Year End Review

At the end of the year, I like to review everything that happened in the year, where I came from, and where I'm going. I can say with relief that I am happy this year is over and I survived with minimal scars. It wasn't an easy year for me. It would be hard to compare it to another difficult year because all challenges are different and it's hard to say one is more difficult than the other. I would venture to say, any challenge, as long as I have my husband and children by my side, can't be too unbearable. However, each challenge, as I'm going through it....feels the hardest. Let's recap:

January-- Chow chow chow chow chow...Just kidding.
--Adjusting to having a new baby. Excited that I had my fourth. Lifelong dream. I feel complete!
--Went on Women's Retreat...brought Mary. It was not a "retreat".
--Tore down ugly cedar beams (one on each wall and one in vault) in Family Room. Painted room and installed new, white baseboards.
--Ben had inflammation in the nose...goes on chewable antibiotics
--Mary throws up bile and has an ear infection in right ear.
--Dinner out with another couple.

February
--Trip to Florida and Disney World! Leave Ben with Grandparents. Take Sam, Abby & Mary.
--Ben has hives...it's a virus. Has rhinitus again (inflammation in the nose)...goes on chewable antibiotics again.
--Mary has a cold
--Mary has first cereal and baby food
--One date night with Ted
--Sam finishes up basketball

March
--Master bath fully renovated!
--One date night with Ted.
--Ben says about 10 words and a couple of phrases, "What's that?" and "Who's that?" at 22 months.
--Battle with weapiness, fatigue, desire to stay in bed and not come out, desire to ESCAPE!! Went on Zoloft.
--Mary cuts first tooth.
--Abby is congested and runs low fever.
--I turn 36.

April
--Mary cuts 2nd tooth
--Ben now says about 20 words
--Sam's First Communion!
--Abby plays t-ball

May
--Mary gets up on all fours!
--Ben turns two!!
--Two date nights--Wedding reception and Cardinal's Game

June
--Weekend Camping Trip to Carlyle Lake
--We decide that I can take a trip to Australia to visit Theresa...tentatively plan for Jan 2009
--Removed all rock from front beds, ripped out all overgrown landscaping.
--One date night with Ted
--Mary pulls herself up to a standing position. Cuts 3rd and 4th tooth.
--Sam dives off the diving board for the first time!
--Landscaped around back patio
--Ted turns 37

July
--Started BLOG!!
--Camping trip to Eminence, MO
--Mary waves
--Dad plants boxwoods, barberry, holly trees, False cypresses, Pieris', arborvitaes, knockout rose bushes, and ornamental tree...fully completing front landscaping.
--Help Mom and Dad find their new house!!!
--Mary cuts her fifth tooth
--Mary has stomach flu
--Dinner out with another couple

August
--Mary goes from all fours to standing!
--Sam runs a fever for about 3 days
--Ben runs a low fever for about 3 days
--Mary says about six words (ma ma, da da, hotdog, cup, night night, no no)
--One dinner and movie night with Ted
--Mary has a cold
--Mary cuts sixth and seventh tooth
--By end of the month, Mary took 3 steps
--Abby lost her two outer incisors
--Abby starts 1st grade and Sam starts 3rd grade
--Mary weans herself.

September
--Camping at Meramec State Park
--Abby turns 7 and gets her ears pierced!
--Mary takes 9 steps
--Abby joins Brownies and Sam joins the Cub Scouts
--Ben begins "Mother's Day Out" program
--I attend ACTS retreat
--Abby plays soccer
--Couples dinner night
--Mom starts playing indoor soccer (injured first game)

October
--Sam turns 9
--Ted goes on Golf Weekend
--Game night at friends
--Painted front doors

November
--I discontinue Zoloft
--I go on Crop Weekend
--Date night with Ted
--Dinner party with friends
--Mary turns ONE!!!

December
--Sam starts basketball
--Theresa comes in town
--Date night with Ted
--Ted, Abby, Mary and I get stomach virus
--Painted Abby's room

The beginning of this year was hard with a full carpool including 4 of my own kids. Anytime you have a newborn and toddler it's hard. I remember nursing in the car before the kids came out. I would bring drinks and snacks for the kids because carpool meant a full hour and 15 minutes in the car. I remember Ben and Mary crying at the same time and the tweens in my carpool would sit with stone faces. I would stress over it so much. One time Ben stuck a sucker stick down his throat and threw up. We had to sit in that stench til we got home. Me, my four kids and 3 tweens.

It was such a big deal for me then, but this school year it's a non-issue. Mary is older, Ben is older, and I only carpool with one other family (one 12 year old) and she lives in our neighborhood. God got me through it. It's odd to look back on a time...that seemed like it would never end. Now it's uneventfully passed. I've brought Mary to her first birthday and what an accomplishment that is!! Infants are so much work. I'm happy to be where we are now, and I look cheerfully ahead to where we are going.

Another difficult phase...camping with Ben!! It was horrible. We should have stayed home. Our day was spent trying to get him down for a nap. Mary got the pack n play and Ben had a regular bed. Two year old + regular bed with no rails = TROUBLE!! He was unhappy most of the time because he just wasn't at home. He didn't know what to do with himself. I think 2006 should bring better camping.

On Zoloft...off Zoloft...all in one year. The peaks and valleys still come...but they are easier. Mary is the one now that requires most of my focus. Ben happily plays with his trains all day and watches Thomas and Dora. Mary is clingy right now. But that will pass. I will eventually be free to do my cleaning and cooking without her wrapping herself around me, prohibiting movement.

New Years Resolution:
1) Invite people over more often. I love my one on one time with my sisters or my mom. I want to have them over more.
2) Spend more quality time with Abby and Sam. We've started "Special Time with Mom" and "Special Time with Dad" where once a month each one goes out with one of us for fast food or icecream. It's our time to talk and see where they are...how they're doing. They often get lost in the Ben and Mary sea. We also started game night on Wednesday nights. After Ben and Mary go down, we play a game of their choice before bed time.
3) Read scripture calendar every morning. Digest the words, think about them.
4) Catch up on Albums

Whew. I think that's it. It's going to be a good year. I can feel it.