Back to the winter routine...

Over Christmas we were gone for just over 2 weeks out in Sydney and mainly Melbourne, Australia visiting a great friend from bible college who is originally from Australia and just got married out there this summer. It was a joy to have the opportunity to see her and get to know them more as a couple. We also met another one of our couple friends from college who flew over at the same time as us. We all share many precious times and conversations together, as well as lots of sightseeing, camping and time down at the ocean! Kaylee did great travelling and being flexible throughout the time...EXCEPT the first week home was a challenge dealing with jetlag - ie. the second night she decided that it was playtime from about midnight til 4am (this would have been early evening time in Australia)! But she (and us as parents) are now caught up on sleep and back to normal routines:)


After Christmas now we have got busy working on more fixup projects around our house. The latest projects have included: painting the upstairs office room, patching and painting feature walls in the living room, and painting and finishing up baseboards and trims throughout the house. Next items on the project list include: ripping out the old blue shag carpet in the living room and replacing it with laminate flooring, finishing some smaller patching and painting projects throughout the house, and as the weather gets nicer getting the new garage stuccoed and touch up painting on the outside of the house.

I think I always thought that I would have "more time" on my hands when I would be at home with children and would be able to accomplish a lot. However, I am finding that often I have a hard time putting into words what I did during the day. Right now Kaylee is learning, discovering and developing so much ever day that she keeps me quite busy! She is crawling and has such a curious spirit! Between her keeping me on my toes, I am able to get small bits of these fixup projects done around the house, and do my best to keep the house in order and continue to try to get it more in order. Maybe it is my itch for spring already, but I am feeling the need to begin cleaning more and organizing and PURGING! Not quite sure how much time I will be able to invest in that, but I long to figure out how to continue to simplify our lives and I believe one of those ways is continuing to downsize some of our possessions. I know that goes against what the world tells you, but one of the bible study books that I am reading right now talks of how our possessions often consume our time and energies and weigh us down. So we will see if and how I can work towards combating that in our lives over this next while!