2009 in Retrospect

I just love how Sarah has done a thoughtful and moving retrospective of her year. I hope she doesn't mind if I borrow the idea. Of course, mine will not be anywhere near as beautiful to read. I just wanted to jot down my ideas and remember my year in whatever cursory way I can accomplish right now.

~January~

January saw us get serious about house hunting. (I have a feeling that house hunting is going to have a prominent place in this Year in Review!) Looks like we were also sick a lot!

~February~

I made the realization that it's OK to be OK with the fact that Leah and Jeffrey will be loud while we are doing school. It wasn't bothering anyone but me! I can even love it (I'm still working on that...) This is actually one epiphany I mentally come back to, and it has been very helpful in attempting a calmer atmosphere here. I also turned 40! I've felt 40 all my life, it's nice to finally be here. I discovered LOST and my life has never been the same ;-). We went to the Educational Testing consultant to get the follow-up information for Juliet's dyslexia testing - it hit me hard, but it wasn't anything I didn't already know. More house hunting (or not). Grace turned 6!

~March~

Lent. More sickness. I realized that I'm not always as generous as I think I am, especially with my time/efforts. I worried about having a passion. I still haven't figured it out. Maybe simple living? We met a realtor who has gone above and beyond for us this year.

~April~

We rearranged the closets and kids rooms. More house hunting (really, NOT). You'd think by now I'd see God was telling me to quit it, LOL. WARMTH! and we put a little garden in.

~May~

I realized why I'm disorganized thanks to Dr. Mercola. ;-) Leah (who was then called Batty) turned 4. We celebrated our 15th anniversary! The kids and I finished Sonlight's Core 4.

~June~

We started with Oak Meadow. Just call my kids "guinea pigs" as it only half-worked for only one child. DH turned 40 (the youngster). More house hunting! I started a Catholic Waldorf egroup, that I have since passed on to a wonderful homeschool mom.

~July~

Seems like nothing interesting happened in July, lol! Well, my grandmother did turn 96! Stillllll house hunting. At the very end of July, our most perfect house ever was found to have an ex-con across the street who had police close the street for half a day because he was armed and not coming out of his house. I'm STILL NOT LAUGHING, lol. ;-P

~August~

Some time around here I moved blogs, again! My late grandmother was moved to a nursing home :( (although we were lucky to find something relatively good). We abruptly drop Oak Meadow 4 for Maggie (OM 1 fizzled out sometime later for Grace).

~September~

Sick kids again (flu, maybe? It wasn't that bad but definitely "flu like"). We bought a great chalkboard and started with Netflix (worth it! Especially since we no longer get cable). We came this close to putting an offer on a house. Jeffrey turned TWO! My mom, MIL, uncle, and neice turned undisclosed ages. ;-)

~October~

Even less interesting happened in October, apparently!

~November~

Maggie turned 10 and Juliet turned 12! We got a Wii as a birthday/Christmas present for them - boy do they love that thing! I didn't blog much of note, but many things happened : my grandmother passed away, the company that employs St. DH was bought out by another company, and we put our house hunting on hold indefinitely. We also switched gears again, homeschooling wise, to more of a Latin Centered Curriculum type. It's only been a few months, but I can say we really like it, and it's working well! I believe we can ride out much of the rest of our schooling with this, in kind of a combination of LCC and Sonlight/Ambleside read alouds and history.

~December~

Here we are in December - Christmas was lovely and laid back. No cookie baking, no parties, no piles of presents - and it was wonderful. We focused on Jesus and preparing our hearts. Nobody missed the other stuff! Last week brought a fun snow storm. Lots of Wii-ing was done! We continued to enjoy our new curriculum and I began re-counting my blessings.

One of my favorite pictures from this year: When my dd said, "I'm sorry Mommy, I accidentally wrote on my leg."