Twenty Ten: A journey. Not a destination

Wow! It's been over four months since my last post. We are so busy all the time that posting all we've done would be too exhausting! 2009 was a great year for us. It started out with me still at home with the kids and ended with us all going back to school. Nathan and Luke have done extremely well. They both love the crafts they create at school and love their teachers. We do too! The boys are learning not only academics, bible, and social skills, but they are being loved the whole time they are there. We are blessed to be able to send them to N.F.C.A.
Olivia continues to do well in school. Her reading level and comprehension skills amaze us and we are so proud of the mature young lady she is becoming. She is so helpful with her brothers and has started doing some chores around the house. Olivia has also entered the "deep questions" stage. While I enjoy our conversations, I can see that we better be ready for future questions.
Nathan is a joy. He has the best personality making us all laugh constantly. He is so sweet, but can be stubborn at times. Nathan is surprising us every day with how much he knows. His speech is so clear. His vocabulary increases every day. He loves to build different routes with his train tracks and play Thomas and GeoTracks. Nathan is learning to share with Luke and can be such a good big brother. He and Olivia like to play, read, and dance. The three of them have tons of fun. They can be very rowdy at times.

Luke is blossoming into a toddler. Eeek! I'm not ready. Although, I guess I have kept him a "baby" longer than the first two. He (and Nathan) still deals with eczema so I've let him keep his paci. Plus, once that paci goes so does my "baby." He has started talking more over the Christmas break and I am thankful to have been home to witness it firsthand. He is so proud of himself!
Greg is still driving 45 minutes to another county to run the newspaper there. Although we don't live in the community he has become well acquainted with the community. He enjoys his job even though he sometimes works very long days.

I went back to work as a 1st grade teacher and I LOVE my class. I have 22 great students and their parents are so supportive.
We also got a puppy. His name is JoJo. Olivia and Luke LOVE him. Nathan could take him or leave him. Most days he'd rather leave him. :) JoJo still jumps up on you when he first sees you so Nathan being low to the ground already, does not appreciate JoJo's eagerness when greeting him.
Balancing work, the kids, JoJo, home, and Olivia's extra activities can be tiring at times, but it's all worth it. We just have to plan ahead and still just live one day at a time since weeks seem to be packed with so much.
To add to all this we have started visiting other churches in our area. We had been wanting a church with a better children's program. The area we live in has SO many good churches. It has been hard to get the boy's to stay in the nurseries since they are so young. We were impressed with how quick one of the churches' children pastor was to invite Olivia back to church and to their Wednesday night program. She has been attending their Prims program every Wednesday since September and loves it. The children's pastor's wife is so organized. Her lessons run so smoothly. It's been exciting to listen to Olivia share with us all that she has learned.
This year we will hopefully find a church where we feel at home and can be a vital part of a church family.
In the midst of all this we have goals we want to achieve for our family. Most of them are long term, but the kind of goals you have to work on daily. I bought a frame that sums up how I think I should deal with waiting to reach those long term goals: Life is a Journey. Not a destination. So for 2010 this will be my quote to live by.
I don't really know how this blog will evolve in 2010. I started last year as a daily blog to capture moments and share them with Greg who was at work. With all of us being gone it might just be a reflection blog for myself to reflect things we have accomplished as we live our busy lives. I might have to change the blog name as I leave my "baby days" behind.
One thing is for sure. 2010 will be a year we will grow closer as a family. I also feel that there will be lots of new things in store for us. What they are I don't know, but I do know that I am open to anything. "Enjoying the Journey" all the while!
Happy Twenty Ten!