Interesting Facts about 2017
Number of Kids Acquired : None. Phew. Hands are pretty full already.
Moved from California to Texas. Loving how green it is. Loving the people. Loving the lifestyle.
Number of Books Read: 129. Not the most but not bad.
Survived our first Tropical Storm from Hurricane Harvey. We did not flood. But we did learn all about mucking out houses and mold. And how much people matter vs. stuff. I'm proud of the boys for getting in there and working right after we moved. Serving is a great way to meet people and feel like a part of the community.
Number of Grandchildren Born: One. And boy is he adorable!
Was invited to join a book club. Love the women!
Number of Boys Currently Living at Home: Five. Heaven help me! Thank goodness for the fantastic women that I have met. Or else I would be talking about minecraft and video games ALL DAY LONG.
Grateful for the snow day and the bug killing frosts.
Number of Mosquitoes Killed Since We Arrived: Thousands. And I don't even feel bad about it. Stupid little buggers like to bite me. A lot. And I really hate that. A lot.
Missing the amazing women that I left behind in California.
Number of Calls from the Schools: Too many to count. But probably evenly divided between injuries and bad behavior.
Love the school system here. No common core and the elementary school is particularly good with Riley. They think very outside the box generally.
Number of Kids Still at Home from School or Work: Just one. And once he goes to Kindergarten next year...oh boy! I will be able to clean the house and keep it clean for several hours each day! Bliss!
Had to say goodbye to one friend already since being here. Very rude of her to move when I liked her so much!
Eagle Projects Completed: One! The very first one. Just three more to go...
Number of Kids Taught to Drive a Car: Two. And I am still alive! James will take his test just after his birthday in a few months. You have to have your permit for six months here. Which is long. But definitely is less frantic than the two weeks that I spent teaching the girl before she had to pass her test. That was insane! But she did it!
Shot guns for the first time. When in Texas...
Number of Times I Spoke at Career Day: One day. Many times. The school people saw my Halloween Kid books and requested that I speak. I talked about how reading and writing skills are important for every job AND can be fun too. No one shot me on the way out...so I think it went ok.
New church opened just down the street. Loving the quick drive for all the activities and church.
Listening to neighbors ring in the new year with fireworks. Because we do not live in a drought-ridden place. So people can blow up what they want. :)
A fond farewell 2017.
Hopes and Goals for 2018
Family Ski Trip
Grit my teeth and find out how many of my book files are corrupted. I may cry over that task.
Attempt to clean up the books on Kindle. All five have errors. It's probably time to fix them.
Visits with kids' first families. As many as possible. We will see.
Can't wait for the local temple to open again after flooding repair. Planning some date nights with Husband.
Hoping James will pass his driver's test so I can stop chauffeuring kids everywhere. Especially at six in the morning.
Working as a family on gratitude. We all got gratitude journals for Christmas. Can't wait to get those going. The boys are less excited but will hopefully fall into the joy of expressing gratitude every day.
Spencer graduating from middle school and starting high school and seminary.
Riley graduating elementary school and going on to middle school.
Ev going to Kindergarten. He has some delays. We are working through testing to figure out his needs. But we have a great local school that will help us through.
Want to go horseback riding. Horses everywhere. Need to go enjoy them occasionally. Maybe once all the boys are in school, I can sneak off and have some horse and me time.
Rolling with whatever comes at us this year. We had some big surprises in 2017. First grandchild, kids moving in and out, moving to another state. Who knows what 2018 is going to look like? Hopefully a lovely growing experience without much pain. Bring it on 2018!
