Back On Our Feet

Sorry for not posting in a while. The Bouma's are back on our feet (figuratively and literally) and adjusting to life with a new little one. To be fair to my wonderful, beautiful, and hard-working wife, she has the brunt of the work with Seth. Since she's breastfeeding, I can't help a whole lot with the feeding. Sure, I try to change a diaper every now and then, but Cara does 95 percent of even that.

Thanks for all the diapers and other wonderful gifts that you've blessed us with in the recent days. We feel especially blessed and are grateful that diapers will not be a problem for us for quite a while.

Have a blessed week!

More Pictures

Here's some more pictures of the latest edition to the Bouma family.

Home

There's something beautiful about the word "home," isn't there? Yes, we like to get away every now and then but for most of us, it's always a comforting thing to come home. It's even better to come home when you've been at, of all places, the hospital. A few weeks ago, with our daughter Joy in when her appendix burst, all she wanted was to go home. And we as parents just wanted to go home too. And what a wonderful thing it was when the doctors came in telling her she was ready to go home!

All this to say, Cara is now home! Only 36 hours after giving birth to numero six, Cara packed up her things this morning and was given the formal release just after lunch. Thanks for all of your prayers for a safe delivery as well as for the health of little Seth Michael. After the x-ray, it was determined that his clavicle wasn't broke after all. He's home now and we're busy trying to adjust once again to having a little one who requires someone's constant attention. It's fun though, and with a big family like ours, there's many hands to lend a helping hand when need be.

We look forward to seeing you all very soon!

Here's some pictures of Seth Michael Bouma. He was 6 pounds even with a full head of hair. He's having x -rays later today to see if he's broken his clavical bone from the "speedy delivery," - apparently a common sort of thing to happen. Otherwise, everyone is doing fine. I'm taking the kids up tonight to see Cara and their new little brother.

Exciting times to say the least!

Waiting to Push

We are sitting at the hospital as I write this, waiting for the doctor to come in so that Cara can finally start pushing. Unlike most times, this time we had enough time to get an epideral to help with the pain of labor.

Updates will follow.

My New Year's Goals

Most of the time, I'm dead set against making any sort of New Year's Resolutions. Yes, I've done it and like most, I've not lived up to them very well. The problem with resolutions - especially once they are verbalized - is that others will soon remind you how you've so quickly fallen off of the wagon. The main reason we fail, as I see it (and have experienced it), is that we're not truly passionate about it. We really haven't bought into what we are attempting to do (or not do). Yes, we can trick ourselves into being passionate about exercising for a season, but if we're really not wired to exercise in the manner we've chosen, many of us will slowly fade back into our previous way of living.

A couple of years ago, someone graciously purchased our family a 6 month membership at the local YMCA. It was very kind and considerate and we used it early and often as a family. However, as our 6 months was coming to an end, our collective desire as a family to go swim and go exercise began to wane. It just wasn't us. Our kids would rather play basketball, football, baseball (any sport) outside in our yard as opposed to going to the local gym to do so. I would much rather play softball with a bunch of guys (as I did and still hope to continue) than get up at 6 AM to go lift some weights by myself.

All this to say, don't make resolutions you know in your heart of hearts you'll never keep. Set goals instead. If it's to lose weight, find a way you can lose weight that fits who you are. If you love video games, go get the Wii and the Wii fit game and go for it. If you like pick up basketball, find a local league to be part of where you can get your weekly dose of exercise. If you simply need to eat less food, find a unique way that allows YOU to eat less food.

I have many things I'd like to do this year but they aren't resolutions. They're goals or dreams that I have that I hope to achieve. Here's a couple of them that I have and maybe you'd like to have as well. If nothing else, perhaps they'll get you started on coming up with your own unique set of goals.

Read more ~ I feel like I really slacked in this area in 2008 so I want to set some acheivable reading goals for this year.

Listen more ~ I don't listen very well, quite frankly. I need to listen more to God and I need to be a better listener to my wife and kids.

Write more ~ I really love to write but haven't done a whole lot of this lately. One of my goals this year is to write a short story and get it published somewhere.