2016 Recap

What a year!!!!  2016 was a year of changes!  It was a year of adjustments.  It was a year of trusting God and His Provisions!

We started our year with a visit from Brad's parents.  We had a lovely time visiting, and took a field trip to Patriot's Point.  What a fascinating place!!!! I was also honored to be chosen as Farmgirl of the Month for MaryJanes Farm  What an honor!!  We also celebrated S7s birthday (complete with another hunting trip!) and another trip to the zoo.  Then God blessed us with a little bit of snow... not much, but we were excited, nonetheless!

February started off as a time for crafting, which I love!  Then, life came to a screeching halt, when A endured through second degree burns.  This traumatic experience was life changing, but again, God saw us through!  She is now her happy self, with only slight discoloration in small areas, and vague memories of it happening.  We also enjoyed going to the Above and Beyond Exhibit with dear friends.

March was much more quiet, with continued healing for A3, celebrating St. Patrick's Day, a field trip to the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon, and another field trip to Fort Watson and Santee Indian Mound.  We were also blessed with a visit from a dear Farmgirl Sister, MaryEllen :)  We also celebrated Easter.

In April, we started the month with a field trip to Old Santee Canal Park.  On the 5th, we celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary!  K of course made and decorated our cake :)  For my birthday, we made our way into Columbia for another trip to the zoo.  It truly is a favorite place for our family to go!  We also made a trip to Bee City.  Perhaps one of the neatest things for the month, though, was a visit in our backyard by a bald eagle.

W9 celebrated his birthday with a granted request to visit Birds of Prey.  K made him a yummy strawberry topped cake.  Later in the month we visited the Charleston Tea Plantation.  Then for B5's birthday trip, we headed back to the zoo.  He wanted a blueberry cake!  The end of May, Brad was gone.  He was in Wyoming looking for our forever home!!!

In June, we headed to Charlestown Landing as well as the Charleston Aquarium.  K13 also had her last horse riding lesson at Black Bottom Stables.  We celebrated Brad's birthday, as well as A3's.  The end of the month saw us moving again... this time on to Base Housing.

In July we made a trip to the bowling alley on base.  What a lot of family fun!!!  We also went peach picking, though we did not get nearly as many as we usually do, knowing we would soon be moving out west.

August was spent primarily at home, other than working at a local goat farm once a week.  We spent a lot of time finishing up projects for school.  We also celebrated E's 1st birthday.  Only a few months prior we learned that both she and I are terribly allergic to cow milk.  As such, and since E was still not eating much food, we made a delicious fruit cake for her birthday!  And then K became a teenager.  But what a delightful teenager she is!!!  She requested an eggplant lasagna for her dinner again - which was a little tricky in that it had to be made with goat cheese.  It turned out super yummy though!

September was a month of preparing to move... again... but for the final time.  It was about preparing to start a new chapter in life.  It was about doing things for the "last time."  We made a trip up to MD to see our families, and later in the month down to see one of my best friends down in Florida, for a long weekend.  We continued to work on the goat farm and at the end of the month we made our last trip to the zoo with close friends.  Here are our thirteen children...

October was a month of celebrations and visiting.  To start the month, Katie was baptized in Believer's Baptism.  Her Grammy came to celebrate the occasion with us.  The following day, Brad had his retirement ceremony from the Air Force.  Both his parents were there for that.  The next day they left and the movers came to start packing all our belongings.  Thursday the packers finished putting things on the truck, and it was prefect timing, as we had to evacuate due to the hurricane.  We came back the next week, cleaned the house, had our last inspection, and left our life for the past 12 years for a new start... It was so hard saying goodbye to our church!!!!  We miss our friends and family from GCBC immensely!!!!

We then spent the rest of October traveling out west... the long way.  We went up to Virginia first, to visit dear friends near Newport News.  Then we headed to West Virginia to stay with more friends.  After that, we headed to Indiana where we had lunch with Wardee, then further south in the state to visit with friends down there.  After that we visited for a few days with my aunts in Illinois, and then with dear friends in Nebraska.  At the end of the month we ended our journey in Wyoming, and closed on our "forever home."

