Well it's been a few days since I've had a chance to post so I thought I'd take a minute to fill you in on whats been going on in the Calligan house. This week the weather has been absolutely beautiful and we have enjoyed much time outside. Ron was able to spend the day at the park with the kids while I worked on Wednesday and we enjoyed an afternoon of farm animals and ice cream at Young's Dairy on Friday. The kids loved being outside and had a lot of fun feeding the goats. Even Josiah took a turn and laughed when the goats licked his little hands. Then on Saturday we took the kids to the Cincinnati Zoo with Ma Maw and Pa Paw. On the way to the zoo Bekah sang "City On Our knees" by Toby Mac which tickled everybody. I just love hearing that girl sing worship to Jesus. The weather turned out to be perfect and it was fun to see all the animals, but most of all we enjoyed seeing the kids joy as they experienced seeing many new things including a penguin march down the zoo sidewalk. Its funny how I never realized how cooped up I feel all winter with the kids until I am actually able to get them outside and remember how nice it is to not be inside all day. I am so thankful we have been blessed with these nice days and am looking forward to when we have them more consistently.

On the broader scope of things the "organized chaos" as I like to call it in our house is actually becoming a little more organized and we are beginning to slowly fall into a comfortable routine for the first time in a long time. Ron and I joined the YMCA and are working out 4 morning a week. The kids really like the child care and we are enjoying being able to do something for ourselves. I have also rearranged my work schedule slightly so that I can be home a little more. Beside creating our daily routine I have also broken down the housework so that I am doing a couple things each day. This makes the monumental task of keeping my house clean and laundry done a little easier and allows me to not stress over every mess I see but to be able to tell myself I will get to it on its day. Between our new more consistent schedule and the new chore schedule the chaos that I felt was taking over has slowly begun to subside. We are enjoying more time as a family and are even finding time for the different things each of us enjoys.

As for the kiddos they are continuing to do new things all the time. This week Bekah begin writing her own name and even her brothers name with no help. John John has really begun using his words to express thoughts rather than just his basic needs and our little Ziah James has begun pulling himself up onto his push toy and walking around our house. It is so fun to watch our kids grow and develop and I look forward to what they will figure out in the days ahead.