Thank you for asking.

For those who may not yet know, my mother passed away almost 2 weeks ago, Sept. 28, 2011. I was able to be by her side which I will always count as one of God's tenderest mercies to me.

I will share more about that when I am up to it, which I hope will be soon. There is just so much to process. In the meantime, thank you to all who have offered their condolences and kind inquiries into how I am doing. I feel actually remarkably well. The gospel of Jesus Christ makes that possible, and I am grateful.

In the meantime, I must continually remind myself that "six children is a lot". As I am home and trying to adjust from my mother's passing, while still not even close to being settled in our new house, I find myself repeating that to myself as a source of consolation and perspective. There is so much I would like to do in a day. For example, download my photos from our off-site server since they were all wiped off the hard drive when the computer crashed during the move. (Thankfully they are there, just not downloaded yet) Hence, no photos to post, until I sync my iPhone at least, so not tonight either.

Did I mention, six kids is a lot?

My BFF Jennie said once, "Having kids is like having a ball and chain on your ankle. Everything you do is just that much more difficult." I was of course initially shocked (as many often are with things Jennie may say), but as usual, I realized she was spot on. So when you are cruising around the race track of life, and you hitch yourself to one ball and chain on one ankle, you can get close to keeping your old pace. With two, it evens the strength in your legs and you can fake it pretty well. By the time you've got 3 on each leg, your attempt to make it around the track in a manner less than pathetic borders between hilarious and just ridiculous. Surprisingly enough, I still get up and try it everyday.

Which is what life is, ultimately, all about.