2022, you gaveth and you tooketh away. You gave me a dream job when I didn’t even ask for it, yet you took my last living grandparent from us.
2023, I feel like you’re telling me you’re here for me to prove myself. If to no one but myself. I want to be the absolute best at this job that I possibly can be, while never sacrificing anything as a mom. The kids have always been my top priority, and that will never change. But I can not only successfully have 2 full-time jobs but excel at it. I’ll prove it.
2022, thank you for all the good and for keeping us all safe and healthy. 2023, may you keep us safe, healthy, and happy, and let the good times continue to roll.
I’ve been thinking for a while now what to write for my annual year-end post, and I honestly have no idea this year. After meeting COVID in 2020 and having life as we knew it flipped upside down and all around, this year was kind of – meh. We knew that the only way forward was through, so that’s what we did.
Not to say it was a bad year, just nothing really exciting. A look back ~
The Good:
Despite having COVID earlier this month (well, all of us except Lana, somehow!), we are all fully recovered and appear to have no lasting side effects so far. Ryan’s taste and smell aren’t back to 100%, but thankfully none of us had very serious symptoms.
Ryan’s job is secure.
Our houses are still standing and in working order.
In-person school is working out great for all the kids, even with a couple quarantine periods. Middle school has been much less scary for me than I imagined. 😉
Science! Ryan, the big 3, and I are now all fully vaccinated against COVID, and I got my booster just last weekend. The big kids were in between their 2 doses when we got COVID, and I fully believe even having that little bit of protection from the first dose helped them. They all barely felt worse than a bad cold. The poor twins were hit pretty hard, but fortunately they are better, too.
The big kids moved upstairs and the twins moved into their own bedroom for the first time in their lives!
We’ve paid down a big chunk of debt, which always helps one’s sanity.
The twins were potty trained this year, which also helps my sanity and allows us so much more freedom to do stuff as a family. No more diapers!
I lost my shit WAY fewer times this year than last year, which I’m sure everyone has appreciated.
The Bad:
I lost both my grandmas this year. I didn’t see either of them very often anymore, but knowing I’ll never get to again stings. I will be forever grateful that I got to have one last conversation with each of them before they died, but I’ll always wish I could’ve been there in person to say good-bye.
The global pandemic caused by COVID is still raging, and I don’t know that there’s really any end in sight. At least not for a while. Which reminds me, I need to get some new masks.
Politics in general, racism, unnecessary hatred, war. All topics that I’m not going to touch right now but that I’ll just leave there.
In looking at my list, I’m very thankful the goods outnumber the bads. That’s the sign of a pretty great year, right?
I will say, this winter break has been one of the best times I’ve had with our kids. This Christmas was exceptionally fun and magical, and I’ve just had an incredible level of happiness the whole time. We tracked Santa and loved all the preparations for him and the reindeer, we’ve played lots of games, had a couple movie nights, gone ice skating for the first time for the kids, walked to the beach to hunt for sea glass, and just hung out all together. The twins get a little bit easier daily, and watching all 5 of them play together and interact more as people instead of kids and babies is amazing. We got very lucky with this bunch, that’s for sure.
Here is a pictorial look at this winter ~
All at home to start the month thanks to COVID
St. Nick
Sick little COVID boy
Lana did school at home all month except for a day and a half
Grandma couldn’t come up because of our COVID timing, so I took all 3 big kids to the Nutcracker for the first time.
I had one of my grandma’s wedding rings made into my own – my engagement stone and setting on her band. I love it.
So there’s 2021 in a tiny nutshell. Not overly good or bad, but there. Like I said last year, this recent history has taught me to have an even more take-each-day-as-it-comes outlook than usual, which I think has helped me, personally, immensely. I do feel much more stable and optimistic going into 2022 than I did going into 2021, so we’ll see what it brings.
Good-bye, 2021. Thank you for everything, but it’s time to move on. Hello, 2022 – we’re ready!
We took our 4th annual fall trip up to Eagle River with our good friends last month, then 2 and a half weeks after that I took the kids down to Peoria for our family holiday. It was so great to spend time with everyone again after not having the big, fun family gathering last year.
So no, we didn’t spend Thanksgiving up north, as the title might imply, I was just trying to be efficient by combining all these pictures into 1 post instead of 2. Or lazy, whichever.
So, so much to be thankful for, not just on Thanksgiving, so I’ll let the pictures do the talking for the rest of this one (go ahead and click on each picture to open it up larger).
4th year in a row in Eagle River in fall – so much fun!
The year started off so great: A new decade! So exciting! So hopeful! The next 10 years! Remember?
That train went off the rails pretty quickly, eh?
