2014--The Year in Review

In 2014, our family experienced many joys as well as trials. Many tears were shed, tears of joy and tears of sorrow. Whether our circumstances be joyful or trying, we know that in Christ we possess every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms, so we consider ourselves to be truly blessed! As we look forward to another year of faithful service to Christ, here are a few of the highlights from 2014.

After intermittent searching on Craig's List, I was finally able to score a triple jogging stroller!  It wasn't cheap, but I had been saving up gift money for a while.  Those three guys plus the stroller add up to 130 pounds, so I'm also saving money and time by combining my cardio and strength workouts.  No gym membership for this girl!  I don't know how I would have been able to train Mary and Maggie for the 5K without this stroller!!

Believe it or not, when I was a little girl, I wanted more than anything to be a flower girl.  I know that's really surprising coming from the epitome of tomboy.  Mary and Maggie were thrilled to be flower girls in my niece Chealsee's wedding.  They looked like little angels!  Fortunately, Chealsee and John are really laid back and didn't seem to mind that all the petals were on the right side of the aisle!

I really broke out of my comfort zone and agreed to decorate a table for our Women's Christmas Tea at church.  It was really fun hanging out while crafting with Carrie and Melanie.  We stayed up well past nine and made lots of glittery ball ornaments!

David and his running pal, Joe, ran a 5K and raced against a Junior Olympian!

I unexpectedly got pregnant with Baby #6.  Then, I had a miscarriage at 15 weeks. More than two months later, I ended up in the ER needing an emergency D&C.  Because of the nature of the symptoms I was having, the doctors thought it was possible that I had had a molar pregnancy and sent everything off to be tested for malignancy.  Praise God, the pathology results came back normal!

We planted lots of vegetables in our garden beds and attracted lots of animals.  David tried just about everything before declaring a humane war on the pests.  He used this contraption to catch them.  Eventually, David's perseverance paid off, and the pests have moved on to greener pastures.  It's a good thing because his next tactical move was going to be to teach the boys to use the sling shot.

We started scheduling dates with each of our children.  Once a month, either David or I will have a special date with one of the kids with each of us having one date with each of the kids during the year.  The kids really look forward to this special time and make plans far in advance.  Maggie asked Daddy to paint her fingernails during their date (after swimming)!

Mary, Maggie, and I built a roller coaster using a K'Nex set we bought at a garage sale. It was challenging and took a lot of time, but it was lots of fun for everyone!

Josiah met his Great Grandma Linda for the first time on the Fourth of July!  I love this picture of them sitting in their rocking chairs together!

This year, David and I celebrated our 13th anniversary!  The kids made us royal scepters and crowns for the occasion.  Mary even made us a special dinner, bacon and waffles!

Matthew and Jonathan are becoming so big that they have mostly outgrown their need for a nap. While this means less of a break for mama, they do have so much fun playing with their sisters in the afternoon (after schoolwork has been completed).  Now they get to play Go Fish, Zingo, baby dolls, and even dress-up!  

Mary's soccer season this fall was quite exciting!  Early on in this season, she kind of fell into playing goalie.  Her team, Orange Crush, won the 1st place for South Irvine!  They also got to play in the Mayor's Cup, a competition between North Irvine and South Irvine, and are still in the regional tournament.  At the conclusion of the regular season, Mary was selected as one of ten girls to play for the U9 All Star team. She also received the sportsmanship award for her team!

The kids got to see lots of construction equipment up close as construction continues just across the street.  

David became a tenured professor at UCI.  From my perspective, this means I can finally set down my roots and call Irvine home.  There is also less pressure on David to travel, although somehow he managed to squeak in work trips to Japan, Korea, and Italy this year!

2014 Goals Assessment

Way back in December 2013, I set 12 goals for 2014.  Here's a recap of the crazy-ambitious goals I set for 2014 along with an assessment of where I am in completing them!

Run a 5K--I ran the New Year's Hustle and finished with a time of 26:20!  You can read my post here.

Make Danish pastries--Well, the girls and I really tried to make these, but they were a big fail.  We did NOT attempt them a second time!

Complete the chronological Bible reading plan--Since mostly giving up caffeine and sugar, I've been able to get up earlier and read my Bible more regularly, so I feel like the spirit behind this goal has been accomplished.  That said, I did not finish the chronological reading plan that I started.  Instead, I bought a one-year Bible and have been working my way through that.

Put together a 2013 photo book--Yippee, I conquered this one!

Potty train Matthew and Jonathan--This actually has not been the nightmarish experience that I was expecting, but I'm still only halfway there.  Jonathan has the potty-business down, well, at least during the day.  Matthew, on the other hand, has no interest in using the toilet yet.  He just does his business in his undies and continues playing.  We both got frustrated with this state of affairs and reverted to diapers.  

Get caught up on my periodical backlog--Check.

Open our home to someone from church at least once per month--Hmmm...well, I didn't really keep track, but I think we did this!  

Learn how to crochet--I did work really hard at this for a while but, eventually, I gave up:(

Build a unit for the laundry room to organize jackets, shoes, and bags--Well, this totally snowballed into an expensive entryway project requiring an experienced carpenter, but it is completed!  You can read about it here.

Learn computer programming in JavaScript faster than Mary--I think it's accurate to say that I learned JavaScript faster than Mary, but I am nowhere close to being proficient at JavaScript.

Read Life Skills for Kids--Ah, I'm going to add this book to my unfinished reads book.

Find out David's answers to Pastor Peter's 39 questions--This one was super-fun and was accomplished quickly and easily!

So, now that my 2014 goals assessment is complete, I'm ready to start thinking about what goals I would like to set for 2015!