What's Up 2011?

I can be guilty, as so many others can, of focusing on the negatives in life and not the positives. 2011 wasn't a fantastic year for us...we had a lot of challenges. We also had a lot of victories and TONS to be thankful for.

In 2011, Daniel turned 6 which was joyous to everyone (but me), Sierra turned 12 which she was extremely happy for because it had her one year closer to 13 (another not so exciting moment for me), I turned 37 which doesn't bother me so much especially considering Matt turned 40 which brings us many laughs as he has become a target for the old age jokes (yes, 40 is not old by today's standards...but it does not stop us from laughing). While I do not much care for my kids getting older, I also appreciate who they are becoming as they mature. By the end of 2011, Sierra has reached past my eyebrows in height and I know she will end up being taller than me. Daniel has gotten MUCH taller and lost all his baby fat (which is not the best news either...). It is bittersweet to be sure.

Sierra continued excelling at her schooling...beyond anything I could hope for. Her confidence level continues to rise. Her social life has also increased as she moved out of Children's Ministry at church and into Student Ministry. She is proving more and more each day her love of art (not in the classical sense, but in the practical sense). She loves makeup art (which her dad doesn't like). It is my goal for 2012 to find other ways for her to express herself with art....classes she can take. She is more and more determined in her design for life and is working harder in school to accomplish her goals. She is driven. Her maturity over this past year has been exponential, but she can still be silly. The highlight of her year was her trip to Alaska which will be with her always. She wants to go back there so very bad and excitedly told me today that her bff in Alaska may be coming to Houston this summer. I hope that's true.

Daniel finished Kindergarten with a bang in 2011. Any facebook followers know most of his accomplishments as I brag on him all the time. He decided he was ready to be homeschooled after just 2 weeks of 1st grade. As excited as he was to go back to public school and get together with friends, he just got very frustrated with the pace of school (that is that it was going way to slow for his tastes). It has been an exciting time homeschooling him as he gets excited about such fun things. He loves Geography and loves learnng about the states. He can tell you the capitals of every state we have studied and knows the position of every state. He has a world map and an american map and spends SO MUCH time studying them. He has great dreams of traveling the world and I would not be surprised if he does just that. He still loves math and I have yet to really teach him much in this area. He just picks it up on his own, teaching himself along the way. I had a great discussion with a lady who works at a local homeschool store and she told me the best way to optimize his current math curriculum and so we are going to be starting that this year.

For Matt and I, it has been fairly status quo. Nothing too exciting except for the kids accomplishments. We celebrated our 13th year of marriage (we will celebrate the 14th year at the end of this month). Matt's job had some ups and downs, but he has been employed at this company for 13 years in May and we are extremely grateful for that stability. We have had many a challenge with our car situation...having gotten ourselves into a mess with being upside down when purchasing our Kia...and than the mess of OWNING a Kia. So many things have gone wrong with the car, but we must pay it off before even thinking of getting a new one. A big YAY US that did happen over the summer (and just in time since the Kia's ac went out and is out of budget to fix now) is the gift of a "new to us" car!! The only challenge with it is the driver's side window that does not work. Matt has to go in and prop it up every couple weeks as it just slides down on it's own (drive thrus are a particular challenge). BUT, it is a second car which is fantastic and HARDLY worth even complaining about anything (we have been a one car family for 12 years). This gift was a HUGE one and our lives have gotten so much BETTER because of it. Honestly, the biggest challenge for me with it was the lack of auxilary jack. I hate the local radio stations. BUT, even that was remedied when a friend suggested a tape to auxilary convertor (is that the right terminology), so now I can listen to my music without issue!!

There are many more small things I could mention....probably even big things. Even in the hard times, God showed his love and grace. He was ALWAYS there to hold us up and keep us going. He says that in all things to rejoice and I believe this to be an absolute truth (as all things he says is absolute truth). It is hard to rejoice many times when you are in the midst of "it", but when you get to the other side of "it", if you look back and see, really see, you can certainly rejoice. Maybe I will one day even get to that point where I rejoice while I am in "it". My kids seem to be better at seeing the joy in the middle of the pain better than we do.

So...2011 was bad and good....what year isn't?? I hope 2012 is better than 2011, but it is really out of my hands. If it is the same as 2011, than it is the same. We have conquered challenges and stayed strong...so, I guess 2011 was a victorious year. Why would I wish for anything different??