Wow.
It has been forever! Will you ever forgive me?

I feel like we are finally getting into the new routine of this season, but to be honest it leaves little time for blogging. But my desire is to blog: I just need to be more diligent! And so here I am, basking in this afternoon sunshine, the chickens scratching the leaves beside me and the children across the street yelling with basketball delight.

To catch you up in every aspect:
Tirzah is doing wonderfully, growing by the day and astounding us in her understanding and delights and beauty. She loves to play with play dough, read, and play with her stuffed animals. And she is so proud to be a big sister.

Baby is doing well and I am feeling great. Just about 21 weeks! We had the ultrasound but did not find out the gender. But thankfully everything is healthy and looks great.

BSF. Bible Study Fellowship has been going for 3 weeks and what a blessing it has been to me already. To dive into God's Word in Matthew and to study it alongside two different groups of women is amazing. Already I am clinging to the Truth that God has a place of love and favor for EVERYONE. Just look at His genealogy in chapter one of Matthew. Using prostitutes and the unlikeliest of society to be related to Jesus. Amazing grace towards us all!

Nannying. It has been such a blessing! Ryder is such a sweet little boy and has taught us a lot as a family. For me: what raising a boy is like if this second one is just that! And for Tirzah, what it means to share everything, even Mama, for the majority of the day. I can already see the issues that will be between them: mainly that Tirzah is such a physical person and Ryder does not like to be touched... But already there have been lessons for all on loving, on kindness and treating others like yourself, and using kind words. We have easily fallen into our routine and the transition overall has gone quite well.

Homeschool. Have I ever said Daniel and I are of the mindset to homeschool? We are holding it loosely, always wanting to be open to other options especially if it is not the right decision for the child. But as of now, we would like to. And so early on into nannying, I realized we might need to have a little structure to our time instead of just 6 hours for them to play together. And so we have started, ever so minimally, to do preschool. Ryder is already in preschool two days a week, but I thought to introduce Tirzah to "school" with a friend might be a good idea. Each day after lunch, we head over to the studio for school. And how they love it! Each week we study a story of the Bible, a color, a letter, a number, and a song. For example, this week we have C, the story of the Cross, the color red, and number 3. I can't wait to blog a bit more on what we actually do, but it is so simple! Like scavenger hunts for clip art pictures of words that begin with the letter of the week (cat, carrot, car...), and painting little pieces of paper the color we are studying and gluing them to our rainbow. Simple, about 30 minutes max, and really fun for all!

Daniel. What a stud I married!! Just last week he had the opportunity to earn his Expert Infantry Badge. 900 men began the week and only 144 finished with the badge. Daniel passed each day and then finished with a huge finale: a 12 mile ruck march. Daniel came in under 2 hours, leaving a space of about 30 minutes between him and the second place finisher! He got such recognition for that and how proud we are!!
We could use your prayers as we find ourselves at a crossroad. We are revisiting the decision to go Ranger Regiment or not. We made the decision in March NOT to do Rangers and even were on track to get out of the Army. But with God changing my heart to be open to the military for a few more years and then the nagging feeling Daniel has for Rangers still, we just don't know. So we are trying to discern: are Daniel's feelings pride ? Or is it God leading us that way?? So we are walking in the midst of that decision, a HUGE decision as it will lead to large changes for this little family of ours. I will most definitely keep you updated and we are ever so thankful for your prayers as we discern.