Catching Up

I know, I know--it's been forever since I posted anything!  Several people have commented on it.  I truly have been very, very busy.  This biology thing is taking up tons of time for me to be prepared!  And if on some evening, I am not doing biology (a rarity, for sure), then I am just so tired that I don't feel like I can coherently compose my thoughts to post.

So, what have we been doing, besides biology.  Well, for one thing football is once again in full swing for Nathan and Luke.  For the month of August, that meant practices for both of them every weeknight from 6:00-8:00 in 2 different locations.  Now that school has started, they are down to 3 nights a week, but Tuesday and Wednesday they both have practice, so we have the same time traveling issue we had during August. 

Another thing we spent a good week on was attempting to prune back our ginormous willow oak tree in the front yard.  Branches were starting to touch our roof and were way overhanging the road, so Bob bought a new loper-thing that reached 16 ft., and we got to work.  For 3 consecutive trash days, we filled both big rolling trash containers, plus had a bunch of 4 ft. bundles.  The morning after our first big trimming attempt, Nathan and I were bundling branches, and our neighbor across the street came out.  He asked if we were cutting down a tree in our back yard, LOL.   We told him it was all from the tree in the front yard, and he just said, "Woah . . . that is a big tree . . . "  All our work and you couldn't even tell we'd done a thing!

Here are the size of our "bundles".  We must have had 20 bundles total.  We trimmed a ton of branches!  The trimming was kind of fun (and scary, steadying the ladder as Bob reached and reached . . .), but the picking up and bundling was horrible.  My poor aching back!!  And my legs and arms looked like I had been whipped for a serious offence, LOL.  I think we were all quite grateful to be done with that chore for awhile!

Now that is the last picture that will be posted on the blog for awhile, because we discovered this past weekend, while we were at a wonderful retreat at White Sulphur Springs, that our camera is broken!  Something is wrong with the lens, and it won't come out when we turn the camera on.  We had problems a few weeks ago getting it to go back in, but when it is stuck in, there is no way to pull it out.  Oh well.  So unfortunately no pictures of the weekend at WSS.  It was really, really fun, although again, during pretty much all the free time, I had my nose buried in the biology book.  The speaker spoke on reconciliation and peacemaking.  I am hopeful that what he shared will bear fruit for the boys and thier relationships, especially.   It was really good!  And it was so fun to see old friends from Wright-Pat, plus my parents.  I think this weekend had the best mix of families/kids.  There were a TON of kids of all ages, so all our kids were just running around, doing fun things with friends.  It was great!

And then on Tuesday, Rivendell started, so now we're up and going in full swing.  That means I am now teaching 3 classes, although life science and memory work don't take up even a fraction of the prep time that biology takes.  I think it is going to be a great year for the boys--now if we moms can just get through it too, LOL.  I told someone, "If I can just make it to the end of May . . ."  Of course, May is a long ways off . . . and I'll be nursing a new baby too by then . . . Yes, I think it's going to be a long year! 

Speaking of new babies, I failed my 28 week 1-hour glucose test, so I have to schedule the 3 hour one.  I'll probably do that the end of next week.  I am seriously panicking at the thought of keeping track of times to check my blood, portion sizes, balanced snacks, etc.  I definitely am feeling like I can't handle one more thing, but that is how I felt when I was pregnant with Faith as well, so I am sure I will in fact have gestational diabetes.  Somehow I'll deal with that too, but right now I am simply not seeing how I'll be able to control it with diet and exercise, like I did with Faith.  I do not have the extra time to exercise after pretty much every meal, like I did with her.  It's just not there.  It takes too much time to work with Caleb, Jonathan, Anna, and Grace, as well as do the biology.  So I am trying to prepare myself that I'll probably have to go on pills. 

So now you're all caught up with our busy-yet-not-exciting life!