400 Years of Silence. Or Something Like That.

It's been ... um ... a little while since I've written.

Like, a year. 

My friend Abby—whose oldest 3 children are a boy and twin girls, 21 months apart—once told me that when the twins were born, she just lost a whole year of her life. Not like her life expectancy was shortened by a year, but like a whole year went by and she didn't know what had happened. 

I relate. 

Being a family of five still feels like a new thing...so crazy!

Elijah (kid #3) turned one this month. I have no idea where that year went.

January Recap

We're just getting it out of our system...

All the things we don't want to deal with after baby is born next month, we're just doing them now: surgery, sickness, teething, travel. Suffice it to say that January has been a little difficult.

After SIX different courses of antibiotics for Josiah's ear infections between June and November, mama had enough of the antibiotics. It made me sick to think of what we were doing to his little digestive system with all that. It was time for tubes.

On January 9, we headed up to Denver EARLY in the morning. Like 4:30 early. The surgery itself took about 10 minutes, and Josiah did great. We also had a great experience with both Dr. Sheri Poznanovic and the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children. I'd recommend them for anyone needing a pediatric ENT.

December Recap

Well, the third trimester got the best of me, and I stopped blogging. Gonna fill in with some month-end recaps so that I don't lose these memories...

In December:

Josh and I took and early and abbreviated 10th anniversary trip to Estes Park. Our long-time plan had been to escape for a week on the beach sometime in the spring (our actual anniversary is January 3, 2014), but this impending baby changed those plans.

We decided to take a shorter, closer trip before I got miserably large, so we booked two nights at the Della Terra Mountain Chateau in Estes Park at the beginning of December. Unfortunately, I was pretty uncomfortable already, but it was a nice getaway nonetheless. (Except for the wind. The wind was insane!)

The trip included yummy food, no schedule to follow, our first ever couples' massage, and a lot of relaxing and enjoying each other's company.

When we got to the Della Terra, we were greeted by these guys. 

Blue #2

It's a BOY!

We got to take a peek at our little guy on Sept. 16. That was just a day short of 19 weeks gestation, and a little early for the fetal anatomy scan. Let me back up a little bit and explain why...

We've Had Better Weeks Than This One

Well, we had exactly one day's reprieve between Josiah finishing his antibiotics for his ear infection and  Lorien coming down with a fever and head cold ... again. We are on day 42 of family illness, I think. This time we all four got it, and during a week when Josh worked two consecutive 16-hour days in Denver. Not cool for him, or for me, solo-parenting.

Also, that learning curve I mentioned with the new job? Trying to get my first big project to print with a nasty head cold is kicking my butt. 

And to top it off: 

I got my first ever black eye, courtesy of Josiah, who got a little too enthusiastic about "handing" me a hardback book to read to him yesterday. 

My New Assignment

I had to publish the last post, in part, to explain why it has taken me so dang long to publish this post.

It's not that I didn't have any news about a new job. It's just that life kind of got overwhelming. Plus, to be honest, I was dealing with some emotional stuff about the end of my old job that was different from what I expected, so I just didn't know what to write for a while.

But please, let me tell you the story, because it's a good one. 

Eventful

Aside from a few newsy or funny kid things, I've been pretty quiet for the last month. That's because 1) I'm pregnant and currently prefer napping to blogging; and 2) we have been busy!

Here's what's happened/what's been accomplished since our little surprise announcement last month...

• Defrosted the deep freeze and cleaned both freezers and the fridge. 

• Lorien got pneumonia which, we discovered, takes 2 weeks to fully recover from. 

Surprise!

If you had told me six months ago—heck, even three months ago—that I'd be making this announcement, I'd have called you crazy. But it's true, we're adding a fifth member to our family! 

Since I know you're thinking it: yes, this was as much a surprise to us as it is to you. Yes, we do know how this happens. 

Now that we're done being shocked, we're excited. (But can I please just have you re-read this post and insert "positive pregnancy test" on June 12, right in the middle of the Black Forest Fire? Ummmm, yeah....)

Baby Keffer #3 is due February 12-ish. Here are Lorien and Josiah showing off our new little one: 

Summer 2013 Graduation

What a jarring transition. Eighteen hours after returning from camp, I found myself sitting at graduation for my 33rd and final Institute class. I'm not gonna lie: I cried all day. 

