked off my to-do list. Other days it looks like I've moved mountains and gotten the hang of this whole balancing act of mom/wife down pat. Don't ever be fooled into thinking I'm on top of it, though. I push through each day with a decent amount of prayer and reflection on scripture as well as trying to hold myself together with a little coffee and some good music while I work around the house. Since I have no children at home two days a week, I now go the grocery store and walk on those days. I also run errands that are easier when I'm alone. Can I tell you what a HUGE blessing that is???! I used to dread going to the grocery store. Hated it, actually. In reality, I still do, but it's been so much easier to do without having to drag the kids with me or go after everyone's in bed at nighttime. Sometimes the biggest blessings are such simple things in the course of a day, eh?
Lately, with a little extra time on my hands, I've finally started painting the house again. The walls (for the most part) have been untouched since we moved into the house in November 2006. We'll have been here for 6 years in a matter of a couple months. I can't believe how it's flown. With that said, the front room became my test palette. I tried a rich vintage yellow color as my reds, greens, browns, and oranges tend to run a little old world-European in nature. It works--the yellow color, I mean. It's not my favorite, but it works. One thing about picking out colors: you want to be able to live with it once it's done. Otherwise, it becomes an expensive mistake. Two cans of paint: $60. So, as my husband says, I'm "living with the color for a while before I decide if I like it or not".
My other passion (beside fixing up our home with multiple ongoing projects) is still photography. I've never quite gotten out of the box yet with it. I mean, it takes time and mental energy to move my camera off auto-everything. While I still look around at other photographers' compositions and ideas on a regular basis, I've not quite taken off with my own desire to get a WHOLE lot better. Ron set up a website for me to start working on. Splendorography.com. I bought the domain name. Guess I better come up with what I'm going to put on it now, right? Ideas are sketchy and random right now. I like being creative, though. So...we'll see what becomes of it.
Blessings to you, sweet family...
Love,

 

the start of a new year...January 2009

I am once again surprised at how quickly time flies, how many changes can happen in a year, and how much God has blessed our family. Ron's new job is still going well. He's working the same amount of hours but gets home about an hour and a half earlier than he used to. So the girls and I are certainly reaping the benefits of a closer job for him.
Ellie's going through so many stages right now. She wants to be right in the middle of the girls' action as she is crawling very proficiently now. She has also started to pull up to her knees on practically everything. She still only has her bottom two teeth. But she's working on growing in so many ways...she is such a delight! She's our angel!
Hannah has grown so much in the last few weeks. She still has the toddler issues like getting frustrated too quickly when things don't work out like she expects but her communication is coming along very well. Potty-training isn't high on our list right now, but she has "accidently tee-tee'd and pooped" a couple of times in the potty. We're not looking for big steps, just baby steps toward that long-term goal... :) She's such a good girl!
Ashley is having loads of fun being a bit older now. She attended her first "princess birthday party" for a friend. Delighted that she was invited, she got to wear a princess dress with all the jewelry, wand, and shoes to boot. I can't believe our little girl is going to start to kindergarten this fall. Oh wow...it's gone too fast. Way too fast!
I'm still doing just a few hours of medical paralegal work at home when I'm needed. It's nice that the work is not overly-demanding. I can barely keep up with housework now that Ellie is on the move. So everything is about a finely-tuned balancing act right now. It's only with God's help and strength that I make it through with sanity on a daily basis. Praise God for His infinite wisdom and many blessings! We are joyfully living in Him!

December 2008

December brought my 33rd birthday...boy, does it feel real this year! I am not entirely sure it's having turned older or having three children, but my memory fails me much more often than before. I get very little done in a day, and we certainly don't get out as much as we used to with just the two girls. Especially me. Thank goodness seasons pass with the months in weather and life--Hannah's been my biggest handful. She has had difficulty communicating and when she gets angry, she still can't quite figure out how to deal with it, leading to many days frought with yelling and frustration...with she and I both! :) But we're getting through it. Ashley's been such a big help with Ellie growing up. Ellie's chief entertainment is from Ashley as she knows how to make Ellie giggle more than anyone else. Ellie's started sitting up and crawling at 7.5 months...the walking won't be far behind...
Ashley requested a Barbie Diamond Castle for Christmas but we were on a tight budget so we ended up having it as a shared gift for she and Hannah. They were crazy about it...and surprisingly, play with it most of the day everyday. Ellie got a small toy phone and stacker toy. She, of course, loved the boxes her toys came in more than the actual toys...that was predictable! Ron got some new dress clothes, and I got an mp3 player for my music. We had some generous donations of Christmas money as well and spent some to upgrade our photography and video equipment so family--watch out! You may get more photos and video than you ever asked for or even wanted from us in the coming months! Hah!
December heralded a wonderful change that was long prayed for...Ron started a new job at BNSF railroad in Ft Worth, just minutes from our house. He's not entirely settled in yet, but we feel like he'll really enjoy the challenge in the future and certainly the difference in the commute from what he has had to do for the last several years.
Christmas was spent with both sets of parents in short intervals...we got to see everyone in my family but sick children prevented us from getting to see the Cabals. Our girls were certainly disappointed not to be with their cousins for Christmas but are so glad we'll see them soon for birthdays...

