2018 In Review
I finally got my new laptop so I can type up this entry! I love looking back on the year and am thankful for my weekly blogs to help me remember things. Nothing especially notable happened in 2018, but it was filled with lots of little things that make up a good year.
1. I dieted seriously for the first time in my life at the beginning of the year. I jumped on the Beachbody wagon and spent $100 for the 2B Mindset program. It was good for me to understand how food affects my body (carbs are not my friend, unfortunately) and to try out new recipes and force myself out of my comfort zone. I lost 10 pounds over 6 long weeks, then celebrated by binge-ing and gaining it all back. I haven't weighed myself in the past few months because I honestly don't want to know.
2.We bit the bullet and decided to start homeschooling. The girls finished out their year at ACS, then this fall I started homeschooling them. We're using the My Father's World curriculum and supplementing with BJU Language Arts and GoMath. Homeschooling has been what I expected it to be. I enjoy the planning and organizing. The girls liked it for the first month. We were all burned out by November. And, as of the end of our first semester, we're hoping to send the girls back to ACS in the fall. Haha. The problems are what I expected: I'm too lazy to do everything really well. And the girls hate having me as their teacher. Lucy whines and complains and is difficult in general. She does the bare-minimum work and fights me over everything. Fortunately, she is smart and learning comes naturally to her, so as long as I force her to do the work, she does learn the material. Lena is unpredictable. Some days she sits down, zips through her work, and asks for more. Other days she's as bad as Lucy. Learning is not as natural for Lena and I worry that I'm doing her a serious disservice and she's not learning as much at home as she would be at school. And homeschooling with a two year old is exactly as difficult as it sounds. Haha. Despite my grand intentions of busy boxes and limited screen time, Levi spends most of our homeschooling time in front of the TV. There will be more about our future plans for schooling in upcoming entries. This is supposed to be a look back on 2018.
3. In the spring, I started seeing a new doctor and after a quite revealing depression screening, she suggested upping my meds. I wasn't thrilled about increasing the dosage, but I do think it was necessary and good for me. Especially because, a couple weeks after starting the new dose . . .
4. Justin started working out of town 4 days a week. I can't even remember how many weeks it ended up being, but I think it was at least a month that he drove to the other side of the state Monday morning and came home Thursday evening. Despite my whining over the past few years about wanting our own house, God knew that I would need my parents through that season. Haha. While we all missed Justin, it wasn't horrible. We survived. My parents were a huge help. And Jesus and Zoloft kept me from despair. Haha.
5. In 2017 I set a reading goal of 75 books and ended up reading 100. So for 2018, I upped the goal to 101 . . . and did not achieve it. Haha. When I set the goal in January, homeschooling wasn't even on my radar. While my kids were still in school and throughout the summer, I was zipping through books left and right. I was the epitome of "voracious" in my reading. But then I started homeschooling and was amazed by how much of my time it required. Needless to say, reading fell by the wayside. I did manage to eke out 75 books by the end of the year. So, in the spirit of realism, I set my goal for 2019 as 75 books.
6. I attempted to potty train Levi a few times. He's much more receptive and willing than Lena ever was, but it still takes commitment that I'm just not motivated enough to keep up with.
7. I taught the girls Skip-Bo and Phase 10 and opened a whole new world of game opportunities for them. It's been interesting to see their personalities come out. Lucy usually starts out strong, but quits as soon as she starts losing. Lena never gives up and insists on playing the game to the end no matter what.
8. We took the girls to Michigan Adventure for the first time. It was a long, fun, exhausting, expensive day.
9. We went on a miserable camping trip. Haha. That's probably overdramatic. Camping is already not high on my list of favorite things. This year, it poured and stormed most of the weekend and no one got any sleep. It wasn't all horrible, though. The kids loved every minute it wasn't raining.
10. Lena went back to gymnastics . . . and is awesome at it. After a couple semesters off due to anxiety, she signed back up for a class with one of her friends from church and has totally thrived. She does gymnastics once a week at the gym, but all day every day at home. She is constantly cartwheeling, handstanding, splitting, running, jumping, and making up new moves.
11. Lena also taught herself how to ride a bike this year.
12. Lucy got her ears pierced on her birthday. She was tough, didn't even cry, and took really good care of them. At first, it was difficult to change them, but now she's a pro and changes them almost every day.
13. We searched and searched for a house, came very close to buying one, and spiraled into depression when it fell through. Well I spiraled. Everyone else handled it much better. Haha. Stay tuned for news about the house hunt coming soon, though. I think 2019 is going to be our year. ;-)
14. We welcomed a nephew (Nash) and niece (Ruby) within 3 months of each other. It has been so much fun having babies in the family!
Doing these yearly recaps is good for me. Sometimes I feel like all we did was watch Netflix and whine and fight. But as I scroll through pictures from the last year, I'm reminded about the fun we did have homeschooling, all the swimming we did, the fun with friends, the cooking and baking projects we worked on together, and the sleepy snuggles we enjoyed. This is what I'm going to choose to remember. I'm going to end this post with a thousand pictures from 2018, but I'm not even sorry. When the depression starts sucking me in, I want to look back on these highlights and remember how beautiful my life is!
