Snippets

Hello world! Let me just start by saying that I am not happy that I have become a person that blogs once a month. I so want to be doing this more often...but life happens.  Traveling, and little ones, and planning, and traveling, and life, and friends, and traveling, and cleaning, and traveling.  It wears a girl out! As much as I have wanted to post more (like I have a 3 1/2 month old daughter that I have written about only 2 times...sad) I just haven't sat down to do it.

It isn't that I haven't done a lot of sitting lately. Baby Zar would be happiest if I sat and rocked her all day. But it is hard to type one handed. And tackling a blog post in such a position was too daunting a task for me to take on.  That and the fact that I am tired these days...so I usually get to the computer, all ready to write something brilliant and then I stare at it and get no further.

So, all that to say: don't give up on me (I will be back next month...just kidding!)  I really want to work on posting more often. It is good for me.

Like I said, things have been busy around here. We are finally done with all of our big traveling and settling back into somewhat of a routine.  The kids did fantastic with all of the travel.  Little t never missed a beat as we went to different chur.chs each week. He would skip right into Sunday School or the nursery and make new friends easily.  He is amazing and we adore him.  Baby Zar did well also. She isn't that great in the car (which made the trip to Wyoming and back really fun...) so that has been painful at times. I do feel like she is getting better and mellowing out, so that is a huge plus!

We had a fantastic time with my parents in Wyoming.  We enjoyed good food and time together.  The trees were changing colors and were so beautiful. The whole week we were there it was still and warm...the weather was perfect.  Little t and Baby Zar fought over the attention of my youngest brother, Tate.  They both adore him as well as my parents. It was a very very special time with them.

The beginning of September, we went to visit some college friends of ours who work in our part of the world.  It was great to connect with people who 'get' what it is like to live in a context like ours. All of the talk about where we work made us even more excited to go back.

We were also able to go to the Wisconsin Dells with A.P.'s mom's side of the family. Little t had a blast in the water and Baby Zar got in on a little water action as well.

These days, A.P. and Little t make the rounds in the combine and tractor as much as they can. Harvest is in full swing here in our area and Little t is in heaven. He goes from one thing to the next and begs each day to go to the farm.

We are busy gearing up for our return to M-ville.  A.P. leaves on Thursday and will be gone for 3 weeks. He will return to A-stan to attend meetings, check on his projects, and begin setting up our house.  Notice I said, A.P. will be going...meaning the rest of us will be here.  I have never done three weeks on my own with two kids before and am kinda nervous.  So, you can be thinking of us in the weeks to come.  I am most nervous about how Little t will handle his Daddy being gone.  They are pretty much inseparable when A.P. is home. I can imagine it won't go over too well when he finds out Dad isn't coming home for a while...especially when he learns that Dad went to M-ville on a plane. Little t asks most days if he can do that, so I think he is going to feel left out! But, we really do believe that this will be a good time.  It will be important that A.P. gets things accomplished before we all go over the beginning of November.

When I get stressed, I tend to purge things from my house.  The timing for this is perfect right now because next weekend is the City Wide (our 'city' if 150 people) Garage Sales here.  So, we will be having a garage sale.  It is actually good that A.P. is leaving because he puts a damper on my garage sale efforts.  My packrat husband goes through the piles I have set aside to sell and vetoes many of the things I try to get rid of.  "What? These pants you have had since junior high? You don't want to keep them?!?"  "No way! You can't get rid of that shirt that I told you was too girly for Little t to wear and and not girly enough for Baby Zar to wear!"  "I know Little t never played with that toy from Mc.Donalds, but what if he needs it some day!"   You think I am kidding...   Really though, there is much sorting and tossing going on around our house.   I keep telling myself that I need to get back in the third world mindset where I don't need a lot of stuff. I have been here too long and now think I need all of these fancy/nice things to survive.  I need to get back to reality.

One of the best things I have done in my adult life is to join and online Bib.le study/accountability group. It is women from all over the globe who keep each other accountable to do morning study and pray.er  This is the second phase I have done it and I love it.  Granted, I am not consistent every morning, but it has been so good to have that accountability and encouragement.  We are studying 1 Peter and it is SO good.  Usually I don't make it up before Baby Zar does (though that is my goal). Her super sensitive momma radar usually goes off when I even begin thinking about rolling out of bed.  So, we spend the quiet time together.  I read as I nurse her and then I read aloud to her.  I am encouraged by this as I feel like I have been a slacker in that department.  So often, I find myself at the end of the day saying, "I didn't pray with or for my kids enough today." "we should have read the Bib.le together as opposed another truck book."  Maybe you are surprised to hear that someone of my vocation isn't super spiritual like that.  It is one thing I really really desire to work on...to teach my kids Truth in very intentional and focused ways each day.  Back to the study - I am growing a lot and excited to pass that on to my children.

Whew! This is long and I need to wrap it up! Stay tuned for some pictures of the cutest kids on the planet.  Thanks for reading and for your patience!