Announcing

You may have noticed the 'radio silence' on my blog for the last couple of weeks . . . or maybe not, as measured by the general lack of comments whether I write daily posts or don't write at all. (But I can see that about 100 of you visit each of my blog posts, so you must be a really quiet bunch. :)

Regardless, the reason why I haven't been writing is that all my energy has been going into growing fingers and toes . . .

We are excited and joyful to announce that Joseph (22 months) is a new Big Brother in Training!

The newest Big Brother

'Kidney Bean' Lauer is anticipated with hope in July 2015!

Despite how much we had hoped God would grant us a fifth baby and how happy we are, I am not one of those mothers who "does pregnancy really well," nor do I think I'm even that fantastic of a mother. It was quite apropos that an article,"Why I Never Should Have Had Eight Children" by Leila Miller, came across my computer screen within days of finding out I was expecting. It is well worth a read and I would do well to read it every day. I also appreciated the timely discovery of this article, "Ruth Beechick 101" on her thoughts about how we're making homeschooling too hard and need to simplify it even more.

What have we been up to these last couple of weeks? Well, I, for one, have been in a tired fog while slashing and burning anything extra beyond my duties. I remember in my first pregnancy, when I was an unemployed housewife with nothing but time on my hands, I took four naps per day because I was so tired from the pregnancy. One time my pregnant self bent over to pet the cat and literally fell asleep on the carpet: that's how tired the first trimester makes a woman. Well, four kids means no naps for Mama ever so I've been asleep around eight o'clock most nights.

I go back to the very first line of Scripture I memorized when I was a baby Christian: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13)

They're worth it . . .