Poor neglected blog

I do so mean to return here, catching my dwindling readership up on all our travels and travails of the second half of the summer, but I have no easy or workable way to post pictures here and that makes me not want to bother with just words.

However, I feel I can muster a quick and partial summary: Ella is charming and walking and "talking" and understanding so much. Cooper is daring and going and going and going and part baby/part big boy and so industrious. Jackson is tender-hearted and imaginative and talkative and inquisitive and a wonderful big brother to Ella, though more of a big bother to Cooper :). Chris is another year older as of yesterday, and I'm mostly just tired. :)

All three of our kids are in full-time school right now, and while I was/am tempted to believe that I'd have all this magical free time because of it, I'm just trying to stay grounded and not bite off more than I can chew (how do ya like that mixed metaphor?) Just look at the fact that we're more than a week into it and somehow have managed to have at least one child have to stay at home because of sickness at least half of that time.

Regardless of how much or how little, it certainly has been nice to have some alone time and to remember in the missing them just how much I love my kids.

♦