A few milestones:
- Kansas Dad finished his dissertation and then successfully defended his dissertation.
- First Son graduated from diapers and pull-ups.
- Kansas Dad had minor surgery and then, as soon as he was feeling better, dislocated his ankle (and was in a cast), just three weeks before my due date.
- Second Daughter was born.
- We bought a house.
- Kansas Dad started his first official tenure-track full faculty position.
- Kansas Mom switched from full-time to part-time.
- First Son started his reading lessons, making us an official "formal" homeschooling family.
- This blog has been visited more than 3900 times, which is more than my previous two blogs combined (from May 2004 through October 2007).
I think we managed to hit all the most stressful good milestones! We have indeed been stressed, but we have also been blessed. Our children are healthy, our land is fruitful (and it's ours!), our pantry is full and our hopes for the coming year are expansive.
Some things we learned:
- Christmas Eve is not always fun.
- How to build a square foot garden, dissasemble a washing machine, repair a computer, install a dishwasher and (coming soon) rebuild a water softener. (Kansas Dad did, at least.)
- I love Charlotte Mason's philosophy of education.
- Our favorite way to prepare pattypan squash (whole wheat chocolate cake; seriously, it's fantastic).
- You can trade books you don't want for books you do want, just for the cost of postage. (I've received 41 books so far!)
- It is difficult, but not impossible, to care for a preschooler, a toddler and a newborn while packing everything you own and then unpack it while caring for a preschooler, a toddler and an infant.
- Some people (we won't name names) do not take very good care of their houses.
- Some babies really are good sleepers. Some toddlers are not.
- Our new parish is delightful.
- The mice will always be with us.
