The Announcement I've Been Waiting a Loooong Time to Make:

My brother and his sweet family are moving back to Texas!!! Whoooohoooo! They'll be in our same town, and they'll be here next week. We are really excited around here!

Joel heads back to work today after a two-week vacation, and I'm feeling spoiled. It was such a good time having him home. I'm preparing myself for a harder day today...first day with Daddy not home and Jonah will most assuredly be attention-hungry with all that he's gotten used to over the holidays. Not only that, but Parker is sick, so giving that attention is going to be even trickier. We had to leave church early yesterday morning because she was throwing up in her nursery class, and she did again last night and ran fever most of the day. It was awful! We've taken her to the doctor last week and the week before because of ear infections that have hung on, and I'm sad that something else is going on in her little body this week. We haven't slept much the last several weeks, but oh well. We have no choice but to press on! And caffeinate well.
I realized the other day that the next several months may be the busiest I've had in years. My brother moving here will be the highlight of January and will also keep us pretty occupied when they get here with helping unpack, keeping kids while they're unpacking, and just plain enjoying their company. Then before the end of February, I will have hosted three showers for people. As a maid of honor in my cousin's wedding, I will be attending other showers with her and doing a number of things wedding-related, such as, for example, meeting her in Lufkin this weekend
to help address invitations. At the end of this month, I'll be starting to lead a Bible study with women at church for about 6 weeks, and this one is going to require lots of preparation still. There's a possibility of going to another Weekend to Remember conference in February which I hope to know about very soon. And then add in the regular activities and responsibilities...our small group, friends, all of the people in our lives having babies right now (there are so many!!), church events, etc. It's going to be interesting around here! I just am listing all of this to hopefully help me get in gear and get motivated to get really organized and stay disciplined with my time. It's all doable, I just can't have one lazy hour. Really, if I get behind at all, I think I will be extremely overwhelmed. Gotta practice discipline. But I think these are going to be a good few months! God has some grand things planned, I am sure of that. Has the new year brought about crazy-busyness for anyone else?? If so, join my club. I don't think it's overcommitment this time...I really believe I'm supposed to do all these things. I'm just not that energetic super mom that can get everything done so well. This will be a major time of having to seriously practice reliance on the Lord for a lot of things at once. I think it's no coincidence that the sermon series starting this month at church is about prayer and my mentor Lisa wants to start discussing prayer when we meet the next few months. I've known God long enough to know that He's getting ready to beat me over the head with this issue! And I welcome it! I like that this is how He works...it's so exciting to see Him so personally involved in my life and growth that He will orchestrate various things at once to teach me the same lesson.It's one of the sweet ways He expresses love to me in a personal way.