The very first thing I’d like to do in this year’s review is tell you something very important, but it’s not about us. It’s about somebody else. Actually, somebodies. And I’m sorry you’re finding this out so late, but I tried countless times to get them to post an announcement about it on the message board. I held off posting about it myself thinking they would surely get around to it, but for whatever reason, it just didn’t happen. So now here it is: Julie and Jeff are now parents. They had a baby boy the first part of November. So a big, big Congratulations to them! All went very well and they are adjusting well to now being a family of three. I guess there was one not so little panic attack early on when Julie first found out she was pregnant, but we spent some time together talking it through (even though she and Jeff already had and it was something they both wanted). But after that, it was all positive. She was a radiant example of an expectant mother; talking about it all the time and making sure everybody (and I mean everybody) knew about it. Even at the campground where there was no hiding it anyway, she was completely open and positive and ready to talk about it and answer all the usual questions over and over. Fact is, she was a lot better about all this than I was with my first pregnancy, I’m sorry to have to admit.

Anyway, they made so many changes in so many areas of their lives this year in preparation for starting their family including moving back to our town to live. They gave up their place in the city and bought a house here in the ‘burbs. We’re still not exactly next door neighbors, but there’s a lot less distance between us now and we see each other a lot more. We really like that and enjoy this new dimension to our friendships.

Julie and Jeff are such great parents. You should see them. Julie can still be so funny about everything, but when she’s breastfeeding her baby, she’s so gentle and loving; quiet, calm, caring, and comforting. It’s a side to her that has to be seen to be believed. That was one of her big worries about being a good mom; could she readily be nurturing and comforting? But it hasn’t been an issue at all. It has come to her naturally. A few of the people that know her well wondered about, because of her funny, care-free attitude, what her attitudes toward parenting might be like. They would even ask her outright what her approach to parenting was going to be. One of the times that happened I heard her say, “Well, the first thing I’ll do is think back on how my parents handled any given situation with me. And then I’ll be like, well, that obviously didn’t work! Better think of something else!!”

They are great and we remain best of friends – individually and as families.

Ok, so now over to us. We’ve had a great year although I can’t say that there have been any big, big changes at all. We still live in the same house and continue to make home improvements on it here and there. Brian continues to work for the same company. They continue to give him more and more opportunities and of course that comes with more and more responsibility, but he loves it. He loves what he does and the people he works with. He does such a great job with it; I’m so proud of him. In these days of a rough economy, I know how blessed we are that Brian is part of a healthy, growing company and that he is being given so many opportunities to grow within that organization. It really lets him shine and he has some very good mentors there that care about him and are willing to invest in him.

I guess there was one sort of significant change for me, and this goes into the never-say-never category. I am now officially a mini-van mom. It’s true. I swore I never ever would drive a mini-van. I know, it’s just my own little quirkiness. But then when it came time to upgrade the old SUV, we took a long hard look at what was realistic and practical for our family and well, all the facts pointed to the mini-van. So as much as I hate to admit it, it was the right thing to do. And I haven’t looked back. It really is so much easier getting the kids in and out of it along with all their stuff. And it’s good for everything from running errands around town to the longer family trips over to Brian’s parents or trips to our campground, both of which really max out the carrying capacity. So yes, it was the right thing to do. And I’m pretty much over the stigma now. LOL

The kids of course are always changing in new, exciting, and sometimes surprising ways; always doing new things. Callie is growing like a weed and her motor skills are developing. She’s adventurous and wants to try everything we put in front of her or that she sees other kids doing. It doesn’t matter if it’s within her grasp age-wise or not, she wants to jump right in and try it. I do my best to keep new and interesting things and activities in front of both kids as appropriate for their ages at home and now we’re starting to give Callie experiences outside the home for her to try. In addition to the activities she gets each week at church that includes learning, crafts, games, and music, we also participated in some early gymnastics programs that included dance along with gymnastics. She absolutely loves that; loves participating in a group and interacting with her teachers and the other kids. Everyone says she is very teachable. I was even able to help with some of that and enjoyed it a lot myself.

