New Year’s Eve

More 2012 in Review

This has been A Year. There’s really no other way to describe it. It was, by far, the best year of my life to date, and there’s a part of me that doubts that there will ever be another year quite as good. The events that occurred, and the timing of those events, was so outstanding that all I can do is sit back and thank God for the way He arranged this year of celebrations for my family!

January was by far the quietest month of the year. We celebrated our 100th day of school, and Ladybug joined in, as she unofficially started kindergarten during that month. We finished preparing our home for Chickadee’s arrival. I was sad to see the end of One Life to Live, although, if it had to end, it certainly went the right way. We also re-subscribed to cable TV, so I spent a lot of my pregnancy-induced sleepless nights catching up on What Not to Wear!

In February, things started to get busy. Ryan rejoined the American Kantorei for the Bach at the Sem series, and we all enjoyed attending his concerts. I got to see Chickadee holding onto her umbilical cord during an ultrasound…it should come as no surprise, then, that she loves holding onto my hair now! We also made sure she’d be well-equipped for her first Opening Day and Cardinals game. Turkey had two teeth pulled, and hardly even noticed it happening. Ladybug picked out new animal print glasses. We had a fun field trip, started a new Lenten tradition, and celebrated Leap Day. Above all, we spent all of February excited knowing that Chickadee would be arriving the next month!

Without a doubt, March was the craziest, most exciting month of the year. The highlight was, of course, the birth of our little Chickadee. A few other things happened, too, though. We finally got a Dunkin’ Donuts, which was very exciting for me. We had fun celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, and even got to help Moose make a Leprechaun trap for school. I spent a lot of time baking, even though I couldn’t indulge in eating many of my creations due to gestational diabetes. Turkey turned nine. The children got to meet their new sister, and we brought her home!

April was almost as busy as March. Turkey and Bunny were confirmed on Palm Sunday, the same day Chickadee was baptized into God’s family. That was one of the most amazing, emotional days of my life. We celebrated Easter a week later. We had our traditional Opening Day food fest at home, and less than a week later, took Chickadee to her first Cardinals game. Much to Bunny’s delight, an American Girl store opened in St. Louis. We found that last year’s bird’s nest was once again in use. We also had the interesting experience of oven shopping.

Things remained busy in May. Chickadee started smiling at us–so cute! Our new oven was delivered. I got a new pair of glasses for the first time in over five years, and I must have been inspired by Ladybug, because they, too, have an animal print. The next generation of baby birds hatched. Ladybug turned five. Ryan and I got to go to the Cardinals game (along with Chickadee), where Tony LaRussa’s number was retired. The following day, Ryan and I (and Chickadee, again), went to the Science Center to see Star Trek: The Exhibition. Moose graduated from kindergarten. We not only went to Art on the Square, but actually bought something for the first time ever. We spent an afternoon at Grant’s Farm, one of our very favorite places to go. Ryan and Ladybug went to a Cardinals game, just the two of them, and got to meet Fredbird and get autographs from two players. We celebrated the birthday of the church on Pentecost  Turkey started his third season of parks and rec baseball, and loved every minute of it.

Life finally slowed down a bit in June (but only a bit!). We celebrated Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee from afar. As part of our celebration, we had our first tea party of the year. This was one of my favorite non-family related parts of the year, learning all about the Queen and her reign. Turkey and Bunny finished third grade. The summer really started to heat up, making everybody miserable.

July brought an end to the slower pace we enjoyed in June. I spent my first-ever day at the spa, and hope I can go back again sometime. We celebrated the Fourth of July in our typical fashion, but sans fireworks, thanks to a ban on them due to excessive heat and drought. Turkey had his last baseball game of the summer. Bunny turned eight, and we enjoyed tea party number two of the year to celebrate. Chickadee attended her first-ever VBS at our church, along with the rest of the family, of course. She also gave up being swaddled at bedtime, which was a little bittersweet. We enjoyed the beginning of the London Olympics, which included tea party number three, and special lessons in school.

At the beginning of August, we managed to tear ourselves away from the Olympics long enough to go to Build a Bear day at Busch Stadium, which also included a walk along the warning track. It was also a “turn back the clock” night…I loved the throwback uniforms and high socks! We had our own family Olympics, in which “Team Markel” won. We got rid of cable TV–again. I got ready for the start of our fifth year of homeschooling by rearranging the school room–again. Moose started first grade, Ladybug officially started kindergarten, and Turkey and Bunny began fourth grade. We went apple picking and got 12 pounds of apples. Chickadee was our little tagalong in school, and constantly kept the whole family amused with her antics.

