Ahh... my life is sweeter and fuller then it has ever been. I do believe the only thing I would change about my life right now would be having my family closer to me. I have moments of feeling sorry, mostly for the boys, that they don't get to see their Grandparents, Uncles & Aunts & cousins over the holidays. Flying back to Pennsylvania will cost us a minimum of $1500 for 4 tickets, and that is IF we get a great deal. It makes it very tough to visit family when you're on a tight budget. Not only that, but Keith just doesn't have the time to take off work! We have discussed the possibility of the boys & I flying back to PA in the summers. But I don't want to attempt that on my own until the boys are older.
I am pretty sure Keith & I are done with having children. At least our own blood children! We have talked about adopting before. But we don't feel like that is something were supposed to do right now. Maybe somewhere down the road? I like to have things planned out, so not knowing what is next in regards to our family is tough! I REALLY don't want to be in my mid to late 30's with a newborn again. I would LOVE to be done with the newborn stage earlier then that. I know that what Jesus has for me is BETTER then what I have for myself. So I will continue to trust him with the size of our family. For the first time in a long time however, I am content with the boys we have and would be perfectly happy to remain a 4 person family.
Of course... I will NEVER tire of holding sweet little babies. The photo on the right is a photo taken last weekend at a friends baby shower. One of my other friends had just had a baby a couple weeks prior to that. The babies name is Samuel and I snatched him up as quickly as I could! I loved the little baby smell, and the little ticking of his heart. It amazes me every time to see a little one like this. God is so good! It is true when the bible says that children are a BLESSING from God. True, every day miracles.
I managed to achieve my goal for 2011. I wanted to run a 5K. I attempted to run a 5K in May. But I messed up my hip one week before the race and wasn't allowed to run it. I was very bummed. The next 5K I signed up for I was given permission to interval run it! I was excited to do that- and I really had no pressure to run it in a certain time, or to be speedy. Interval running is, what it is. :) This past weekend I was able to run the full 5K with out walking or stopping. It was cold. It was wet. It was miserable. BUT... I finished. I didn't walk. And I did it under 30 minutes. You see, the issue now is that I want to beat that time. :) Next 5K is in March which will likely be just as rainy, but possibly not as cold! In the mean time I am running on the treadmill until February. Then I will slowly get my legs back on the pavement. The treadmill is much easier on my hip, so on the "off" season I am going to run on the tready, and do my strength training at the gym. I am praying I can cut a couple minutes off my time! The hills typically get me... but I am going to incorporate hills this February. Hopefully that will help! I also have an 8K and 10K that I want to do in the summer of 2012. Maybe I will attempt a 1/2 marathon. But I'm not yet ready to commit to that madness. We'll see how I do with the 10K and take it from there.
I have also been working on some crafts lately. Thanks to pinterest I am finding loads of ideas of things that I can make! I am going to make my own Christmas cards this year and have been trying my hand at some hand stitching on paper to make my cards pop a bit more. It has been fun! I have been really enjoying making cards and want to continue making them! It's a fun way to show someone that I care.
This weekend I am going to head out to the craft stores and get the paper I need to make my Christmas cards and also to make an advent calendar for Miles. I have lots and lots of fun activities planned for us this year! Were making gingerbread houses for one of our family nights. Were going to make snow to hang in our windows & baking cookies & candy to give to friends! It's going to be so much fun to do this with him this year! I am also going to make a book of what we did with pictures. It will be called our "December" book with each day documented. I think it will be fun to look back on it and see what we did! Perhaps it will be a tradition to make a December book! We'll see!
I adore the holidays!
