vacation mode/ my little valentine

We've been back here in California for four weeks now.  I still think my sister and her family are saints for taking in our large crew.  We're having a great time together.  It's going really really well.  All of our kids are homeschooled, so sometimes getting school work done is a challenge.  And little Judah is way off from his normal routine.  He is sleeping better than when we first got here, but it will take some time to get our usual flow back once we get into our own place.  Other than that, things are going so smoothly.  I love all the cousins playing and working together.   From the tallest to the smallest, they all genuinely enjoy each other.  And the sister time is pretty special too.  

I've been sort of in vacation mode or something, because I'm forgetting things and not in my usual rhythms of correspondence (email, phone calls, blogging, facebook) yet.  So you haven't heard from me here in a while.  I have things in my mind that I'd like to get into a post, but having a chunk of time to think clearly enough to get it from my head to the keys to the blog just isn't happening much.  

I'll give you a little glimpse of what's to come though... a couple mornings in a row I woke up with the Cranberries' song "These are Days" in my head.  And truly, these are the days.  Right now what we have here is pretty special.  I'm sure some days they're thinking it will be nice to have their house to themselves again... and somedays I think it will be nice to be in our own space where Judah will sleep good again... but for right now I want to savor these days.  I don't want to just look back and enjoy the memories of this time.  I want to enjoy every moment we have here in this sweet circus now.

So I'm going to start a series of posts called "these are the days."  You'll hear stories and see photos of this sweet season of families blended.  A few other posts will be scattered in there too.  Because I enjoy blogging and reading blogs and keeping it up helps me feel connected to old and new friends (bloggy friends included).

So for now I'll leave you with a couple of sweet photos of my little valentine and I.  Our fourth and final baby turned one last weekend.  (I could go on and on just about all that that evokes in me... but I don't have that much time or emotional energy at this writing.)  When Zeke was a baby, I put on dark lipstick and smooched him up real good for some pictures too.  (Wish I could show you, but they're not scanned in yet and the prints are in storage.)  He melts me.