I have not fallen off the face of the earth....

But I have fallen off the face of regular blogging. But, I (think) I am back and want to start up again. It is always hard to restart something....the guilty feeling, the sense of failure, the dread of starting and not following through, all of these things go through my mind. Plus, where to start? I certainly can't recount all that we have done for the last two and a half months.

What did we do today? We started school! Maria is a 9th grader and William is a 7th grader and James is a 14 monther that gets into everything. For those of you familiar with homeschooling curriculum, we are doing Sonlight Core 100, Apologia Biology, Rosetta Stone French, ALEKS Geometry, the second half of Starting Points, the second part of IEW SWICC-B or C (depending on which kid), piano, Community Bible Study-Acts, PE with Dr. Gibbs and we are trying out All Out Sports League too. I am sure there are other things, but this keeps the kids busy!

Ken leaves for Abeche, Chad on Saturday, August 1, which happens to be William's 12th birthday and Switzerland will be celebrating 718 years of independence. He will be returning on September 11.....and boy will we be glad to see him at that point.

I am now 1 day away from being 20 weeks pregnant and things are still going great with the pregancy. We are choosing not to find out the gender before the baby is born- we like the surprise.

How was our summer? GREAT! BUSY! FUN! Filled with people, activities, travels, adventures, and all kinds of other things.

Well, time to sign off....hope to post sooner the next time.

Birthdays and Mothers Day

James turned one on Friday. I am not sure where that year went. What a joy he has been in our life. The best gift he got was a t-shirt that said "Big Brother" on it.

Yep- James gets to be a big brother starting sometime in December!

Hmmm....no wonder I have been tired and unfocused for the last month or so.....maybe postings will pick up in a bit when my energy comes back.

Diverse Ages

A little glimpse into the range of ages in our kids.....here is where the kids were this afternoon/early evening. James was in his high chair eating dinner, William was at the movies with a friend, and Maria was at The Silver Ring Thing, which is an abstinence before marriage conference. Earlier in the day Ken and I checked out Scoops! Play n Cafe to see if this would be a good place for James' first birthday. Nothing like waiting till the last minute, but it turned out to be an ideal location. So we are looking forward to celebrating James' first birthday on Thursday, even though he actually turns one on Friday.

Back in the Swing of Things

I arrived home on Sunday. James and I traveled 2,338.5 miles in 11 days and boy, was it fun! There is too much to capture and instead of worrying about it, I am just going to put some notes down and move on. Otherwise I will never get back to blogging on a regular basis if I keep trying to catch up.

We stayed one night in Forks, which is where the book Twilight is set. We did a few wonderful hikes in Olympic National Park and I could have stayed there for much longer. James rode on my back in the Ergo, which I could not have done without on the trip. On all of the hikes, he pretty much either watched what was going on, leaning backwards to look at the trees, or he would fall asleep on my back. There were a few times he fussed, but not so much that a little bouncing didn't put him into a better mood.

We also went to the ocean and had a nice time feeding the seagulls...of which James was not too thrilled with when they came close. So we mostly watched from a distance.

Another highlight was being able to visit our friends Will and Linda Royston in Eugene, Oregon. We shared a few meals together and it was so nice to see them.

Our last day we spent at Redwoods National Park and then driving through the Avenue of the Giants. What a great way to end the trip.

Now I am home and we are definitely in the swing of things. Kids are doing school, I have already gone to a bookclub, I will be hosting Bunco tomorrow night, then on Friday go to my in-laws for pizza after the kids are done with a homeschool event. And life goes on.

This afternoon after lunch, as we were all just sitting around doing various things, my house felt so peaceful. I am very blessed to have this house and the life I lead.

Happy Easter

This is our last night in Seattle and boy has it been fun so far! James and I stayed in Medford, OR on Thursday night and arrived in Seattle Friday evening. When I checked into our hotel, I asked for a connecting room with my sister, who was arriving later that evening. They upgraded me to a corner suite and it is fantastic. We have been fairly low-key in terms of activity level, but that is just right. We have gone to Pike's Peak Market twice, Gum Alley twice, walked around the Anime convention a number of times, walked along the waterfront, went to a sculpture garden, walked over to the Space Needle, visited a glass blowing shop, eaten a lot of yummy food, picked up Daniela from the airport, and connected Sarah with her orchestra group from her high school.

I hope to put some photos up later, but right now am using Ethan's computer....so no photos yet!

Stay tuned to hear about where we go next!

Packing for Road Trip (and some pictures)

I leave tomorrow for a road trip with James. We are driving to Seattle, where we will be meeting my sister Annabelle, my brother-in-law Ethan, and my niece Sarah, who will be arriving Friday night. On Sunday, my cousin Daniela will be flying in from Switzerland, and Sarah will be leaving with to tour with her school orchestra. Then, Annabelle, Ethan, Daniela, James and myself will drive back to California, stopping at various places in the Pacific Northwest such as Olympic National Park. We will also be visiting our good friend Will Royston and his wonderful wife Linda. We should be back by Sunday, April 19. I am looking forward to this, but with a bit of trepidation because I have no idea how James will do on a road trip like this. But, I guess the best way to find out is to do it.

Here are some pictures-
Annabelle with James

We hung a swing in our backyard that James loves.

Here is William!

James went with a bunch of other little ones to Habitot....he is there in the middle sitting on Emma's lap.

What happened to posting regularly?

Not sure what happened to my regular postings....oh well. This last week my dad had some disorientation that was unusual for him so he needed to get some tests done at the hospital. That was a weird experience. So now we await more tests, but he seems to be back on track.

Other than that, a fairly uneventful last week or two. Maria came home from San Francisco, Ken came home from Philadelphia, so everyone is currently home. James and I are now next on the list for departures. I plan on driving up to Seattle with James next Thursday to meet my sister Annabelle and brother-in-law Ethan, along with my cousin Daniela from Switzerland. We plan on meandering back to California stopping at various places along the way. It will be interesting traveling with James....he hasn't gone on a long road trip like this before.

We had the Petras family over for dinner last night which was great. I know Amy from Community Bible Study and it was neat meeting her husband for the first time and spending time together. I so enjoy having people over for meals and hanging out time.