a much needed update

How sad I am that my blogging has been reduced to not even monthly! That is no way to gain or keep readers-and I know I do have a few VIP reading my blog :-) So please, from the bottom of my heart, accept my thousandth apology for not being consistent with blogging. How the few months have flown by! Johanna Mae will be 4 months on Sunday, January 24th. I can't believe it. Every day she grows and does something to surprise me. The other day our cat Ami decided to tight-rope walk across her crib railing, and she giggled at him! It was so cute! (She, of course, was NOT in the crib at the time!) I keep the kitties out when she's in there, but we were just finishing a feeding sitting in the rocker.
We spent almost a month in Nebraska for Christmas and miss family TERRIBLY now that we're back in Nashville. We are praying that someday God will lead us back there to raise our family- I personally never knew I would feel this way so soon, but I am missing it.
Johanna's colic is significantly better, though now we have trouble getting her to sleep at night! She will sleep one 5, or occasionally 6 or 7, hour stretch at night, but it takes almost an hour and a half for her to settle in. I feel bad because for that first hour or so, she wakes every 20 minutes crying. We've tried everything but usually resort to giving her her pacifier over and over and over until she FINALLY gives in and sleeps. Ahh, I hate that.
Yesterday, she rolled over from her stomach to her back and it seemed like she actually "figured out" how to do it. She could do it before, but I could kinda see the little "I get it" light bulb appear. It was cool, and she did it to both sides! I am envisioning a day in the near future where she army crawls- wow what a change that will be!
We had a few friends come and help us repaint our kitchen last weekend in preparation (over the next few months) of putting our house on the market. We want to become renters again until we know where we want to be-and if its in the Nashville area, we'd love to be closer to church. Johanna and I try to go to Mom to Mom every Tuesday, but church is 45 minutes away and sometimes it just doesn't work.
I've learned so much being a new mom.

Here is this month's list of things I've found both difficult and joyful in no particular order:
I am ALWAYS tired. Usually I get no more than 2 or 3 uninterrupted hours of sleep at a time
I LIVE for the times Johanna giggles at me
I LOVE to read books to her, and especially when she "reads to me" while I am reading
The dog really does drive me crazy at times like everyone said
This house is NOT conducive to our lifestyle right now
The laundry is NEVER done
Things are NEVER put away
Dinner is rarely planned and it's difficult to grocery shop
Breastfeeding is the most rewarding and hardest thing at the same time
I cannot let my baby CIO
I also do not have the capacity to be everything to my baby
My husband is an AMAZING daddy
I LOVE cloth diapering
And most importantly...
GOD hears me when I call

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the past 2 months...and I am going to try so much harder to post frequently! I have to chronicle this crazy life!