it's good to be back

i haven't been hiding. i promise. it's just been an eventful week.
a busy week.
an exciting week.
a blessed week.
a fun week.

here's what's went down at the strattons.

- monday we finally got our fireplace insert (a wood stove that fits inside your fireplace) installed. many many thanks to my dad, who helped my resident handyman for nine hours on monday. dave finished up the last of it tuesday, and wednesday night for our discipleship group we had our very first crackling, blazing fire. SO good.

- tuesday was yet another lovely playdate with my girl, lee, and cadie & jax. davey was working from home, too, so i got to leave piper home having her morning nap. i realized 'wow- having one kid is easy' when eli and i hit the road and all i needed was a juice cup and a diaper. bonus: lee and i got to have a nice chat.

-wednesday i spent some time at new hope doing some necessary cleaning. i was pretty much on the war path with a mop. then i came home and fell asleep trying to get my pretty little fussbucket to fall asleep. then i woke up and realized i should be on the war path at MY house to get ready for our last discipleship group. ahh well. sitting fireside was a sweet end to our groups 10 weeks of great thoughts and chats. i'm going to miss it. even if i spend half the time dealing with children.

- thursday was grocery shop/laundry/prep day for dave's parents visit with us. i got my meal plan set so i could feed them something besides chicken nuggets, got their room ready, and the house cleaned up for their arrivial. on thursdays, dave is at new hope until 8:30 or 9, so the kids and i got to have a nice meal with grandma and grandpa. and i realized 'wow, having two kids is easy with 2 extra adults around to help.' :)

- well, thursday evening i realized that our washing machine had broken. overuse, i'm sure :) so friday, under the tutelage of art and nancy, we all (by we i mean they) tried to see if it was fixable. no-go. and then heaven opened up and our generous mom and dad decided they wanted to help us buy a new one. 'help' is actually a gross understatement. wow! God just blesses and blesses. so dave and art went ahead and ordered a new front-load washer. and by golly- i think it may very well actually WASH our clothes instead of just wetting them. hallelujah!

and while every single thing was out of my laundry room, art and i seized the opportunity to paint it. cobalt blue and stark white, just like the kitchen. and it looks MAGNIFICENT. truly. so we took the afternoon/evening to paint and paint and paint while the kids slept and slept.

which really was a little nuts, because dave and i had couple's group at 6:30. thank the Lord it wasn't at our place because the house looked like a tornado ripped through. so dave and i went on a date to couple's group and grandma and grandpa held down the eli and piper fort. and i must add that it was the best couple's group meeting we ever had. we just talked and laughed and shared and wrestled (no, not literally) and read from the Word and laughed some more. i love love LOVE those people. we had such a great time.

- saturday we tried to rest. i had some errands to do, and nancy, lovely mom that she is, took some laundry over to my moms and ran it for me. i went out to pick out a cake for piper's dedication, pick up the dry cleaning, and on a man-hunt for a headband or a bonnet for her to wear with her heirloom gown. no luck after 97357345983 stores, but i did stumble across what i think very well may have been the deal of the century at old navy. i don't think God probably cares about shopping, but i tell ya, if he didn't orchestrate those deals, i don't know WHO did. prepare for jealousy- cashmere zip-up hooded sweaters, originally $79.50, for $10. yes. believe it. see, God is good. and he does love me ;)

- because i knew art and nancy would be in town through sunday, i thought what better time to dedicate piper? it would be so special to have them there. so sunday, art and nancy made an appearance at their old home, new hope chapel. for the past two years, they've been living out in the cornfields of indiana, but new england was always their home. and new hope was their home for nearly two decades. they miss it here. and they miss elias and piper especially. so having art dedicate piper was...momentous, somehow. it was one of those "full-circle" moments.

we had my big ole family over after to church to celebrate, eat yummy food (i made homemade macaroni and cheese), and relax. it was really a perfect day. the sun was shining down on my chipper little bird, everything came off without a hitch, and we were more than proud to hand our baby girl over to the Lord.

by the time everyone left sunday it was nearly 7:00, and after some cleaning up, dave and i collapsed on the couch to see if the cardinals could pull a fast one and spank the awful steelers. almost, but no such luck. if it was our patriots, we totally would've shown those steelers what's what. oh well.

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now that the week has begun, i'm going to need some down time to re-coup from this past week. elias and pip did really well this week all things considered. i really want to go take a nap right now, but my husband and father are banging around outside putting on the chimney cap, so elias is up early from his nap. which means no nap for me. there's always tomorrow, right?

speaking of tomorrow, tune in for some pics from this past week.

it's good to be back.