Looking at 2019 with Hindsight and at 2020 with Clear Vision

 

Chase, Gabe, and Jonah, Fall 2019

My plan was never to allow Jonah up on the couch...but, he won that battle with his cuteness.

 

July 2019 Beach Bums

 

Snowshoe, WV, March 2019

 

Birthday Boys (Chase-10, Gabe-7) April 2019

 
E 

Gabe sporting his braces with a big smile

 

Chase looks so grown in this picture (and such a handsome little guy too)!

 


Chase surfing for the first time in Frisco, NC in July 2019

 


Surprise 40th Birthday Party for Tim on 7/20/19



Happy 2020! Gabe was having a blast...Chase wasn't amused.

 
 

Chase in his basketball uniform (Team Lakers)

 

I love how the sun is shining on their face and they're embracing each other...reminds me of how God shines His bright light and love on us.

 

Breeden January Christmas 2020

 

Having fun with Sasquatch

 

Spring Soccer 2019

My 3 Favorite Guys in one of my Favorite Places (Good Winds Restaurant, July 2019)

I pray 2020 has brought you positivity so far and clear vision for an even brighter rest of the year (hopefully you got the 2020 and clear vision correlation, ha, ha). You may have noticed I didn’t post at all in 2019. In all honesty, I had debated with just discontinuing the blog all together, but then a part of me may regret that some years later...so here I am! Even if it’s just one post every other year, it’s better than none, right? I’ve had this blog going since 2008, so I suppose I can keep it around for another dozen years!

Since this is the first post for 2020, I’m listing the top 10 of our family “firsts” over the past year:

(1) We went snow tubing and skiing in Snowshoe for the first time as a family in March of 2019! The boys were both naturals at it after a day in ski school; and, surprisingly, Tim and I didn’t break our necks after having not skied for 20 years. We actually did pretty well even if we did just stick to the bunny slopes. Our trip was awesome. Although it occurred in March when spring is normally trying to rear its head, we still got a genuine dose of winter up in the mountains with fresh snow and freezing temps. We’ll be taking another ski trip this March and we’re praying we have just as great of a time as last year. The snow we just got here this week pales in comparison to what we’ll see in Snowshoe.

(2) Gabe learned how to ride his bike without training wheels with minimal crash landings. (He came in hot a few times trying to master braking.)

(3) Gabe rode the LochNess Monster rollercoaster at Busch Gardens (his first coaster with an upside down loop). We conned him into doing it once, but that was it for the season....maybe he’ll decide to brave it again this year.

(4) Chase “finally” weighed enough to zip line in Snowshoe for our summer trip. The word “finally” indicates how long Chase felt it took for him to meet the weight limit. Meanwhile, I think he’s growing too fast.

(5) Chase got suspended from school for the first (and hopefully last) time. His offense wasn’t that bad. In fact, he was really taking up for another friend and just got caught up in a riff. Even though he didn’t throw the first punch, he was still suspended for punching back, which was really just a matter of defending himself and his friend from another kid who was being unnecessarily rough and unkind during a game of basketball (kind of ironic since the school system always preaches anti-bullying and encourages kids to stand up for each other). However, since he was still guilty of getting himself involved in a physical altercation before asking an adult to intervene, the school had to follow protocol with the suspension. I didn’t fight back on the school’s decision, but I’m still proud of him for taking up for a friend.

(6)  Chase got to go surfing for the first time down in Frisco, NC. A good friend of ours gave him a few amateur lessons on his board. He may not have been able to stay up for long, but he still did it! Hang loose!

(7) Embrace the braces! Even though Tim had braces as an adolescent, his teeth still shuffled back to being misaligned during adulthood to the point where his bottom teeth were becoming uncomfortable. So, he finally treated himself to the orthodontist and is working on getting his teeth straight again. We can already tell a drastic difference. Gabe also got braces put on his top, front two teeth in November as a “first” for him.  Chase will soon need Phase 2 of braces once more of his permanent teeth grow in. Praise the Lord we have decent dental insurance and good jobs to help pay for these expenses!

