It's been a month.

I know I had hoped to update before an entire month disappeared, but such is life. Considering how bad I've done in the past, a month is not too too bad!

For some reason it seems like this year is the busiest ever. All of the sudden, 2010 hit and we are swamped with activities and appointments. Rick still doesn't have a job, but somehow we are super busy all of the time. I looked at my calendar today and realized that tomorrow is the ONLY day in the month of February that we do not have something planned. Seriously? One day in the entire month without at appointment? I'm honestly not sure if the 5th kid or the unemployment or what is the deciding factor, but here we are.

School is going well. Last learning period (over the Holidays) we did so much slacking and then having to catch up. Not sure why, but this learning period things are going really smoothly. Seems like we're way ahead, and school days are NOT filled with stress and cramming. Lots of lighter type days. Just what we needed really! Going to start test prep pretty soon since Hattie will need to do the STAR tests this year. Will be much different not being in public school. They are so good at teaching to the tests, and I am not as confident of my abilities to guide her in test-taking skills. We shall see. Our first practice test is next Friday (the 12th). Think happy thoughts for us.

Looking over the latest post, I will briefly update. Yes, we got our car stereo and such installed that week. It is all wonderful and I still really love the new van. I've been driving the Nissan a lot lately because of errand running and Young Women's activities (my calling at church is YW Secretary now) I've been doing without children. It is nice. Not the car, just the opportunity to get away alone. Jason's arm is healing well and we have an appointment scheduled to get the cast off on February 11th. Since he broke it on January 9th, that is just about one month in a cast. Not too shabby. We are very proud of him. He never ever complains and has kept the cast (the original one, he never got it replaced with the black one!) very clean, considering.

If you've been keeping track, you will notice next week is already looking busy. Testing on Friday, cast off on Thursday... Derek has preschool Tuesday and Thursday, our Education Facilitator for homeschooling is coming Thursday, and Wednesday is DEREK'S 4th birthday. Am I going to say "They grow so fast!" at every birthday my children have for the rest of their lives? It is such a joy to watch this one grow, though. He was truly a happy and enthusiastic baby and toddler. Now that he is becoming a little boy, I look forward with such anticipation to see what he will become. My children are such blessings in my life.

Oh hey! Forgot to mention that we were able to find a dryer (generously donated by one of our babysitters' family! They had it sitting in their garage and just gave it to us. It also happened to be the SAME exact model of dryer we already had. Creepy. But such a blessing. So we've been able to dry our clothes the past month. Thank goodness!

Also, last week I was able to use our timeshare to take a brief (3-4 days) getaway to relax and recoup. Oh my, it was so nice to sleep, relax, hang out (and catch up) with some of my friends, and just enjoy the peace and quiet. I came home refreshed and happy, ready to start again!

While I was gone, Rick purchased the "INSANITY" cardio workout (off of craigslist for cheaper, whoo hoo) and we've started the 60 day program. Monday (the 1st) was our first day, and today I just completed the day 4 workout. I am totally loving it. I like the DVD (different workouts each day, today was a "cardio recovery" workout) and the people are NOT annoying. No super enthusiastic, smiley, chipper people. Just a hard-core trainer type. Perfect! I've been sore the past 3 days, and it feels good! Amazing how quickly it all comes back. Also, I didn't realize how HAPPY it would make me to start working out again. It's been about a year (since I got pregnant with Jane) and my body is craving it now. Everything in me is ready to be thin again. Hooray! I've already lost a couple of pounds, I'm sure. I'll do an official weigh-in weekly (like the biggest loser, which we've been watching, haha.)

Wow. This blog is super long. Guess that's what happens when the baby girls are napping and the older 3 are playing video games quietly downstairs. Makes me a little nervous about what ELSE they may be getting into, but oh well. It is worth it. Breanna just woke up and is ready for lunch so I am going to finish off here. Glad I could post so much today. Still hoping to get more on top of more regular updates. :-)