Blessings from Our Year 2016

Can you believe it’s already 2017?!

It’s that time when we look back and think about what we have accomplished (and didn’t) in the previous 12 months. Successes and failures in all parts of life.

In our home it was a good year. It went by fast and before we knew it things were over. But we can look back and say, yay! We met so many goals! Some we didn’t even know we had.

Faith

This year I’ve watched my faith and my daughter’s faith strengthen and grow. We have prayed with each other and for each other and watched the Lord move, sometimes overnight, on our behalf. Lessons are not always easy but we are stronger for them.

We started off the year feeling a bit lonely. Family and friends had moved further away and we knew we were in need of some fellowship we could enjoy together. In the years since her birth I had become more of an introvert than I used to be and in some ways I regret that. Even though she is shy by nature she is actual more extroverted than I am. Together we made new friends and are the better for it.

Friends and Family

Yaayy we took a nice family vacation! We finally hopped a plane and took a long time coming trip to see my father in New York. Actually we took a couple of vacations but this was the most memorable.we added a train trip on to it to make it extra special for our daughter. For two people who practically grew up on airplanes we’ve been surprisingly home bound for the past several years. Well coast bound. Next stop, overseas!

We made some lovely friends in our neighborhood that has expanded to a whole community of new friends. God works in totally mysterious ways and you never know the ways in which something small will impact your life greatly. It all started with a homeschool meeting in my neighborhood that I was hesitant about attending. I’m so glad I did! Best thing ever!

Home

This past year we added a darling red shed to our backyard. It’s something I’ve wanted for a long time. Our backyard is teeny but I like to think of it as The Quinn Farm.  I don’t know why I love this thing so much but I do. Right now it’s keeping my lemon trees warm for the winter. I check on them every few days.

We updated our laundry room this year. It was a major need to do. The room is only 5×5 and barely fits out washer and dryer. I’m a big laundry doer and not having another utility closet in the house means it also holds my cleaning supplies. We took drastic measures and got the biggest upper cabinets we could but it’s working out very well and now we need to just add window treatments and few other touches. It’s still not done but it’s 90x more functional and beautiful too.

Homeschool

School is going very well this year. Even though we are looking at making a tiny tweek in our
schedule. Instead of doing every subject every day we’re looking at spreading things about a bit especially when a topic of particular interest comes up. Just before the holiday break we dove into using a microscope and ancient India. How cool is that?!We’re getting ready to start

and we’ve made some cool new homeschool friends (IRL).

Health

How did we do from last year? Did we keep up with our goals for improved health? Well does it matter that my little nuclear family is down with the flu right now as I type this or is it important how we come out at the end?

Well this past year I picked up a couple of new gadgets to add to my kitchen entourage. The famous [easyazon_link identifier=”B00FLYWNYQ” locale=”US” tag=”mommybabytool-20″]Instant Pot[/easyazon_link] (during Prime Days) and an Oster Blender Food Processor combo. Both get a workout several times a week in my kitchen along with my juicer which I’ve pulled back out in an attempt to tackle my daughter’s acne. More on that in a few months.

It’s taken a year but I think I have more support from my family in bettering their health. As we age good health becomes more and more important.

Thank you for joining me on a look back.