March seemed like an especially long month this year — perhaps because it follows the shortest month of the year, or perhaps because we packed so much into this month. We started the month working hard to finish up the remodeling work on our house and get it ready to sell. We spent a few evenings and weekends getting the last of the work done and now the house in on the market with open houses the first weekend of April. Alicia flew down for the memorial service for her Grandma Devine and Tim played solo dad for the day (and everyone survived!). Grandma and Grandpa Powers and Aunt Kelly came up for a short visit at the end of the month for Cordelia’s birthday party, which was a nice treat. We’ve also been finding who to serve at church. To end the month we had another round of colds with Alicia and the kids sick again, while Tim’s been lucky so far.
Cordelia turned three years old this month. We had a party for her at the house of some church friends who graciously opened their home to us due to threatening rain the Saturday before her birthday. She wore her quotPrincess Elsaquot dress that she got from Mimi and Papa, ate cupcakes (well, the icing, at least) and ice cream. She had a great time playing with many friends and making paper snowflakes. Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Kelly joined us for the festivities; Cordelia was elated to have their company. One of the gifts Corrie got this year was a new bicycle. She was able to ride it by herself after just a few hours of help from Grandma and company. While she is generally a kind and affectionate girl, she continues to explore different ways to express herself and test her boundaries. As she grows she becomes more precocious and independent, but also more assertive (quotNo, Daddy, you will not take my dinner away if I play with my food.quot). She is a very sweet big sister, though, and she has begun quotteachingquot Anthony how to do things.
Anthony is doing well, he FINALLY HAS TEETH!!! Well, a tooth anyway, pokes through at the end of the month (one of his upper incisors came in). At 14th months we think it’s about time! He’s running around, improving with his eating, and continuing to quottalk.quot His favorite word is quotBaPaaaquot [Popcorn] – he knows the word and will shriek it loudly if anyone says it. He’s engaging more and more with people and toys. He enjoys playing with Cordelia in a deliberate way and often follows her example. He mimics her drinking tea and taking dogs for a walk. Additionally he also can harass Corrie, for example, he will take her water cup and taunt her to chase him down to retrieve it. He likes joining us for family movie night; he’ll sit on laps and eat popcorn (carefully / 1 small piece at a time, of course). He’s climbing everything now — stairs, people, furniture, it doesn’t matter to him. Unfortunately this means Cordelia’s quotsafe zonequot for her stickers and crayons is no longer safe. We’re trying to figure out a new solution. He will climb on Cordelia’s stool in the bathroom and wait for us to brush his tฬถeฬถeฬถtฬถhฬถ tooth; he also enjoys quotBaaaquot (bath time) and quotBaaaapquot (reading a book).
Alicia has begun serving at church in the audio/visual ministry where she had previously been helping as the light board operation. She has also stepped into the quotstage managerquot role for Sunday mornings, trying to help things run smoothly. She has enjoyed helping there and being able to contribute. Sadly, she received a quotno thank youquot email from the jobs she interviewed for. It was a sad disappointment. She is trying to stay positive and focus on ministering to other stay-at-home moms. One mom she meet and invited over had her very first play date with Alicia and her son is 18 months old! Alicia continues going to the weekly morning bible study as well as volunteering with the MOPS group.
Tim is continuing to do his best at work. He’s been doing more theoretical work lately, as he transitions more fully into his new role. He worked a fair amount at the house helping to prepare for the sale/open house. He continues to enjoy the time he gets to spend with the kids in the evenings. He is also beginning to get involved in ministry at church; he is considering working with the middle school youth group. He is training for a half marathon in June, which is going well so far.
As a family, we have been praying that God would remind us to be present in the moment and situations that he’s placed us in. We both have a tendency to focus on the future and overthink / overplan. However, quottoday’s trouble is enough for todayquot – we can be so focused on where we wish we were and what we wish we were doing that we forget to fully engage where we are.
The house is done now, and on the market. We will have offers (hopefully) coming in on April 3rd. We have no plans to move anywhere else at the moment and will likely just be for a while and recover from the stress of the sale process. We decided on a preschool for Cordelia and she will be starting the week after the 4th of July. She will attend twice a week 4hrs a day for 5 weeks over the summer. We’ll evaluate if we want to continue enrolling her once we see how she likes the summer session.
For the coming month, we pray for peace and contentment where we are, to “grow where we have been planted.” ย We pray for the relationships we are trying to cultivate with other families, and that we’ll be able to form meaningful relationships with the people God has placed in our lives. ย And finally, for the house, we pray for a good response to our listing and that God would (when it’s time) show us what the next step is, and that He’d keep us content to wait on Him until it’s time. Thank you for your prayers, love, and support.
