this month

I cut my hair in layers and dyed in with a lot of blondish streaks and a few purple ones. Surprised? Me too. I like it.

My dad has been visiting for a few days. It’s been good to have him here.

Rilla and Abraham are loving sharing a room. Ezekiel, though, is not sleeping all that well in the bright area where our bed is. He had been starting to take three-hour or four-hour naps in the afternoon before we moved; now he only takes one nap every second day or so that lasts more than forty-five minutes. So that’s a bit rough. He still sleeps great at night, although I’ve ruined him for being able to sleep on his own. I may regret that later but it has worked out fine with the other two, so for now I just enjoy still getting to cuddle him all night. He is in the pivoting on his belly and rolling over a lot phase. He says “Mama!” quite a lot. I think I hear “Mama” several hundred times a day. It actually feels a bit strange now when somebody calls me Jamie.

I bought new glasses on the same day that I got my haircut. I look different. But I like the difference. It was definitely time for something new.

The older two are just at the right age for playing on the swingset most of the morning. The weather is perfect right now so we’re doing quite a lot of backyard play time. The air is crisp and warm and it’s just great. Their current favorite imagination games are pretending that their names are Tex and Indy (got that from the preschool Highlights magazines); pretending that they are a doctor and a nurse taking care of patients (usually me, or Ezekiel, or their stuffed animals... I bought them cheap stethoscopes off eBay and they are sooo happy with them); pretending that they are in church; singing “Jesus Loves Me” and “Amazing Grace” and “In Christ Alone” and “Our God is an Awesome God” in (loud!) unison; and bouncing in Ezekiel’s excersaucer.

Keith started class at the community college this week to do his prerequisites. He’ll be taking a few classes each quarter this year until officially entering the sonography program next fall. He has forestry contracting work to finish up here, so the plan at the moment is to work here four days a week for another three or four weeks and then move to Spokane.

We are using paper plates for every meal and I love it.

I’ve gone back to using cloth diapers for the kids, and I’m loving that too. Mostly because it really is more fun to hang them up on the clothesline outside... I feel so satisfyingly hardworking housewifey when I’m doing that.

Anyway, life is going fine here. There have been a lot of stressful things here and there. Maybe not stressful on their own, but stressful when combined with everything else. We're moving forward though.

There have been a lot of beautiful moments during these last seven weeks or so since we moved here but I haven't really been taking any pictures. Like maybe two or three a week. Which is maybe 2% of how many I usually take, but I am just savoring these moments and not trying to capture them so much.