Changes... so many

All of a sudden, life is becoming busy. Obviously, a baby keeps me pretty busy. But September in general brings forth new activities and my life is also continuing to change.

First, all of a sudden I am a part of three bible studies, leading one study and organizing a group or two at church. This is NOT a complaint. I am enjoying it so far, although it has only just begun. Youth group and Boys and Girls club will potentially bring challenges and disappointments but I am prepared for that. As for the studies, I am so happy to have several groups to be learning with and meeting with.

Next change: Dave and I are trying to entertain at our home with people we do not know very well. This past Sunday I got all into playing hostess and I:

decorated the table. I also had it set and ready to go the night before. (This picture was taken after the entertaining was over hence it being a little messy.)

I cooked a soup from scratch (same soup as the baptism which people really liked.)

and I made this amazing caramel brownie tart. The greatest complement was from my sister, who after eating said, "Looks like I now have some competition". Everyone knows she is an excellent cook so that pleased me greatly.

I really enjoyed being a hostess and serving yummy food. This is a very new thing for me. Being in the kitchen used to make me kind of grumpy. Im now learning to see the fun and satisfaction in cooking and having clean dishes and a clean counter area. I still hate putting dishes away though.

My next change has to do with my laundry situation. I am very fortunate to have a washer and dryer in my apartment (unlike Ness upstairs) but I have tried very hard to conserve energy and keep the bills lower by not using the dryer. Dave made me a wooden drying rack a while back and it has been my laundry companion for a long while. This week, it died. I didn't mourn it's loss right away... I was angry at it instead. Thankfully it is just an object and wont be hurt at my fickle feelings. This is what my laundry room looked like after the second load of wash. I literally had no where to put the clothes to dry since the dryer was being used for all the towels and sheets.

DISASTER!!!

Thankfully, Vanessa has a dryingrack and she let me borrow it so I was able to put the next load of wash all on that rack. I should really do laundry more than once a week. It would likely make things much easier.

Finally, Matty. What is changing in him? EVERYTHING!

Here is Matty at 6 weeks and one day. I don't know if you can tell but he is getting so big.

These are all of the clothes he has already outgrown. It happens so fast. I took some close ups of some of them because I think they are just so cute.

Booties knit by Great Oma

The teddy on Matty's first pair of overalls from Tante Vanessa. He wore these on his very first trip to church.

An adorable sleeper from Aunty Jo's collection of clothes that I was so blessed to use. It always reminds me of Africa.

Matty's 'coming home from the hospital' sleeper from Grammie. I just love the blue with the helicopters.

Oh, I just thought of another change: Sleep! Matty has begun to sleep for 4 hour stretches and sometimes even longer. Just a few nights ago he actually slept through the entire night. I admit I was in pain when he finally woke up BUT I was very well rested.

Other news: I had my 6 week appointment and have a good report. All is healed REALLY WELL and I have yet to find out about my thyroid. If I hear nothing, I continue to stay on my hormones. If I hear something I either stop taking them or I will have to increase it. We shall see.

Matthew is talking now. Not actual words, of course, but he will look at you, smile and say things like "goo, a goo..." I don't really know how to spell out any of the other sounds he makes but it is so cute. Today he spoke to his Uncle Aidan and his Tante Katrina, to me and to Dave(all seperate occassions). I tried desperately to get him on tape and only have a very little snippet. Unfortunately, I still can't get the videos to upload. Perhaps one day I can share them. I guess I should get a lesson on how to do it. Until then, take my word for it, it's ADORABLE!!!!