Can you guess why I’ve been so quiet?  I’ll give you a hint:

I am so predictable, aren’t I?  We were thrilled to learn, not long before I dropped off the face of the internet, that our precious dozenth (is that a word?) child is on his or her way, due to join us sometime in August or September. (We *were* due on Pippa’s 14th birthday, September 6, but the ultrasound we had this past Friday showed baby about a month further on than we expected, so I am holding my due date and my summer plans with very open hands at this point!)

As we’ve reflected on the remarkable way God has grown our family over the last few years, we noticed that we have added exactly one child in each calendar year since 2011 (for those who like patterns and numbers, that would be: Coraline in 2011, Niko in 2012, Delia in 2013, Annis in 2014, Lewis in 2015, Verity in 2016, and Teddy in 2017). Of course that wasn’t on purpose, but it was kind of a fun coincidence.  It was a whirlwind, but we felt quite sure our streak would end there.  What a happy surprise that we get to add one more blessing in 2018!

It has been a full, busy season since my last post.  We’ve had our winter birthday season.

Bea and Romilly had their school play, and all three schoolies are continuing to love school and thrive there.

We’ve had an exceptionally long winter, with Easter in the middle somewhere.

We are now finally thawing out and looking forward to finishing up our school year (on both fronts!). We are still considering school options for next year, so I will keep you posted on that as we start to nail things down a bit more.  Happy Spring to you all!