At the beginning of September, I worked on creating a logo for our school, with help from the children. We were quite happy with the results. I discovered that one of my favorite books ever had finally been reprinted. Chickadee started crawling. We saw the Thunderbirds perform at the Scott Air Force Base air show. We took in another baseball game, and had a kind usher take the best picture of the seven of us to that date. Chickadee reluctantly started eating solid foods. We had fun making handprint angels on Michaelmas.

We spent the month of October learning about the Reformation and enjoying the beautiful fall colors. We had our annual trip to the pumpkin patch, where we picked over 40 pounds of pumpkins. Moose lost three top teeth…eating became a very interesting activity for him! Ryan and I enjoyed the “Kozmania” that overtook Cardinal Nation, especially since we had seen his very-first major league at-bat the year before. I finally found a hat to wear to church. We watched Felix Baumgartner’s incredible, insane skydive from practically outer-space, some of us with morbid curiosity.

In November, Chickadee figured out how to pull herself up to a standing position. Moose turned seven. I had my best-ever game in Bookworm, and promptly stopped playing so I could go out on top. We started Thanksgiving school, and a “Thankful Tree.” We had a nice Thanksgiving…it was especially fun to share Chickadee’s first Thanksgiving with her! We went to our town’s tree lighting, and then went back downtown on a nicer day to look at all of the gingerbread houses. I rearranged our schoolroom–yet again. I think it will stay this way for quite a while! We started our Christmas celebrations a little early by taking the children to their first Boar’s Head Festival, in preparation for our “Christmas in England” theme in school this year.

December brought our favorite time of the year…the Advent and Christmas seasons! Many of our favorite activities take place in December…Christmas on the Hill, Tuba Christmas, and going to St. Charles for the Christmas Traditions festival. In school, we continued making banners for the church year, and learned about Christmas throughout England’s history, which included reading some great books, such as A Christmas Carol. We had a Christmas tea party (number four for the year!), and an English Christmas dinner to accompany our lessons. It was great fun being so very British this whole year! We added readings for the Great “O” Antiphons to our Advent traditions. We spent a lot of time baking, decorating, and delivering cookies and other treats, and basically kept busy right up until Christmas. It was especially fun to get to celebrate a first Christmas again! We even had a white Christmas, although a few days late…but it was still during the season of Christmas, so it counts! I did a lot of work on my blog this month, too, adding pages for liturgical year things such as feasts, festivals, and commemorations, the Jesse Tree, the Great “O” Antiphons, and the Jesus Tree, that are important to our family.

I can’t wait to see what 2013 holds for our family…I know that there will be lots more holidays and celebrations to look forward to sharing together. I pray that God blesses all of your families as greatly as He has blessed mine!

More 2011 in Review

2011 was an interesting year, both for our family, and for the country/world. There were good moments to balance out the bad; fun days to balance the mundane and routine. We had many new experiences, and enjoyed lots of favorite traditions. It’s interesting to look back and see what we did, what we learned, what we survived, and what we celebrated!

January 2011 was a fairly quiet month–we were busy recovering from all of the Christmas festivities! We did observe the 25th anniversary of Challenger disaster, and I began pondering making some changes to our curriculum for third grade.

February 2011 brought a rite of passage for Bunny, who got her ears pierced, (although they later closed up following an earring related injury). Ladybug discovered a new tactic for trying to get out of doing something she didn’t want to do. Ryan got to travel to Vienna, Austria. This was good for him, but bad for me, as I didn’t get to go along. We did have a chance to learn all about Austria in school, however, and even sample a Sachertorte Ryan brought home with him. At the end of the month, we found out we were expecting a baby.

March 2011 was our worst month of the year, as we found out that we lost the baby we were so happily expecting. There were good days, though, including Turkey’s birthday, which was also the day he got his first pair of glasses.

April 2011 meant the Cardinals Opening Weekend. We couldn’t go to Opening Day itself, but we did go to Kids’ Opening Day, which was the second game of the season. We also went to a Karfreitag service for the first time, (a German Good Friday service), followed in two days by Easter services at our church. One of our favorite events of the spring was celebrating The Royal Wedding.

