Rapid fire updates.

Rapid fire updates.

On January 1, James declared that plunger-ing our toilet once and twice a day would not be welcome in the new year. So with YouTube in front of him and an elated wife behind, we marched off to Lowe’s with confidence and determination. James has really upped his handyman skills thanks to other neighborhood handymen and is enjoying success after success.DSC_0374 DSC_0375

Our life group has encountered some growing pains these last several months; look at all those grownups…and kids! Even though I do hope to someday get the green couch back down in the (carpeted) basement, it has provided nice extra seating for our large group!
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Beautiful Neighbor Anne and I were determined to get a preggo shot together, so when I got the text that her water broke, I rushed over to snag a shot before the baby was out! Check out how low that baby was! He arrived just a few short hours later but thankfully waited til after the photo op;)

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I got to introduce the kids to the laundromat several weekends ago, while we did SIXTEEN loads of laundry! (Loving a sister who had just had to evacuate her mold-infested house.) They were incredible! Corban changed bills into coins, inserted coins into machines, unloaded washers to load dryers, and more. He was such a cheerful helper, our 2 1/2 hrs there felt like mere minutes. I beamed for at least a week after at his beautiful helping spirit. Jaeda kept declaring her helper status while pushing her bear around in a cart. Pretty presh. The only mishap of the morning was when I asked Corban to place five quarters in a dryer. I came back with the next load only to find EIGHTY MINUTES remaining. I’m estimating that to be 11 quarters. Whoops. I must’ve gasped too loudly, because he totally sensed my disappointment at wasted quarters and cried and cried. I assured him he was still a good worker and encouraged extra careful counting for the next load. We lessened time on two other loads and placed them in this dryer when its load was dry. But the thing about laundromats is that you can dry everything at once, so we just couldn’t wait around for the whole 80 minutes. We shared its final 40 minutes with one of the other customers as a cleaning Merry Christmas, ha.
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I wore my contacts way past their expiration date. Was really trying to make them last til baby, but my calculations were off by, oh, two months or so. They just say your eyes change during pregnancy, so I didn’t want to have my annual exam. But apparently you can’t reorder contacts if your prescription is over a year old, which mine was, by a month. Gah. Something about contacts being prescription drugs. I can totally see the black market swarming with contact lens sellers. *blank stare* Whatever. Since I had to wear my glasses while I was waiting for my contacts to arrive (and I had put it off for a couple weeks already), I decided to update my glasses prescription. They were five years old. I’m not gonna tell you what that was like for a far-sighted person driving. Yeah. But then my glasses were updated, and I could SEE, glory be!IMG_0074

Got some new MudLove bands for Christmas. #blessed is an inside joke for our life groupies. We call it the humble brag, but mostly we’ll just leave inside our life group;) And the listen band is a good reminder for an extroverted woman who talks. So if you’re talking to me and I’m looking at my wrist, know that I’m remembering that listening is not getting ready to speak but actually hearing and engaging in YOUR thoughts. Sometimes I do all right at this. Sometimes, well, not. But I’m practicing, so come talk to me so I can get more practice!IMG_0078

And lastly, we’ve moved back into the loft and the loft closet since baby is taking over our old room (slash, we took over the baby’s room). What’s cool this time around is that my hanging clothes used to take up my entire half of the closet. Now James and I each have our dressers in there and just under half as hanging clothes, plus the hamper. It’s all in an effort to simplify. Fewer choices = less mental clutter = more space to be/focus on what’s important. Plus, it’s how Amy runs her life, and I think she’s pretty much amazing.IMG_0079

 

There you go. Disjointed, incomplete snippets of current events in the Steele household.

2 Comments
  • Alisha Miller
    Posted at 15:02h, 15 January Reply

    WOW, Anne’s belly! I’ve never seen a belly that low!

    Also, love that story of Corban. You’ve made me think more about being careful with Sophie. She’s so much like Corban and she’s so sensitive to disappointing. I’ve tried to be super careful about making sure that we deal with sin and then are DONE with it and don’t bring it up again since you told your one story in MOMs. Forgiveness is such an important thing to teach! Thanks for the reminder.

    • theredheads
      Posted at 15:41h, 15 January Reply

      I think I’ve shown that kind of irritation with small mistakes/accidents more as of late. James has pointed that out to me. Interestingly enough, I had my own mistake a couple days ago (dropped a carton of eggs) and I WATCHED the kids gasp and wait for my response. So much easier to be gracious with myself in that instance, knowing how it had happened, than to be gracious with them! I confessed it to James (he must have been praying because the Holy Spirit had to intervene beyond James’ actual words) and have had two days of intentionally watching for acts of sin vs acts of childishness. Just like she talks about in the book we just finished! I’m glad God has given Sophie to you too to give us that kind of discernment and sensitivity to the needs of our children!

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