(8) I ventured out to teach 2nd and 3rd grade at church this year. I also do the storytelling for all of the elementary kiddos once a month in addition to teaching my class. At first, my intent was just to be more of an assistant without having to serve every Sunday, but with Liberty Baptist’s new Smithfield campus being launched in 2019, I felt God tugging on me to do more to help fill the need for volunteers. Although it has been a big commitment, it’s been nothing short of a blessing and I love all of the kiddos I get to pour love into each Sunday morning.  I think I often get more out of teaching the lessons as they do listening to them.

(9) After 5 years of playing both spring and fall soccer, Chase and Gabe tried out rec league basketball this winter. They were humbled during their first season and realize they’re not mini Michael Jordans as they once thought they were as they would dunk on the hoop (lowered, of course) in our driveway. Chase’s team went undefeated on up until the tournament game and then they lost; meanwhile Gabe’s team only won one game their whole season.  It was fun trying out a new sport but we’re excited to get back to soccer this spring.

(10) Last but not least, we’re beyond thrilled to introduce our newest family member to you...our sweet labradoodle puppy Jonah! If you check out my Facebook page, you can read the story leading up to why and how we got Jonah in November 2019. We already love our fur baby to pieces. He is already almost half a year old weighing around 50 pounds and up to date on all of his immunizations and vet check-ups. He is an F1 labradoodle that favors the lab side way more than the poodle side. We didn’t dodge the shedding gene, but we love the fact that we won’t have to worry about getting him groomed and that he still sheds less than our old full lab. Thankfully, we survived the first few months without any major catastrophes with puppy chewing and potty training. He is energetic but still has his lazy snuggly moments. He LOVES people...and it’s impossible not to love him even when he runs off with one of our shoes in his mouth.

I can’t promise I’ll get around to more than one blog posting in 2020, but I will promise myself to keep this blog alive, regardless of the frequency of the posts. Until then, let’s make the most of 2020 and continue to count our blessings! As always, if you’ve read this far, I thank you for following along with me in another year full of adventures.

The Second Half of 2018

Tim's grandfather, George B. Wheeler Sr., went to be with the Lord on December 20, 2018 at 90 years old. This picture is our last visit with him in April 2018. 

My two mischievous elves

This year's Christmas card

The gorgeous tree in the lobby area of our church! We are so excited that Liberty Baptist will open up a new campus right here in Smithfield in January 2019!!!

A little blurry, but this is Gabe (top row) doing one of his favorite things: singing Christmas carols during the Hardy's 1st Grade "Twas the Night before Christmas" presentation.

Nothing better than coming home from work to see that a sweet friend from your bible study group left you a tin full of cookies on your doorstep!

Santa visited Chase and Gabe at their school...Chase and Gabe already know that this isn't the real Santa in this picture. Gabe says he's pretty sure that this was Donald Trump dressed up as Santa (don't ask me where he got that from). 

Now, this is the real Santa! We got to visit Santa at Busch Gardens Christmastown the Sunday following Thanksgiving...great way to get in the Christmas spirit!

I liked the format I used earlier this year with the theme: A dozen things I learned (or was reminded of) during the first half of 2018...so I’m doing it again for the second half as we close out 2018:

1. Kids often need inside voices even when they’re outside. During one of our visits to Water Country over the summer, Chase looked at the guy in front of us (who had a lot of chest and back hair) and said, “Mom, I sure hope I don’t grow up and end up looking like Big Foot.”

2. It is possible to take two trips to OBX in one summer without any truck issues, bad weather, power outages, or any other catastrophe.

3. I love the Hampton Roads area as we are conveniently located to so much right at our fingertips. I can’t stand to hear people complain about this area since this is my hometown where my roots are deeply planted. We have the mountains and beach all within a couple hours of our home. This summer, we were blessed with another beautiful mountain getaway to Snowshoe, WV with Tim’s family over the 4th of July and two wonderful beach trips in July and August. In between those mountain and beach trips, we had a blast at Busch Gardens, Water Country, and the pool right around the corner from our home. I’m not trying to be a travel agent for our hometown, but I do love summers around here! I’m also very grateful that with the landscape of our area, it’s rare for us to endure a direct hit from a hurricane. Florence gave us all a scare when weather forecasters first spotted her a week out from her landfall, but she (by God’s grace) stayed well south of us.

