on feeling tired, travel and jumping back into routine.

I'm wiped out.
This year started with travel for Miles and me and so here I sit, on January 9th, feeling completely wiped out. I have a hard time admitting that. I worry that if I say I'm exhausted or stressed, the first thing people will think is, "that's because you're insane with 4 kids and home schooling." So I lie to myself and tell myself I can't complain or ever admit I'm, you know, human ;-)

    taking his first plane ride! 

    our plane.

leaving Seattle, headed to California! 

Truth is, we all get wiped out. Moms with 1 child and moms with 8. Its different degrees of wiped out, but I'm not sure we care in the moment. We just know we're sleepy, needing down time, and thankful tomorrow is a fresh, new gift from God.
I already find myself looking at the mom in the store with 3 small toddlers thinking, "wow, remember those days?" I might have one more child than her and I might home school 3 of my kids, but man, do I remember the completely tiring, trying, mind boggling days of having 3 small toddlers. The physical exhaustion alone is enough to make me want to go take a nap, just thinking about it.
That's when I stop and pray for those ladies. Just a quick "Lord, please help them. Give them patience, grace, energy. Help them enjoy these years, understanding once they're gone, you never get them back." 
That's a hard thing to remember in the moment. Similar to labor... when I'm in the middle of labor, my brain tells my body "this will never end." And then I have to remind myself like a mantra, "it will end. it won't last forever. when its over its over and baby is in your arms, hallelujah."

we enjoyed the warmer temps. 

The locals thought we were nuts, but we were hot and sweaty in their 65 degree weather. 

my sister, Trish. 

My sister, Amber. 

I bought a puzzle while I was visiting my sister in LA. Its a 1,000 piece puzzle and my nephew and I possibly bit off a bit more than we could chew. Since we didn't finish the puzzle in the 24 hours we had, I brought it home.
We woke up to snow this morning {yay!} and so I declared today to be a calm day with candles lit, music, movies and puzzle doing. The girls are ending their colds, Ethan seems to have just started a slight one and Miles is teething, so the quiet day was awesome for all of us.
I never got out of my pj's and Jason worked from home. Pretty much bliss.

    walked in my Niece's room and found Miles standing, all by himself!

The boy and I flew to LA last week. There are no direct flights from WA to LA so we stopped in Oakland and hopped on a plane with my sister Trish.
It was nice having time away with just Miles and he did really well on both flights; nursed, slept and smiled at everyone around him.
We got to go to The Grove, which is an outdoor shopping area I've heard a lot about, but had never been to. It was a lot of fun! I loved the character of the mall. Definitely not your typical mall.
Especially since its pretty normal to see famous people just walking around like its any other day.

we waited in a 20+ minute line for a 'just okay' cupcake. 

was a fun experience though :) 

Oh! I saw Ben Affleck at the Seattle airport. That was kind of neat. He asked if my table was free, told me my baby was a cutie and briefly told me about his son. It was a good reminder that people on tv are pretty normal. Not really anything special about them, except their salary ;-)

the puzzle. 

my Nephew Kyle helping me get it started! 

My brother-in-law Jeremy made delicious drinks and an amazing dinner for us on Sunday night! 

Was awesome to have such a yummy dinner prepared for us. I think I had two plate fulls, it was so good. 

 I missed having a highchair, but I think Miles enjoyed the freedom ;-) 

catching our 2nd flight from Oakland to Seattle! 

Flew back home late Monday night, just in time to start school and get back into our regular routine. Except with sick people in our home, there's nothing really "regular" about our life right now. Its been pretty quiet and lazy, which has been kind of awesome. 

All three kids start back up with AWANA and swim lessons. 

Ethan and Rachel started back up with piano lessons. 

Ethan starts basketball. 

Rachel is taking a history class outside the home and ballet lessons. 

Kara is eager to learn how to read, so I promised her we could start tackling that. 

I feel like that's more than enough for now. Add Community Group every week and other social events, I'm already feeling like we need to cut back.
Its hard to know what to say yes to and what to say no to. We like to keep our nights mostly free. That's our time to be just the 6 of us. And then Sundays - we're very careful with Sundays because its the Lord's day and our family day.
I do wonder how families with teens do it though. Then I remind myself I need to stop worrying about the future and commit this day, this week, this month to the Lord and know He'll help us and guide us along the way.

So yes. I'm tired, winter break was full and good, everyone but Miles and me got sick, but everyone seems to be pretty much on the mend now, and we're jumping back into life.

Hope you had a nice time away and enjoyed Christmas and New Year's!