It's another cold morning. Contrary to popular belief, we actually do have cold weather is Texas. It just doesn't stay around for very long. This latest round has hung around longer than I like. A week and a half of not getting to wear shorts when we go out to play is rough. :)
They say we may have snow tomorrow.
The kids and I did a little post-Christmas shopping yesterday. I bought a couple of dish towels, a candle, and a sports bra - woohoo! I have way too many of those. Always looking for the perfect sports bra.
Brian and I had a little planning session at cherrywood coffeehouse last night while Margaret held down the fort. We split some tacos and had some local beers. Cherrywood is always a relaxing place to be. It was especially cozy on a cold night like last night.
We tried to hammer out a plan for the next few months. Brian is an engineer and likes to plan things out. I'm more fly-the-seat-of-my-pants, and generally make things up as I go, so we really are good for each other. Well, he's good for me. Not sure how good I am for him, ha!
Margaret and Samuel start school Monday. If I think too long about Samuel there at O. Henry without us, trying to find his classes and remember to write down assignments and all, I start to have a little panic attack for him. He is not good in new situations, and he breaks down when things get stressful. I worry about him crying in the hallways. But then, he just surprised us and went on a four day boy scout camp out without any family members. And survived, even enjoyed it! They do have on file that he has been diagnosed with ADD and Aspergers and receives the 504 designation because of it, but the other
middle schoolers arent gonna give him a pass because he's 504. Sigh. But it's time. It's time for him and for Margaret to step out and grow up. They've already grown a lot in the last year and a half that we've been homeschooling. I really believe this chance for them to attend O. Henry is an answer to prayer. What a blessing for them to be able to go to the best public middle school in town, even be bussed there! And we didn't have to do anything to make it happen. It was just dropped in our laps!
Michael and Jana gave me the book The Explicit Gospel as a Christmas gift. I've slacked off on reading much since Hazel been walking. I'm really looking forward to exercising my mind a little more now that Christmas has passed. I also ordered a biography of Abner Cook, the self-taught architect and builder who designed several buildings in Austin, including the Governor's Mansion, The Pease Mansion - "Woodlawn", and the Neal-Cochran House. He seems like a really interesting guy. I started The Prince and the Pauper last weekend. I love, love Mark Twain! Also on my night stand: Night by Elie Wiesel, Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck, and The Fires of Jubilee by Stephen B. Oates. Oh, and C. S. Lewis by A. N. Wilson. I've had that by my bed for half the year, I think.
Best get out and get my run in. The Austin Marathon is a month and a half away. I should make some attempt to train for it.

I've been doing this for the past several
years. It's that time again!

1. What did you do in 2012 that you’d never done before? Registered two kids for middle school. Choice sheets and electives were things I was unfamiliar with up to this point. Looking forward to whats ahead on this new adventure for Margaret and Samuel.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I can't recall whether I made any, or if I did, whether I kept them. I think that means I need to write them down as well as make goals and resolutions that are measurable. This year I aim to read through the Bible using R.M. Mc'Cheyne's reading plan, which will have me reading the NT, Psalms, and Proverbs twice and the rest of the Bible once. I have other thoughts, ideas on goals, but have nailed them down yet. Like I'd like to make more time to be artsy, and I'd like to run the Marathon for Adoption, and I'd like to read plenty of books, and maybe get back to trying toward some Spanish.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My sister in law, Jana.

4. Did anyone close to you die? yes, my grandfather's wife, Karen, in April. Also, a couple of people in our church.

5. What countries did you visit? none. I only left Texas once this year when we went to Oklahoma for a summer vacation with Brian's family.

6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012? A larger house. Good schools for my children. Better control over my passions.

7. What date from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Um, maybe October 11th, because that was Brian and my 15th anniversary.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Finishing out a year of homeschooling in which I birthed and cared for a baby and juggled four grades and did it pretty well. Sadly things went down hill about two months into this school year, which incidentally, was around the time hazel started walking.

9. What was your biggest failure? Not being able to finish out the year homeschooling all the kids. That makes
me sad since we started with so much promise.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Just a couple of colitis flare ups.

11. What was the best thing you bought? iPhone and iPad? A new car? Food?

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Hmmm. Not sure.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Not gonna lie, my sister-in-law's.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Food, mortgage, church, kids' sports, gas, Margaret's teeth.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? My in laws moving to New Braunfels!

