The exciting adventures of the Hillson family.

The exciting adventures of the Hillson family.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Back from sabbatical...

Well, it has been a WHILE.  Still a crazy household; still eight of us; still very, very blessed!

We are coming up on the one-year mark celebrating our household all coming together to make the most unexpectedly loving and supportive family I can imagine.  Let's be honest.  I didn't think we'd last this long--oh, I'd hoped, but there have always been little doubts: "what if we get in a fight?" "What if we move?" "What-if? What-if?" But here we are! Happy, healthy, and on the precipice of some awesome new opportunities!

Just to get up to speed, here's a few things you might have missed:

Let's start with one of our biggest joys and smallest people.  Bethany is potty-training! Almost three kids all toileting themselves... Amazing!! She is so quick and decided she was ready. It's only been a week and she's made it with very few accidents (one particular one during which I ended up with a poop-covered hand, but let's not focus on those times). Baby girl is growing up! Awww, Beffers.  Our biggest trial as a family happened to revolve around her, too.  I have a feeling we will write more about this later, but we had the biggest scare regarding her health and some lumps found on her neck; it was definitely a time of fervent praying, tears, and lots of stress-eating. However, God is good and faithful, and He pulled us--specifically Kasey and Elven--through a crazily emotional roller coaster.  For now, however, we can say that Bethany is a healthy, happy, and basically potty-trained two-year-old!

Jorma and Elven are working their tails off. I'm teaching. But, we all have similar schedules and get the opportunity--most nights--to have family dinner! And Kasey is working hard as ever being Super-Mom to her kids and Master of All Things Edible in the house. Over the past months, we've developed a lot of systems that make what we have WORK! One of those things: Kasey is in charge of food, meal-planning, etc. And she does a darn good job at it! No complaints here! I love having a cooking wife at home (haha).

And boundaries. This is a hard one.  We basically love each other and want to spend all our time together, but we've learned that isn't always the most conducive to family time, marital relationships, or really our relationships with one another.  We need separate, individual family time, which is something we've started doing twice a week.  This small schedule tweak has made a big difference! Schedule! Yes, we have one of those, too.  A whiteboard does wonders for our family schedule and meal planning (thanks, Kasey--you're awesome!).

And, in a nutshell, here we are.  We are all amped to continue our quest to be healthy, and live in a way that puts others before ourselves (love God, love others!).  Hopefully Kasey and I will jump back on the blog wagon, so we can continue the great conversations we started with those few readers (Hi Mom!) from before; we love those questions, emails, calls! This post is to get us back in the swing of things and get y'all caught up to speed on our crazy happenings, but you can be on the lookout for more interesting reads as we gain momentum (and inspiration)!

Good to be back!

~Meg