Skip to main content

Looking Back on 2017

Going into the new year I don't have any real resolutions. One of the things I've learned about myself is that, for me, grand expectations can be a killer of joy . Life is full of hiccups and mistakes, and it's amplified with four little kiddos. In 2018, I just want to continue to get better at seeing each day as a fresh start. A new day to love my family and my friends well. 

When the night of January 10th or January 3rd comes along an I haven't had my daily quiet time, or worked out, or I've lost my temper and yelled at my kiddos; I'm not going to beat myself up and count the year as failure. Instead, I'm going to thank the LORD for His grace. I'm going to accept His gifts of rest and a new day. Maybe it's different for other people, but for me change doesn't happen with big resolutions. It's happens slowly, almost unnoticed, as each day I choose to focus on the gifts of the LORD. It's only when I choose to focus on the joy of this life, even when some days leave me feeling defeated and weary, that I can look back and see real growth. 

For us 2017 didn't hold any huge events. It was a quiet year with lots of routine but happy days. This past week, I've been going through this year's photos; choosing which ones to delete and which ones to put in an album. It's a hard process...there are so many that make me smile! I'm nowhere near finishing the album, but I have found some favorites that will definitively be included. Scroll down if you want to take a photo tour of our 2017.
Celebrating Little Lady's 6th birthday.
A Daddy daughter ball.
Soccer games...with the cutest goalie ever. 
Praising the LORD that the spring storms didn't cause any real damage. 
Dance recitals. 
BabyZ falling in love with books. 
Mini Man climbing everything. 
Strawberry picking. 
Trips to Lake Egypt to spend time with family. 
Fourth of July traditions.
Visiting all the ice cream shops in our area. 
Big Buddy's 10th birthday trip. 
Lots of hikes.
Mini Man's 8th birthday.
Camping with cousins.
Apple picking

House upkeep...some mundane and some exciting. 
Homeschool days. 
Homeschool field-trips
Wizarding World costumes.
The kiddos, much to Jer's relief, FINALLY falling in love with basketball.
Old and new Thanksgiving traditions.
Annual Christmas tree hunt.
BabyZ is two!
More Christmas traditions. 
Celebrating another year of this wonderful man's life. 
Hoping your 2018 is light and joyful one but when the weariness and the darkness creeps in may you remember to turn to the one true light. 

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will
 never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. 
-John 8:12-
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment - you make me smile :)

Popular posts from this blog

A Little Red Cardboard Barn

We've finished our farm unit and are moving on to a new theme tomorrow - but before we do I wanted share the barn we made. The wooden farm animals came with a beautiful handmade ark that we gave Big Buddy for Christmas a couple years ago.  I would someday love to have a wood barn but it's currently not in the budget. So in the mean time we decided to improvise and make our own.  I stumbled upon this perfectly sized milk box (4 gallons per box) while subbing and thought it would be sturdy enough to handle play. Hubandie and the boys used an x-acto knife and wood glue to build a barn shape. to get the doors to fold out hubandie used an x-acto knife and scored the inside of the cardboard We then painted with a basic primer and outlined a window and a door with painters tape. cardboard is very porous so priming is a must if you want decent coverage Big Buddy however insisted that we add more windows so it...
140 comments
This post is a long one, click thru to see more »

Preschool Syllabus: Dr. Seuss

Normally I'd do a Dr. Seuss unit in March around his birthday. We had to do one now though because on Saturday Big Buddy and I going on a date to a  Dr. Seuss exhibit . The exhibit is only at the museum until January and I'm afraid if we don't go now we might not get the chance. We are of course reading lots of Dr. Seuss's books. A great advatage to studying Dr. Seuss in November rather than March is that all his books were available at the library. I also found a great children's biography which is perfect for preschoolers. Pebble First Biographies: Dr. Seuss  We've read it a couple times and Big Buddy loves reciting all the facts he's learned WRITING CENTER ADDITIONS big buddy's name in sand paper letters, coloring pages  & mazes from seussville.com skills practiced: fine motor, letter recognition, creativity,  reading comprehension LEARNING "TRAYS" -   I rotate these, setting out about four a day from which the boy...
131 comments
This post is a long one, click thru to see more »

Jack-O-Lanterns on the Fridge

Last fall I saw the idea for refrigerator pumpkins with face pieces in FamilyFun Magazine  and have been anxious to recreate them ever since. It was pretty quick and easy and since the only thing we didn't have on hand was magnetic sheets ($1.50 with coupon at Joann's) it was also very cheap. my supplies: magnetic sheets, orange & black construction paper, white pen, tacky glue *i know they have self adhesive sheets but my Joann's didn't carry them   glued (very messily) and ready to cut Both the boys were quite enthused when they discovered them after rest time :) Hopefully it will keep them entertained until we carve real pumpkins. 
249 comments
This post is a long one, click thru to see more »