i think he is looking a little like marit now

showing some sweeeet personality

the bear suit has emerged!



i have a lot of thoughts lately as i spend most of my waking hours caring for my precious little charges. however, i can't seem to gather my thoughts enough to actually start and finish a post on here. the result is one somewhat rambling post. no apologies...that is just my life right now...a lot of chaos (in a good way if that's possible). so i've been thinking...what is the purpose of this space? as we are all naturally self-centered creatures, blogging has the tendency to become a little narcissistic. i know that, but at the same time it is me updating this thing (albeit only occasionally) so i can hardly keep from speaking in the first person. a lot of times i just blog about my kids because i want to notice things. i want to see God's faithfulness in each of their little skills, smiles, cutisms, struggles. otherwise, it all seems to fly by so rapidly. that is one purpose of this thing...to slow down and notice. i don't consider myself to be a great writer or anything and i don't feel like i have any super great advice to give my tiny readership, but i do have Jesus. i hope the Gospel and its effect on our lives is evident as we seek to faithfully walk through each day. so that is another purpose...to share our lives in such a way that Jesus be glorified. i fail at this often, but it is the goal of our lives. part of Jesus being glorified in our lives is to live in community with others and to love others..."that the world may know" who belongs to Him. so my brother and sis-in-law are in india and other dear friends are in costa rica. another purpose of it is to keep our dear ones who are not geographically close a little nearer by sharing bits of our lives. so there you have it: a rehearsal to myself mostly on what i'm doing on here. i need those reminders about who in the world am i and what in the world am i doing.

we are celebrating the advent season with more structure this year and it has been such a joy to see marit and graham "get it" a little. they look forward to our readings, ornament coloring, and the candy in the advent calendar! and i have been reading this great book this year and it has really served to give me a quiet anticipation, a season of pondering.


that is what we pray the kids enjoy about this season too...we are in a very financially lean state at the moment as we just added another little person to the household so gifts are just a small part of how we are celebrating this year (i don't expect that will change even if we are more financially secure one day). i'm thankful for that. also, i have been able to go very few places without everyone completely falling apart. we went to get diapers and dogfood from target the other day and i was definitely that mom with the screaming child(ren) at the check-out...partly because the trip had just taken too long, partly because i accidentally bumped marit in the head with a sack of groceries, partly because there just wasn't enough room in the cart for marit and graham and random groceries, box of diapers etc, and partly because we (even my sweet pumpkin-heads) are just selfish and sinful. that experience made me grateful that i don't have a bunch of Christmas shopping to do this year. gift-giving is fun and can be beautiful, but even more beautiful is the heart that is softened and joyful because of its reflection on the incarnation as God put on skin and "felt our human woe... and dost our weakness know." its been a quiet season for us and we are thankful. we want Emmanuel to dwell with us though we are undeserving...

"'tis all I ask. your emptiness. your nothingness, your want of feeling, your want of goodness, your want of grace---all these will be but room for him. have you room for him?" -spurgeon

it has also been cooold...at least for wimpy southerners like us. when we bundle, it is in lots of layers. we have been inside a lot lately because of the cold, miles' frequent nursing schedule, and the painful mastitis i have had twice in the last week and a half (let me tell you, it makes a committed breast-feeding mom want to quit...ouch!). we went on a walk today though and it was lovely.





graham loves this girly hat of mine because it has "balls" on it







winterized ballerina outfit for our drafty old house