May 2011 brought our 10th Wedding Anniversary, which we celebrated in style with lunch out, a tour of Busch Stadium, and then the Cardinals game that evening, as enjoyed from the Commissioner’s Box. In school, we learned all about baby birds, thanks to the robins that built a nest low in our Japanese Cherry Tree. Moose graduated from the Early Childhood Program at his school at the end of the month.

June 2011 marked the end of second grade for Turkey and Bunny. Turkey also began his second season of parks and rec baseball.

July 2011 found us working on a bird project to document all we learned about the life cycle of birds. Bunny finally mastered the monkey bars after much practice. We sadly watched the final Space Shuttle launch. We were cautiously optimistic as we once again learned that we were expecting a new addition to the family. A new tradition was born this month–Park Day. We were not surprised but still dismayed to learn that our favorite bookstore, Borders, was going out of business.

August 2011 had us hosting what can only be described as an “Epic Markelparty” when a group of Ryan’s co-workers came to our house for dinner and Rock Band. A new school year began–third grade for Turkey and Bunny; Kindergarten for Moose. And Moose lost two teeth, much to his surprise!

September 2011 was the first time we went to the Greek Festival at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in St. Louis. We saw a baby buffalo at Grant’s Farm. We got to meet an actual astronaut, much to Turkey’s delight. Lance Berkman, our favorite Cardinal, signed a one-year extension with the team. Against all odds, the Cards made it to the playoffs.

October 2011 was a very exciting month, although it started off a little somber with the death of Steve Jobs. We celebrated our fifth anniversary in our house. McDonald’s added a peppermint mocha to their menu. The Cardinals inexplicably won the World Series! We also learned that we’re having another little girl!

November 2011 saw us celebrating another Thanksgiving, with much for which to be thankful. I also published my 1,000th blog post.

December 2011 meant the welcome return of our full Advent routine. We had another opportunity for a German worship service–this time “Der Weihnachtsgottesdienst.” In school, we learned about Christmas throughout American history, which was a big change from our usual studies of Christmas Around the World. We baked a lot of cookies, and, of course, celebrated Christmas itself. I completed the WordPress “Post-a-Day Challenge,” even though I wasn’t sure I would be able to stick with it when I started.

It was a busy year, with a lot of blogging. We read a lot of books, for school, for fun, and for holidays. I shared a lot of recipes, hymns, and quotes. I also uploaded more pictures than I ever have before! 2012 will be, I’m sure, just as interesting and unique as 2011 was!

2011 In Review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 17,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Post a Day 2011

I never said I was doing this at the beginning of the year, because I honestly wasn’t sure if I could follow through, but I managed to complete the WordPress Post a Day Challenge for 2011.

I discovered that some days, it was very difficult to find something about which to write. Those were the days I was very happy to have hymns and quotes to fall back on, and Tasty Tuesdays and Wordless Wednesdays to share! But somehow, I managed to find something every day, and many days, I had multiple posts to publish!

I doubt that I’ll be able to post every day in 2012…I’m guessing having a newborn around may make me a little forgetful some days, and I’ll definitely be busier in 2012, (although I may have more middle-of-the-night posts!). I am going to try to keep posting regularly, however, even if not every day, because while there were days that I struggled to come up with a topic, I also discovered just how much I do have to say, and how much I enjoy writing, even for fun, and I don’t want to give that up!

Hymn of the Day–“Across the Sky the Shades of Night”

Taking a break from Christmas hymns today, to share instead a hymn appropriate for New Year’s Eve.

Across the sky the shades of night
This New Year’s Eve are fleeting.
We deck Your altar, Lord, with light,
In solemn worship meeting;
And as the year’s last hours go by,
We raise to You our earnest cry,
Once more Your love entreating.

Before the cross subdued we bow,
To You our prayer addressing,
Recounting all Your mercies now,
And all our sins confessing;
Beseeching You this coming year
To keep us in Your faith and fear
And crown us with Your blessing.

We gather up in this brief hour
The mem’ry of Your mercies:
Your wondrous goodness, love, and pow’r
Our grateful song rehearses;
For You have been our strength and stay
In many a dark and dreary day
Of sorrow and reverses.

