Catching Up

Good morning to our blessed family and friends of God ❤️

This update is long overdue, which saddens my heart a little because there have been innumerable glorious moments which I could have shared between now and the last post I wrote – while I can recount many, there are so many more that my small mind simply cannot contain!

It is my prayer this letter reaches you in good health and spirits, but if not, know that we offer prayer daily for your benefit and it is our privilege and joy to suffer with you whatever the cause. We are not meant to bear this life alone.

The last post I wrote was about this time, three years ago. In that time, much has changed and also somehow, much is the same.

Let me start by sharing of my family with you, as they are my dearest treasure on this earth:

Maverick is 5 years old, his language and conversational abilities exploded last fall and it is a truly delightful experience everyday to hear what his young mind is thinking of, creating, and imagining. My biggest struggle with being his mother is remaining patient when his imagination takes him beyond the reach of my voice, over and over throughout the day. Rex and I joke that he really cannot hear us when he is “there”. But he does come back. For awhile.

His auntie “Bee” introduced him to downhill skiing last winter and now that is one of his absolute favorite things to do when there is snow. He has a heart for adventure, thrill seeking and excitement. I pray God gives him the wisdom to guard himself in all of his future endeavors, I am certain there will be many.

We have been loosely introducing school this year (Kindergarten age) and to my surprise, Maverick is all about learning to read and write as often as we can sit down together. I’ve always thought boys tend to be later readers, but then each child is very different.

Yvanika is now 3 years old, she has a contagious laugh and a wallop of a shouting voice when she needs to get someone’s attention, which would surprise you if you’d just met her with a tiny body and sweet unsuspecting face. She is independent to the ent degree, unless she doesn’t want to do something, then she needs all the help anyone will give her. She is a phenomenal big sister, little sister too. She loves to carry her dolls around and her favorite game is a Bingo matching game.

She loves giving kisses (watch out) and going swimming when we get the chance. She’s itching to going skiing as well but, we’ve told her it will need to wait another year before we get going on that unstoppable train.

She was THRILLED to be the flower girl for aunt Evie and uncle Matt’s wedding in December.

Harvey will be 2 years old in May. He is quite the force of nature. Many days I find myself wondering what God has in store for his future, ha! He is very affectionate and has the sweetest tender heart. He is obsessed with daddy’s tools, constantly trying to screw and hammer, chop or measure, whatever he can get his hands on. He’s at the age where he wants to be included in everything, no matter what it may be- making food, cleaning messes, helping with puzzles, folding laundry. The trouble is, he’s also at the age where his concept of what is happening is not fully realized. So laundry folding is more like unfolding everything just folded, and cleaning messes (while very thoughtful) is more like spreading messes, and so on. Still, he loves the idea of contributing and I pray he always will. He struggles with his older siblings right now as they are always trying to do things without him (if you can imagine how frustrating it might be to have your puzzle undone every time you take it out), but I have noticed that when one sibling is gone for the day, the dynamics change in the others, so I plan to strategize some more to find Harvey more opportunities to be with his siblings without all the drama.

Also, Harvey loves his daddy. Actually now that I say that, they’re all daddies babies. Maverick calls him at work to ask him random questions. Yvanika comes flying down the stairs when he walks in the door with the biggest grin you’ve ever seen. Harvey climbs right up into his arms and cries if Rex tries to do a project without his help. Even Avelyn laughs out loud when she catches his eye.

Avelyn is 5 months old. I’ve thought most of my babies were wonderful and fairly easy, but she has truly been the sweetest and easiest little person to care for these 5 months. She is ecstatic to be right in the middle of whatever chaos is happening, she puts up no complaint when her siblings try to play with her but actually are sitting on her, trying to walk her, or give her frisbits on her neck. She is rolling over now and is trying to rock herself back and forth on hands and knees, I suspect she will be sitting up and crawling sooner than later.

As for Rex and I, we’ve just celebrated our 8th anniversary, and feel very grateful for the gift of marriage. There is nothing in the world that compares to the love of your best friend, sticking by your side through the dark and ugly days, rooting for your happiness and progress each day, lifting you up to the Lord for his blessing and grace. I would be a very different person today if not for my husband, and I believe I am better because of him. All glory to God, only He knows how many graces have kept us going.

This is our 4th winter on the homestead now, and by far the best so far. The details and story of the progress on our house is a post all on its own, I’m hoping to go back and find as many of the photos of the progress as I can before I compile them, it’s been an incredible journey!

For critters we’re currently raising just a couple of Longhorn beef steers and a hopeful future milk cow, she’s due with her first calf in august and we’ll see how she takes to bring milked at the time! We also have a handful of dogs keeping us company and occasional puppies throughout the year. It’s a lot of work, but has been fun to see the kids interact with the pups as well as meet new folks who come to us for their pup.

I’ll wrap things up there for now and hope to begin writing more often.

May God bless each of you as we journey together. + JMJ +