Callie is also very much into learning; loves games and puzzles and activities that are slightly ahead of her age. I’ve been teaching her to read and write ever since she showed interest in that and she just eats it up. She will try to read anything she sees and does a good job at sounding out words and putting them together in sentences for meaning. That has made for an interesting question or two as we go through the checkout line at the grocery store, Wal-Mart, etc., and pass all the magazines and tabloids. Some of those headlines…whew! So I just never know when those teaching moments are going to pop up! Or who all they’re going to pop up in front of!!

Now let me tell you about Jacob. He is really coming into his own. He’s all boy, that’s for sure. He, too, likes games, likes to have his favorite books read to him, enjoys all kinds of play, but anything that has any kind of ball associated with it, then he’s really all in. At 20 months, he’s totally mobile and gets all over the place before I even know he’s not where I last saw him. I have to watch him constantly. It’s so interesting to note the differences in the two kids. I’m not sure how much of it is because one is a boy and one is a girl or how much it is due to the fact that they are simply two unique individuals, but the differences are certainly there. I mean, both of them are outgoing, fun-loving, inquisitive, and adventurous, but Callie although she goes pretty much all out on whatever she’s doing, she does exercise a bit of caution in the process. But not Jacob. Nope. He just goes. No fear. No matter what. I don’t know if he will outgrow that or not. I hope he will. But at any rate, it really keeps me on my toes trying to keep him from hurting himself. But that’s good for me, I guess.

The two of them get along pretty well most of the time. Callie is a good big sister and Jacob is a typical little brother I think. She interacts with him a lot, plays with him some, looks after him some, and has to protect her turf a lot. He is more than willing to play what she wants to play, but usually not for as long or in the way that she would like. And his ideas for play are often pretty spontaneous and rambunctious and that usually doesn’t appeal to her at all. But one of the great things about being a stay-at-home mommy is that I’m there and can usually take the time to guide us all into times of playing together or doing activities of various kinds together. These are the times that I think are developing bonds that will last a lifetime. That’s my goal for them, anyway.

And we do similar kinds of things when Brian gets home after work and on weekends. Evenings are fun times – especially in summer. It’s so much fun to be outdoors riding bikes up and down the sidewalk or playing games in the driveway. Our neighbors are often out, too, doing similar things so that makes for a sense of community on our street. It’s important to be a part of that and we continue to deepen friendships among many of the neighbors around us. That’s good for all four of us. I like that our kids will grow up seeing us band together with neighbors not only for fun but also to help each other in various ways with various things. I love it when there’s something I can do for a friend; it gets us together and draws us closer in trusting, reliant friendships.

We came together with extended family – both mine and Brian’s – quite a lot throughout the year. Holidays and birthdays were big, of course, but there were numerous other occasions that we just gathered simply to be family. This included Brian’s sister, Beth any number of times just stopping by as well as when Brian’s parents were over. I’m glad his parents feel comfortable coming to stay with us. They are always welcome whenever they feel like making the long drive over and it’s so important to us to have the kids know and be close to their grandparents. It’s a beautiful sight to see them doing things together and talking and sharing. They (the grandparents) can hardly stand to be away.

And that leads me to tell you about a big surprise they threw out to us one of the times they were over this year. They were hesitant to mention this, because there could be a lot of anxiousness or implied expectations, but one evening after the kids were in bed and we were sitting around talking, they floated the idea past us that they were thinking of moving over here when they retire before long. But they were worried that we might be concerned that they would start interfering with our family life or that we would feel obligated not to relocate ourselves if situations changed or opportunities arose that might cause us to want to do that. Anyway, this whole idea really took us by surprise, but once we got over the initial surprise, we were totally elated at the thought of having them living somewhere nearby. And it makes perfect sense, with both of their children and grand-children living over here. Hey, why not?

We found out that they had been giving it a lot of thought over time and decided they had better run it by us before they went too much further with it. They had even been looking at neighborhoods and homes online. We were whole-heartedly in agreement with them and so was Beth when she found out. They have not decided when to retire yet, but I’m guessing it’s not too far away for them. At any rate, we adults are all looking forward to it when the time comes. We won’t tell the kids until that time actually comes. Meanwhile, whenever they are over they usually do at least a little bit of looking at neighborhoods to decide where they might like to live.