We now remember, as we pray,
Our dear ones in Your caring
Who brightly shine in endless day,
Past death and all despairing,
At our life’s end, Lord, as Your own,
Bring us with them around Your throne,
The joys of heaven sharing.

Then, gracious God, in years to come,
We pray Your hand may guide us,
And, onward through our journey home,
Your mercy walk beside us
Until at last our ransomed life
Is safe from peril, toil, and strife
When heav’n itself shall hide us. Lutheran Service Book # 899

It Was the Year Everything Changed

It was the year of fire… the year of destruction… the year we took back what was ours. It was the year of rebirth… the year of great sadness… the year of pain… and the year of joy. It was a new age. It was the end of history. It was the year everything changed. Babylon 5

There may not have been fire and destruction, but 2010 was definitely a year that everything changed for our family.

The biggest change was, of course, Ryan’s new job. He had been at CPH for four years, so it was an adjustment for him to have a job elsewhere. It was also an adjustment for that “elsewhere” to be at home. When he is home, that is–because another change that came with his job is a lot of travel. He spent about five weeks on the road this year, which isn’t a lot for many business travelers, but was huge for us. He even traveled internationally, which was also new. His job has been a great blessing to our family, and the fact that he no longer has a commute, which means less money spent on gas, and our ability to downsize to one car, has been awesome.

The aforementioned downsize to one car has also been a big change. It doesn’t sound like it should be, with Ryan working from home now, but there have been times where he would need to go one place, and the children and I would be wanting to go somewhere else. Or two children with activities in two different places at the same time–how’s that supposed to work? But it has mostly worked, and it’s actually kind of a relief to only have one vehicle to worry about.

Turkey really changed his mind about reading this year. He’s been a good reader ever since he learned how, and he hadn’t minded doing it when it was required, but he never really chose to do it for fun, either. Sometime over the course of the year, though, he realized that reading can be a fun way to pass some time, and even realized that just because there are a lot of words (and no pictures!) on a page, that doesn’t mean that the book is intrinsically more difficult to read. This was a great relief to me, because I was worried he would never want to read “just for fun.”

Bunny had to change levels in Girl Scouts, which doesn’t sound like much of change, but was big for her. She loved being a Daisy, but only got to do it for one year, (they go by grade level instead of age, and I didn’t realize that in time to have signed her up back when she was in Kindergarten). So, she only got to be a Daisy for her First Grade year, and she was kind of reluctant to become a Brownie once Second Grade started. It didn’t take her long to realize that being a Brownie is just as fun as being a Daisy, though–and sometimes even more fun, as there are more activities available!

It was a year of great change for Moose, too. He goes to school in the afternoons this year, instead of in the mornings like he did the previous two years. He also has a new teacher this year, which is a yearly change he’s just going to have to get used to. But the biggest change is how much continued improvement we see in him. He’s a regular little chatterbox now, so much so, that it’s hard to remember that just two years ago, he couldn’t talk.

Ladybug also saw a big change this year, as she got glasses. Now she can actually see, and we’re beginning to realize just how much trouble she must have been having before she got them. She also stopped looking like a baby, and now looks more like a big kid–it hurts my mommy heart a bit, but time marches on!

As for me, well my biggest change was realizing I can handle things when I need to. From mowing the lawn, even when Ryan is out of town on business, (which is no easy feat when also trying to supervise four children!), to handling things when he was in the hospital (which I hope to never have to do again!), I found strength and ability in myself I didn’t know I had.

It’s been a crazy, busy, wonderful year–and I can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store for us in 2011!

Hymn of the Day–“O God, Our Help in Ages Past”

O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home:

Under the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same.

A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone,
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Soon bears us all away;
We fly forgotten as a dream
Dies at the op’ning day.

O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while troubles last
And our eternal home! Lutheran Service Book #733

My Favorite New Year’s Tradition

I don’t really like New Year’s Eve. It just reminds me that the holiday season is winding down, and I hate that. It’s the “most wonderful time of the year,” after all! But we have developed one tradition that I do actually like–we always watch Apollo 13 on New Year’s Eve.

That story always reminds me of how very small I am, compared to the vastness of the universe, and especially compared to God. And I think that’s a good way to end one year, and begin another–remembering just how big God is, and how much He loves us, even though we are so very small in comparison.

That’s one part of New Year’s that even I can get on board with!