The Year of 2012.......

I'm not going to lie, I'm so ready for a new year. I was so completely done with 2012. Then yesterday morning I woke up and realized that there wasn't  anything particularly exciting to look forward to in

2013, I was just simply glad the year before had ended. I am usually an optimist, most of the time hopeful, love new beginnings, and clean slates but yesterday I  just couldn't quite pull off the positive spin. Felt kind of grumpy, and was saying to myself, "Well, now what?" So since I couldn't find a particular thing to look forward to this year and I wasn't inspired or motivated to make any New Years Resolutions, I thought I'd reflect back on the year that I was so anxious to forget.

My reflection started with asking the husband to tell me one thing good that happened to us this year. He started stating things like no one broke a bone, no one in our family had any hospital visits..... Then I stopped him and told him I was grateful for those things but that he was just listing the bad things DIDN'T happen this year but could he think of one really good thing that happened to us this year? He couldn't think of anything off the top of his head. And I couldn't either, besides some fun family visits we had with our families. And then I realized, once again I missed it. In my pouting and in my search for "the happy times" or the "big moment of 2012", I had simply forgotten what was really important.

The big moments don't define us, they don't define our year, they don't get to determine whether the year was a disaster or a success. But instead it is the little moments, the ones that happen right in front of our eyes, the things that go unnoticed, the little things that would be forgotten if we didn't make the effort to retrieve them from our memory.
Those are the things that I wanted to focus on.


CARSON'S MILESTONES


Learning to ride  his bike with no training wheels!!

Carson started Kindergarten this year & although I can't say it's his favorite place to go he is doing well ;) It has been quite entertaining for all of us watching him adjust.

 

NATHAN'S MILESTONES
This particular child of mine just simply inspired me this year. He jumped right out of his comfort zone and tried new things. He ran for school office, won 3rd. place in oral language, is playing basketball, and took an important step in spiritual obedience and was baptized. Of all the people in our family, this was his year!

 

LANDON'S MILESTONES

And the baby of our family made sure that mom learned lessons in patience. He's really good at teaching those kind of lessons.......
                         
He continued to be a ball of energy, learned more about his food allergy, and is potty trained (on most days...) This child is going to take on the world some day, until then we will all try to keep our sanity.


Always testing the limits...........

ALLERGY AWARENESS
Our family made growth this year in how to be advocates for Landon and his allergy. I do feel like we've been able to help educate others on severe & life threatening allergies.  I am hoping that participating in the FAAN walk will become a yearly tradition and that all of us will continue to advocate on his behalf and on behalf of other children who have life threatening allergies. There are some ways that I would like to increase awareness in schools & other places and maybe this will be the year to try and put some of those plans into action.



FAAN WALK 2012

HEALTH & ILLNESS

The Year of Green Smoothies




This year has unfortunately been a year for illness and some medical mishaps, trust me we've got the medical bills to prove it.  In the early Spring, I spent about 6 weeks really sick. But of all the things that happened this year, this may have been the best. It forced me to look at how to keep myself healthy and made me realize that I could no longer put everyone else's health above my own. In order to take care of my family, I had to make sure I was taking care of myself as well. This is a lesson that I'm constantly revisiting.....






FRIENDSHIPS



This seemed to be an important year for friendship. The value of friendship in a woman's life is inexplicable. I have never been a person with many friends but instead a person with a few close friends. This is still very true for me. But I think this year, I have found how encouraging one friend can be to another and also what it means to really be there for someone. There were times this year that people really came through for me, not just in their thoughts and with their words but through their actions. I will be working hard to pay that forward this year. I have been blessed with so many beautiful friendships this year.



EXTENDED FAMILY TIME
This year started crappy, ended kind of crappy, but  I think the in between made it worth it all. We had one of the best summers we have ever had. And this was simply because we spent lots of quality time with our families. My family was here for a few weeks in June and then we went to Utah for a visit with Curt's family. All of those summer memories we will treasure for a long time. I am missing being close to family and hope to create more family memories this year.


MOMMY AHA MOMENTS...
I think of the mommy aha moments as all of those moments that no one ever saw a picture of, the news that didn't get into your "newsfeed" and all those private moments where you just grew or learned something new about yourself. For me, a big one was that God created me to be the mother of these three beautiful boys. He gave them to me and me to them. There is no one else who can do it better because he specifically called ME to be their mother. So this is the year that I will try to shrug off those mommy insecurities. Yes, I will make mistakes. No, I will not be perfect. But I refuse to focus on my imperfections and how someone else may do it better. Instead, I will learn from my mistakes, rely on God's guidance, and pour out unconditional love over my children.