I'm Back!

I left town for Stampin' Up!'s Leadership Training conference on January 9. It was in Palm Springs, CA, an absolutely beautiful location. I so enjoyed being able to visit with old friends and getting a boost mentally and came home ready to "work" my business again. I had been feeling pretty burned out by life in general, namely our 4th move in three years and keeping up with Kenna. Major kudos to Ted, who took off work so that I could go. (I had to miss last year's Leadership because he was deployed and I was great with child!) The kids had a great time here at home with Daddy, and he even crossed off most of the homeschool tasks on the list I had left him!! PLUS I came home to a fabulously CLEAN house, to include Charis's room, which is normally a pit of despair...I walk in and despair of ever seeing the floor!

Though I returned home last Sunday (the 13th), this week has been filled up with catching up on emails, phone calls, regular mail, homeschooling, and yes, even working on my business. I had a workshop for my deaf friends Tuesday morning and a stamp club that meets once a month yesterday afternoon. I've also booked a couple of parties for March and a long-distance "Party in a Box" event for a friend in Ohio. (If anyone else is interested in hosting a "Party in a Box," leave a comment or email me so I can give you more information!) Then last night a friend came over for dinner and an evening of scrapping. It didn't feel like it, but it was 11:30 p.m. when we wrapped things up! I'll be updating my scrapping blog later today after I take pictures of the 7 pages I completed.

So, it's been a busy but balanced week--and that means I have not blogged or read my friends' blogs at all! I have a lot of catching up to do in that respect! But I'm thankful to get back into a routine. Of course, the routine sometimes seems to change daily, especially with an 11-month old!

So, an update on Kenna, since Megan asked. :-) It's taking 4 chairs these days to pen her in the family room. She's worked up to an average of 45 minutes of contented playpen time, so I am able to count on that as time when I can get other things done. It hasn't worked quite as well as I would like to do our Sonlight reading in the family room while she roams...she seems to not like Sonlight! We get a few pages read at an extremely high decibel level as we compete with her shrieks, and then I give up and dismiss the kids until later when Kenna is napping.

She is becoming more proficient on the stairs, but I am not even close to feeling comfortable leaving her on her own for that activity. Still, she loves crawling up them and always does so with a big grin on her face as if to say, "Aren't I a big girl now?!"

An update on the nursing issue...I did pump while I was gone, and amazingly she hasn't completely rejected me upon my return. However, as we were having to supplement more and more even before I left, it's definitely dwindling. I can count on her to nurse well when she isn't completely awake, so late at night, first thing in the morning (sometimes), or (rarely) in the middle of the night. We're at an average of about one nursing period per day, whereas before my trip it was usually two. So I guess the trip did have a noticeable effect. But you know what? I'm OK with it! She's a beautiful, healthy girl, and we have made it quite a long time considering all the issues we've had over her short life.

So there you have it! An update from me! It's now breakfast time...TTFN!