4. I embrace the different personalities of my children. Just a few of many examples: They each got to pick out pet fish before school started. Chase picked out a fancy beta and named it “Lightning.” Gabe picked out a simple, chunky looking goldfish and named it “Mark.” Upon returning to school, Chase was excited for the social aspect of reuniting with friends. Gabe was not at all thrilled and would have been fine having an endless summer. However, since then, Gabe says he actually enjoys school and learning. On the other hand, Chase hates homework and anything having to do with academics and just wants to go to school to socialize. He has thankfully remained on the honor roll in spite of his preference for socializing over academics.

5. Gabe asked me if flour was made from pollen. Don’t ever pass up a teaching moment. Gabe helped me bake apple spice bread so I showed him how to measure ingredients and I also taught him the difference between flower and flour.

6. Chase never misses an opportunity to help his brother...especially if it involves a little bit of pain and suffering on his brother’s behalf. He has helped pull out two loose teeth for Gabe this year.

7. Gabe can still never have enough costumes and continues to amaze me with his imagination as he switches over to superhero mode within the blink of an eye and prances around the house singing. (Yes, I already posted this in the first half of 2018 as one of my bullets, but it was worth mentioning again since it’s such a huge part of Gabe’s life.) The dressing up aspect of Halloween this year was no different than any other day of the year. You can bet he’s been wearing reindeer antlers and Santa hats this Christmas season too. Having Gabe around is like living life in a constant musical. 

8. Why do we doubt ourselves when God always says we’re enough? Tim and I were both blessed with job promotions at the end of the year. I honestly had moments of doubt that I would get the promotion; it was when I had come to peace with the idea of not getting promoted and sought God’s will for my job that He sweetly blessed me with the promotion. Tim has also been reminded of how much of a positive impact he makes in his shop. He is now taking on a supervisor role (in addition to running his normal machine), which comes with extra responsibilities, but he seems to like the challenge of it so far. The lesson learned from all of this is that we need to be content in our jobs even during the times we aren’t recognized for our efforts because God does see what we’re doing and rewards us in His timing. Ultimately, we work for the Lord, not for man.

9. Hands down, the Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes are better than any of the other seasonal cakes that Little Debbie puts out throughout the year. (And, yes, I cut the cardboard Christmas tags out from the box every year!)

10. Soccer seasons are still crazy and hectic, but they’re over in a blink of an eye. Although we rush around like chickens with our heads cut off during the season, I’m always glad we participate in them as a family. The Pirates won their first tournament game this fall, but lost during the semi-finals. Gabe’s team was pretty pitiful only winning one game the entire season, but it was great exercise and fun!

11. Gabe’s theme song this Christmas is, “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.” This will hopefully be the last Christmas of his life he’s ever missing his front two teeth.

12. I love that my kids still believe in Santa. In fact, we all do! For my family, believing in Santa is not idolizing a jolly, burly guy who brings children gifts...it’s about having faith and believing in something you can’t see (this concept should sound familiar to Christians); it’s about keeping the Christmas spirit alive in our hearts even when the world tries to convince us otherwise; it’s about acknowledging not just the birth of Jesus, but the ultimate sacrifice He made for us; it’s about treating others with extra kindness that we should be displaying year-round; it’s about being more generous and giving of ourselves even when it hurts our pockets and costs us time we don’t think we can spare; it’s about slowing down the pace of our busy lives to spend time with our loved ones as we never know if we’ll be given another Christmas with them.  We just laid Tim’s grandfather to rest this weekend. God bless all of the Wheeler/Breeden/Keithley family and their aching hearts right now. My dad also lost his step-dad this fall.  Both of our grandfathers were in their 90’s and were blessed with long lives that not everyone has the privilege of living.  We never know which breath is going to be our last.  However, we were given eternal hope of a heavenly home 20 centuries ago when Jesus was born!  May we all continue to believe this Christmas season and in the New Year!

