The Best and Worst of 2017

I cannot believe it is December! Where did this year go? To be fair, I think I feel this way every December though.

While this year compares in no way to last year, we are still picking up the pieces from 2016. There were still a good many changes that happened, so here's a quick recap:

Jan: We started out the year across town, renting from a woman on a mission trip. I was also on a mission...to find us a permanent place to call home. We had a place picked out, inspection done and offer made. The sellers changed their minds at the last minute and decided not to sell. That was a big blow to recover from. In the end, we found a place to live (though not a permanent one) but I'll admit to still being a little mad about this one.

Feb: I had a birthday party planned for Ken as he turned 40. He took this opportunity to get sicker than he's been the whole time I've known him and actually take 2 sick days from work! Anything to get out of a party!!

Mar: We signed a lease on our new place and got started on the moving in. We spent much of the month going between two houses. It was stressful, but ultimately all our stuff ended up in the same place and we are still working on unpacking and sorting.

Apr: This was the big moving month. I'm thankful to my parents for keeping track of the kids over Spring Break so we could make things as smooth for them as possible. We transitioned to sleeping in the new house after Easter, but didn't get everything moved out of the old place until the end of the month. It was bonkers trying to figure out where things were for a while, but we've found all the important stuff by now! We also had Ben's birthday party in the new place and it was nice having room for everyone to gather.

May: Ummm...I don't know what happened in May. My Facebook digging didn't turn up anything and we all know if it isn't on Facebook, it didn't really happen...

Strangely enough, this is the only photo I have in my "May" folder on my computer...

June: School let out and summer started. Henry turned 10. The kids had a bunch of camps, as usual. Frances had four overnight camps over the course of the summer which was a bit odd. I accidentally had a brief thought about how it was getting us ready for when she leaves for good and it made those moments she was gone a bit more sad than they would have been. She's really been growing up lately. I started counseling to deal with some overwhelm and anxiety I had been feeling for a while in regards to my miscarriage and all the moving stuff.

July: Summer camps continued. We really enjoyed using our new backyard and discovering our proximity to the indoor pool. Ken had enough time off that we enjoyed some family hikes. Ken finally!! got a new vehicle. We bought him a Jeep Liberty to replace his 20 year old, falling apart pick up truck. It's been really nice having space for the whole family in either vehicle!

Aug: We enjoyed the summer (albeit with a lot of rain and some basement floods) some more. We had a week off for the county fair and we got to experience the solar eclipse. When school started, we started a momentous year! Frances' last year in middle school and Henry's last year in elementary school. Starting next year, we'll have three kids in three different schools.

Sept: We got back into the swing of things with school and extra-curriculars: soccer, violin, dance, leadership, etc. I actually started ballet lessons for myself and really enjoyed them.Benjamin started his First Reconciliation classes at church.

Oct: We celebrated Frances' 14th birthday. She went to a girls' coding conference and got a tablet of her very own. That, of course, led to her own Facebook account, but so far she's not been too bad about it. I had two dragons and a unicorn for Halloween and we went Trick-or-Treating in our new neighborhood. Turned out to be a lot more walking for not as much candy, but it's not like the kids are suffering from a sugar deficiency.

Nov: I took on social media responsibilities for my church. We celebrated Thanksgiving at my Father-in-Law's house and tried out his new boat. I applied for a new job (and didn't get it, but that's okay because I got a raise in my current position anyway).

Dec: So far, so good. We're getting ready for our first Christmas in this new house. I'm not sure where all the decorations go, but we're getting it figured out.

All in all, it was a pretty regular year. Things seem a bit more settled now than the previous year. My anxiety levels have gone down considerably. The kids are growing up and dealing with the issues that come along with that. I keep thinking that at some point parenting will get a bit easier, but we haven't hit that point yet. Or maybe it's easier in some ways and more difficult in others. My hope for 2018 is that these upwards trends will continue and we will all stay healthy.



Welcome to a Secret Subject Swap. This week 10 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts. Sit back, grab a cup, and check them all out. See you there:

Baking In A Tornado
Cognitive Script
The Blogging 911
The Bergham Chronicles
Southern Belle Charm
Bookworm in the Kitchen
Never Ever Give Up Hope
Part-Time Working Hockey Mom
Climaxed

My subject is "What was your favorite moment of 2017? What was your least favorite moment of 2017? What one hope do you have for 2018?" It was submitted by https://berghamchronicles.blogspot.com.