16. What song will always remind you of 2012? Willie Nelson's "Breathe."

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: happier or sadder? I'd say sadder, but not without hope. Last year (2011) was the best year of my life. It was hard to top it. Being pregnant and all those good hormones. Then 2012 came around and the hormone shift and a mobile baby, difficulties with homeschooling, stress....it was a more trying year than the one before.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Create, read, pray, talk with friends.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Exercise (yes, less!) , dilly dally on the Internet, argue with Brian about stupid stuff, speak impatiently, unkindly to my children.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
We stretched it out over several weekends. We were at home Christmas morning, then went to Daddy's house where he hosted the Evans family Christmas dinner. We came home and watched White Christmas that night.

21. How did you spend New Years?
We were at Brian's parent's house in New Braunfels with Brian's sister and her husband and baby. We watched football and talked. On New Year's Day we went to lunch in Gruene, then hugged the family bye, and came home to unpack all our Christmas treasures.

22. What was your favorite tv program? I think the only one I watched was American Idol.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? no.

24. What was the best book you read? I can't remember.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? not real sure. Avett Bros., maybe.

26. What did you want and got? a new grill! a new car.

27. What was your favorite film of this year? I didn't see any. We're just not much into movies, tv.

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? 37. Went shopping with my mom, then out to dinner with my extended family.

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If I had walked by the spirit more and less by the flesh.

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012? I don't know. Casual for sure. I don't know if there's a name for it, but I spent most my time in jeans ( or cut off jeans) and t shirts or feminine blouses, and boots or Van's. Earthy chic, maybe? Sadly I had no occasions for dressing up this year.

31. What kept you sane? The Word!

32. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? none

33. What political issue stirred you the most? none

34. Who did you miss? My friend, Andrea.

35. Who was the best new person you met? I met several new people at church, and I grew close to some old acquaintances whom I'd known for a long time.

36. Tell us some valuable life lessons you learned in 2012:

Pray about everything! Had so many prayers (big and little) answered this year.
I will not die if I go to bed when the house is still a mess.
I don't have to do it all. I don't have to be it all.
Rest is a good thing.
God is creating a beautiful tapestry of my life. The yellows, and reds, blues, greens, grays, and black all woven together make a work of art of His design. I can rest in the knowledge that He knows what He's doing.

I got up about an hour ago because I couldn't sleep.

4 am. Sheesh! It's gonna be a long day. But having the house to myself for a couple of hours means more time to commune with my Lord. I remember how back when i was a young abult, those few years before i was married, how I'd spend so much time studying scripture, memorizing it, meditating, praying. That changed once I got married, and especially once I had children. My responsibilities to my family kept me from being able to devote so much time to "quiet time", and my mind was so full of mommy things that I now had trouble memorizing two consecutive verses, whereas before I would memorize whole books of the bible. I remind myself that this is a season. A season that will soon change. There will come a day when I have more time each day to spend sitting at Jesus' feet. And one day I will no longer suffer from crazy momma brain, but will be able to spend focused time in prayer and meditation, and once again be able to memorize stuff.

At least that's what I hope. Until then, I take what minutes I can get, feast on the passages of scripture I've committed to memory in the past, and listen to scripture play as I am busy with my work.

Yesterday I bought supplies to make advent calendars for gifts. It's going to be a lot of work, but I hope to make 5 sets by next weekend. I'll post pictures once they're finished.

Margaret, William, and I went thrift store yesterday and each of us found some treasures. I needed some black shoes, and I found some DKNY for $3.50. Margaret was looking for another pair of Vans and found some in indigo for $10. William was hunting for basketball attire for him and his brothers and four two pairs of shorts and two jerseys. Better than the shoes I found, was a pair of 7 For All Mankind vintage wash trouser jeans in my size for $7.50! They're soft as butter and just the right length. How delightful!

We have a Christmas party to attend tonight, the first of the season. Fun, fun!

I just re read what id written, and laughed at all the funny auto corrects. I rarely proof read what I've written anymore, so I've probably written some pretty funny things since I've been blogging on my iPad.

It's later on Thursday morning now. I took Margaret and Samuel on a 5 and a quarter mile run this morning. To be honest, they dragged me along. They are getting so fast! I don't know when I've run a fast five miles! It was such a struggle to keep up with them!

