I wanted to take the time to record some of the really awesome things that happened this year, as it is almost over, so... Here it goes!
We started the year off with a spider bite on Clint's philtrum. We were quite surprised because it got huge! Fortunately, we were guided to the natural remedies that took care of it within a week or so. Whew!
In January we also cut down the schedule because it was too much! We just did Thursdays in the Vanguard group that we were in. Things were just way too busy! However, we then thought that maybe this meant we could add history fair to the schedule. Looking back, it was WAY too much! I found myself just way too busy to really handle everything AND bond prenatally with the baby. I was 6 months pregnant.
February was full of doing history fair and other school, and trying to prepare for the baby, but not really being able to do it.
March brought history fair, Royalty and Romance seminar, and the baby, Helaman River. It was also about this time Clint's mother, JoAnn started getting sick to the point of not being able to get around much anymore. She was able to visit once at least, before she passed away at the end of May.
Our experience with birthing Helaman River was a very big ordeal. He brought healing and God works miracles because he loves us and because we decided to have faith. That was the most heavenly and gratitude and faith building experience of mine this year! (And probably of my life.)
June was a time for mourning and healing. The Lord guided us in drafting a schedule for our homeschool. This was completely divinely revealed and agreed-upon by our whole family. That was pretty miraculous. We called it the WIN list. What's Important Now. I should post it on here in a separate post.
It was also in the summer that I began cooking up plans for having a homeschool family choir. I wanted to be the director of a homeschool choir because I love choirs, I love directing them and I love singing. Also, choir is one subject that homeschoolers don't always get the opportunity to participate in, but it's so good for you! We actually had a lot of interest at first. About 40 people were interested. Christine Burningham and I met at a park in the summer to discuss the choir. She was willing to be the pianist for the choir. After the first month or so we had about 25 firm participants in the choir.
In June I helped my friend Jennetta train some new childbirth educators on weekly phone calls that lasted until November. That was very fulfilling, interesting and fun! I loved being able to share knowledge and teach what I know.
Also at the end of May started our "Group Mentoring". At Royalty and Romance we decided to spend a lot of money for 10 group mentoring sessions with Kirk Duncan. I have to say that my expectations were that it would motivate Clint to quit his current job and begin building "Creation Industries". I am not sure what Clint's expectations were, but what we learned from it were many lessons and I do feel like Clint is closer to changing careers than I thought he might be at this point, so that's awesome!
Throughout the summer, we did some advertising for Tanglewood studios for trade for some of Juliet's gymnastics tuition. She decided to do competitive gym this year!
Throughout the summer I wanted to, and did, write a version of the song "He Sent His Son" to be able to sing with the homeschool family choir. I got through most of it and then asked my friend Elizabeth Spotten to do some work on it. She finished the last of the accompaniment and wrote parts for the choir, which I revised a bit. She is a very cool song writer and poet with a beautiful soul!
During the summer I felt the need to pray about what school options to choose for this school year. It felt right to let the older boys go to public school. I was happy about this choice then, but am having some struggles with it at the time. This meant either getting immunization waiver forms for them or shots. I had also felt good about getting their shots, so I did. So far James has learned a LOT more math, reading and writing, but also a LOT more yucky language and false traditions and perceptions. He has made some friends, and probably some enemies. He has had two of his friends' mothers pass away :(.
Luke has also made a lot of progress in math, science, PE, music, writing, and social studies. I have not seen a ton of improvement on reading, but I have seen a little. He has also made friends and learned of the social ways of public school (good and bad).
Leah auditioned for the northern Utah youth Symphony for the school year and made it! She has been improving. Between practices, retreats, performances, and picking her up from seminary choir and math every day, and the family homeschool choir, our cars and I get quite the workout.
I was privileged to be able to attend two births in the month of October assisting a midwife. Juliet created our Halloween costumes this year and did a fabulous job.
At the beginning of November we found out that Helaman had whooping cough. Everybody in the family took antibiotics and we tried not to go out for a while. Juliet decided, though, that she would try to catch one last session of gymnastics, in the which she broke her arm badly. A few days later she had surgery on her arm.
The other children that had not had shots yet, also had whooping cough. Abraham and Adam did not get it as bad as Esther, Peter and Helaman.
Between the unplanned hospital birth and the unplanned broken arm, we are extremely grateful we had health insurance this year.
At the end of November our smaller second car broke down. Clint went out of town to Houston for one week after that. We were able to show our house two times in December. Fortunately, we had a little bit of money that we used to buy a second car to replace the blue van. God blessed us a lot in the month of December with many friends and family helping us out financially. I even won some money from a raffle that I entered. And finally we had to put our dog to sleep, December 31, 2014. He was a really awesome and good dog, but he also really knew how to kill other animals like chickens, ducks, rabbits, cats, and goats that are about his size. It was hard to keep him tied up and warm.
And now, for the lessons learned.
*NEVER spend any amount of money, much less $4800 under pressure and without sleeping on it.
*Do not put your trust in the arm of the flesh.
*Seek to hear what God's plan is for you and do it without question or hesitation.
*God has plans for us that will blow ours out of the water. Trust in His plan.
*Slow down and listen.
*Slow down and listen.
*Slow down and listen.
*Obey the voice of the Lord. "Whether by my voice, or by the voice of my servants, it is the same!"
*Meconium happens and that's okay. God can deal with it. And thankfully he has the help of some good respiratory therapists and nurses (or rather that they have his help!)
*Health insurance is awesome.
*Don't do back handsprings the wrong way.
*There is more to life than red tape. (like string and wire)
*Sometimes God calls us to do really hard things.
*We can do them because God is with us.
*When you feel a thud in your heart as you are pulling up to a house to look at it, don't go in without asking God what that feeling meant.
*Fix what is broken and accept help in fixing it.
*Be compassionate even and especially when it feels like someone should be compassionate to you at the time.
I am sure there are more lessons, but I need to go on to the next topic for now.
Over the year, Clint and I had vision boards and they were basically just images mixed with words to remind us of our goals that we have or to help us remember the things we want to be spending our money on, or the things we want to have come to us at some point in our lives.
Things that came off of our vision boards this year (meaning we attained that goal or received that item) are:
$50!
A new set of Dishes!
A toothbrush holder with labels!
The baby got in a good position for giving birth (very miraculous)!
A family name to take to the temple!
Talked to 100 people about Creation Industries!
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