I didn't really cry for this class. There's always a measure of joy in sending out a new class of students to go where God sends them and do what he asks them to do. There was a special joy in sending out this class because of the way they shared their lives with us and they way they stewarded their (collectively) very difficult stories. 

Family Camp

A first for our family this summer was attending Family Camp at Sonrise Mountain Ranch in Cimmaron, Colorado. It's waaaayyy the heck up this long valley. Seriously, we lost our cell phone service an hour before we got there. No phone. No internet. A whole week to truly unplug.

Lorien's 4th Birthday

Lorien turned four on July 19th. That day we spent the evening in Denver with FLI students and friends—hurt ourselves eating at the Cheesecake Factory and watched the Cubs beat the Rockies at Coors Field. It was a fun last outing with Institute students. 

Later in the weekend, we celebrated with a family birthday party: burgers, barbeque chicken, salmon, sweet corn, cheesy potatoes and—oh my!—this cake. 

Of Tea and Tattoos

When I'm 84, I want to be Sarah Ogden.

The Rains Have Returned

The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, 

to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. 
– Deuteronomy 28:12

There's always been something about rain for me.

Growing up on the farm, I learned early that the crops—and therefore the paychecks—were dependent on the Lord opening the sky and watering the earth. I remember sitting on the front porch of the big cement block farmhouse, my dad in his big chaise lounge lawn chair and me in my small one, covered in a green blanket, breathing in the damp, fragrant air and enjoying the thunder concert.

Just to Keep Things Straight...

Thursday, June 6: Josh and my brother Steve leave Ohio in a Penske truck to move Steve's stuff to Colorado. They stop in Greenville, Illinois, to see Grandma Keffer, who is in the hospital with pneumonia.

Friday, June 7: Mom drives the kids and me to the airport at 6 a.m. Dad Keffer picks us up in Denver at 10 a.m., brings us home and I go straight to work.

Demova Joy Keffer

Back in January, we were surprised and glad to hear that Josh's Grandma Keffer would be making a visit to Colorado at age 93. When, two days into the trip, she ended up in the hospital with congestive heart failure, I wondered if that might be the beginning of the end. (Not to be crass—I just know that's what often happens with illness in old age.)

As it turns out, that was what happened. Grandma never regained the ground that she lost in January and she continued to battle compounding illness. She passed away late on Tuesday, June 11, 2013. She was the last of Josh's and my eight grandparents, and her death is a different kind of sad because it closes a chapter and a generation for our family.

Here's her obituary, which remembers many details of her life.

On the Farm

We made our annual summer pilgrimmage to Ohio aiming, in one trip, to celebrate cousin Beth's wedding and see Doug and fam upon their return from India for the summer. We succeeded, sort of. Note to self: cramming in a visit while jetlag is still in full force may not be the best of ideas. Especially when jetlagged 18-month-old twins are involved.

In short: I took not one photo at Beth's wedding. But it was beautiful. And she was more than beautiful. 

Thanks to my SIL Mandi, however, I have shots from the reception. The kids thought the dance floor was the coolest place they had ever been. They danced for over an hour without stopping.

Kids on the Dance Floor

Memorial Day Weekend In Estes Park

A high school classmate of mine recently said, "Traveling with a two-year-old might be a trip, but it is not a vacation."

How true we've found these words over the past 3+ years, when vacationing basically means helping the kids do all the same things you help them do at home, only in a different environment and without the benefits of your own space and your own stuff. I don't mean to gripe. I'm just saying that it's hard to really get away with small children. 

The Darndest Things

From the kids, recently...

What Color is Grandpa?

Lorien (touching my nose): I like your nose.
Me: I got it from Grandpa
Lorien: ??
Me: Sometimes we look like our mommies and daddies, and my nose looks like Grandpa.
Lorien: You're not the same color as him.
Me: Oh?
Lorien: Well, you're very bright.
Me: And what color is Grandpa?
Lorien: He's dark pink.

She's not wrong.

Mother's Day

Thankful...

For these precious little people who made me a mommy. 

For Sunday lunch to share with family