One of the best gifts that I've ever received, were the blog books that Charlie started publishing in 2013 and for the past several years - has given to me every Christmas. Even better than seeing the 2000+ blog posts in print, is watching our children's amazement that so much of their lives have been captured in photos and stories, in perpetuity.
This past Christmas, Charlie presented me with the past three years of blogging and with the exception of 2019, we're now fully caught up. There were several years (when the children still napped) I was a
prolific writer. I'd write at
every possible moment, and I'd capture nearly all the happenings in our
lives. As a result, several of the children's earliest years (
when they napped!) had
multiple volumes.
On this New Year's Day of 2020 .... a lot of people are recalling the things that have happened to them over the past decade. So I've decided to take a quick walk through my blogging history.
Just looking at the covers of these books takes me right back to those precious moments.
In 2006, I started this blog, and in those days - we had chubby toddler hands reaching up to grab anything they could off the counters.
In 2007, we were living in San Diego and were a quick drive from the beach.
We also had three little ones that loved to dress up and "help" around the house.
This is the back cover of 2007, when I had two-year-old triplets and was nine months pregnant. When I look at this picture, it's a miracle to me that I have such healthy, happy children. And that I have lace-up shoes on. How was that even possible?
In 2008, with four children under the age of four, we were fighting some SERIOUS entropy. Every single night, I'd organize these blocks and seeing this order brought so much peace to my soul. It was like a Zen Block Garden.
In 2009, we were getting in great shape.
Charlie and I both completed triathlons, a marathon, and look at me bending my knees and squatting with a smile. How did I ever do that without my knees breaking ...?!
The cover of the 2010 book is most fitting - this entire year was punctuated by a feeling that my head was in the clouds. We moved from San Diego to Virginia; the triplets started kindergarten and with the challenges of that year, I think I had an out of body experience - or twelve.
In 2011, we spent a lot of time driving up and down I-95 to Massachusetts, South Carolina and Florida to visit my family. It was
so good to be back on the eastern seaboard.
In 2012, we were comfortably settled in to our old Virginia house and
loved spending time in our breakfast room overlooking the magnificent backyard. That house was a true labor of love. We did a lot of work to it over the years, but in the space between updates - it sure felt like glorified camping.
In 2013, the Tooth Fairy was at our house every other week.
In 2014, we were contemplating what we were going to do next, and most of our thoughts revolved around moving to Massachusetts and buying a 250-year old house and sheep farm. #TrueStory
In 2015, in the midst of loss - another move - and significant health scares, we were hyper-focused on family, and the sweet things in life.
In 2016, we had several wonderful visits to South Carolina; including the girls first solo plane trip to visit my mom. (Shown here is Aunt Grace, my mom's sister - and my second mom!)
In 2017, we got our first real dose of how expensive raising teenagers would be. Not only did the shoes cost more - but the amount of food that they were consuming went up
exponentially.
2018 was recording memories from some of our epic National Park trips - nearly 20 in two years. Yikes, I still have some posting to do on that!
Today is the first day of 2020 and I can't help but imagine all of the awesome things to
come over the next 10 years: friendships and travel ... high school and college graduations ...
children leaving the nest ... possible retirement. I'm certain there will be joy and incredibly happy moments - challenges and terribly sad moments - and a lot of seemingly mundane days in between. But such is life and the journey that we experience just by being a part of it.
Anais Nin wrote,
"We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect." They say that hindsight is 20/20 and looking
back, I'm so grateful that I wrote as much as I did. Looking forward, I really hope do even more of the same.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
If your eyes should fall upon this, my wish for you is that this will be a year full of love - kindness - joy - good health - and positive growth. With lots of picture taking and story writing because the taste of life sure is sweet!