November was spent getting things ready for winter.  We knew the cold weather was coming, and with that we needed firewood, and warm clothing.  Unfortunately the military were slow about getting us our belongings, but we made do.  We were able to get a fence up for the dog fairly quickly after we moved.  Everyone was so excited when the first snow began to fall!!!  We also started exploring our new surrounding areas.  One neat thing we found was that the town of Gillette collects donated decorated Christmas trees and wreaths that they then auction off to earn money for Hospice. This was voted as our kids' favorite...

December started with celebrating L11's birthday.  K13 was pretty bummed she didn't have any of her tools to "properly" decorate his cake, but she made do with bought decorations.  The following evening we went and watched the Christmas parade with friends from the church we are attending.  We also drove around the park in Gillette to see their Festival of Lights and then later in the month went with my brother and sister-in-love and their two boys to Storybook Island to see their lights. Christmas was extra special this year as it was our first white Christmas (it even snowed that day!!!) in a really long time! 

Overall, 2016 was a difficult year for us... but a wonderful one in that it helped us grow.. as a family, as a couple, as children of God.

Organization Challenge

Hi all :)  Well we are STILL waiting our orders to move to our dream home.  In the meantime, however, I am taking advantage of this time to organize and declutter.... aka purge!  How in the world do we accumulate so much STUFF?  There are some things I am OCD about keeping organized, such as my herb shelf.  Other things, not so much!

 

Anyways, a Farmgirl Sister from MaryJanesFarm has a four week declutter a room challenge.  I'm just now jumping aboard, and thought some of you might want to do the same.  You can read more about Marsha's challenge over at Markets of Sunshine.  She actually is on week three now, but it is never too late to join in the fun... like I said, I am only just beginning myself!

There are three areas I should probably seriously look to downsize that are "mine" (as opposed to toys or things of that nature)... fabric (GASP, shudder at the thought), books (I think my oldest would shed for real tears!), and kitchen gadgets.  Honestly, I think the latter would be the easiest, and ironically the kitchen is where I spend most of my time... well other than teaching the children ;)

Part of my fabric... Anyone want any Disney fabrics???

Here is part of our books....

Yup... time to Declutter.... So what will we do with all the stuff we are getting rid of?  Most of you know us well enough to know we will donate it!  There is a great ReStore here locally, as well as Goodwill.  There are also many needy families in the area, especially younger military families!  Anyone else want to join the challenge?

Santee Indian Mound & Fort Watson - Field Trip

One gorgeous day, our family headed to Santee National Wildlife Refuge.

A few years ago, the children and I had made the trip out there, but Brad had been unable to join us.  Wanting him to have the opportunity to experience the history and beauty of the area, we were thrilled he had this chance to go with us this time!  We started in the Visitor Center.  Here they have lots of information, as well as exhibits that are realistic of what may be seen in the area.

We then drove down to the Indian Mound.  The Indian Mound served as a ceremonial site and burial ground for the Santee Indians.  It is believed to be at least a thousand years old.  In the late 1700s, during the Revolutionary War, however, the mound was used as a British outpost they called Fort Watson.  This was an ideal spot as it looked down the Santee River as well as the road to Charleston.  General Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion and his troops, along with others, forced the surrender of Fort Watson in 1781.  It was the first British fort to fall!

After looking over the mound, we headed back to the car for a quick lunch and then off for our hike.  At the visitor center, we checked out a backpack with a pair of binoculars and scavenger hunt sheets.  The children were quite excited to see tracks as we walked, to watch the squirrels, the ducks, and the insects, while checking things off their list.  One thing I will miss from this area are the cypress knees!  I just find them to be such an amazing testimony to God's love and attention for His creation!

For those in the area, this really is a peaceful, low pressure field trip that our children absolutely love!!!  It is a great combination of both history and science, a win-win in our book!