When I journal, it’s like catching up with an old friend. I can selfishly comment on all the things I deem important. It all seems so banal when chatting with the world! The Lord has been good to us. He has blessed me with so much beauty all around me. I can hardly get enough of the green grass, the sunshine and rain and Hailey’s partly toothy smiles. My home is quickly filling up with boxes. With less than three weeks till our move date and without a newborn or a huge stomach, I’ve been motivated to conquer some of the organizing projects that can easily be neglected. I reclaimed several recipes and a $20 Victoria Secret gift card out of my labors! Four babies later I can dejavu that blissful newlywed time….only it’s all about online shopping these days! As I was going through boxes in our little storage shed, I remembered that it was at this very house two monumental celebrations occurred–surprise parties both at my high school graduation before I left for Equip and Indianapolis and then several years later I was royally surprised with a marvelous bridal shower before I became a California girl for what I thought would be forever! I never would have dreamed I’d call this same house home with my wonderful husband and four little children. I never would have dreamed my sister, bro-in-law, and little niece would live in the same downstairs where we used to have our slumber parties with our best friends, or that my kids would play in the same backyard whose trees we used to climb and talk about courtship and play capture the flag. Our God is big enough to handle the knowledge of a billion little intricately ironic subtleties that comprise our lives here on earth!

I’m excited about being home-owners though. There’s something nicely American about really making a home our own. (By the same token there’s something eternally valuable about not settling down too much. Our hearts will always yearn for something better since this life is not our eternal home.) It was on Aria’s third birthday that we fell in love with our new house. We threw water balloons at each other and ate a simple family picnic lunch in the shaded park community. After investigating all sorts of home possibilities, we finally felt our hearts engage in this place that is just right for us!

Joel’s dreams came true this past week when he received his very own wooden train set. My dreams have been coming true all of my life–my good dreams. My very vivid imagination allows for all sorts of bazaar and terrifying nightmares on occasion, but it’s my happiest daydreams that keep becoming reality for me as the days go by. The book versus blog distinction prohibits me from posting the daydreams come true of long ago. The creativity of our all- powerful God allow for the variations and design triumphs that make the garment of life more original and beautiful. I love to look back and see how God has directed the course of my life. At the same time I loathe my own persistent lack of trust in God. My worries over little and big details always boil down to a lack of trust in my ever-faithful Heavenly Father.

It is so hard saying good bye to the dear friends I’ve made here in San Diego. Last week we finished up books in two separate book studies. Almost as long as I’ve been married to David and living in San Diego, a group of us girls has met at Emily’s house or my house every other Tuesday to discuss a variety of books. Last Tuesday we discussed the last two chapters of a book entitled UnChristian. Then on Thursday we finished an intimate couples study on Love that Lasts. It is so marvelous how God takes such things into consideration! As I look forward to this family road trip across the country, I think it’s also interesting and providential how Aria is my only baby who I’ve trained to take a bottle. This will certainly save time as we won’t have to make stops every 2 ½ hours along the way!

There are many things I look forward to in Libertytown, Maryland. Amongst them is seeing my sister Kendra through her pregnancy, doing pilates in the early morning hours with various sisters, watching Joel bond with and learn from his young uncles Seth and Joseph, and having various family members, my grandparents and close friends over for a meal and games nights. I dearly treasure the possibility of being involved in my young siblings lives. I would always have a small twinge of anguish to hear of my married sisters taking Trina or Seth or Joseph on an outing. My dad will be able to visit us without having to get time off of work. I thrill with childish delight to think of exploring the pretty places of my hometown with my own husband. We’ll take walks through historic downtown Frederick, play tennis together at Libertytown park, follow the creek and let our kids get muddy playing in it like I loved to do! We’ll go sledding and make snowmen and then warm up with hot chocolate and wassail. We can drive to Annapolis, Gettysburg, Harper’s Ferry, Chincoteague, and DC to see the sights and enjoy time together.

