Counting My Blessings (and an announcement!)

Much has changed since I last posted.  As it typically does.  Change happens and we must either fight it (and still it comes) or go with it and try to thrive.

We are expecting a new baby sometime next June.  Very exciting!  It has been awhile since we've had a newborn in the house.  The soft, fuzzy heads of newborns are among my favorite things.  And the kids are of course absolutely thrilled.  We all are.

And yet, even wonderful news like a new baby coming means change. Currently that looks like morning (all day, especially evening) sickness and major fatigue for me, and more work for the rest of the family.  After a big chat with my dear husband yesterday, we have decided to move our school year around a little, as well as some other things, in order to make things a bit more manageable.  Instead of a great, long Christmas break, we are having a great, long fall break.  We'll catch up with whatever school we missed when we planned our original break (we always take all of December off, and we have a shorter summer break, this year we'll just not have a Christmas break).  In place of school work, the older four children have taken on more chores to help keep our ship upright.  A change is as good as a break, right?  That's what they say.

Meals are...whatever I can get on the table.  Some nights that looks like PB&J, tonight is frozen lasagna (assuming I can peal myself off the couch to get it in the oven).  The older two are in charge of breakfast and lunch for the younger kids.  This is a new experience, having big kids during a first trimester.  It's challenging and wonderful all at the same time.  I keep saying (mostly to remind myself not to feel guilty for all the extra work everyone has taken on) that we all sacrifice for a new baby.  And soon enough we'll get the reward of holding that sweet baby.

I honestly don't know how I would manage without my family.  Everyone has really stepped up and done more than their fair share.  And even with that it still feels like we are drowning a bit (we are if you look at the amount of laundry that needs washed and folded and put away!)

And can I brag about my dear husband for just a minute?  Saturday was his 40th birthday.  A big deal, and I had big plans.  I wanted to throw him a great big surprise party!  I wanted to make his favorite things to eat!  I wanted to really celebrate this special day, because my husband?  He's amazing.  Alas, being sick prevented all of that from happening.  Instead, he took Fritter and Froggy on a campout with friends (he didn't want the boys to miss out).  His birthday dinner was sandwiches and his "cake" was a berry milkshake (he insisted on both counts, and made the milkshake himself).  Why?  To make things easier on me.  Because he knows how crummy I feel.  I don't deserve such a man as my husband, and yet God has blessed me with him and all these wonderful little people.

I'm counting my blessings today, to be sure.