…with a minimal amount of blogging.
Oh, well.
Rather than dwell on that… a quick recap of 2019!
It’s been a good year. I Kon-mari’d pretty much the entire house this year, which is awesome. I also have a little book that I keep inspiration in for the feel I want in my home. Not necessarily exact things, but just lots of pictures that give an overall vibe. It’s something I hadn’t done in probably 12 years, put stuff together like that just for fun. And yes, it’s all pinned on Pinterest, too, but it’s also nice to have the stuff in a tangible book to flip through.
I had intentions to plant a lot…. and planted not much. 😛 My tulips did grow, and we got some strawberries. That’s about it. So hopefully, THIS year will be the planting year! lol 😀
We went and visited friends who now live at the bay – twice! Well, I went twice. It is just a beautiful, peaceful place to be. We are such a laid back family, despite me being not-particularly laid-back (being married to The Man for 18 years has rubbed off when it comes to this, though, apparently!), so it was just time of relaxation.
We visited my grandparents in the midwest, as we like to do every couple years. It’s always a really fun, busy time. This year we drove it straight through both ways, which was actually kind of nice – it meant not having to pay for a hotel anywhere. 😀 ha!
We said goodbye to Floppy this August. I believe he had something gastrointestinal that we didn’t catch soon enough (and with bunnies it has to be SOON!) and we tried to nurse him back to health to no avail. 😦 It was a very sad day for Pink and I, especially. Later on in the year, Pink got a different rabbit – a mini rex named Brownie. She’s very outgoing and fun!
As always, we went on several field trips and some homeschool days.
Pink got to meet her favorite author, Tui Sutherland, at the Virginia Children’s Book Festival, which was awesome! We attended two sessions and they were both very good. Both with Tui, of course. 😉
We have gotten continuously more involved at our church this year. It took a couple years, I think because we were just taking a break for awhile from everything we were involved in at our former church. This year we have gotten a little more busy, and it is farther away, but overall it’s been a wonderful investment of time and has been building relationships with people in ways you can’t do when you aren’t involved. So that’s a very good thing.
On that line of thinking, Link went on his first missions trip this year, to Mexico. The Man went with him. Link absolutely loved it!
Christmas came and went quickly! I was feeling quite festive this year, and there were decorations EVERYWHERE!!! Including lights outside (which I didn’t do the best job on, but I’ll improve on it next year, hopefully)! Our Christmas tree is still up, but I did take down the outside decor. We’ll probably take the tree down this weekend.
For 2019 my word was Strong and at first when I was thinking about this post I wasn’t sure that there was really anything about my year that had anything to do with it. However, while writing this, I think there have definitely been moments where I was strong that I didn’t even realize it, but can see it now – you know, hindsight and all.
Leaving our former church… it took awhile for me to get over it. Not that I wanted to go back, but just that we were so involved there. We were there multiple times a week. My husband grew up there. But I knew when it was time to leave because it was clearly God telling me it was time. I had known it was going that way for a little while but kept hanging on until that happened.
The thing is, I was hanging on for not-necessarily-the-right-reasons. It was comfortable and familiar and it had been our home for a long time. All the kids were born while we attended that church and were all dedicated to the Lord there. I still have fond memories of so many different things we did while there – some church functions, some not. And I had to be told, literally, to let it go because those aren’t reasons to stay somewhere you aren’t supposed to be.
When we first left a church that was rich in music for a church that was not, it sort of felt like ‘What on earth is God doing?’ and I felt a lot of grief, not for the church we left but for the music – more accurately, for the ability to be able to use my gifts and training. It left an enormous void for me for a little while, and that first year was tough – not because I didn’t enjoy where we were, but because I felt a little lost. If I wasn’t that person anymore, as involved as I was, then who was I?
We have been away from that church for five years now, and after the first year it was much, much easier. I was beginning to feel more at home in the church we are in now, and happy there, but I still wanted to be more involved, to feel more a part of things. Sometimes I felt like it was impossible, because of the distance. Sometimes I thought it was impossible, because it seemed like there wasn’t much for me to offer to do.
But this year, this past year – has changed a lot. It’s changed me a lot. It’s changed our involvement in our church a lot; particularly mine. Because the boys were already in youth group and doing great and The Man seems to be able to make friends anywhere but I didn’t feel like it was that easy. I think that sometimes that’s something women feel, but it isn’t necessarily true.
So I think it was Strong this year. Strong to step out and try new things. To get more involved in a church family again. The future at this church may not hold music for me, and that is fine. This year I’ve begun teaching the kids more music and theory and honestly, going forward I just know I want to help in any way I can, in any place I can. I feel peace and excitement and just a willingness to do whatever God wants from me.
I hope everyone is ending this year on a peaceful note. Have a blessed new year!
togethersolitude 