Grace and Glory

Musings from the Threshold

First Steps!

Yesterday afternoon, Davey came running in from the living room to tell me that Stephen had taken a couple of steps. Woot for Stephen! A few hours later while we were at the chiropractor’s, he took a couple for us and Dr. Mary. How fun!

An amazing thing to me about the fact that he’s taking steps is that he’s only stood by himself for a few seconds at a time… and only in the last week. That’s he’s moving forward so quickly is an indication of his personality, I suspect. 🙂

I’ll see if I can catch him on video soon.

Happy Late Birthday to Davey!

I didn’t manage to blog on Friday about Davey’s 12th birthday, but thankfully he’s very forgiving. Besides, he doesn’t read my blog!

So… our oldest Blessing has been with us for over twelve years now. A part of me still says, “Wow, I can’t believe it’s been that long.” And for the first time ever, a part of me says, “Yep, it’s been twelve years alright, and I feel every last one of them!”
Just keepin’ it real. 🙂

Here’s Davey with his ice cream cake.

For the record, ice cream cakes are extremely hard to frost. Any suggestions?

Okay, I’ve got to get away from the computer and use my new freedom for something besides blogging!

Relief!

I have this tremendous sense of freedom and relief today. You see, yesterday afternoon, I finally caught up on my home schooling paperwork – woohoo! Logging hours is my bane, and I keep saying that someday I’ll stay on top of it through the school year and not have these weeks-long marathons in May and June where I go through papers that are months old, making sure they’re all recorded properly so that if we’re ever called to turn in our required paperwork, it will be ready.

Not all of the Blessings are completely done with school work for the year, but they are all going to do at least math throughout the summer months, and have scheduled reading time in the afternoon, which will catch up those that don’t have quite enough hours. So, for all intents and purposes, we are on summer break. Yay!

I have soo much to do that I have been setting aside, first for the busy-ness of the legislative session, then for the urgency of figuring out if we need to cramp in last minute hours of school.

Last night, I had a wonderful time sorting through my 3 big tubs of sewing and craft stuff. I was hoping to find some fabulous material for some window mistreatments. I didn’t find any, but I did get my tubs nicely organized, which I’ve been wanting to do for quite a while. We also had a blast looking through my Lord of the Rings quilt blocks, from a block swap I did several years ago. I even started thinking more seriously about putting some of them together, lol!

Then there’s all the writing and blogging that I’ve been wanting to do, the catching up with friends – including those I’ve recently discovered on Facebook (hi Merri!), the house organization, the planning for next school year, the enjoying the summer with my husband and children, etc. etc.

Yay for summer break!

One Year!

I love the first birthdays. It’s always hard to believe it’s already been a year. And yet, it’s hard to imagine a time when this little one wasn’t a part of us.

Stephen turned one today, and I truly spent the day celebrating the gift that he is to us. Not that I didn’t also do a blue million other things as well, but you know… multi-tasking!

Again, I didn’t get a birth story done yet, but soon…

A couple of cute birthday dinner pics:

Five Years Ago…

… on a beautiful Kansas night, Victoria Grace came into our arms. She was already in our hearts, and it was a joy to meet her face to face.


Her birth was a wonderful experience – truly one of the high points of my life. I had planned to have her birth story written up to post today, but it got away from me. Perhaps I’ll get to that this week.


In the meantime, here is a shot of her tonight at her birthday dinner. My heart is overflowing with thankfulness that the Lord brought this blessing into our family.

Whisper or Brick?

This was in an email I received this morning…

God whispers in your soul and speaks to your mind. Sometimes when
you don’t have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at you. It’s your choice:
Listen to the whisper or wait for the brick.

A Special Day

Last Saturday, I met up with one of my dearest and longest-known friends at Forest Park in St. Louis for a fundraising walk. Tracy was walking for NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness), and Stephen and I walked the 3.1 miles with her. It was a great opportunity to visit and enjoy the company of a super special friend.

The walk was well organized and well attended. Here’s a shot of a very small portion of the walkers:
After the walk, we went to the zoo for a bit. Stephen was tired, so I carried him in my wrap. It was great for him, but my hip didn’t make it long with the extra weight. We made it through the River Walk portion of the zoo, and saw neat things like Giant Anteaters:
And Asian Elephants:
Then Stephen and I headed for home and Tracy enjoyed the zoo for a couple more hours. But before we left, some nice young ladies took our picture for us. Can you tell Stephen is tired? 😉
Thanks for a wonderful time, Tracy!