I don't know if I've mentioned this or not, but last year I participated in a weekly Bible study called Community Bible Study. It's like a cousin to Bible Study Fellowship.

I started attending with one of my dear friends, Emily, and as last year concluded, I was asked to be a core group leader for this year's study. There are about 5 core groups (or small groups), and I was more than a little hesitant to commit. For starters, just being a mom of 2 small children is quite the commitment. And leading a core group would mean also committing to a Tuesday morning leadership training class which would mean I would have to find childcare. I knew my mom was already tied up with a Bible study of her own on Tuesdays, so that would mean looking elsewhere. Which would mean paying for a Mothers Day Out program...something I had NOT budgeted for. In addition, part of being a core group leader is calling all your core group members on a weekly basis to check on them, develop relationships, deliver information, etc. It was the latter requirement that really gave me pause.

As much as my husband will scoff at this, the truth is that I absolutely hate to talk on the phone for very long. Now, I have friends who don't live anywhere within "face-talking" distance, and I do not mind talking to them, but as anyone with small children knows, the amount of time that it is actually easy to spend on the phone is about.....5 minutes. After that, your children start clinging to your legs, demanding food, begging for your attention...and that's also about when I get sick of trying to juggle listening and placating.

So it took a lot of prayer for God to convince me that I could handle being a core group leader. And He has certainly provided time for me to make the calls, if not always the desire to do so. As I was explaining to MY core group leader today, it isn't that I don't want to talk to these ladies: I genuinely love hearing about their lives. I love getting to know them and am, in fact, awful at getting off the phone with them because I do so enjoy these women. Every time I call them, it is entirely possible that somehow, some incredibly interesting thing about them will surface which will make it ridiculously difficult to hang up within my "window" of time. So, I dread making the calls. But I do not dread my ladies.

Anyway, it's because of my commitment on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and the daily study that goes along with those days...and the cleaning of my house and etc that have thrown a rather large obstacle into my plans to inform the uninterested world of my life through this blog!

And that's why I log on to my own blog and see that it's been almost a whole month since I last posted anything! Good thing I'm not running for any blog awards!

But here I sit, amazed that it's already December, that August is 16 months, that Brooklyn will be 4 in 3 months and that I have yet to purchase a single Christmas present. All my best friends are pregnant again which makes my arms itch for another infant, but no news on that front yet. I'm still nursing August...too much information? Ah well.

More later, folks, but I felt compelled to offer an explanation why this blog has become more miss than hit lately.

And Merry Christmas, everyone!