Yesterday was a flurry of activity. I started the morning off with my usual run, then we jumped right into school work. I had grocery shopping to do, then Brian came home to join us for lunch. William and John had a scout meeting where they received some awards, and there was a collecting of gifts to take to the Helping Hands Home for Children. We contributed a couple of Lego sets. The boys den meets at the baptist church school that my childhood BFF's mom has taught second grade for a million years, and she came down to visit us for a few minutes. What a sweetie Nancy is!

Margaret had packed us a dinner of sandwiches, so we munched on those on the way to our next activity: johns basketball practice at the downtown YMCA. He and Tommy are playing on the same team. This is the first sport we've had John signed up for in about two years. He's hated competition so we haven't pushed him. But Thomas called a few weeks ago and asked if John would play basketball with Tommy. We had to get special permission to get John moved down to the 6/7 year old bracket to be with tommy, but we assured the folks at the Y that John was not going to be out there pushing the younger kids around. Well, Samuel must've given John a pep talk before practice, because john was on fire. When the team split up to scrimmage, John's team won and John made every single basket for the team. He was so excited! Hopefully the Y won't change their mind about letting him play with the younger kids. Can't wait to see how things go at the game on Saturday.

I don't know if I have said anything about this, but Thomas and Meredith have separated. Yesterday was the first time I've seen her in nearly four months. We hugged and cried. My heart breaks for both of them. Blog readers, please join me in praying for this family. Foremost I ask you to pray for their salvation.

After we left the Y, we went to a meeting at the middle school that Margaret and and Samuel will be attending after the break. Brian and I both came away from it with a good feeling. It's the best middle school in Austin, but also an older, urban school, just like Maplewood was. I think Margaret and Samuel will feel more at home in this school than they woulda in a more suburban school. We got to visit with the principal a bit, and he game the impression that he is on top of things and takes his job very serious.

It makes me sad that our homeschooling kind of got shipwrecked after such a positive start, but I believe it's for the best. Brian made the decision to put some of the kids back in school, so I can rest knowing that it wasn't me doing it. He felt that to keep them at home was doing them a disservice because neither of us were able to give them the attention they need. They are both very excited, especially now that they've seen the school and walked the hallways. William and John can't wait to start middle school either when their time comes. William is sure he's going to play football. :) No matter that he's a young fifth grader and small for his age. We have said that when we put W and J back in school that we'll hold them back a year, but W is so eager to start middle school next fall that we
may have a real challenge with that plan.

Well, I had better get out for my run before the morning is too far spent. Ok, yeah, it's only 6:30 right now, but this household gets moving early.

I'm sitting here in the living room, lit only by the Christmas lights. It's 5 am. and everyone else is still in bed. I love this hour because I have the house to myself for a little while.

Advent began yesterday. This is my favorite season of the church calendar. So much expectation, so much encouragement from looking back to what our Lord has done and promises fulfilled. Margaret and I made an advent wreath at church last Saturday and we have that in the
middle of the table. The church gave us a little booklet with scripture readings and hymns to work on each week of the season. We're also doing the Jesse Tree as we do every year.

We bought a cute live tabletop tree from central market instead of a big tree. It's so cute and makes me happy because it doesn't take up so much room that we have to take furniture out to the storage. We decorated it rather simply with some round, colored LED lights, retro looking glass balls, and those cinnamon applesauce ornaments cut in the shape of large stars. So between the real greenery from the wreath and tree and the ornaments, our house smells really good!

We attempted a Christmas picture yesterday before church. Everyone but John cooperated. He was pouting the entire time, and no manner of threatening made any difference. Oh well, I guess we'll just use what we have and call it 'real'.

I've been getting in a lot of running lately, averaging about 35 miles a week. Pretty good for not yet training for a marathon. On Saturday Brian and i ran between 7.5 and 8 miles. Yesterday afternoon Margaret and I went running and she wanted to do the same route, so we did. She's fast, and it was a challenge to stay with her. I think she and Samuel will really enjoy having the chance to run track when they go back to school.

Hazel has been such a handful lately! She is into everything! She still doesn't sleep through the night. She'll go down in her pack-n-play at night, but wakes up at least once. She usually ends up in our bed for the rest of the night. She had her one year check up the other day. She's still average size, though to me she seems small. She weighed 20 lbs. her weight gain has slowed since she started walking in October, but I guess that's normal. She doesn't talk a lot, at least not real words. Just "mama", "dada", and what we think is "mine". She understands everything it seems. She has no fear of strangers, and walks right up to people and stares at them. It's really funny. She's a very girlie girl, and carries a purse and takes a baby everywhere. Margaret wasn't that way. She was more into animals and nature, not dress up and playing mommy.