November 2008

November brought Thanksgiving, which we celebrated with the entire York Family (minus Brittany) at our home in Keller this year. It was so nice to have everyone here. Ron and I even invited our friends from South Africa to join us. The day was very special as we had so many that we love in our home to celebrate all that God has given us. The heritage that my parents have given me as well as Ron's parents is now being passed down to our girls. We pray that they will be as thankful growing up and will come to know God's blessings in their lives and in their hearts one day soon as well.
We celebrated with Ron's family in East Texas for an informal Thanksgiving dinner as well. Seeing the family all together was fun as Ron's sister Deanna and husband Christian came with all four of their children. A "full house" had new meaning this holiday as we had 7 children and only 6 adults--they're taking over! We're certainly glad Ron's mom and dad have such a comfortable house with so much entertainment variety for our finally-finished families. We really enjoyed the fellowship, and the children had a fantastic time playing and loving each other. That's November in a nutshell...

It's pretty funny how terrible I am at this blogging. I mean, I haven't even made a post since October?? Wow...so I've got some catching up to do. Let's s see...
October--we didn't do too much. Made a trip to the pumpkin patch in Flower Mound with all three children-something I'd suggest taking two parents along for rather than one. Whew what a trip... We also had a Fall Festival at church that we attended. It's always a bit chaotic taking the girls since they like to go their own separate ways in the midst of the crowds but having a tall husband has its advantages as he makes an excellent watchtower! :) We also went down to Granny's house for Halloween, and though we do not formally celebrate Halloween, we decided to dress Ashley and Hannah up so they could collect candy in downtown Mineola (the merchants were passing out candy at their storefronts). Ashley and Hannah both had their faces painted; Ellie stayed home with Granny for a little alone time with each other. It was nice!

Pumpkin Patch 2008

Ahh, the cool mornings of fall have arrived...and we bravely headed out to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch for 2008. As anti-Halloween parents, Ron and I are more than happy to have our children celebrating something other than spooks, monsters, and scary Jack-o-lanterns. And the pumpkin patch gives us just the right amount of distraction for an autumn morning. Last year, Ashley and Hannah had a good time. We couldn't keep up with Hannah as she kept taking off in the direction of new discoveries. This year, I prayed for sanity and then just strapped Ellie on my chest so I could keep up with the other two. We had a few friends from church scattered around so it was a great morning. Mid-60s...lots of pumpkins...quite a few children, too. But bounce houses, pumpkin fortresses, hayrides, and a picnic were great fun. We all had a good time. After 2 hours of romping, though, and a side of whining thrown in because Ashley was scared to death of all the bees and flies, we departed, a bit warmer and more tired than when we arrived. But we enjoyed it. A few more memories to scrapbook.

Does being busy ever get better???

Hey...I'm finally back. It took me over a month to finally post another entry...so no one will probably even read this. I'm sure I've scared you all off with my inability to find time to just enjoy sitting...and updating.
Well, let's see. At this very moment in time, I've had a long weekend. Stayed up until 3am Saturday morning helping a friend ready her garage sale items. After only 4 hours of sleep, I got up and mowed the yard, cleaned the house, washed all the dishes, fixed lunch, and had four women over to scrapbook with me. Then off to fix dinner, feed Ellie, get the kids into the bathtub and bed, and finally to sit and watch absolutely nothing on tv and surf the web before retiring last night at midnight. I think my husband's bad sleep habits are rubbing off on me. It's not like I'm not tired...my kids wear me out regularly.
Then today is Sunday. So, rush to get us all ready for church. Come home, fix lunch and clean up, get the kids in bed for naps only to go do laundry for 2 hours. I get little Ellie up for a bottle, fix lasagna for dinner, and I'm off again to church for praise team practice. Now I'm back, finished cleaning up the kitchen after getting the kids in bed, and did more laundry. Fed the dogs. Now I'm exhausted on the couch, just trying to finish up the blog post. Whew...I'll be glad when it's Monday, and things settle down. Oh wait...they never do.
I think in the everyday rush, though, I have recently started appreciating the "quiet" moments more. I've certainly thanked God for the cool weather. I love my sweet friends and their families. God is so merciful, so wonderful, so faithful to provide above and beyond my needs. He provides so completely, too. I'm so glad He loves me. If the world only knew what it was missing by not knowing Him....boy, wouldn't we be a different place?