July - come and gone in a whirlwind

We spent 4th of July weekend celebrating Joshua's baptism, followed by a quick get-away to Rick's grandparent's cabin in the pine forest nearly Markleeville, California. Ruthi started getting sick up there and ended up on antibiotics and a breathing machine over the next several days. The rest of the family all got it in various degrees, but we went ahead and started our new school year anyway. You can see read updates of our school year here and my kids would be thrilled if you would leave them a reply or two so that they can have their own mail. :)

Jeremiah's sitting for longer stretches of time now (5 minutes or more) and "falling with grace" when he does go over now. He's still not crawling, much to his great frustration but as soon as he learns to get those knees up under him, he'll be hard to keep up with! Ruthi is counting the weeks until homeschool co-op starts back up so that she can get back into ballet class again. And Joshua's having a blast playing with neighbors who are home from school over summer months, but also eager to resume AWANAs and oc-op in the fall.

We've been doing weekly playdates with some families from church, either park mornings or sometimes more adventerous things like water parks, and it's been a full, fun summer. We also went up to the cabin a secnod weekend the middle of July and hope to get up there another time or two yet this summer. I'm planning to take the kids to a children's Shakespear presentation the middle of next month.

Rick's work is keeping him very, very busy these days, but we are both involved with helping our church launch a new young adults (mid 20-early 40ish) ministry. My prayer and passion here is to try to help keep it from being just your typical "married couples with kids" kind of group, but to try to remind leadership to remain inclusive of those who might not fit the "typical mold". Please pray that noone is overlooked in this effort.

Tomorrow I'll celebrate 34 years of life outside my mother's womb. When I think back 10 years and remember how devistated I was to mark my 24th birthday (feeling my "best fertile years" were already past), I am in awe at God's grace and blessings. Humbly, I thank You Lord! As I type, Ruthi is adding yet another homemade birthday card (I think this makes about 20 from her in the last 2 days) to my pile and I honestly can hardly stand the wait to open them in the morning. :)

Rick took us out to a birthday dinner last night and Jeremiah cried and teethed, Ruthi fussed (her dinner never came until ours was almost finished) and Joshua could hardly stay awake (we realized after food was already served that he's coming down with something). A couple of drinks were spilled, and I can't count how many times Ruthi had to be reminded to sit down. Fortunately the neighboring tables were all sweet and encouraging about the kid circus, or it would have been even more stressful than it was. By the end of the meal (eaten in shifts while walking a fussy baby) Rick and I felt like we had run a marathon. We drove home reflecting on how different it was going out to dinner pre-kids, and how, exhausting as it was last night, I wouldn't trade this kind of birthday dinner for a quieter, kid-free one, for the world! (I do think we will find a sitter for our anniversary dinner in a few weeks though!)

I'm moving forward with my book projects (both the motherhood after infertility idea and the kid's books) and have recently joined the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators in hopes of honing my craft. I also just started a Wrap It Right business (since they have a free promotion this month, thus no out-of-pocket investment for me).

In case you are wondering why I'm posting on a Sunday morning, Joshua and Ruthi are both fighting low-grade fevers and coughs again this morning, so we are home from church. I'm just praying that this is the worst it gets this time and that the rest of us stay healthy. Rick's really run down from long work hours, so I would appreciate prayers especially for him. (Reading back through my blogs it seems like every other post is about family sickness!)

Can't think of much else I haven't already posted on one of my other two blogs, so I guess I'll sign off for now. :)