Forward...

My husband likes to say, "Forward, always forward; never back."  It's an old Army thing or it's an AGD Jr. thing.  Probably it's both.  I'm sure he'll turn to me and let me know when he checks my blog next.  Regardless, it's a good sentiment.  I know where it comes from, but I'm just not sure I agree.

For example, last night a friend came over and said, "wow...your house is nice and warm."  Now, we live in Texas, so maybe that would not always be a compliment, but last night it was below freezing, so it was a fantastic feeling, to hear someone we care about tell us our home is nice and warm.  After he left I reflected on how the house was not ALWAYS nice and warm.  Until we were hugely blessed 3 years ago, our house was shut off and cold.  It didn't hold heat well.  I think it's important for us to remember these things so we don't get lost in day-to-day complaints.  Looking back can remind us of how much we have NOW and what we have to look forward to. 

In the grand scheme of things, it seems like we're stepping back.  We've been doing some serious restructuring and refiguring lately.  I said before we've been figuring out how to streamline our household-this includes moving rooms around and finding new ways to do things.  Beyond the physical, we've been taking mental counts and spiritual counts.  It seems like there is a lot of air in our bags of activities that needs to be squished out, proverbially speaking.  For example, I teach a bible study on Monday nights.  It's fabulous and I love it.  Allan facilitates a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class on Sundays.  It's fabulous and he loves it.  We both agree that these are fantastic ministries that we should be a part of, but...it pulls us out of our home and away from our family 2 nights per week.  To solve the problem, and streamline our lives, we've decided to teach them on the same night, thus freeing up a night that is very much needed for us as a family.

I say it feels like stepping back, because we're scaling things down a bit (you know how you feel when you clean out your email inbox?  Multiply that by, well...lots) and figuring out how we can get some of our time back.  Like defragmenting a computer-IRL.

If we don't step back just a hair, we can't move forward with the things God would have us to do, because we just simply don't have time to spare.  We need to take some classes to get registered to be a foster family (foster to adopt) but with our current schedule, we just can't afford more nights away from home.  We will be in a position of needing to bond with an infant again at some point, but if life keeps going at the pace it is going, someone is going to be sorely left in the dust.

Besides, it is winter and winter is a time to step back, regroup, refocus and then move forward with the new year, right?  So...while we prepare to move forward, we are attempting to step back and it feels good.  It's like walking around your head and taking inventory of what you thought you just *had* to have, but is actually just taking up space.

That's a whole lot of philosophy all jumbled up there...losing my memory card has really put me in a blogging funk since the only pictures I can get are on my phone or Allan's crappy Kodak now.  Dear Santa...? lol

That said, here are some crappy pictures from my iPhone to tide you over. ;)

 Do they really count as crappy if they're of the cutest kids on earth?  My gosh I love these babies!

 GraceAnne is incredibly smart, but after schooling her for a year and a half, I now understand why she came home so cranky every day after public school...sitting still for so long was killing her.  If I let her do crazy stuff like the above, she does just fine, thankyouverymuch.  Sitting still in one place?  Notsomuch.

 Violet started on Corbin's lap...I said, "you need to get off of him.  You are big and he is little."  This is probably a lie...he weighs as much as she does, though he's a bit shorter.  She promptly got off of him and said, "I am sorry, Kerbin.  You sit on me!" So he did.  I love how they love each other.

 MUH BOIS!!!  He is SUCH a daddy's boy, it's not even fair.  What happened to them being mommy's boy? 

You know, reflecting on GraceAnne...she drew a picture of 3 people and one with a baby in its belly as our announcement for Violet.  She was 3.  I imagined I would be less impressed with this rendition of a "PUM-KIN" but...I'd be lying if I said I ever worked with Violet on drawing.  Any time until now when a crayon, pencil, pen, marker or a piece of poo came to find itself in my youngest daughter's hand, there would be art on the walls.  I noticed lately that she has been making some nice circles, but didn't think a whole lot of it.  Yesterday she was quiet for a long time.  Violet is not to be trusted when she's quiet so I said, "What are you doing, Violet?"  She said, "I drawing."  uh-oh.  "WHAT are you drawing on!?" and I ran into the other room.  Then she showed me this and announced "PUM-KIN on my pay-perrr." 

Melt.

My.
Heart.

My daughter is a genius!  All by herself.  Swoon.

So, all of those are repeats for my friends on facebook.  Stinking facebook, stealing all my blog posts...but it is what it is and I know not everyone here knows me over there, so it's all good.  I hope you're all having a fabulous start to the Christmas season!!