I can hardly believe how swiftly our lives have changed. A couple weeks ago, I was painting the wooden letters of Aria’s name and mounting them above her crib. Now we’re labeling boxes. A few months ago we were preparing to have a baby and moving a few miles. That move was just a fire drill for the big cross-country venture. When I packed my luggage for my honeymoon in Maine and a new life in San Diego, I never would have dreamed that just four years later, we’d be a happy family of five, my usual car to drive would be a minivan or I’d be developing my thesis on how to regularly achieve the concurrent three-child nap! God is good to us. I certainly can’t imagine knowing the details of life for every living thing let alone orchestrating them in harmony!

Stay tuned on our adventures. Most likely my trusty, techy husband will keep people up to date even when our computer is stowed away in many layers of packaging materials on a moving vehicle.

This peculiar Sunday morning I’m reminded of one of the reasons I have 2 1/2 small children and have been busily working on my degree. With some of the uncharacteristic extra time I had this morning, I flipped through the pages of a scrapbook Heidi and Eden made for me two Christmases ago. I read their touching letters and my eyes scanned the pictures of happy memories and fun-filled outings with and without me. It didn’t take long for the effects of such nostalgia-producing activity to fill my eyes with tears and my heart with longings to make more memories with these dear loved ones. The comfort of thinking of Seth’s upcoming first visit out here and Eden’s visit (the middle of next month–during baby time) only made the tears come more freely.

I was reminded of a time in our first year of marriage when David came home from work to a tearful wife. He soon saw the quilt of wedding pictures arrayed on the floor near my partially completed wedding scrapbook and practically forbade me to work on such activities alone. Of late, I am never alone. Joel chatters on about all sorts of things, especially Thomas the train, Grammy and Michael, Chalice and Daddy. Joel is making less sense to me as he tries to string many more words together and much faster than before. Even when both kids are down for their naps, I am accompanied by Chemistry studies, which keep my mind quite occupied in a realm outside my comfort zone. My normal days afford me no time to feel homesick. But this morning is a good reminder. Each time a stranger tells me, “YOU have your hands full!” I can be quite grateful for full hands and a full plate as I plod through life. My little companions and my husband are a joy and blessing each day.

Two special delights of this day included a conversation with a dear, encouraging friend, and a new book I ordered from the library for MYSELF. Oh, it has been far too long since I’ve found myself lost in another world, or looking forward to a free moment to find out what happens next, or narrating my own life as I vicariously live the life of an individual who is far more interesting than myself. For the past few years it seems I have read nothing but educational material, personal growth and theology, and other such edification literature. What a frivolous pleasure it is to absorb something that is not even partially necessary! Maybe in the days to come I will be able to prove this particular delight is somehow necessary to my existence. The Spy Wore Red is all about the secretive, alluring life of Countess of Romanones, Aline. The vote is out as to whether this exciting tale is truly autobiographical, as it claims to be. Nevertheless, I am finding that reading of Aline’s life is highly complementary to my own life at this particular juncture. My chemistry studies certainly don’t afford me the same thrill that I’ve gained from studying other subject matter.

Meanwhile, I’m refreshing long-lost favorite children’s literature to read to my two-year-old. Blueberries for Sal, Curious George Goes to the Hospital, The Biggest Bear, Thidwick, the Big-Hearted Moose, The Foot Book, and the like. I work out deals with Joel so that I get to pick certain books in between stories of Thomas the Train. Joel especially likes to be nestled up in my lap when we are reading. I find my lap to be rather extraordinarily full these days!!

Joel and Chalice are funny little rascals. I appreciate the comic relief they provide throughout the day. Chalice has been full of spunk and smiles. She’s been showing off her eight new teeth which have finally quit plaguing her so that she’s not so grumpy. Joel is utterly smitten with trains and Thomas. I never would have thought I’d have a 2-year-old so enamored with Thomas the Train and Percy. He sleep-talks about them! Potty-training has entered a slightly more relaxed stage in the past couple weeks. Joel responds to my inquiry as to whether he has to go potty, “No, no sank you, go potty.” The first time he said it I said, “Huh!!!?” “No, sank you go potty.” He is very definitive with his Yes’s and just as clear about his dislikes.