I really haven’t forgotten about my blog, it is just that my internet access has gone from bad to worse.  I used to come in on Sundays after church to catch up on finances and maybe take a look at emails and blogs, but between going to a later service and having other stuff to do after church (you know, little stuff like moving and preparing the property for winter storms) it just hasn’t happened.  This probably isn’t great for finances, but so long as I keep transferring in enough money to cover the house checks and spend as little money as humanly possible otherwise it seems to be working out ok.  I think I’ve figured out a way for us to get free dial-up access through Matt’s DSL account at work, but I need to get a computer home from the office in order to try it out.   I’m not exactly looking forward to using dial-up, but at this point, free is about the right price for that sort of thing so we’ll just have to see how it goes.

But enough of the excuses.  :-)  An update for y’all:

First, the baby - he or she is doing well.  We got to hear the baby’s heartbeat a couple weeks ago and it was just what it was supposed to be.  I was measuring right on target for how far along I am (17 weeks, as of tomorrow) and all seems well so far.  I’ll have another appointment on the 3rd just to continue to check how things are going.  I’m finally starting to get past the nausea and fatigue and starting to feel more normal and energetic.  Phew!  I don’t understand why my first trimesters always seem to last an extra month or so.

The kids - they are doing really well.  Gregory just turned two last week (two!  how did that happen?)  and enjoyed playing with his presents so much that he didn’t even want any of his chocolate birthday cake.  We enjoyed it for him though, and it was very tasty.  :-)  His verbal skills are really taking off and it is so fun to be able to ask him what he wants for breakfast or if he’d rather wear a sweatshirt or a sweater.  He’s developed a strong interest in trucks of all kinds, and adores the front loader my Mom got him for his birthday.  He also really likes to look at books, and will ask Emma to read them to him during the day.  I think he’d rather have Emma read them to him than me, most of the time!

Emma has been enjoying her long winter break from school (I don’t even bother to do school from Thanksgiving until after the New Year - part of why I start at the beginning of August) and I think this bout of unschooling has been really good for her.  She’s started to read to herself on her own initiative, and quite frequently.  Her reading has really taken off even more than it has before, and now I’m just struggling to keep stuff around for her to read that is challenging and interesting, but not too challenging that she doesn’t want to just pick it up casually.  She’s still a little daunted by chapter books (we tried one of the Boxcar series and a couple other of about the same level) and while she can read it with very little struggle she finds the size a little intimidating.  But she’s beyond most of the early readers I’ve found at the library (and besides, most of those are insipid crap) so it is proving a challenge for me.  Suggestions would be welcome - I didn’t expect to be here for another four to six months or so, so I’m not really prepared for it!  It is so fun to see her curl up in a chair and start to read half-silently, half-outloud to herself though - and very rewarding too.  :-)

The house - is enclosed! (mostly)  We’re missing two windows upstairs and perhaps the slider (they may have put that in today) the windows were misordered - they were supposed to be tempered glass but ended up being ordered as regular glass.  The house looks great.  We’re really pleased with how it is turning out, and the SIP guys should be all finished with everything by mid-next week.  They are pretty much just at the clean-up stage.  We have a roofer already lined up, and we should have someone in line to do the siding as well, probably starting just after the new year.  It is going to look like a real house very soon!  It still seems a little hard to believe that the house is there after looking at it on paper for so long.  It is just how I imagined it, although the view from the upstairs is much better than I expected.  :-)  I’m not sure what we’ll start on first inside - probably electrical or plumbing.  We’ve been focusing so intensely on what’s going on now we haven’t really talked much about what’s next.  But it will be so nice to be able to work on it and not be totally exposed to the elements.

Otherwise - well, Christmas has been kind of funny and quiet this year.  We didn’t get a tree until the 16th, and while we did put up the Advent calendar the day after we moved in (the 3rd) and pulled out the Christmas books, we’ve done precious little else.  Emma set up her Jesse tree with last year’s ornaments, and while we’ve read some of the stories, we haven’t done it in any sort of a systematic way like I did last year.  We did get an Advent wreath and Emma decorated it, and we’ve lit it on some nights which has been nice.  Emma liked seeing the wreath at church and at home.  Usually Christmas for me is a flurry of cookies and gifts and cards and decorating and carols and and and - well, you get the idea - but this year it has been much calmer and more peaceful.  Sure, not much has gotten done (at least from my usually busy perspective) but it has been a restful and lovely Advent nonetheless.  We’ve been enjoying living in our own home again with Daddy home for dinner every night, curling up for read-alouds when we feel like it, making messes with toys and not picking them up immediately just because we can (ok, that one is the kids more than me, but I’ve been playing with the Legos too, I’ll admit) and even taking naps in the afternoon if the mood strikes.  It has been lovely not to have to leave the house everyday and cook dinner for my family.  The kids and I have really missed Matt, and while he’s not with us overnight every night (he goes back and forth to the trailer pretty much every other night so that he can keep track of construction and take care of the dog) it is still much closer to normal than we’ve been for quite awhile.

I have still managed to get a few things done for Christmas - namely presents for my near and dear.  There isn’t a lot of money to spend right now (but yippee, Matt just got his first paycheck in 6 weeks yesterday!) but I think I still managed to do pretty well.  We’re spending the actual Christmas day at my parents’ house in the Bay Area (I’m already here with the kids, and Matt is joining us either Sunday or Monday) and I’m very glad about that.  Emma, my Mom and I are going to bake Christmas cookies together this weekend and plan for Christmas dinner and all that fun stuff, which we’re all very much looking forward to doing together.  It is rather strange in a way - I think now that we’ve moved further away from my Mom, I think we see more of her because we now come for several days rather than just a couple hours now and then.  The visits are better too - more relaxed, more casual.  When I’m here I can just be here, rather than feeling like I need to watch the clock in order to rush off to the next thing on my todo list like when we used to live here.   I’m glad that we live close enough that we can come once a month and it isn’t too much of a journey to get here!

I had hoped to get Christmas cards out (I even have a somewhat decent Christmas picture of the kids!) but at this point I think I’m not going to stress about it and just send out Happy New Year cards.  I think before I would have felt a great deal of angst about this, but this year it isn’t bothering me in the least.  ‘m not really sure why, but I think it has to do with a little manger long, long ago, and a weary but joyous mother who brought into the world a glorious baby boy who would not only change the world, but change me (more than I ever realized possible!) as well.

I hope you all are having a lovely and blessed Advent, and since I doubt I’ll be posting again in the next couple days, I wish you all a Merry Christmas too!