1. I dieted seriously for the first time in my life at the beginning of the year. I jumped on the Beachbody wagon and spent $100 for the 2B Mindset program. It was good for me to understand how food affects my body (carbs are not my friend, unfortunately) and to try out new recipes and force myself out of my comfort zone. I lost 10 pounds over 6 long weeks, then celebrated by binge-ing and gaining it all back. I haven't weighed myself in the past few months because I honestly don't want to know.
2.We bit the bullet and decided to start homeschooling. The girls finished out their year at ACS, then this fall I started homeschooling them. We're using the My Father's World curriculum and supplementing with BJU Language Arts and GoMath. Homeschooling has been what I expected it to be. I enjoy the planning and organizing. The girls liked it for the first month. We were all burned out by November. And, as of the end of our first semester, we're hoping to send the girls back to ACS in the fall. Haha. The problems are what I expected: I'm too lazy to do everything really well. And the girls hate having me as their teacher. Lucy whines and complains and is difficult in general. She does the bare-minimum work and fights me over everything. Fortunately, she is smart and learning comes naturally to her, so as long as I force her to do the work, she does learn the material. Lena is unpredictable. Some days she sits down, zips through her work, and asks for more. Other days she's as bad as Lucy. Learning is not as natural for Lena and I worry that I'm doing her a serious disservice and she's not learning as much at home as she would be at school. And homeschooling with a two year old is exactly as difficult as it sounds. Haha. Despite my grand intentions of busy boxes and limited screen time, Levi spends most of our homeschooling time in front of the TV. There will be more about our future plans for schooling in upcoming entries. This is supposed to be a look back on 2018.
3. In the spring, I started seeing a new doctor and after a quite revealing depression screening, she suggested upping my meds. I wasn't thrilled about increasing the dosage, but I do think it was necessary and good for me. Especially because, a couple weeks after starting the new dose . . .
4. Justin started working out of town 4 days a week. I can't even remember how many weeks it ended up being, but I think it was at least a month that he drove to the other side of the state Monday morning and came home Thursday evening. Despite my whining over the past few years about wanting our own house, God knew that I would need my parents through that season. Haha. While we all missed Justin, it wasn't horrible. We survived. My parents were a huge help. And Jesus and Zoloft kept me from despair. Haha.
5. In 2017 I set a reading goal of 75 books and ended up reading 100. So for 2018, I upped the goal to 101 . . . and did not achieve it. Haha. When I set the goal in January, homeschooling wasn't even on my radar. While my kids were still in school and throughout the summer, I was zipping through books left and right. I was the epitome of "voracious" in my reading. But then I started homeschooling and was amazed by how much of my time it required. Needless to say, reading fell by the wayside. I did manage to eke out 75 books by the end of the year. So, in the spirit of realism, I set my goal for 2019 as 75 books.
6. I attempted to potty train Levi a few times. He's much more receptive and willing than Lena ever was, but it still takes commitment that I'm just not motivated enough to keep up with.
7. I taught the girls Skip-Bo and Phase 10 and opened a whole new world of game opportunities for them. It's been interesting to see their personalities come out. Lucy usually starts out strong, but quits as soon as she starts losing. Lena never gives up and insists on playing the game to the end no matter what.
8. We took the girls to Michigan Adventure for the first time. It was a long, fun, exhausting, expensive day.
9. We went on a miserable camping trip. Haha. That's probably overdramatic. Camping is already not high on my list of favorite things. This year, it poured and stormed most of the weekend and no one got any sleep. It wasn't all horrible, though. The kids loved every minute it wasn't raining.
10. Lena went back to gymnastics . . . and is awesome at it. After a couple semesters off due to anxiety, she signed back up for a class with one of her friends from church and has totally thrived. She does gymnastics once a week at the gym, but all day every day at home. She is constantly cartwheeling, handstanding, splitting, running, jumping, and making up new moves.
11. Lena also taught herself how to ride a bike this year.
12. Lucy got her ears pierced on her birthday. She was tough, didn't even cry, and took really good care of them. At first, it was difficult to change them, but now she's a pro and changes them almost every day.
14. We welcomed a nephew (Nash) and niece (Ruby) within 3 months of each other. It has been so much fun having babies in the family!
 |
| Nash |
 |
| Ruby |
 |
| The whole cousin crew! |
Doing these yearly recaps is good for me. Sometimes I feel like all we did was watch Netflix and whine and fight. But as I scroll through pictures from the last year, I'm reminded about the fun we did have homeschooling, all the swimming we did, the fun with friends, the cooking and baking projects we worked on together, and the sleepy snuggles we enjoyed. This is what I'm going to choose to remember. I'm going to end this post with a thousand pictures from 2018, but I'm not even sorry. When the depression starts sucking me in, I want to look back on these highlights and remember how beautiful my life is!
Comments
Post a Comment