My Words Are Taken Away

Being depressed is terrible.

Being depressed and having no one to turn to would be much, much worse. Thanks to the friends and family who have been so helpful over the last several months, whether they're aware of their helpfulness or not.

The last while has been difficult to process. I'm much better at just going day to day and not thinking about my life. So I've been avoiding blogging, longish emails, and really anything beyond a quick status update on facebook. I am a little sad about that because I like to use the blog to record the haps in our family, and I've missed a lot of haps since August.

Here's a whirlwind catch up -----

AUGUST: Back to school for kiddos and Momma! I am teaching one morning each week at Lakeview. Elementary Spanish has always been something I enjoy teaching, so I'm glad to be able to keep up with it. The class periods are 20 minutes long, so that keeps me hopping. The older two are in preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Joshua only goes when I'm teaching. It's uber-convenient to be able to drop all the kiddos and work at the same place.

SEPTEMBER: My not-so-little baby girl turned five. Holy moly. She'll be off to kindergarten next year. Yikes!!! We were also excited to be able to have Grandma up north to celebrate her 80th birthday. All sorts of her friends were able to come and visit for a little while in Muncie. Toward the end of the month the kiddos started swim lessons @ IWU. Glad for them to be more comfortable in the water.

OCTOBER: We started and ended the month with homecoming celebrations, first for IWU and then ONU. In between, we visited Shawn's tent at Mississinewa 1812, held a campout of our own for the Caravan students from church, took a preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch, and celebrated my 31st birthday.

NOVEMBER: Life picked up speed in November as it often does in the holiday season. In addition to teaching at Lakeview, I've been doing observations for IWU's education department. I really enjoy the chance to help teachers who are still shaping their educational outlook. Those beginning teachers aren't necessarily eager to be observed, so most of the sessions were crammed in toward the end of the semester. Lesson learned. I'll contact them this semester. :) One of the highlights of family life during this month was Stephen's extended family gathering in Columbus. It's something we look forward to every year.

DECEMBER: After we finished all the responsibilities of early December, we headed out to Virginia and spent a week with Stephen's entire family at Scott's house. Our kiddos loved it, especially since those are the cousins who are closest in age. We enjoyed walking around Colonial Williamsburg, attending church with Scott's family, etc., but the family time was the best part. After we got back, we celebrated two Christmases with extended family and then my extended-extended Cole family.

JANUARY: Life has settled back down to mostly normal. I'm glad. Of course, mostly normal involved Caleb falling from the bunk beds and splitting his head open on Katy's dresser. Sigh. Just getting a jump on that deductible, right, Buddy Boy? :) Joshua is sitting up now, and he will probably start taking off crawling soon. Here's a shot of my three adorable youngsters.