The world is cold outside my window, and a little bleak. I'm thankful for these walls and this roof that hem us  in, keeping us warm and sheltered and held. I step out into a new year and of course, I want to carve out  new paths. I notice that the wind has swept the snow all night and our footsteps from yesterday are covered now. Unseen. I've got this profound sense we can all start out new again. Because God's mercies come running up again at the dawning of a each new day. We've already begun a new routine. We now have a laundry folding party every night. I do the washing during the day, then heap the clothes in the baskets. And after dinner, we dump them on the living room floor and everybody gets to folding and toting clothes upstairs to put back into the drawers. Hope's and Gi[...]

A friend came over today and brought us lunch and a freezer meal. Wasn't that nice? People have been overwhelming us with love in all these tangible ways since little Samuel came along. Shoot, we may need to have another kid soon when all this excitement wears off.No. Never mind. We need sleep. Anyways, as my friend sat across the table and rocked Samuel, she asked how everything was going. You know, the transition from two kids to three. I assessed everything for a moment, because I've hardly just begun this new adventure, but in my fuzzy, sleep-deprived brain, it sort of dawned on me. I realized that truthfully, I'm just trying to find my way again. Even here in my own house, with my own kids, with the grocery list always going and the toys that keep reappearing on the living room floor,[...]