As is usually the case when I’m not blogging much, the problem isn’t a lack of things to share.  The problem is that there is *so* much going on all at once that by the time I think about writing a post about one thing, life has whizzed past me and something bigger and more interesting is going on.  So, just by way of keeping you all up to speed, here are some highlights:

• The school year is over!  Which means: Pippa is done kindergarten (what?!), my baby sister Paige graduated from high school (WHAT!?!), and Ellie is now happily enjoying summer with her mommy, who is a teacher.  We are enjoying the lazy pace of summer and the relative ease of scooting around with just four little ones, or at least we were until… well, I’ll come to that.

• 
• Our friend Liz came to visit from Scotland.  The summer before I was pregnant with Pippa, we went on a short term missions trip to Romania (I still know a few useful phrases and even some songs – ask me sometime).  Liz was part of the team we went with, and she has been a dear friend ever since, though we’ve been out of touch for too long.  She showered our girls with some good Scottish children’s literature (I am having to relearn words like glaikit and ken), and was an instant hit with them.  This is Liz, then and now:

• My ‘little’ cousin Holly got married!  A long time ago, I told you all how weird it was that my cousin Michael (Ellie’s dad) was all grown up and living around the corner with his wife, because in my head he’s still about six.  Well, this is his *little* sister.  You can imagine!  I am getting old, old, old.
• Our van’s transmission bit the dust.  We have been stuck in the house for most of the week and are just hoping to have it back in time for some plans this weekend and next week.  Three years ago a similarly enormous and unexpected car repair came up, and prompted our big financial rethink of 2007.  This time, we both took the news much more peacefully, knowing that God has a purpose for even this, and looking forward to seeing what it might be.  For one thing, I know I will never again take for granted having a car big enough to fit everyone so that we can not be stuck in the house all day!  Which brings me to…
• It’s so hot!!!  I have always joked (half-joked?  Not at all joked??) that the only things Trevor and I fight about are baby names and air conditioning.  So, as such, this extended period of non-pregnancy and non-heat has been a lovely time of refreshment and growth in our marriage, but I expected it to come to an end with the hot weather.  You know what?  Two things seem to have happened this year in a huge answer to prayer: 1.  Trevor doesn’t like the heat any more than I do this summer, and has on more than one occasion *gasp* turned the air on before I even thought of it, and 2. I am finding myself less inclined to spend the money and more inclined to hide away in the cooler rooms of the house and wait it out.   I’m not sure our AC usage is much different than usual, but it sure has been less contentious!
• Finally, in case you’ve been missing my posts on much other than cute pictures of my kids, I have a post up on our church’s blog, and a few others back in the archives a bit if you feel like digging for them.  Our assistant pastor’s apologetics series has been awesome and so have my friend Jocelyn‘s posts, so it wouldn’t hurt to read in between my posts as well.

Thanks for sticking with me through this dry spell.  Maybe someday I’ll get back into a groove of posting more often and more substantially… maybe.