Whew!

Boy, life has a way of sneaking up on you, doesn't it? I'm now in my third of four semesters to finish my Master's degree, then a couple of years more after that to get my certification in midwifery. I passed Statistics! Woohoo! It was the second time I've taken that class, once in nursing school and again over 10 years later as I work through this program...and I dreaded it both times. And somehow I passed both times. And not only did I pass, but I got an A. Imagine that. This term is Theory and Research and Community Health. Theory and Research has my tummy in knots. It is an area that I'm passionate about, but this course just seems daunting. But I know I'll get through it with the help of my Frontier sisters, just as I have the last two semesters.

Connor is growing so fast...I can't believe he's already over 13 weeks! He is such a charmer, always smiling and chuckling. His brothers love him to pieces, as do we. I look around at my three precious boys and just can't understand why God has blessed me as He has. Three gorgeous, smart, healthy boys...

I'm looking at minimalist living these days. As busy as we are, we just have no patience for clutter. So we're looking very seriously at this concept of intentional simplicity. I'm really enjoying the website Becoming Minimalist as the author is a believer and ties in an individuals spiritual life with minimalist living. I'm not talking about anything extreme like each person having only 100 belongings or anything like that, but just not having anything around that isn't essential to living. I have a feeling that this is going to be a long journey. From what I read on blogs written by those who have taken a minimalist approach, it is often done in layers, starting first with the things that you are not using, that are broken, etc. Then after that, start addressing what you can live without. As I look around my house, the idea sounds more and more appealing. We move frequently, and are a busy family, so paring things down a bit sounds just fabulous.