13. Bonus one (because I hate ending on sappy notes): Don’t ever text one word texts to your husband, such as “pregnant.” I sent Tim a text to let him know I had seen where one of his childhood friends is expecting another baby. I horribly misspelled the word pregnant on my iPhone during that text so I sent a follow-up text correcting my misspelling with just the word “pregnant.” All Tim saw was that last text and he had a moment of panic thinking I was pregnant...don’t worry folks; the only babies we’re celebrating this Christmas are my mom and dad’s blue-eyed husky puppy, Luke, and the most significant baby in history: JESUS! 

If you’ve managed to read this far (seriously, who reads blogs anymore?), then I appreciate you following along with me in another year! I’ll be back in 2019 to post more Breeden adventures!

2nd Quarter of 2018

Team Pirates with Tim as head coach and our former neighbor and friend Joy as assistant coach

The 10th Year of our Japanese Cherry Tree

Gabe's team (the Panthers) receiving their trophies

Birthday Boys (Chase-9, Gabe-6)

Our Natural-Born Skater...Wheels of Glory!

Our Favorite Kindergarten Graduate of 2018

Family Picture Before my Cousin's Wedding in May

A dozen things I learned (or was reminded of) during the first half of 2018: 1. My kids are resilient and very adaptable creatures! I’m so proud of them for doing so well in their first school-year at a public school. They both blended in well socially and were right on target academically. Look out 1st and 4th grade...Chase and Gabe are ready for you! In the meanwhile, these two boys are getting to do a ton of fun things in summer camp back at their old school (Faith Outreach). 
2. I’m never too old to laugh at Tom and Jerry cartoons, especially when I get to share giggles with Gabe while watching them. 
3. Chase can never have enough attention and is never at a loss for words...even if he’s asking the same questions he asked in an earlier conversation and especially if he’s competing with his brother! 
4. Gabe can never have enough costumes and continues to amaze me with his imagination as he switches over to superhero mode within the blink of an eye.
5. Along the lines of #5, there’s no sense in getting mad over costumes being all over the floor after Gabe plays. He’ll soon be over this stage and I’ll be sad I won’t have a little superhero running around the house trying to fight off villains and save the world. 
6. Piggybacking on #5, it’s ok for my couch and carpet to be worn, for my walls to have blemishes, for there to be way too many toys and for me to be too tired to constantly keep them organized and off the floor, for there to be a crack in the ceiling from water damage from the bathtub upstairs where the boys have splashed too much...these are all signs of happy, healthy lives in my house! 
7. You can never have enough prayer warriors in your life...but sometimes you have to be more transparent to allow people to specifically pray for you or to be able to specifically pray for others. Don’t be afraid/ashamed to share your mishaps with others because your story of redemption may be exactly what they need to hear. 
8. Working full time is a blessing, but time with my family should never suffer because of it. “I wish I had worked more and spent less time with my family,” has never been on anyone’s tombstone. It’s ok to make less money and have a lower job title if it means having more time with your loved ones...that time with your cherished ones is priceless! 
9. Soccer seasons fly by and my kids are never going to be like Pele! We’ve had undefeated seasons as well as seasons split with wins and losses; my kids have had games when they’ve scored goals as well as games when their coaches are screaming at them to pay attention. For the record, I don’t feel they’ve always earned those trophies in spite of our “every kid gets a trophy” society. However, every season is unique and enjoyable! The feeling you get as a parent on the sideline cheering on your child as they score a goal is one of life’s greatest adrenaline rushes. Believe it or not, Tim actually missed coaching the 4/5 year olds during the spring season when he transitioned to coaching Chase’s team with the 8/9 year-olds, but he’s already signed up to give the fall season another whirl with coaching Chase’s team again. Meanwhile, Gabe adjusted well for it being his first time not having his Dad coach him. (Refer back to #1-praise God, my kids are adaptable!) 
10. When a child has to pee really badly while standing in a line at Water Country and suddenly says they don’t have to pee anymore, don’t believe them when they say that it’s just water running down their leg. (True story from Gabriel.) 
11. Clear retainers can still be found when lost on a playground at a daycare! (True story from Chase shortly after getting his bottom braces off and getting his retainer.) 
12. Last but not least, I’ll never be coordinated enough to look cool doing the Floss. I’m ok with being the one moving to the right when everyone else in my exercise classes are moving to the left. I’m fine with not updating my Facebook profile picture very often or posting endless selfies...I’m almost 37 years old; you know what I look like by now. I don’t need a constant stream of affirmation from others to make me feel better about myself because God has already convinced me that I’m worthy because of Him! A bonus one (#13): the crusade to use sunblock and fight off those nasty cancerous cells is great. I certainly don’t want skin cancer for me or my fellow pale loved ones and it honestly scares me to see people even my age already getting cancerous cells removed, .....BUT, a little Vitamin D is still good for the soul. As Faith Outreach’s summer camp motto goes, have “fun in the Son!”

