I just put a bunch of pictures on my blog. Valentines' Day and all. I still have never put pics of Christmas, I don't think. Oh well. We babysat last night for the Calkins. They left their 4 boys here and went on a much needed date. They will be moving in May. Steve starts his new job in Virginia in a few weeks I think and will be gone during the week. Amy is staying here with the kids and they will all move up in May, when the kids are done school and sports and everything. She was my first friend when we moved here, and has been my closest. I will miss them so much when they are gone. They have been so loving, so giving, so great to us. We have shared so much together and felt like sisters all along. I know it was a real blessing for Steve to get this new job, I had been praying that something else would come up, I am just sad that it will mean they will be so far away.

Ian has been going crazy with puzzles lately. He wants to do them all day long, and Karen even brought over four new ones and he breezed right through them. He loves it, and it's great having something he will sit still at for a while. Grace has taken a few steps. Like, two and a half, several times now. I think once she realizes she can go faster that way, she will take off. She's been my latest walker. George is really enjoying doing "school" with me. We slacked off and didn't do it a few days last week, but did two lessons this morning. He goes through them pretty quickly still so we usually do two at a time, and sometimes we do that twice a day. He is reading short words now. I am really glad I did get that book instead of using the ABeka stuff. ABeka is so solid on phonics and great, but they have pictures by everything and George can't concentrate on the sounds, he just looks at the pictures and guesses. He is such an incredibly strong visual learner, I really have to make sure that all he has to look at is exactly what he needs and no more. He has been asking me to read him verses lately and so at meal times I have been reading to him. He loves it and always wants me to read more. I need to get him a Bible of his own, I never did decide on one. King James is great, but he keeps having to ask what the words mean, which I suppose is good, but for right now, and especially once he starts to be able to read it on his own, it would be nice to have something a little more understandable for him.

I had a long talk with Nathan on the whole birth control issue the other night. He agrees with me that the Bible says children are always a blessing, and counters with "Well, serving God is a blessing and good, does that mean I should quit my job and become a pastor, even though I don't feel called to?" I am reading "A Full Quiver" by Rick and Jan Hess. It's good. I am still trying to find out what exactly the Lord wants me to believe here. I think it's pretty obvious from Scripture that kids are a reward, a blessing, and good. They are not, however, a commandment. I get a little nervous of those people in the "quiverfull" camp that think it is a sin not to constantly "try" to get pregnant. It can become legalistic, and I don't think that pleases the Lord any more than those who don't trust His provision and stop having kids without seeking His will for them. I think they are cutting their blessings off, but I don't know if just not having kids, (through human interventions) is a sin. I suppose the sin would be if God had revealed to a person His will and they did not trust Him enough to let Him be in control of that area of their lives. My heart is burdened about this, but what is clear to me is that I need to be obedient to my husband and he is still in favor of birth control right now. He said he didn't mind if I researched it further, though. I'm not going to argue with him, just pray that both our minds are in accord, or become so, with the mind of the Lord.

This funny thing in my chest, shoulder, arm, has been worse in the last few weeks. It started probably a year or 6 months ago, just a vague, dull ache in my left shoulder once in a while. I have always had various pains in my chest, asthma and heart stuff. A doctor told me once my heart wasn't where it was supposed to be in my chest, and that's why it hurt sometimes. I've had pleurisy, chostocondritis, (I'm sure I spelled that wrong, LOL) and other funny things. Just in the last few weeks, though, the chest pain, on my left side has been getting worse. It's not a sharp pain, and sometimes more of a weakness and pressure than actual pain. I don't know if it's my lung or my heart or muscles or what. I don't know if the chest stuff is related to the shoulder stuff or not, but it kind of feels like the same thing. My shoulder, left side started bothering me more. It was like the vague pains I've had off and on for awhile now just stepped up in intensity. Then it radiated down my arm, and hand. It's like a funny, cold heat...I know that doesn't make any sense, but I can't tell which. Like it's asleep almost, dead weight, or just really weak. I haven't been able to make bread in 2 1/2 weeks, and I have been having to hold the kids on my other side. It's not all the time, and it's not constant even when it is bothering me. I don't think it's my heart, because the feelings do feel the same in my chest and shoulder, so maybe that is a muscle thing, or maybe a pinched nerve or something? It's getting annoying, and we just switched over to our HSA, which means that until we pay $5000 out of that account, insurance doesn't pay anything. So, I could go to the dr. but we couldn't really afford to have any tests done, which I would think would be necessary to really figure out what's going on. It's certainly not life threatening, just frustrating. In the last 2 weeks, I have had probably 4 days when it was really bad, painful and weakening, and really affecting my productivity level. I tried to look online some to figure it out, but didn't come up with much. I suppose I am just writing about it now to chronicle when it started, to see later if it goes away, or gets worse or whatever. I just want it to go away. Right now, it just feels like there's a stick through my chest on my left side front to back, and it gets worse when I take a deep breath. My shoulder is aching, my arm and hand feel funny, cold and heavy. Maybe it will just go away, that would be great.

I have been all into making soup ever since I had that great soup at Misty's awhile back. Saturday I tried my hand at making chicken noodle, but it definitely has something lacking. I don't really know what, though. I will make some cabbage tomatoe, zucchini soup later this week. I love soup, it's really cheap to make, it's super good for us, everyone will eat it and it lasts a long time. Yummy! :)

I should probably go, I need to get things picked up and I will try not to succumb to just laying on my heating pad and reading "Little Dorrit" in my bedroom. We'll see! :P