Every year holds its ups and downs, hopes and dreams, joys and disappointments, sorrows and happiness. They just do.
2018 wasn’t any different. We had many, many good, good days and we had days we were very glad to see end.
Towards the end of the year, I opened my prayer journal/notebook and began a list of memories I was grateful for from the year. Here are a few of my personal, special highlights that meant a great deal to me, brought me excitement or happiness and blessed my life! I wanted to remember them. Recalling the good from the past serves to encourage my heart when the not-so-good-very-bad-mostly-horrible days hit. 🙂
In no particular order, here they are!
1. I won a Blentech blender from @christiannkoepke on Instagram! To say I was ecstatically thrilled is an understatement! I’ve looked at Blendtech blenders for over five years, every occasionally. I thought they looked awesome, but I wasn’t sure if my usage of one would warrant the price. I would browse and consider and then click away. When my Blendtech arrived and I put it to use, it quickly became a staple item in my kitchen. I love it!!! It’s right up there with my Kitchen-Aid mixer. The right tool definitely makes a huge difference whether you’re working in a kitchen or a farmshop! 😉
2. Celebrating Renae’s eighteenth birthday and throwing a graduation celebration for her! Both these events were so very much fun and super special memories. I’m very, very grateful! We invited a few of her friends and their mothers for a ladies luncheon to celebrate her birthday. Her graduation we marked with friends and family on a May evening in our backyard. Memorable moments ~ the electric went out about an hour before over 100 guests would be arriving!!!! Thankfully it came back on not too long after everyone arrived and we carried on! We served a variety of brownies and other favorite snack foods. She wanted a couple of the old John Deere tractors brought out and wanted a hayride. We built a bonfire as dusk gathered and it was a truly special memorable time for us. My family from Ohio all traveled out to celebrate her graduation with us.
3. We tore out all the carpets in our upstairs last year in January and I’m so glad we did and still very glad to have them gone!
4. Another highlight for me was joining hope*writers in late winter/early spring. It’s a beautiful, wonderful community of hope*writers and I’m so glad I took the leap to join. It was a bit of a whim and a bit of a what-am-I-doing, but it has blessed me and grown me and helped me realize the love of writing that really is in my bones. {hope*writers is opening their doors to new members three times this year. Today is the first day of the first time this year and if you’re interested at all, hop over here to learn more about it.}
5. Renae and I attended a Casting Crowns concert in February and it was a very fun time together. I still have a rough draft lurking in the wings of my blog from our evening. Perhaps I will get it out and dust if off and brush it a little and share it anyway.
6. Flower arranging. I did several amateur flower arrangements last year and I totally love it! I’d decided it would be fun to take a floral arranging class. When I searched I wasn’t coming up with any in my immediate area. I decided to just DIY at home and I’ve had way more fun with it than I even imagined I would. Yay!!!
7. Turning 40. Yep. I celebrated my 40th birthday in July and may I say it Was So Much Fun. Part of me still giggles to realize my man and I are middle-aged, yet our bodies definitely indicate this some days. Inside we still don’t feel too much differently than we did twenty years ago. My good farmer man and I spent a weekend away celebrating….eating good food {too much}, meandering around a cute candy shop, visiting an arboretum and botanical garden, ducking into a donut shop, sharing chips and queso, wandering through Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn {totally me doing the browsing in these two stores…my farmer man read AgTalk 🙂 } I had a terrifically fun Day Out with four friends and my daughter….once again eating good food and ducking into fun shops….my mother and sister sent fun gifts and cards…my sister-in-law made me a cake and my sister-in-laws and nieces put together a super-fun gift basket filled with forty items…my daughter gave me a galvanized oval container filled with a lovely mug and notecards and stickers and a whole variety of fun, fun stuff. She also hid forty notes randomly around the house for me to find. It was fantastic! Every time I found one it would make me smile so big and I have them all treasured in a little basket. Renae and I also celebrated with another friend and her daughters by going out for lunch {more delicious food!!!!} and watching Christopher Robin!!! I love Winnie-the-Pooh. Celebrating forty really was the best! It was exactly my heart and I have treasured up each memory. No surprise parties {shudder}, instead, spending quality time with one or a few friends. I was also blessed with texts, cards and gifts and truly was humbled and honored by so many caring hearts.
8. Fun Outings and Time Spent With Friends ~ In 2017, I had “coffee dates” with a friend nearly every month and wanted to continue this in 2018. {I call it “coffee dates” but it doesn’t have to be actually going out for coffee. Read this post for fun ideas.} We had some fun day trips with our nieces, nephews and friends. We visited the zoo, a carousel, and science museum. There were a couple special afternoons spent at dear friends’ houses and the birthday celebration of a cousin and friend. Watching Renae perform in “Joseph and the Technicolor DreamCoat.” It all added up to a lot of good memories as I reflected over the year.
9. Taking pictures for a friend’s wedding. I was two parts excited and one part nervous/scared. I love to take pictures, but it felt like a bit of a responsibility taking wedding pictures. It was so much fun, though! The couple are adorable and my very favorite part of the photo taking was the shots of the two of them by themselves.
10. Heading to Colorado in December. Last year and this year, we traveled to Denver and helped process shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. We’ve been packing shoeboxes since Renae was small and it was so much fun to see this part of the shoebox journey. Then, we spent a few days in the mountains and our teens went skiing. It was absolutely gorgeous at the ski area, gazing across the snow covered peaks. I’ve always loved watching my kids learn skills and have fun at it. I loved watching them at swimming lessons and learning to ice skate and roller skate and ripstick. Thus, I loved watching them take to skiing. They both love it and it’s been so fun to get to have this time with them and take the trip.
What memories are you especially grateful for from 2018? From the mundane to the once-in-a-lifetime, special moments are treasure!