First Quarter of 2018

Hardy Elementary had a Kindergarten Expo on March 30th. Gabriel got to tell everyone all he learned about rainforests.

Chase loved doting on his great Aunt Lynn's dog Isabel. 

Our first big snow of the year in January

From the snow to the sand...this picture was taken at the beach of Fort Boykin

One of my favorite pictures of the boys this winter that Tim snapped while we were on a walk at Windsor Castle Park. 

In front of the big fish tank at Bass Pro Shop

Chase, Jaycee and Gabe playing on Papa's iPAD...sometimes we have to pry the boys away from electronics

Gabe at the YMCA taking swim lessons this winter

"Dress like an Animal Day" at school during Spirit Week...Gabe was a wolf. 

Valentine's Day cards, Honor Roll and Reading Awards

We are over a quarter of the way through 2018! No need for me to even say that time flies since my last post was in December of 2017. I also don’t need to go into the usual spell about how busy we’ve been because that’s the norm for us. Even though I also probably don’t need to go into how cold the winter was, I’ll still do that as it gives me yet another thing to Praise the Lord for now that spring is here. The first snow storm of the year hit shortly after the kids returned to school after Christmas break, but we had a couple more after that and a few nor’easters that brought about chilly, windy weather. I lost count of how many snow days the boys had off from school this year. Thankfully, Isle of Wight County hasn’t forced any make-up school days into the schedule.

Fast forward a few months and here we are at spring break. Winter has not wanted to leave us as we’ve still had some chilly days so far this spring, but we can rest assured that warm days are ahead of us. I decided to take off a full week to be with the boys for their spring break this year.  I’m so thankful I did as it gives me the opportunity to document how our year has gone so far and how much we’ve all grown in different ways.

So, let’s start with the head of the household, Tim.  He finally broke down and sold our beloved 2000 Tahoe this winter. I thought I was going to cry when we sold it since we made so many memories with that truck, but surprisingly I held up well when I realized that Tim got almost the full price he asked for it.  Besides, it’s hard to get all bent out of shape when you replace a 2000 Tahoe with a 2017 Chevy 2500 LTZ diesel truck.  Tim is thrilled with his new ride!  We are indeed blessed and thankful to have newer vehicles in our driveway.

As for me, I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of an incredible women’s bible study group here in Smithfield on Monday nights.  I was already in one last year, but we transitioned leaders of the group.  When this leadership change was taking place, we lost a few of our old members and the new leader and I got a little concerned since our numbers were down.  However, since then, God has brought in many new members and we are now larger than we were before…but, it’s not the numbers that make this group special; it’s how the Holy Spirit works through each of us and how we can each use our talents and prayers to encourage one another.  Plus, we can never study or know enough about God’s word because it’s His Living Word that is constantly feeding us what we need at specific times in our lives. Before I get too preachy, I’ll just say once again that I’m very blessed to be a part of this bible study and it has been one of the highlights so far of my year.  Aside from that, most of my other time during the weekdays is consumed with work and trying to sneak in exercise classes after work a couple times a week before heading home to help the boys with their reading homework. 

