Year in Review

In 4 seasons and 12 photos, I'll attempt to sum up our year in 2010. All 4 children stayed awake to ring in the new year 2011 here at home. We watched 3 fun movies and ate lots of snacks and stayed home for New Year's Eve.

Little J (2 ) continues to be our most active child. He wears us out just checking up on his whereabouts and getting him out of predicaments and wears himself out as well. Who else could sleep on a table like this?

Last year was a bit different than previous years for us. Tom told me he'd be working some extra overtime at work this year but even he wasn't prepared for how much overtime he'd be working. I spent most of the year managing the house and kids myself. It was a reasonably mild winter and early spring but still too cold and wet to do any garden planting which was okay because Tom wasn't home to do any work outdoors at home. We did make it out for our first clam dig as a family with my husband's 2 sisters and their families for a weekend in March.

Doing most of the chores and work at home by myself, I taught the girls several different recipes and let them practise cooking quite a bit. I can now hand over some of the cooking to KN ( 9 ) when I have to be busy with other tasks and MN ( 6 ) likes to help bake and is a master at cleaning the house. They are all a huge help to me.

We were able to have a visit from several of my cousins who live in different states. It was fun for my kids to be able to play with cousins they'd only met through photos.

CT ( 11 ) and I spent a lot of the Spring months digging trenches from the RV to the house septic tank and water line and gutter downspouts getting the RV all hooked up to be lived in by my husband's ( Tom ) mom. She moved in with us in the middle of June and has settled in well to her little "Apartment" (RV) next to our house . She is here with us half of each week and then drives 2 hours north to stay with Tom's sister and her husband to watch over their 2 year old son while they are at work for the other 1/2 of the week.

We had a dreary summer weather wise. Only a few weeks of actual sunny, warm weather. The garden was still suffering and we ended up only getting a minute amount of vegetables from it this year. We pared down our chicken flock and moved them to a new pen, finished the remodel of our old garage and Tom was able to get out and do some deep sea fishing and crabbing a couple of times.

In July, CT stopped attending Tae Kwon Do classes. With only 2 belts levels left to a black belt, he decided to concentrate more on helping at home, hunting with 'Dad' and his new obsession - reptiles. He acquired several more reptiles to his collection in his room and eats, sleeps and breathes reptiles. Okay, so he doesn't really eat them, but they do seem to take up all of his thoughts and time.

We got out once to go camping with great family and friends at one of our favorite spots - Iron Creek near Randle, WA. CT went home with my brother and his girls to stay in Eastern WA for 3 weeks to help around my brother's little ranch and play with his cousins. He returned home in time to take off for 5 days helping my mom at the State fair with her Jacob sheep exhibit.

In the middle of September my husband's Grandpa passed away and Tom decided to make the trip to Guam to be with family before the funeral. He would've loved to take along some or all of the kids - and me too! - if it weren't for the fact that it costs $1,800 minimum per person to fly to Guam. For this reason, our kids might never be able to meet many of the family members over there including my husband's grandmothers. If only travel weren't so expensive! I suppose we should be thankful we all don't still have to travel by horse and by ship.

I was still at home, every day, taking on CT's chores while he was away and then taking on the normal tasks my husband does to keep our family and animals running as well as my usual jobs with the house, kids and cooking. All of it caught up with me and my stomach is what suffered. I ended up with some major stomach troubles for all of October and November, causing me to lose 12 lbs and unable to do much of the errand running or grocery shopping etc...

Right after Tom returned from Guam, we headed out for the 9 hour drive to Kamiah, Idaho for 8 days of camping in our tent trailer. Tom spent the 8 days hunting with his new pup Chelan and more skilled side kick Tater ( our Vizsla ) and several good hunting buddies as well as attending the annual Grand River Gun Dog seminar. The kids and I kept somewhat busy feeding ducks and chickens at the campground, coloring in the tent trailer and going for walks by the Clearwater river.

The kids and I enjoyed one evening out hunting with Tom and the dogs and Chelan got her first grouse! The fall brought more hunting trips for Tom ( not as many as he'd like ) and me getting my stomach in order.

We got a decent snow fall in November which made the kids happy and enjoyed more food and candy and goodies than we could consume for the holidays. We are blessed. Tom has a good job, even if it takes him away from home more than we'd like and we have plenty of food even if we didn't have much of a garden. New pets include a new cat 'Spike' for KN, a Labrador pup 'Chelan' for Tom and a Bearded Dragon ' High Speed' for CT.

KN is starting up the new year practising her aim with her new pink Daisy BB gun. Looks like it won't be long before she can join Daddy for some of the hunts and I'm betting she shoots more birds than he does!

Happy New Year ~ 2011 to all of our friends and family. Our wish for all is that they remember the gift our Lord has given us and all we're blessed with. We are grateful for life itself and that our children love our Lord Jesus. If they strive to follow Him throughout their lives, serve Him and their neighbor before themselves - well, that's all we can ask for.