Life

Boy, I have been away from my computer for a long while!!! I have been occupied with ...well...Life!!! Every day just slips by so quickly.

Life has been both wonderful and difficult lately.

Some wonderful stuff...

My sweet 4 year old little man turned into a sweet 5 year old little man:

He is a little man just filled with joy and love - every day he tells me "I love you infinity!!!" And I love him infinity right back!!! He is a true gift from God to this family!!!
We've had some lovely family outings:
And some fun times at home:

We have also had our share of storms:
Literally - Essie is enjoying the recent snow and hail storm we had:

And figuratively - you know - the regular ones - gray days, rowdy kids, busy schedules, bills, broken cars etc.
Then there are the bigger ones - Hubby going out of town for a week and the stomach flu sweeping through the family while he was gone.
And others a bit more traumatic - another ER run - yes!! another - making up a total of three in three weeks!! This is so out of character for us!! This time Abbie had symptoms that were very, very similar to our friend Gunnar over at Knights and Maidens Gathering when he had appendicitis so after watching her for a while we felt like we should not mess around - so in she went. After much poking and prodding it was discovered that she did not have what we feared but she indeed did have a nasty infection. So home we went with antibiotics that cost $300!!!! So while we are so very glad she did not need surgery we are kinda standing here scratching our heads - after many, many years with fairly good insurance (which we rarely needed to access) we had to make a change to less than good and now we are holding the bag to some very large medical bills.
Through all this I wish I could say that I have rested with peace and joy in God's gracious arms. But to be honest - I really haven't. I am ashamed to say that my old evil friends - fear and anxiety have grabbed ahold of me and won't let go. Oh how I hate these terrible emotions!! They are robbers and thieves!! I know how I should live - I know God is much bigger than my circumstances - that not one sparrow escapes His loving gaze - so - why 0h why - do I fret?!!! One thing is certain though - God is a forgiving, loving God who cares for me in spite of my sin and even when it doesn't feel to me like things are going well - He is in charge!! And I am so glad He is!!!!
I have done some rearranging of my schedule (again :0)!!) to allow me a bit more time on the computer - yay!!! I have realized my computer time for the last year and a half have been while I've been nursing a baby. Nursing a toddler is a bit different and it's not easy to blog at the same time!!! :0)