Darren and I just watched the ball drop on TV with the kids, and welcomed in our 20th New Year together! That country song "Don't Blink" comes to mind, because I swear, it was just yesterday that I had just met Darren, and we were celebrating our first New Year together.

We spent the evening with friends at church for their annual "Alternative New Year's Eve Celebration." Unfortunately, our kids were a bit challenging, and we spent more time wrangling them than actually socializing, but it was nice to be in good company for the last day of the year!

The onset of a new year brings to mind many resolutions, but I think I'll keep it simple this year and just work towards balance in all areas of my life. Simple... but not so simple, I guess. We continue to focus on our nutrition and exercise, but also, a big focus this year is to simplify our spending and start the year with a month-long “buy-nothing” challenge. This really is just a month of trying to stay out of stores, and not needlessly purchase things without some forethought. We will keep a journal of wants versus needs, and try to impart to the kids the importance of distinguishing between the two. So, we’ll see how it goes!

Happy New Year!

My last post left us just a few days prior to trick-or-treating, and now we’re on the last day of November, having cruised through Thanksgiving and being thrust into the hectic holiday season. Time sure does fly!

November was an eventful month. The energy surrounding the presidential election was exciting, and even the kids got into it. On that day, we went and voted, toted the kids around to an Earth Scouts meeting, and later yoga, then came home to watch the drama unfold on TV. Flo colored in a map of the electoral votes as they came in, and I went about our nightly activities with the television keeping tally in the background. It was definitely exciting to be part of such a historical election. Flo said she knew all along that Obama would win, and I said he had to win, just so I could hear Joe say his name… Bawak Abama!

This month also brought a new source of nourishment to us. We had been participating in a local organic produce co-op for a bit, and delivery was just down the street to our friend’s house. After a few weeks, it became apparent that her front porch would not accommodate the task of sorting producing at midnight in the cold of winter, so we decided to reroute delivery to our garage. I’ve been doing it for a few weeks now, and aside from the one very late night once a week, it’s been great having access to such great produce. It’s really helped our grocery bill, the time we have to spend going to the grocery store, and has got us eating a greater diversity of fruits and veggies.

We rounded out the month with a quiet Thanksgiving dinner at home. We made some nice stuffed squash, bean soup and a pumpkin pie. We just enjoyed some time to have nothing on our schedule and hang out together. In the evening we took a ride around town to see how many people already had their holiday decorations up. We were surprised to see people camping out in front of our local Best Buy store, apparently awaiting its opening the next morning. I’m not sure what it was that would inspire someone to do that. I speculate some new video game or gadget, or the promise of some exceedingly good discount.

To join in that consumer-induced, shopping energy, we decided to go out on Black Friday, to get a couple things for Joe for Christmas. My mom watched him for the afternoon, so it gave us an opportunity to just shop without Joe’s predictable shopping-induced anxiety attacks. Thankfully, we didn’t have much of a shopping list, so the crowds weren’t much of an obstacle.

Finally, as we say good-bye to November, and get in gear for the festivities of December, we joined a group of homeschooling mom’s for an evening of baking cookies and socializing. Flo came along to help with Zofia, but enjoyed playing with our host’s daughter more than wrangling her little sister. Social outings are definitely a little more challenging with a one-year old, but it was fun to see friends.

So, with just one month left in the year, we’ll try to soak in the spirit of the holidays and enjoy yet another season of anticipation and joy with our kids!

The transition from Summer to Fall just seemed to happen overnight. We’re just days away from Halloween already! October has been another eventful month with lots of activities. The kids are enjoying the new “school year” with music lessons, homeschool co-op, yoga, hockey, photography class, art, journaling club, birthday parties, and an array of other social activities.

Florence and Joseph are looking forward to Halloween, as usual. Flo wants to be a princess this year, and I think Joe has a hand-me-down Star Wars outfit he’s planning to wear. In addition to trick-or-treating, we have a homeschool Halloween party on Thursday, too, so they will have plenty of opportunity to dress up.