One of Chase’s highlights this year is getting his top braces off…but, he’s not out of the woods yet as he just got his bottom braces put on and he will probably need another round of braces for the top teeth as his permanent teeth gradually replace the baby ones.  However, he’s handled the braces like a champ and seems to be confident with his new smile. Chase certainly isn’t lacking any confidence with his social skills as he often talks too much.  In spite of getting called down for too much talking and giggling during class a few times this school year, he has still managed to consistently make the Honor Roll. Chase has always been smart and now he is also mastering the art of sarcasm, which keeps Tim and me on our toes. Our eldest offspring will soon be 9 years old.  He keeps trying to convince us that he will be old enough for us to get him a dog as soon as he hits double digits, so we have a year to combat that idea.

The baby of our family was somewhat reserved when he first started Kindergarten last fall, but he has socially bloomed into a confident little boy.  Gabriel’s speech as evolved to the point where we’re pretty sure he won’t require it anymore next school year.  In fact, he is currently only meeting with his speech teacher once a month and it is just for a brief 15 minutes or so for her to just talk to him and make sure he’s maintaining his skills. Even before he could fully verbalize it, we always knew Gabe had a strong personality and was quite the character.  His latest thing is taking dry erase markers (thank God we got away from using the permanent ones) to draw mustaches and abs on himself so he can imagine that he’s the Incredible Hulk or some other character.  During the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang this year, he asked us why people were going to “Pee-on-Chang.”  Right before Spring Break, I asked him if he was excited to have a full week off from school and his response was, “how many years do I have off?”  Our almost 6 year old boy keeps us rolling with laughter as he has the perfect combination of wit and innocence.  Oftentimes, Chase gets jealous when we laugh at Gabe, but any parent with more than one child can attest that you love your children equally and they each have a unique personality that you adore. 

Both of our boys are beginning another season of soccer.  Tim is coaching Chase’s team this season, so the biggest challenge will be to get Chase to remain focused rather than use soccer practice and games as his social time.  We are also anxious to see how Gabe will do playing his first season without Tim as his coach.  Gabe has a tendency to be a sore loser, so we hope he won’t throw tantrums on the field with another coach.  It was easy for Tim to nip it in the bud when he coached him.  Aside from soccer, Gabe successfully completed Stage 2 swim lessons at the YMCA this winter.  We hope both boys will be ready to tackle the pool without any flotation devices this summer.  

As we close out this spring break, I’m reflecting on how thankful I am that I’ve had this week off with the boys.  I’ve found myself guilty in the past of working too many long hours, accumulating too many unspent vacation hours and missing out on spending this quality, precious time with them.  I’m trying to break the trend of working too much and not spending enough time with my children.  Although I’m beyond thankful for my job and I actually enjoy working, taking a day off to accompany one of the boys on their field trips (like I did for Gabe for his field trip to the VA Living Museum in March) is far more important as there will come a day when those field trips are a thing in the past and the boys won’t be so excited to have me around.  This week I’ve had the opportunity to remind myself how priceless this time is with the boys.

This is how I cherished the moments this week:

Saturday, March 31^st—the boys got to go to Swader’s (a place with go-karts and arcades) while Pam, Amber and I got to see the Broadway Dirty Dancing show in Richmond (this was Pam’s birthday gift even though her birthday was back in January).

Sunday, April 1^st—got to spend Easter with my family doing the traditional egg hunts and egg coloring.  What a beautiful day it was to celebrate our Resurrected Savior!  My mom’s first cousin Alice and her husband Robert paid us a surprise visit to spend Easter weekend with us.

Monday, April 2^nd—went for a walk around the neighborhood with the former leader of my bible study group on Monday morning and Gabe had a play-date with his friend in the afternoon.  I also spent some time organizing Chase’s clothes and packing away the items he has outgrown.

Tuesday, April 3^rd—got to go to Busch Gardens for the first time this season.  The park was super busy, but we made it our mission for Chase to ride Griffon for the first time.  He can now say he’s ridden every roller coaster at Busch Gardens.  Gabe got to ride his very first “big” rollercoaster: Verbolten.  His reaction at first was that he was born “weddy” (ready) to wide (ride), but by the time the coaster pulled back into the loading station he said that he never wanted to ride it again.  We’re confident he’ll warm back up to it with time.  Now that Gabe is tall enough this year, it’s exciting that all four of us can ride rollercoasters together.  I think the Sesame Street days at Busch Gardens are in the rear view mirror now. 

