Hello, 2010

We returned home Friday night after a week in Pittsburgh with lots of family and friends. It was a great 6 days away, packed with visiting and eating and laughing and playing. The trip itself went very well: Aubrey was the only child we momentarily considered dropping off on the side of the road due to excessive whining (just kidding!). And, fortunately, we traveled ahead of the massive snowstorm that's hit New York and is keeping us rather housebound today.

The holidays are definitely feeling over at this point. My sister and her family have returned to California and the last of the special holiday events/activities have taken place. We de-decked the halls yesterday. Without the tree (Daniel & I took it apart Christmas night after we put the kids to bed since we were leaving the next day and wouldn't be around to water it), things didn't look cozy and Christmas-y around here, so it seemed silly to keep the other decorations up.

While we were gone, we had some sickness. Jackson and Aubrey both had sore throats, Jackson had an earache and fever, and Claire got very congested. Nobody was so sick that our plans for activities in Pittsburgh were significantly hindered, but by the middle of the night last night, Bronwyn, Jackson, and Aubrey were coughing and drippy-nosed just like their baby sister. Only Daniel and Gabriel got to go to the special New Year service at church today that we had so carefully made our travel plans around. I was disappointed, to say the least, but I've gotten over it by now.

Tomorrow we will be getting back into routine, though I won't start back with our regular school "schedule" until next Monday. Hopefully between now and then, the sickness will have moved on and I will get Claire into a bit of a routine. These first 2 months of hers have been all over the place since she was born on the precipice of a busy holiday season; the only groove we'd established was her bedtime, but even that has disappeared with the onset of this bad cold.

I'm glad for a new year, a new beginning. I feel ready to take on this semester and see what will come of it. It's good to know that whatever comes, Jesus is in control. Indeed, "the lines have fallen to me in pleasant places."