The past couple of weeks have been an odd mix of boredom and busy.  April has seemed to drag on and on as we have anxiously awaited the end of school and an upcoming road trip.  But the last day of school has finally arrived, and by lunchtime I will be the mother of a sixth grader, fourth grader, third grader, and first grader. Wow.

In the midst of finishing up school, we’ve been doing some spring cleaning.  I know I posted a couple of weeks ago that I wasn’t going to do a massive spring clean this year, but rather go room by room methodically.  Well, I started getting a little twitchy about the fact that I would never experience that wonderful “all clean” feeling that comes after the whole house has been scrubbed.  So, we scrapped that plan and went back to the old way of doing things.  I enlisted the girls more this year than in the past, so it’s probably not quite as clean as it could be, but the overall experience was much more pleasant.

Wednesday I went a little nuts being Suzy Homemaker.  Home made yogurt, granola, six loaves of bread, and more, all in one day.  I slept like the dead on Wednesday night.  Over the past year and a half I have really come to enjoy cooking more than I ever imagined.  It started when I received the Pioneer Woman cookbook as a Christmas gift.  Her visual-learner-friendly format (lots of pictures) made new recipes so much less intimidating and built in me the confidence to try new things.  Since then, I’ve branched out and find a deep sense of satisfaction in preparing my family’s food from scratch, or as close to scratch as I can get.  Food preparation has gone from feeling like a giant burden and chore, to feeling like more of an art.  And anyone who’s known me for more than a year will probably be quite amazed by that last statement.  😉

Things are quiet on the adoption front, and probably will be for a while.  The house is coming along.  We’re hoping to have it ready to paint in the next couple of weeks.

We have six ballet classes left for the year.  Well, nine if you count rehearsals.  Either way it’s in the single digits and that’s a good thing.  😉  I really do enjoy the girls’ ballet, but am always ready for the year to be over.

We let the girls swap bedrooms a couple of weeks ago.  It was Grace / Chandler and Emma / Ellie; now it is Grace / Ellie and Emma / Chandler.  They’ve honestly done better than expected, particularly one pair that I was concerned about.

I’m training with a friend for a 10k in June.  It’s a notoriously hilly run, so we’ve been trying to acclimate to that.  I won’t lie, it’s been brutal.  😦  I came up with a plan this morning that will hopefully help us push past this road block we seem to have hit.  I am really thankful for this upcoming race as it has pushed and will continue to push me to be more disciplined in my running, at least for another month.  But on the other hand, I’m still on the fence about doing another half in the future.  I just hate when running becomes a chore and an obligation, and that seems to be how I start to feel about it when I have to do a certain number of miles each week instead of just going out and running because it feels good.

Tonight we have a planning meeting for the Haiti ministry we have kind of “fallen” into.  This is the ministry that oversees the orphanage where our daughter is, and since Matt’s return from Haiti our involvement has become significant, adoption aside.  I’m excited; God’s hand is so clearly upon this ministry, this orphanage, I’m thrilled to be part of what He’s doing.  I feel like He’s been preparing me, us, for this for a few years now.  Using books like Crazy Love and Radical and The Hole in Our Gospel that have challenged my way of thinking and broken my heart….He’s been leading us to this point.  And who knows if adoption and serving in this ministry are all He has planned.  I’m just thrilled to be part of the story He’s writing in these kids lives.

I think that gets us up to date.  Wishing all of you a blessed weekend!

By His Grace ~

~ Sara