I mentioned Beth above. She’s doing great. Loves teaching in the school system she’s in. She’s still dating the guy she was seeing when I wrote about her last year. Sometimes we get the sense that their relationship might be about to take the next step; other times not. So who knows? He’s a nice guy; we all like him. But of course, this needs to be their concern; not ours.

Brian and I were involved in our church much in the same ways we were the year before. We continue to host a young married and engaged couples home group. There have been some meaningful friendships come out of that among the group and including Brian and I. We expected that we might do some mentoring as part of this, but in a few cases it’s gone further than that – mostly individually. It’s been beneficial to us and hopefully to the others as well. Also, I’m still involved in the women’s ministry I was involved in before and there have been some good friendships come out of that as well. I don’t really think of those as mentoring, but I suppose in some cases they are. There are really a lot of needs out there. We need to be willing to open our hearts to others as they do they same to us.

I know I always write a lot about family and friends, but I do that because that’s really how our family’s world is oriented. I mentioned neighbors that have become good friends. These are people that readily come and go from our home and we theirs. I have friends that are some distance from me that are not so easy to get together with, but we stay in touch other ways. And then there are those who are somewhere in between. We can be together often or not so often, one place or another, but the fact is that we maintain the friendship. Sometimes that takes quite a bit of effort, but it’s so worth it and so the right thing to do.

I’ve found that I can cultivate friendships without forcing them. Yes, it takes a conscious effort to start and sometimes to maintain it, but yet the friendship continues and flourishes naturally. You have to be sensitive to where it may lead, but then it is interesting to see what direction it does take and where it actually does lead. Yeah, sometimes it leads in ways and directions I hadn’t planned and that are maybe not so comfortable. But you have to be open and you have to take the chance. And many times you need to do it for the other person more than for yourself. It’s not a perfect process. There’s really no science or art to it. You just plunge in and move ahead with it. Sure there are risks; risks that you won’t be liked or might feel vulnerable, and risks that maybe you’ll blow it and wind up causing problems for yourself and others. I’ve had all of those things happen and more. But I survived. (Not always so sure about the other people though. Ha!) But that’s really the only way to get off dead center and make progress.

Friendships affect all aspects of our lives and enrich them so much. I can’t encourage people enough to be open to friendships and to step up and initiate them. It’s not forcing yourself on someone when you initiate a friendship; it’s just taking the first step; being willing to go first and put yourself out there; be a little vulnerable and open up to someone. Go on and give it a try. What have you got to lose? Nothing; and you’ve got everything to gain.

With Jacob being a little older as camping season rolled around this year, it made it somewhat easier to go camping. We still always have to keep a close eye on the weather forecast to try to avoid the temperature extremes and of course any storms. We had some really good times camping this past summer. The kids love it and we love that we can all spend extended time enjoying the outdoors in the natural setting of the campground. We want our children to grow up having a deep appreciation and enjoyment of the outdoors.

We have developed some good friends there at the campground; some that we don’t get to see anywhere else. Of course, everyone is friendly to start with so that just makes it all the easier. I already mentioned Julie and Jeff being there. They were there several times when we were. As you can imagine, she is popular with most folks and certainly known and remembered by all. Beth went with us only once this summer. Ann and Jim and most of their kids were there once when we were. And we met some new people there this summer. There was a new family that is just a little older than us. And there was a new couple that is actually younger than we are, believe it or not. Maybe the organization is starting to get better at reaching out to younger people. (Or maybe we’re just getting older. Ha!) Anyway, we became friends with both families and it was fun spending time together with them. We’re looking forward to more of that in the coming year.

So, that is a lot about our year. There were many good things. And…as I’ve already mentioned on the message board, our family will be growing in 2012. I’m pregnant; due in late July. We’ve now told everyone and we’re all looking forward to the new arrival. This will be another exciting time for us; a time of welcoming a new member into our family. We are preparing our children and our home so that it will be a time of loving and acceptance all around. We are so grateful for our children and our gratitude will simply increase with the birth of another child. We are blessed.

We wish you all the best for 2012!