I'm so sorry that I've neglected you so, my blog! I really want to write, I just really have a hard time carving out the minutes to do so.

November was a stressful month, no doubt about it. The bottom fell out of our homeschooling, and Brian and I began searching for other options. We had three different groups of short term renters stay at our house in two weeks. We celebrated Hazel's birthday, and we went on a couple of camping trips. We celebrated thanksgiving with my mon's side of the family, as we usually do. Thanksgiving night my mon took the cousins (minus Hazel)
out to her house for a long weekend of cousin time. Brian and I stayed in our camper out at the Farm. It was cold and cozy, just the three of us out in that hill overlooking town. He and I cleaned up after renters twice that weekend, did a ten mile run together, read books, and ate at several good restaurants.
A few weeks ago we found out that Margaret and Samuel automatically qualify to enroll in a very good middle school across town and can even ride the bus. It's because the school we're zoned for is a No Child Left Behind school, whatever that means. What a relief and what we see as an answer to prayer. We don't have to scramble to try to move right away. They will either start school in the next week, or after the Christmas break. I'll continue to homeschool William and John and see how things go. I'm hoping they'll be more cooperative since I'll be able to give them more attention.

I may have written about this in a previous post, but in October i just broke down and got really depressed. I felt so overwhelmed! That's when Brian decided we had to make a schooling change. I scheduled a doctor's appointment to see if I might need suffering from some sort of imbalance. It was great to see Dr. Love again after a year. I just seriously love that man.., in a patient-doctor kind of way. He gave me all the time in the world and ask lots of questions. In the end he concluded that I was probably suffering from PMS, and prescribed progesterone. On a side note, I weighed five pounds less than I did before i got pregnant with Hazel. And that's without trying to lose weight, just running every day and doing some weights. We eat healthy, but I don't deprive myself of anything, just use common sense. I even eat bagels and pizza sometimes, drink my coffee with heavy cream, and have wine every night. Well, I do nurse all day and half the night, so that too burns a lot of calories, but still, I'm kind of amazed to be at 105, the weight I weighed when I was Margaret's age!

We were blessed with a new dishwasher free of charge, thanks to a GE recall. This one runs like a Cadillac. I feel so spoiled!

Must get going. Gotta get in a run before church. Have a blessed Lord's Day, y'all, and happy first day of Advent!

Blogging has become such an inconvenient thing to do these days. I MUST get back at it though!

Karen and I ran the Chosen Marathon last Saturday. Everything was perfect, except that I had a tummy ache for the first twenty or so miles. Beautiful weather, gracious volunteers, amazing scenery. We ran pretty well and finished in 4:17:18. 17 minutes off my PR, but not my worst time either. It was a fun experience, and i think Karen had a good time.

This week has been better than the last three, but we've still not done much school. I've felt so overwhelmed with all that we have going on right now, and for me, the easiest thing to let slide is school. Margaret and Samuel have been great this last month and continue their studies on their own without supervision. William and John need constant prodding and oversight, which I just haven't had the motivation to provide.
We've been researching school districts and looking for a house. That, too, is overwhelming. I guess we're too picky, at least about the house.
We have three different groups of people coming to rent our house this month. I was really stressing about it, but I've calmed down. It will nice to make a little extra money just in time for Christmas. We'll either go camp in our trailer or go stay with parents, one set or the other.
Tonight the church is having their second annual Fall Country Dance. I'm the decorating committee, so I've been running here there and everywhere collecting stuff to use. I love to decorate my own house, but it's awfully intimidating to be in charge of decorating a large public space like a church.
Hazel's first birthday party is this Sunday. Margaret and I have been searching pinterest for ideas. I think it's all coming together and is going to be really cute.
Oh, almost forgot, we all dressed up for Halloween. Brian was Uncle Sam and I was the Statue of Liberty. Margaret. William, and John were Indians. Samuel wanted to be Martin Luther, but we couldn't procure a robe in time, so he was either Shakespeare or some other man from the Renaissance. And Hazel was a pumpkin. The whole trick of treat thing was awfully confusing for her, but she got into it towards the end of the night, and would get put of her stroller a s walk up to the doors like everyone else.
Well, that is all I have time for right now. Here are some pics, all mixed up.