Darren is still enjoying the luxury of working at home. Our schedule definitely is much more pleasant this year, than it was when he was commuting five hours a day. We certainly never become complacent about how fortunate he is to have this opportunity that allows us to spend so much more time together. He goes to DC just once a week to drop off his case load and pick up new ones, and just that one day getting up at 4am is tiring, and he’s still home by late afternoon. I don’t know how he did it every day for three years, not getting home until 8 or 9pm! Like I said, life is good!

Zofia is growing fast. She’s babbling a lot and is always on the go. Her favorite activities are digging in the Tubberware cabinet and dumping all his sister and brother’s toys out in the playroom (much to Flo and Joe’s dismay). I can’t believe how fast the time is going, and we really try to savor all the little moments of newness with her, even amongst the chaos of being a larger family and all that is going on around us.

So, that’s about all for this month’s update. Finding time for journaling has been somewhat of a challenge lately, but I try to record my thoughts every now and then, as it’s always interesting to look back on.

Once again an entire month has gone by with hardly a moment to sit and reflect upon it. It’s been an eventful few weeks. As summer wound down, and we started the new “school” year, we started a few new activities for the kids and kept busy toting them around, as well as, focusing on a few new academic paths for the upcoming year.

Last week, our 21 year-old niece, Samantha, came down from Ontario, Canada, for a two week visit. She took the bus down. It’s a twenty-hour ride, which is far longer than I could tolerate. But, I guess that’s what age and the prospect of traveling with three kids has done to me! Anyway, Samantha is still here, tagging along to our various activities, and getting a front seat view of our hectic, but pretty nice life. I think she’s having a good time, and the kids are enjoying visiting with their cousin, whom they couldn’t even remember, as it had been that long since we’d seen her.

Tonight, our friend, Jen, and her son, Conner, are staying for a night during a few day visit back down here to Hagerstown from New Jersey. They used to live in the neighborhood across from us, but moved away when hubby got a great job offer in NYC. So, they often come back to participate in various homeschooling activities. This evening, their car broke down just down the street, so their intentions of an early departure may have been thwarted. But, Flo and Joe are enjoying visiting with their friend, and hopefully, their car repair will be simple and timely.

So, all is well with our family. We’ve been taking lots of photos to post on Flickr. Sometimes I feel like uploading and describing photos is a part-time job. But, I think someday the kids will appreciate the memories and the photographic story of their childhood, so I keep at it.

The day’s end is drawing near, and with it goes my energy. As usual, the list of things to accomplish wasn’t quite a match with the time in which I had to accomplish them, so some items remained to be checked-off. But, that’s okay… there’s always tomorrow, and today was pretty good!

Maxon Dixon Line

Zofia is nine months old now, and already testing her balance, prepping herself for those first steps. We’re really enjoying all the “firsts” with her, and paying extra close attention, as we plan for her to be our last child. There’s such a bittersweet note to that, as with the completion of our family, comes the acknowledgement that there are definitely “seasons” to life. I often feel so caught up in the stresses of day to day responsibilities, that I have to remind myself to stop and take stock of the experiences that will not pass my way again.

Okay… enough reflection for one day! I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday weekend and looking forward to some warmer weather and summer activities! Drop us a line and share your plans or just say hi!

Zofia is officially crawling now and has started trying to pull herself up when she's in the crib. So, now we enter that tedious stage in which we have to be vigilant and constantly on guard, and she has to be determined and persistent in her journey towards upright mobility. I guess the baby gates come out this week! She also reached another milestone in her seventh month with a tooth popping through on the bottom! What an eventful time!

Joe has a terrible sounding cough, which he unfortunately passed along to Zofia. Neither of them seem particularly fazed by it, and I hope it passes quickly. We’ve got another busy week ahead. We have a homeschooling buddy that moved away coming back for a visit, as well as, a field trip, yoga, skating lessons and homeschool co-op. And, Tuesday is Darren’s birthday. He gets to celebrate it by working at home! Thursday, we may go into DC with my mom for the Cherry Blossom festivities, although the logistics of that now, with three kids, seems somewhat daunting. So, we’ll see.

It’s hard to believe March is already over! But we’ll gladly welcome Spring!