A global pandemic that’s killing millions. Mother Nature hating humankind – raging wildfires, a million hurricanes and tropical storms, floods, blizzards. Murder hornets. Swarming locusts. Economies on destructive roller coasters. Widespread unemployment and shuttered businesses. The bastard racism alive and well. Nationwide protests. An election that tested the foundation of this country and shook us to our core. Holidays spent mostly apart from family and friends physically but connected electronically. Social distancing. Zoom. Virtual. Synchronous. Asynchronous. Wear a mask! A new normal.
Safer at home and lockdown last spring were actually not that bad. As I’ve said time and again, being home and not having to load all 5 up to go anywhere is my specialty. The big 3 did great with virtual school during that time and got a couple chances to connect with their teachers again by the end of the school year, even though we weren’t in classrooms anymore.
{If you’d like a little year-end review of those posts, here’s what happened during weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and post.}
However.
As summer vacation rolled in and our normally relaxed, unscheduled days dawned, the coziness of all 7 of us being at home together got a little less cozy by the hour.
If I heard, “I’m on a call!” once more… If the boys ran through the house at top speed and crashed into something or each other once more… If the girls bickered over who went first for whatever or got to control the remote to watch whatever or just whatever whatever once more…
As a normally very even-keeled person, experiencing a constant, humongous range of emotions became exhausting. Happy! Crabby! Chilled out! Angry! Elated! Enraged! Loving! Crying! Laughing! I lost my shit more times than I have in my entire adult life before March of this year, and I began questioning things that I held as rock solid in every aspect before the stretch of time that was 2020. I honestly don’t know how I didn’t kill 1 or more of us daily.
Actually, wine. It was probably wine that saved all of our lives.
I kid. Kind of.
I had also planned to finally take all 5 kids to Canada with my mom and sisters for a vacation this summer, but obviously that didn’t happen with the border closure. We did take a couple of shorter trips within the Midwest, though, so those helped to get the ants out of our pants a little. And then Ryan went back to work in his building in August, and we started to slide back to a slightly reduced level of insanity. And rage on my end, I won’t lie.
As you know, when school started again in September we chose to keep the big 3 fully virtual. With the success they’d had at home last spring and the complete uncertainty of how everything was going to play out with in-person schooling and the spread of covid-19, we felt it was right for us. Fortunately it’s worked out great so far, with each grade having enough students choose fully virtual that each of their classes has a dedicated fully virtual teacher, not splitting her time between those students in class and those on screen. And again, that not having to get everyone out the door at a certain time each morning thing… I’ve gotten very used to it! We get to choose virtual/in person by quarter, and I think we’re going to stick with fully virtual all year. The kids all love their teachers, as do I; they’re doing an excellent job; and they haven’t missed a beat instruction-wise or socially.
And now here we are, the calendar about to flip yet again. The kids and I did get a little in-person family time before Christmas, and the rest of this holiday season we enjoyed here at home, the 7 of us together. I definitely don’t have the same excitement going into 2021 as I did coming into 2020, but I do have a take-it-as-it-comes attitude. I think that’s what 2020 taught us; well, me, at least – you have absolutely no idea what’s heading at you next, so take it as it comes as best you can. I count my blessings daily (literally, believe me!) that we all have our health, Ryan still has his job, I am still able to be home full time with the kids, the roof over our heads is still standing, and we can put food on our table.
(*click on each image in the gallery to enlarge it*)
Gobble, gobble!
So very thankful
New Santa bags!
School at Grandma & Grandpa’s!
Our own private Nutcracker party this year
Franz, our waiter, ha!
Starting off winter break with a breakfast of hot cocoa and candy canes
Snow day!
So, 2021, here we come. 2020, you can fuck off. We survived you, and we’re thankfully still going. As my grandma says, “Cherish the days. March on.” That, and I just restocked the wine cellar.
It didn’t dawn on me until just a couple weeks ago that ringing in 2020 will not only start a new year but a whole new decade. What?! For some reason, that struck me hard. Woah, a new decade! It sounds so… big.
So then I started reflecting, something I rarely have time to do. The 2010s were pretty significant for me:
I started them at 30 years old; I’m ending them at 40.
I started them pregnant with our first child; I’m ending them with my pregnancies behind me.
We started them with 0 kids; we’re ending them with 5.
I started them having no clue what it meant to be a parent; I’m ending them as a pretty confident one.
I started them thinking having kids meant simply adding a baby to your family; I’m ending them knowing exactly how life changing having kids is. You’d better be prepared.
I started them working full time in the world of Wall St.; I’m ending them not working full time again for quite awhile, possibly ever. And definitely not in that arena; once I have the need/desire/time to go back to more time-consuming work, I will be looking for more freelance opportunities in my current editing field.
