6 months in a flash (sorry for the wonky pics!)

Vasilopita to open the year!

Hand-knit Baptismal gown fitting!  Beautiful!!!  Knit my Maria's nouna's sister! 

Snuggles with Pops

Quilt for Baby. E

Sue's school time :) 

Valentine King of Hearts! 

2/14!

Valentine Skirts for the girls

Wow!  Bumbo time already?  Big girl!

Shop Vac clean up?  Because these two decided to decorate the house with SUGAR while I was out of the room.

Practice round of school... shadow day for my soon-to-be Kindegartner

Love'em all!  Thank you Lord for my four!

Spring lovebirds in the backyard!

Quilt for Baby A.

Must be Lent!  Bread, along with some soup :)

Ominous evening sky

Table Runner for my mom

Again, the birthday girl!

Posing, for sure!

And that's not even the tip of the iceberg.

January:
-St. Basil's Feast day
-eMee (that's Maria, in case you were wondering) contracts RSV-- boo!
-eMee's Baptism with her two cousins-- yay!
-Three family birthday partys (2 other cousins, 1 Uncle!)
-Stressful behavioral issues with one of my kiddoes.  Start soul-searching/entreating God for help/ looking for answers

February:
-Valentine's Day!  Did some Valentine sewing for the kids :) 
- date out with Job for the first time since Baby eMee was born!
-zoo trip with grandparents on a No School President's day
                            
 March:
-Lent began!  Lots of beautiful church services begin!
-goddaughter's b-day
-Sue's school shadow day
-Spring weather entices me to start exercising more-- I finally start shedding a few postpartum pounds
-- starting to get some of the behavioral issues remedied-- thank God for small (yet HUGE!) improvements!

April :
-Marmie's birthday
-Vasi's birthday
-Entered Colette Laurel sewing contest
-Lots of sewing projects started, not all of them completed, though

May:
-Susy's birthday (on Holy Saturday!)
- Pascha!  Christ is Risen! -- so tired, but very happy to have made it throuh another Lent and Holy Week, by God's grace
- We *almost* decide to move (just closer to school/ church)!  So relieved that
we aren't, since our plans fell through. 
-Mother's Day (it was wonderful!)
-School fundraiser gala (a fun event and great success for our school!  I sewed a fun dress to wear to it-- more later on that, if I remember!)
-Triple birthday celebration for our 3 eldest, at local inflatable, chaotic wonderland!!  Great fun, worth every penny to "outsource" the prep-work/ clean up!
 - Happy to discover my "Wild Things" dress was one of 20 Finalists in the Colette Laurel Contest!
-Joe's birthday (today!!!!  Yay!  Hung out with cousins, ate lots of chips, and went to our favorite family restaurant with grandparents for dinner!)
-Didn't win the sewing contest, but still happy I entered and had some fun with the dress!


I'm writing this down because my Baby Boy is now 3.  And we drove past our old house, the one where he was born, tonight.  And the sun was setting over the gorgeous valley where the small city seemed nestled between ethereal, beautiful,  dusky clouds.  The very town where I went to college and met my husband.  The air is still the same, and seems charged with nostalgia and makes me heart ache a little because it still does feel like home, in many ways, yet it just... is not.  I probably wasted a lot of good, young brain cells on wishing for the wrong things:  for my babies to grow up faster, for our lives to take daring, exciting turns and begging God for dreams to come to fruition, that now don't seem a part of His Will.  But there was a lot of grace there, too, and I miss that.  Now I understand WHY middle-age women often stop me in the grocery store and nod to my little ones and entreat me to, "ENJOY THEM!  They won't stay like this forever."  Now my brain is cluttered with movies/ TV shows to watch and sewing project ideas, and I just can't keep up with them.  I can't remember the last time I took my kids to the park.  I fear I haven't ENJOYED them, like I should be doing.  Maintaining?  Yes.  Cooking, cleaning, looking after, fretting over, taxiing, overseeing?  Yes.  But probably not ENJOY.

My mind is being blown over the fact that this year is almost half over, and I'm a bit exhausted, and a bit tempted to be meloncholy about it all moving by so quickly.  I'm glad that summer is approaching, and that our big family "Birthday season" is over, so the endless celebrations can slow down a bit, and we can regroup as a family.  Here's hoping for more...

-time outside
-letting my kids run through the sprinkler
-organizing/ cleanliness (personal goal)
-beach trips
-maybe, just maybe, a small family vacation?
-trips to the park
-walks to the library
-punctuality-- I need to make this a bigger priority in my life
- bike rides!  :)
-monastery visits

and less...

SELFISHNESS!  :)


I hope that you are enjoying this May!  And again, Happy Birthday to my amazing, funny, incredible, teeny- little-super- guy!!! :)