As 2010 comes to a close and 2011 sits on the horizon I thought it appropriate to write a post on the happenings of this past year. This has definitely been an eventful year for our family. The biggest event that happened was my daughter coming to live with us full time for the first time since she was 5. She's 16 now. This has been a long prayer that finally was answered and oh how blessed I am having her here this year.
This year has been a little sad as well. Back in August 2009 we decided we wanted to adopt but this year it seemed like one obstacle after another that hindered us in moving forward so my hubby and I've decided to step away from adopting right now. We would love to look into this sometime in the future.
This year has also brought changes in our homeschooling. I closed down my homeschooling blog 'Learning by Living' and decided to put everything school and personal on this one blog here. That was a tough challenge deleting and moving over important posts. It took me over a month. In homeschooling we no longer were doing lapbooking so I closed down my lapbooking blog "Hands on Lapbooking" I started two new blogs this past year in it's place. My Pittstop Photography and my Creative Cardmaking blogs. I thought my pictures should be put together on one blog as well as my cards I make..
In May we celebrated 3 years of living here. We bought our home the first part of May 2007. We've done so much to our house. Painted the interior, planted grass in the front, side and backyard, built a deck, put up a fence in our backyard, moved and resurfaced our shed as well as painted it.
This summer I was asked back on the TOS Crew for a year of reviewing homeschool curriculum. What a blessing this has been for me and the family so far. I've made so many good friends from the crew over the years and they have all returned as well this year.. I love it!
I really enjoyed reviewing and reading books. This has been a year of many blessings with being a part of this program. This has helped my book addictions, my hubby is very happy with me not spending money on books since our library doesn't have a good selection of Christian Fiction books. I am a part of a few different programs and they have all been a wonderful blessing..
In January I decided to join Curves.. I really enjoyed working out there three times a week. In June I introduced it to my DD16 and she loved it too. It was great having a workout buddy. This month we decided to use the money I was spending on Curves and put it towards a family gym membership at Gold's Gym. What a great investment that was for us. For only $20 more a month everyone gets to exercise. They have free daycare for the boys since they can't use any of the equipment until they are 12. They have children's classes though. The boys go to a Martial Arts class twice a week and they are earning belts. They also have a kids aerobics class and a kids Zumba class so they are getting a workout a minimum of three times a week. My daughter and I just started taking the adult Zumba class and it's really cool. I plan on going to a class twice a week.
I fell in love with running. I've been working on the treadmill three times a week with running and walking and I'm improving my time with my running intervals. It sure feels good to not be out of breath after running for several minutes. Still a beginner but I am happy with the results so far. I also love working on the stepper, bike and elliptical..We've been going to this gym for about three weeks.
We've joined 4H again this year. All three kids are working on their own books. DD16 will be starting a vet class that goes along with her vet science books in January. I love our homeschool group we attend once a month. One of the families goes to the same gym and we workout together sometimes.
I did the Project 365 and it is complete. Photographed once a day for the whole year. I also hit my goal for the 52 books in 52 weeks finishing up with 57 books read.
I think the biggest change that has happened outside my daughter living here is our new way of eating. Organic, all natural. I make my own bread of all kinds including hamburger buns. I make my own butter and everything is made from scratch. I love spending time in the kitchen. I believe this is my new passion. I still love making greeting cards and hope to get more made in January. My stack of them has shrunk so I need to replenish in order to get birthday cards out to all my family and friends this year which I plan to be more diligent with.
The hardest part of our new lifestyle change was letting go of eating out at restaurants. We let go of fast food back in 2005, but eating at sit down restaurants seemed to happen on at least 1-2 days a week. It's no big deal for us anymore but at the beginning it was tough. Now I can't think of why I would want to eat at a restaurant. Not knowing what they use to make my food.. I think this will become an issue when we go on trips this summer. We will have to be resourceful and pack a lot of food with us. The one thing about not eating out it has saved us $$ so we could use that amount to buy better food. Fresh. nothing frozen or in a package..
2010 has been a good one for our family. I pray that God continues to bless our family in 2011. That we will be able to continue to homeschool legally, practice our religion freely and be able to raise our children in the way God asks us too.
May the Lord bless you each and everyday in 2011. If you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus then let 2011 be the year. Follow Him and He will set your paths straight. He loves you, broken, battered and bruised. Come to Him, all who are weary, and He will give you rest. Only in Him will you have peace. He asks you to allow Him into your heart. He is waiting for you!
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