Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

The biggest news at the Tell House lately is that we finally closed on our SC house. This is a huge answer to prayer, obviously, since paying both the mortgage on our house and our rent here in CA is no fun, and has made for some added stress. And yet, I found myself a little sad. I loved that house. Our first house - the house where we brought home our babies, and lived through 6 years of the joys and sorrows of residency and married life. I think, too, that part of me had this thought that if things didn't work out here, we had this safety net of a home to go back to. And now that's gone. And even though I know God has called us here, the thought of not really having something to fall back on is a little terrifying. Goodbye, Oak Ridge Drive. We'll miss you. I guess now I really need to make a new blog title.

I have been working as a doctor for almost 7 years now. I have been present during lots of beautiful moments and lots of tough ones. I have delivered babies, pronounced death, and given lots and lots of difficult news. I'm not sure I ever was closer to crying while seeing a patient than during rounds on Friday. I have spent most of my time since graduation practicing as a hospital physician. I rarely feel like I have a lot in common with my patients since most hospitalized patients are fairly old. In some of them, I might see my grandparents, or my parents, or even what I might be like in another 30 years, but I cannot always see my present self. But she was different. My patient was a beautiful woman, almost my same age, with an adorable 10-month old daughter. I knew her daughter was beautiful because she proudly showed me pictures on her phone as we were discussing how she felt and when she might get to go home. She asked that I speak with her husband, who clearly adored ...

I decided I'm going to do a little ongoing series about fun and free LA activities. LA is an expensive place to live but there are some great things to do that don't cost anything. I've already mentioned a few of them. (Mostly I'm looking at you, Science Center .) I'm not sure how frequently I'll do these, but we'll see how it goes. One of our recent free finds is the Santa Susanna Train Museum and adjacent park. It's not technically in LA, I guess, but right next door in Simi Valley. Since we live about 3 freeway exits away, it's definitely close enough for us. It's an old railroad station that was moved and turned into a small train museum and model train display. The museum only has a couple of rooms but you can blow a train whistle, play with a telegraph and teletype machine and see old train-related paraphernalia. And get a sticker, which is a big hit with the 4 year old crowd. The highlight for us is definitely the very large model rail...

Judah just had his fourth birthday. It's hard to believe that just four years ago, after one of the longest and toughest days we welcomed that little guy into our family. He's not nearly so little now, full of thoughts and ideas and questions (and questions!) and funny and smart and sweet. He challenges me and most days I feel like I'm failing him. Thankfully I serve a God who doesn't. Motherhood is teaching me to pray. The birthday boy requested oatmeal for his birthday breakfast. No lie. I did serve him the tastiest baked oatmeal and put sprinkles on top so it wouldn't be boring.  After I picked him up from school we had a fun trip to the playground in his new four year old t-shirt. With Rockets. (You can see his one year shirt here , his two year shirt here , and I can't find a good link to his three year shirt.But it had a "3" on it in Thomas fabric.)  (She's getting cute. I know this is a post about my 4-year-old, but I couldn...

I finally broke through the post-Christmas sewing burnout in time to make Naomi a little backpack. We have a friend babysit the kids on thursday morning while I'm at work, and now Naomi has a cute little bag we can pack with a few diapers and a water bottle for the trip. I again used the Toddler backpack pattern from Made by Rae . I love everything about how this turned out and especially the fact that everything used was already in my stash. I only had an invisible zipper that was long enough, so that's what I used. I still have some leftover white fabric - maybe enough to make a little skirt. I think it's the piping that really makes this backpack look so nice. It's not hard to add but can turn a sort of ho-hum project into one that looks really sharp. Is that weird to have a skirt that matches your backpack? Either way it would be adorable. The lining came out very cute, too. I love how girly this backpack is without being pink. Not that there is anythin...