Year in Review Part 1: Personal

January 2011

This past year has been quite and adventure. You never really know where God is going to take you. Last winter found me alone most days with a teething infant and so I sought out friendship with an old friend. I really enjoyed getting to know her all over again. It was awesome to go to her home, have her love on my son while I we worked our yarn crafts, eat a meal not made by myself, and watch our children play. 

In the spring, along side my husband, we planned and planted a larger garden than the year before, while my growing baby boy played in the dirt and ate grass. Summer came and our garden grew, then grew sick due to our own inattention, but we did manage to bring in a nice crop of snap peas. Next year we will do better, this year we did better than last year, and next year we'll be a little better. 

This summer we also provided respite for some family members and I taught at the 2's and 3's class during VBS. Jason's sister got married, and of course we all took part. Jason was the best man, I was a bridesmaid, and Stomper the cutest baby groomsmen. Summer of course led to fall and fall always brings harvesting. 

May 2011

In the fall we were given a load of cucumbers, summer squash, zucchini and tomatoes; we had a crop of green tomatoes (they had to be harvested due to blights); we bought apples; and we picked pears and blueberries at my mothers. Cucumbers were made into pickles, summer squash in to casseroles, zucchini shredded and frozen, tomatoes into sauce, green tomatoes in to relish, apples into sauce, pears into sauce, and blueberries were put in the freezer. My mother and I got together quite a few times to put food up and I think it is something we will continue to do. It is so much easier to preserve the harvest, we found, when there is someone to help bear the burden. Stomper had his first birthday with

First Birthday
photo by Nicolelee

lots of family and friends. We are slowly gathering enough money to build him a swing-set this spring, and our family and friends helped with financial gifts for his birthday. This fall Jason and I were blessed to go to a marriage conference at our church. It was so very helpful, it was more about how to have devotions together (at least that is what I took out of it) in order to grow closer to Christ together. I think that if we hadn't gone
through the conference, then what happened next would have been even harder. Early October we were given a call to warn us that we might be asked to take on an infant for Foster Care. Fostering an infant and then watching her leave my home was one of the harder things I have done. If not for my relationship with my husband and for my faith in Christ I think it would have been a lot harder.

We ended our year with family and friends at our house for Taco and Quelf Night, not a bad way to end a year.