I started them putting myself first in pretty much all of my endeavors; I’m ending them knowing how to put others’ needs first constantly, namely those of 5 very small humans who live in my house. This past decade was definitely a lesson in selflessness and humility. Having kids can do that to a body.
This blog didn’t even exist in 2010; now it’s 9 years in.
Just us, pre kids and carefree
#30
#30
#40
#40
#40
Me then and now
Almost done as just a couple
Della
Last time as a family of 3
Lana
Last time as a family of 4
Morrison
Last time as a family of 5
Nat
Avit
The beginning, growth, and completion of our family
So. Our family is complete. Our house is nearing completion (that’s been over a decade-long project!). We are all healthy. And I’m happy. Simple joys, but ones that are important to me.
2010
2011 (in Hawaii!)
2012
2013
2014 (pregnant with Morrison)
2015
2016
2017 (pregnant with the twins)
2018 – complete!
2019 – welcoming a new decade!
Our New Year’s Eves of the past decade
Looking into the 2020s, I do have some feelings. And I say feelings, not goals, because that’s not how I roll. I don’t set tangible, hard goals or deadlines. I live by how things feel. It’s much easier.
I feel like getting to do some traveling with our brood. Doesn’t need to be elaborate or far, just exploring and seeing new places with the kids is fun.
I feel like getting to know our kids as growing individuals will be great. I spent the last decade, the whole of my 30s, having babies; now I’ll spend this one raising them. Hopefully I’ll do it right and they’ll be good people, assets to humanity, not a bunch of little turds.
I feel like these will be years of doing – finishing our house, enjoying where we live, watching the kids grow and thrive, living life as a big family.
I feel like getting to do some things my way, not just doing everything as governed by a baby. Or two.
2020. It sounds so futuristic, yet it’s here. The 1920s are the one era I always say I’d love to go back to if I ever got to time travel. Will the 2020s be my roaring ’20s?! Thank you, 2010s, for all you gave us. Now cheers to 2020 and the next new decade!
The kids and I spent another wonderful Thanksgiving break with my family in Illinois this year, and every day I remembered exactly how thankful I am for what we have.
The week started out less than stellar with 2 heads full of lice (uggghhh!!!!) on Monday, $500 unexpectedly spent in treatment for that, then getting rear ended on the highway Tuesday night on the way down to my mom’s house to begin our trip (thankfully no damage or injury!), but fortunately that was the worst of it. Each day after that was great.
I have always known how important family is. You only get one, whether you like it or not. And I am very thankful for the one I have. It was so much fun watching my kids play and have fun with my family just as I did when I was their age. The circle of life!
We are in the final hours of 2018, and it has truly been a magnificent year. Some of you might be thinking, how in the world is that possible?? You have 5 kids!! But that’s just it. They make my life magical and give me the most important purpose there is. I’m their Mama.
Let’s review, shall we?
We had twins.
I’m not usually one to brag, but I think I’m doing a pretty great job with 5 kids.
I figured out the logistics of getting us all to/from school all year, whether it was walking, driving, or carpooling.
Summer vacation was awesome with everyone home. Lots of playing with friends on the block (kids and parents!), walks and runs, library visits, collecting sea glass.
We learned what a vacation as a family of 7 is when we went up to Iron River this summer. It’s doable, and it was fun!
We got to watch a Brewers playoff game from a suite. It’s kinda nice when your cousin is the manager. 😉
We bought a second house.
The twins went on their first flight out to Tucson to meet their great-grandparents, which was so very, very important. The logistics of that one were a little torturous, but the family time spent together was priceless and worth every single second.
We took another family vacation up north to Eagle River. It gets easier and better every time.
We’ve been enjoying our first holiday season with 5 children. That does not sound normal to me – we have 5 children. Maybe someday it will, but still not yet. Both of my parents are 1 of 4 children, and I always thought man, that’s a lot of kids. Ha, silly me. The universe heard that and remembered it.
Ryan got a big and extremely well-deserved promotion at work.
I finished my sea turtles tattoo for the kids. Very important, I know!
We watched all our children grow every day, and my heart gets more and more full by the second with all of them. It was a year full of firsts for the twins, and it’s so amazing to get to experience all these baby firsts over again in double. Each day is something new and wondrous for them.
And now here we are, the very end of 2018. I think the sign of a good year isn’t completely dependent upon what you’ve accomplished, what you’ve done, where you’ve gone, but how you feel at the end of it. And just like the title of one of my favorite Christmas movies, it’s a wonderful life. I’m happier than I’ve ever been, our family is complete, and we are heading into the new year on a high note.
Cheers, 2018, and thank you so much for everything you gave us. Here we come, 2019, all 7 of us!
