Those pesky analytics

So, today I decided to look at my Google Analytics.

Turns out that when you stop writing on your blog, you get less page views!  Say what?!

Yeah, I get it.

But, what to do when I just don't feel like writing.  I need a theme, a purpose, something to write about!

I'll keep searching. I think just writing about my kids gets old, writing about my day to day life is mega boring and writing about work is just not interesting to me!

There is something intriguing about having an audience, a support system as it were.

A candy birthday

I'm not a big party planner but, I do enjoy making each birthday a special day. This year Claire had her party before her actual birthday, so she will have another very small celebration this week.

I decided to turn the living room into Claire's Sweet Shop.  Everyone got a bag and helped themselves to an assortment of candy.  They also were free to eat candy during the party.  Only 3 people had cake. Claire had several friends from school and then our dearest, ever present friend Allie from our old neighborhood.  She holds a special place in each girl's heart and is invited to nearly every party we have.  And she honestly has fun and plays along despite the 6 year age difference with Claire.

Claire shines brightly on her birthday.  She is a bit shy at first but then happily enjoys the attention while still making sure everyone else is having a good time.  She is happy to do most anything on her special day and she was happy from morning until night.  She is sweet, loving and loves candy!

A long journey comes to a close

Every post needs a picture, right?

We moved to Chicago nearly 9 years ago for Matt to start Graduate school.  Just getting to that point was a long journey.  First he had to finish his undergraduate degree which he had given up many years prior.

Those years included a master degree, a 3rd child, a move to Colorado and then a move back to Chicago, daily trips to the coffee shop to write before starting his real job, several weekends away to write, 2 (or was it 3) week long "boot camps" and a complete restart on the dissertation after 2 years of writing.  Now we are nearing the end.  Graduation is in May and the dissertation defense is next month.

We can't wait to see what God has in store for us next.

For those of you who asked what Matt's dissertation was about:

"The focus of this dissertation is a theory, typically offered in a religious context, that certain propositions can be held (and in some cases ought or even must be held) by faith without regard for evidence."

I love how God turned a scary thing like philosophy (which many Christians never recover from) to work for His glory.