Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Wow what a December - Dad's perspective!

So, what an eventful December thus far and holiday season since Thanksgiving!  We have experienced since then:

- 2 rounds of sickness including Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday weeks/weekends ranging from stomach bugs to RSV and our first (and probably not last!) ER visit leading to an overnight hospital stay.  Jeremiah and Rachel both have infections with RSV ( respiratory synctial virus) and both are recovering well thanks to the prayers from our church community and just the grace of Jesus because His grace is unlimited and doesn't run dry!  Below is a snapshot of Jeremiah on some oxygen with the tubes and a quick video of us waiting to be moved into an overnight room when we were in the ER.



- ran my second 50km (31 mile) trail race on much more friendly and runnable terrain at Huntsville State Park, although colder than than I ever ran a race in the NY area ironically!  Not why we moved to Texas but the 32 degree (Farenheit that is) weather made it easier to run!  Completed in 6hr 32 min, a tortoise pace of 12:37 minutes/mile, but it was an hour faster than running up at Bear Mountain, NY.

- moved a whole bunch of plants from pots/portable containers into the ground, for real!  Our first real attempt at growing anything made up of tomato plants, pepper plants and a lone sweet potato that we had left over and unused!

- washed our cars for the second time in about a year, Joshua and Hannah did a great job with the outsides of the cars!

- continued to experience crazy daily life with 5 little kids 6 and under and the craziness of my job in research.

So this year has been pretty eventful, counting from about October last year:

- said goodbye to 7 years of living in the NY area and good bye to lush green forests and one of my favorite outdoors spots, Bear Mountain, NY

- moved cross country with 4 little kids under the age of 5 in 2 cars towing a u-haul trailer in our minivan that doesn't have working heat.  Those were some cold nights going through Tennessee and Georgia!

- moved into a house!  Renting mind you, but this was a huge shift just to experience a laundry and parking all within 20 feet of each other and not having to walk more than 20 seconds to each as opposed to our quarter mile uphill trek to our cars in NY and our 15-20 min laundry expeditions with our double stroller.

- started first really serious year of homeschooling, Becca has done an amazing job since she does most of it during the days when I'm at work.  The kids have come a long way and within weeks were reading and their handwriting has improved heaps in terms of core basic skills!   Joshua has been digesting the history encyclopedia, Hannah is helping to do pre-school with Abby and when I am home in the evenings, we are making our way through the Periodic Table (brings back memories of my own school) and John Chapter 1.  Up to Potassium, 92 more elements to go and about half way through John 1!  It's good for Becca and I to be committing this stuff to memory, especially the Word, because our brains have all but atrophied since we finished high school and college!

- started a new job here in translational research, interesting and stressfull all at the same time.  The Lord uses it along with marriage and parenting as part of our sanctification process to make us more and more like Jesus Christ!

- started drinking gallons of coffee!  Yes I am a dad of young children and yes I need the caffeine to stay awake!

- started drinking a lot more Gatorade and had my first experience (very very good experience) with Gu Energy Gels for all you endurance sport nutrition fans.

- delivered Rachel unassisted, at least in person, Jesus was with us and we had the midwives on the phone as they were racing to get here.

- my brain is fried right now but there's of course the day to day fun, so I'll leave you with some pictures and videos of one of our trips to the local playground:






God Bless!

Claude for the Chews

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