Jeni Begins to Live Again

At least, that is how it feels. I haven't thrown up in awhile, and I can make simple meals without too much difficulty. Now I just have to re-arrange my schedule so that I'm getting the most important things done without running myself into the ground. But enough about me...

I look several times a week for houses in Georgia. People are often surprised to hear that we are planning to move. "Is this a for-sure thing?" I'm often asked. After wanting to and thinking we were going to move for too many times to count, I usually respond in an off-hand manner. "It's looking more sure" or "Maybe" or "We're hoping to". The truth is that unless God begins slamming the doors shut that He has opened, we'll be gone in about 3 months. We showed our house to the pastor (and wife) of a Spanish congregation in Weston. They are praying about whether or not to buy the house, and they'll let us know by the beginning of March. If not, we've already spoken with a realtor down here and our house goes on the market March 6. I really hope they do decide to buy it-for two reasons. Reason 1 is purely selfish: I don't want the stress and bother of keeping a 1400 sf house wherein live 4 young children in showable condition all the time. Reason 2 is better: After claiming this small plot of land for God, I would hate to see it fall into the hands of God-haters.

But I was writing about house hunting when I interrupted myself. I found a big, old, beautiful house that I dreamed about. It ended up that my parents drove many miles to take pictures of the yard and look around at the neighborhood for us. And my mother said the yard would not work. So that is that. How convenient (for us, not them) to have parents we trust to look at houses for us. I found another great house that is a bit out of our price range, but it has a big, gorgeous yard, and the basement is an in-law suite, complete with its own kitchen! Plus, there is a big workshop on the property. Now we just have to convince either my parents to move from a 3500 sf home to a 1-bedroom apartment or Mark's parents to invest early in their retirement home! Fortunately, however, there are several lovely houses on the market that we can afford, and as soon as Mark gets a job (pesky details), I plan to house hunt for real.

And now for kid-stuff. Mark and I were discussing whether or not Nathaniel would have freckles, and Mark commented that freckles are adorable. Ben looked at him with perplexity and said, "Daddy, you have freckles, and you're not adorable."

On Valentine's Day our Christian homeschooling neighbors (how cool is that!) came over for a Sock Hop. It was really fun. We decorated cookies, made a Valentine craft, danced, and ate heart-shaped pizza. I'll post pictures soon. Grace was particularly beautiful in her dress. Ben was thinking of wearing Daddy's BDUs (what does that stand for, anyway?), but I convinced him to wear more appropriate attire.

The two oldest boys are in Upward Basketball this year. What a learning experience! Bradford does well to be on the correct side of the court. For a couple of weeks, he couldn't dribble past mid-court. There seemed to be an invisible wall that he couldn't break through. Finally, one of the refs picked him up and moved him into place to make a shot. That seemed to work, but his teammates do not throw the ball to him, even in his rare lucid moments. He told me he doesn't want to play next year, and I'm fine with that.

Ben, on the other hand, shows some skill and coherence, but he is the youngest, shortest member on his team. Both have trouble guarding their man. So when their two teams played each other, they ended up guarding each other, since they are both the weakest on their team. That proved interesting. They did a better job at guarding each other, but they weren't always sure who was to guard whom. And then there were those two incidents of, um, brotherly affection, where they were pounding each other on court. They were kicked out the game and got a side trip to the woodshed with Daddy.

An excerpt from Mark's journal:

Jennifer was working on training Grace not to whine and grunt at the table when she wants something, but to ask. (This is where I need to insert an audio clip, because words can't really describe the look and the sound that Grace makes.) She gets very intense and from somewhere deep inside (think karate)yells, "Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom..." until Jennifer looks at her. Then in a very soft, delicate, innocent voice says "Beese?" What can Jennifer do? What can anyone do? You just kind of laugh and try to figure out what she wants. Little rascal.