Wednesday, April 4^th—Happy Birthday to Papa (Ted Breeden)! We spent the day in Charlottesville with Tim’s grandparents, aunts, uncle, and cousins while Ted got an MRI for his back (not a fun birthday present).  With Tim’s grandparents having had several health scares lately, we wanted to make sure we could visit them over spring break not knowing if we’ll be given this opportunity again. 

Thursday, April 5^th—I used this day to catch up on chores around the house while the boys had a lazy day playing with their electronics.  We had soccer practice in the afternoon.  The first soccer game should start next weekend!  Go Pirates (Chase’s team) and Panthers (Gabe’s team)!

Friday, April 5^th—spent most of the day with Grandma (still holding strong at 92 years old!) and my mom.  I also got to do some shopping and had a lunch date with a dear friend.  The boys wanted to see Despicable Me 3 in the theater, but it was no longer playing there…but, it was on Netflix, so they still got to have a movie night at home. 

Saturday & Sunday, April 6^th & 7^th—concluded our spring break by attending a Laser Tag birthday party Saturday afternoon for one of Chase’s friends.  After the party, Tim and I treated ourselves to a hibachi/sushi dinner…the boys fought over chopsticks most of the time…this is why Tim and I don’t go out to dinner very often with the boys.  Tim worked both Saturday and Sunday.  I took the boys to church this morning and served in the nursery taking care of 3 year-olds.  After church, I did my best to prep meals ahead of time for the week to make the transition back to work this week less hectic.  I just wrapped up the day with a walk around the neighborhood with a friend.  As I was walking on this bright, sunny day, I couldn’t help but think of the hymn “It is Well.”  In spite of not wanting this spring break to end and knowing there may be challenges ahead as I go back to work and the boys go back to school this week, “It is Well with My Soul.” 

2017 in a Nutshell

We visited Busch Gardens Christmastown for the first time this year! Chase was disappointed there weren't many rides open, but the beautiful lights made the night worthwhile. We even snuck in the "Scrooge No More" show. 

This picture made our 2017 Christmas card stating we are dysfunctional at times but we are always joyful in Christ. The picture was taken Thanksgiving Day.

Chase's short lived martial arts experience

The boys' school pictures were taken back in September (bad lighting since this is a picture of a picture). They've already changed so much since then, especially Chase with having his braces and a new haircut now. 

I love seeing the boys in their matching PJs...this may be the last year I can get Chase to do this. 

A big smile on Chase as he arrives at school on the first day on the school bus.

A fierce Batman and Skull Ninja

This picture was taken when Gabe got his first metal at school for reading 100 steps (one step = 15 minutes of reading). He's covering his metal in this picture and the lanyard blends in with his red shirt, but it's there and he's proud of it!

The beginning of fall with leaves turning and falling...this picture was taken after church on one beautiful Sunday

A good Christmas morning includes messy hair, PJs, and big smiles.

One of Gabe's favorite gifts from Auntie Amber: a Home Depot leaf blower and toy chainsaw set. 

Do you ever receive Christmas cards with those letters inside where friends and family brag on their loved ones and accomplishments for another year? I see nothing wrong with these letters, but I do find myself rolling my eyes from time to time because life isn’t always as peachy keen as those letters depict. I use my blog to recap the year and brag on my family too, only I also include the bloopers that occurred as I feel it’s a better representation of reality. As I mentioned in my last post, it’s through those mishaps that we truly learn those important life lessons. It’s also those imperfect moments through which we can live, laugh, and love.

2017 was by far the quickest year of my life. As cliche as it sounds, it’s a fact: the years truly do go by faster as we get older. Although it was a lightning-fast year, it was a good one. I won’t recap the whole year because past 2017 blog postings tell the story. However, I will recap the last third of the year since my last posting was before school started (wow!).

As a family, we experienced a pretty big transition switching the boys over from a private Christian school to Isle of Wight County public schools after Labor Day. This transition entailed not only a new school for the boys, but a new childcare provider before and after school hours. Thankfully, these changes went over fairly smoothly and the boys handled them with God’s grace. As soon as they walked into Kids Come First (their new before/after school childcare provider), they blended right in and talked with the staff as though they had always attended there.

