I bet you thought I had fallen off the face of the earth. Nope, just had a baby and hosted family in town for a month. We just returned home from dropping off my dad and grandad at the airport, and earlier today we dropped off my mom (they had different flights). So far, after just a couple hours, it feels weird to be just the four of us now.

It was SUCH a blessing to have family here, especially to have my mom with us for an entire month. She was such a help that, quite frankly, I’m a smidge nervous to handle my new gig as a mom of both a preschooler and a newborn, while living in another culture and language learning. Yikes.

I’m a bit too emotional and physicallly wiped to do a long post, but I sincerely hope to catch up with posting in the next few weeks. My brain is spinning with blog fodder – there’s no problem coming up with topics to write. The main issue is my INSANE to-do list, which I’m afraid has taken a life of its own, so quickly is it growing. To give you a sample, here’s just a bit of what’s on my plate for the next week or two:

• try to catch up on some much-needed sleep.
• put our home back in working order.
• upload a bajillion photos on Flickr from the past few weeks.
• upload video footage online, thanks to our new video camera (that was a very generous Christmas gift)!
• menu plan, now that I’m back to cooking for the family once more.
• updating the family finances and budget.
• writing thank you notes for Christmas gifts, baby gifts, end-of-the-year ministry gifts, meals brought to us by other workers, and I’m sure other things I’m forgetting at the moment. Message to you: if you haven’t heard from me and have expected to, you’re most likely on my docket.
• tackle Mt. Laundry.
• finish Garbanzo’s baby announcements.
• take our son to his one-month well-baby check (is it time for that already?).
• go to my one-month follow up, hopefully getting the go-ahead to begin working out.
• solve the mystery as to why my daughter has been randomly puking at night for the past six weeks.
• help decide on Kabob’s language learning method for February.
• decide on my language learning method, starting in March.
• review language notes and study from home.
• finish some paperwork about our 2008 goals for our company.
• pray and think over said 2008 goals.
• return Skype calls.
• visit with neighbors.
• pray for more support and funding for a car (now even more evident with a newborn added to the mix).
• thank those who have already pledged more support.
• go on a date (what’s that?) with Kabob.
• and oh yeah, enjoy my newly expanded family.

So in addition to blogging, I’ve got just a wee bit to do. Thanks in advance to the many of you who have wished us congratulations, be it through this blog, on the phone, via e-mail, or in person. We are blessed to know you all. And even though this post is basically a pathetic attempt to explain away my slackishness in writing, I really do have high hopes to write more frequently starting the next few days.

posted: 08 January 24
under: parenting