Back Together Again

Wow, what a couple of weeks! Rick's surgery went well, though he was several hours delayed, not going into the ER until after 8pm (had been preped since 3) and heading home from the hospital after midnight. He seems to be healing well and his range of motion is impressing both his surgeon and PT. Little J will tell anyone who will listen, "Daddy Ow-nie!" and it is obviously of great concern to our littlest that Daddy hurts.

It's amazing to think our baby is already 2. He's learning new words on a daily basis. The kids all stayed with my parents for about 5 days after the surgery (I was just too physically done in to be an effective parent) and I was shocked at how his vocabulary had jumped in those short days.

R is also growing up. She's spent more of her 5 year old year away from us than with us so far, turning around from her time at my parents to go spend 5 more days with Rick's mom on their farm about an hour away. It is so wonderful having everyone back home together, though she had a delightful time haing one-on-one Grandma attention for tea parties and dress up and lots of great outside play! Our homeschool co-op starts up again this week and she doesn't know it yet, but will be taking ballet again. I can't wait to see how excited she is when she finds out on Thursday! :)

Big J is progessing well through third grade. He will be taking an international cooking class along with fencing and writing at co-op. I'm headed out in a few minutes to take him to his violin lesson. How can he already be 8 years old? Time just flies this side of infertility...

I'm hopefully going to be seeing Dr. Peterson (one of the world's leading experts in CFIDS) in the very near future. We've been working on this since last June and it is sounding more imminent now, so I'll try to keep you posted. I'll be teaching a class on writing for publication at our co-op and I'll be speaking on "Harvesting Hope from Heartache" at an informal ladies' tea for our church this Sunday. I'm also excited to have been named "Consultant of the Month" with Affordable Mineral Makeup for the month of January. Please drop by and visit my Inner Beauty Blog for affordable beauty tricks, healthy makeup tips, book and product reviews, inspirational articles, and give-aways all focused on letting your inner beauty shine!