They also got adjusted to Hardy Elementary pretty quickly. For Gabe, it wasn’t as big of a deal because he had been going there for speech since he was 3 years old. Kindergarten was going to be a big new experience for him regardless of which school he attended, but I’m thankful to say he’s done even better than expected at Hardy. He is already reading small books on his own and scored above average for math at his age. Another huge bragging moment (drumroll, please): Gabe’s speech has improved so much that he only needs to go twice a month now! This time last year we were still going twice a week! Amazing progress! His teacher believes he won’t need any more speech therapy after this school year. What a huge blessing that is considering he was so inarticulate at age 3!

On the other hand, Chase has never struggled with speech, except in the sense that he doesn’t know when to stop it. Although he has made the honor roll so far since he’s been at Hardy, he at first struggled with rushing through assignments too much and socializing instead of listening to the teacher’s instructions. He is learning to slow down and listen better, but there’s no changing the fact that he’s a social butterfly. He gave martial arts a try for 5 weeks (about 10 sessions), but it didn’t take long for him to realize that it wasn’t a social sport. After his sensei had to reprimand him for not being focused enough and goofing off too much during multiple lessons, we decided martial arts wasn’t Chase’s forte. He may want to try it again in the future when he can take it more seriously, but for now, he’s going to stick with soccer.

Speaking of soccer, Tim’s team the Pirates went undefeated for another season in the fall. Gabe scored several goals and seems to finally be getting the hang of the sport. Chase’s team didn’t do as well, but they still had a blast playing. Both boys are going to play spring soccer in 2018 and Tim is going to test out his luck coaching the 8/9 year-olds for the first time.

In the meanwhile, Gabe is signed up for swim lessons this winter at the Smithfield YMCA. I offered swim lessons and swim team to Chase, but he swears he is already an Olympic swimmer and doesn’t need any improvement. So, Chase is just going to wait out the winter and look forward to soccer practices beginning in March.

We had an exciting fall with soccer season and typical autumn festivities. We went trunk-or-treating at First Baptist in Hopewell and trick-or-treating around our neighborhood in Smithfield. Gabe dressed up as Batman at his school and was Robin for going around the neighborhood. Chase was a ninja. We enjoyed celebrating the many fall birthdays in our family. Tim and I also got to sneak in a date day/night at Busch Gardens Howl-O-Scream. We concluded the fall with Thanksgiving with Tim’s family in Hopewell. We celebrated with my family the Friday after Thanksgiving.

That brings us up to one of our favorite times of year as a family: Christmas! I’m sad that it came and went so quickly, but I’m also excited for all of the new adventures 2018 will bring. The boys had a fun Christmas and Santa was very good to them. We did the typical cookie baking, decorating the house and trees and attending Christmas Eve service at church. Gabe’s offering during the service was that he farted and proudly announced it. I don’t think anyone else noticed outside of Tim and me, but that was quite an embarrassing Hallelujah moment.

Of course Christmas to us also means spending time with family. Unfortunately, one of the cornerstones of our family (Grandma) got sick on Christmas Eve with flu-like symptoms and spent most of her day in the ER. She was unable to join us Christmas Day, but she is better now and we were able to visit her on Friday to exchange gifts with her. She said even though she was sick on Christmas Day, she enjoyed the peace and was able to rest and reflect on the true meaning of the holidays (JESUS!) without having all of the chaos of family being around. I can’t help but wonder if this was God’s way of preparing us for future Christmases without Grandma with us...as much as I hate to ponder the thought of losing her, I have to remind myself that she is almost 92 years old. She is amazingly healthy for her age and gets around well, but she’s had a few more scares within the last year.

Along those lines, we never know what lies ahead of us...we could live to be 92 like Grandma or die tomorrow. With that said, let’s make every day count in 2018 as though we could be Heaven-bound at any moment! If you're unsure if you'll be Heaven-bound when you die, don't delay believing in Christ as your Savior and committing to Him in 2018...I can assure you the Christian life isn't always easy, but there's immeasurable peace and joy that accompany it! Happy New Year!