We have a new member! Little Esther was born back in January (she's nearly 4 months old!) and after a fairly wild ride, I think things are starting to feel a bit more normal. Well, as normal as they can be with a small baby who only ever wants to be awake for no longer than an hour at a time! Despite feeling like a bit of a shut-in, we're evolving as a family, and we all love her bright chubby smiles and the giggles that are beginning to come.
Another big change has been Hannah beginning school, and Davey heading off to day care 2 days a week (it worked out to be just a bit more expensive than 2x 2 hour blocks of 3 year old kinder a week!). Life feels a lot busier, when the kids are home, trying to make sure that I still have some quality and a decent quantity of time with each of them. It's tough trying to figure out when to get housework done, in order to still be able to spend time with the kids! It feels like there are a lot of competing priorities and methods of procrastination, and I know I don't always make the right choices, but I feel like I am finally starting to head into a brain space where I can consider things more clearly.
It's so sad how quickly spending time in God's word can be pushed aside. I finally began meeting one-to-one with a friend from church this week, and I can actually remember feeling a bit grumpy about it, in the hours leading up to our meeting, because this was going to eat into my relaxing/tv watching/weaving (yes, stress apparently also leads to impulse purchases, as well as comfort eating, and I bought a vintage loom!) time! How rude! I'm so glad that we got to meet though! What a relief to spend some time immersed in Ezra, and realising how quickly and disappointingly the Israelites slipped back into intermarrying with the nations around them, and disobedience, after God had intervened so obviously to bring them back to their land, and rebuild the temple! What a reminder to me, not to tune God out with the soundtrack of the world!
I'm also trying to work my way through the "I Quit Sugar" program at the moment. I'm 4 days into cutting out pretty much all fructose, and I have to say, it hasn't been as bad as I thought it might be! I really miss fruit though, and am toying with the idea of adding it back in a bit earlier, but I guess I'll just stick to the plan for the moment. Despite finding some of the recipes in the book pretty foul (you can add some egg to some quinoa and call it a macaroon, but it just isn't!!!), I'm quite interested in the research presented, and plan on looking into some other books on the sugar/fat issue too. If what they're presenting is true, it's got some pretty scary implications for family health! Bring on the whole foods.
Anyway, sadly this isn't particularly insight or inspiring, but more of a catch-up, and hopefully some motivation for myself to start putting together some of the posts that I've been thinking about for such a long time. I hope that you're having a great year so far, and that we can spend some more time together!!
