Obligatory January Post

Well, apparently I needed to take a 6-week blogging break! It wasn't planned, but since I last posted we visited my dad for a few days, celebrated Christmas, visited New Braunfels, celebrated the New Year and Ford's birthday, Ruthie and I spent a weekend in Dallas, and we celebrated Chet's birthday, Sydney's birthday, and my birthday.

Oh, and I've been on an organizing/home purging RAMPAGE, so that's been taking up a lot of my time/mental space.

I've also been undergoing procedures to correct the varicose veins in my legs (a result of my last three pregnancies!), which involves driving to a clinic about an hour away from our house about once a week. I've done that six times in the last month.

So let's just push the blogging reset button.

This will be short, because, as usual, I decided to start writing a post right when Ford and Ruthie are waking up and ready to get out of bed, and when I should be showering/getting dressed for the day. But instead I'm sipping my coffee and typing this, while Lorelei works on a bead project next to me, asking every few seconds if she can "help" (not if I want to get this post published before lunchtime, Lorelei -- sorry).

I don't even know where to start, picture-wise, so I'm going to share a couple of random ones, and promise to update with pictures over the next few days.

This picture personifies their relationship: Lorelei bossing, and Ford refusing to be bossed.

Ruthie is our Irish (looking) baby, even though we aren't Irish.

The kids received gift certificates to a local ice cream shop for Christmas, so we've had fun cashing those in (I make the big girls share, and then Ford and I share a cup; Chet usually wants a flavor no one else likes, so he gets his own).

Happy Tuesday, y'all! And happy almost-February -- I know most people are happy that long, dreary January is nearly over!