one huge update

I feel like I need to give an update. It's been a while!

C is sort of on the verge of crawling. Not really but sort of. She can't get on all fours yet, but basically slides around on her tummy on our hardwood. :) So she's mobile and we need to be more careful with what we (or what I let M&L) leave on the floor. She's also eating baby food! So far, I've been able to make everything myself which has been nice. It's been a little slower introducing her to foods because of this, but I think that has in turn helped her adjust to eating a little better. There were a couple of weeks where I just didn't get to the store to buy some new veggie for her to try, so she was eating sweet potatoes and squash the entire 2 weeks ... but in that time, she also figured out that she enjoyed it! And has ever since been so much easier to feed - no more 50,000 games of peek-a-boo, etc. just to get her to open her mouth! Phew! She's also starting to imitate sounds we make which has been pretty hilarious at times. Yesterday I was helping M with a new song on the piano by singing the tune (dah dah dah dah dah dah dah ....). C was in my lap and started singing with me! Moments like these make me wish our lives were on video so we could catch everything. Other moments, not so much. :)

L just celebrated her 3rd birthday - part of the reason for my "hiatus." It was fun planning ... and my first time committing to cooking MEAT for my family. At least something more significant than spaghetti sauce or taco meat. In the past, my mom/mom-in-law have usually made the meat dishes. This time, I made chicken parm! It didn't turn out WONDERFUL ... most of it was overcooked/dry. But for my first try, I'm happy. Also made lasagna, spaghetti, garlic bread (frozen kind), & A made pesto. A few family members brought fruit, fruit salad, a macaroni dish, salad and italian sausage. With appetizers & dessert, it was quite a feast!

M is still chugging away in 1st grade. She really enjoys it and I'm thankful. She's becoming more and more of a bookworm nerd, which I have to admit, I love. The other night she read a Magic Tree House book (probably about 80ish pages?) in about 20 minutes. I couldn't believe it (still don't fully). A and I were both quizzing her on what it was about haha. But it brings me back to my childhood ... reading 30-something books each summer just because I wanted to fill up the entire sheet of notebook paper. And bc I loved reading of course.

Which brings me to ... me. I gave up on reading The Red Tent (too biblically inaccurate & it was starting to mess with my memory of what did/didn't happen in the story of Jacob, Leah & Rebecca) and am now reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon. I'm only on chapter 83 (very short chapters ordered by prime #s), but so far it's really good. A very interesting peek into the mind of a man with autism, mixed with some mystery.

I also got a promotion of sorts in my WAH job! Hurray! Essentially, I was hired by another division of their company to transcribe documents, usually (at least so far) from lawyers. I now make 1/2 of a cent/word instead of 1/4 of a cent haha. Considering though that I could make $5-6/hr at a 1/4 of a cent, this is quite significant! The only difference is that the jobs aren't a steady stream and I have to wait for them to be sent to me. But this in combination with the job I was already doing is still quite a bit better fiscally than what I was doing before. In spite of the fact that God ALWAYS provides for our family in ABUNDANCE, I am always amazed when I see it come in a specific way like this.

Other than that, CBS is in the home stretch now. I've really enjoyed Kings and the minor prophets. It has really shown me the great power and influence (for good or bad) that can come from a leader who is/isn't willing to be humble and follow the Lord. This should really be the ONLY thing that affects who I vote for. Everything else truly means nothing. Especially as I hear talk about Trump possibly running for prez ... I realized that my immediate reaction was "He's been pretty successful, he can probably get our country out of this slump." WRONG! God will continue to call out to our country until we, as a nation, decide to turn to turn back to Him. Whether it be through natural disasters, a poor economy, war, invasions ... He LOVES us and only wants us for Him! I've realized that our leaders DO matter. And as a democratic country, we have the great privilege to CHOOSE who these people are that the Hebrew people did not. It's quite scary to think about how similar our country's current state is to some of the situations Israel found themselves in when their king "did evil in the eyes of the Lord." May God bless our country/state with a humble, God-fearing leader in the near future! And if not, praise God for His protection, provision, comfort, hope, and peace for those who seek Him!