Life is good. Right now, sleepiness is my dominating trait. My eyes hurt from not being closed enough in a twenty-four period for weeks. But, we have a healthy happy baby girl who I get to hold and love and feed. I get to watch the other little girls love her and take care of her in their own sweet ways. Our church family is showering us with love in the form of meals, visits, gifts, folded laundry, and clean bathrooms.

And that is how July came and went. It was a wonderful, challenging month.

I just re-read my original goals for 2014 and was struck by how many of them were accomplished in the month of July, completely apart from any effort on my part. What grace to know that God is still working for temporal and eternal growth even while I’m at my weakest. That’s the way it always works, but I forget every single time.

Here are just a few examples,

Reading- I finished the book True Companion. Remember I was hoping Paul would buy it for me? He did! And it was a delightful and encouraging way to spend those nursing hours. I’ve read more of others on my list and started a new one, too.

The girls and chores- my girls have overwhelmed me with their helpfulness. We’re keeping things picked up more than before the baby! A nightly clean-up time has finally clicked; I don’t have to micro-manage it. (keeping fingers crossed)

Surfaces- don’t laugh at me, there’s actually been improvement here! I have no idea how, but it’s on the list and I’m telling you there’s been improvement.

Schooling- though it’s summer time, I realized that a lot of our goals in this area are either met or still happening. Here’s a good example of how this is happening without me at all. One of my desires for Hope was for her to read beginner biographies. A dear friend dropped off a box of books with probably twenty biographies right at Hope’s level! She devoured them! (and read them to Sophia while I napped) Abraham Lincoln, the Wright brothers, Ben Franklin, etc. So exciting.

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Now for August.

This will not be a robust undertaking for obvious reasons, but there are a few things that have to happen.

First, it’s to time to prepare for homeschooling again. I am so excited for this. All our materials are in boxes, ready to be opened, right by the front door where the UPS man left them in… May. But that’s okay! I didn’t intend to open them until August. I also didn’t intend to leave them by the front door, but too late now. I need to open those up and get them ready to go. I’d love to have the worksheets maybe pulled out and filed. I think it would be helpful to do lesson plans more ahead of time. Also, I think we could plan field trips and park days already, at least for the fall semester. This is part of a longer story, but we will have a room to ourselves for homeschooling at least for the first two months. I want to make it special, but not too involved since it will not be permanent. This includes activities or a place for the little girls. My plan is for them to more involved and present during school. We need a desk for Sophia and I would like to check a local homeschool store for some supplemental activities. Maybe I’ll be able to post about the preparation process as we go.

Second, find and use good post-pregnancy workouts. It felt so good to exercise during pregnancy! I’m ready to start again, slowly. We’ve taken several walks, but I need something to strengthen my stomach and back- they need some TLC from all this nursing. I definitely have diastasis recti or separation of the stomach muscles so I’m doing some research to make sure that the exercises I do will be a help and not a hindrance. Suggestions? Links? If I exercise one to two times a week, including a walk, I will be happy.

Third, work on table manners with the girlies. Paul got me a new table for my birthday! We love it. It was sad to see our other table go, but we had a wonderful seven years with it and had just outgrown it. Hopefully, I can get good pictures of the new one and do a post about it. Anyways, now is a great time to just review and reinforce table manners with the girls. I want to talk about it when we’re out of the situation and enforce it when we’re at meals. Also, I want to work on having the girls eat their food right away at the beginning of the meal. They all do pretty well eating whatever we give them, but sometimes there is a lot of messing around before they actually get down to business. I think it’s time for them to eat their food without constant reminders to do so.

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Especially in this newborn stage my priorities are important: rejoice, give thanks, love Paul, love the girlies, make meals (or put them on the table when sweet friends bring them), do laundry. That will be good.

The book I just started, Glimpses of Grace by Gloria Furman, is a wonderful help with many of my resolutions. As postpartum hormones swing my emotions from high to low, it’s helpful to read over and over about finding my joy in the unchanging character of God.

I’m looking forward to and clinging to the goodness of God this month. Here’s to the last three weeks of August!