Greetings to whomever is reading this! It is cold and chilly and breezy outside of my kitchen. Speaking of my kitchen, it's gradually coming together. We decided to update it by painting the cupboards, getting new door & drawer fronts, hardware, and counter tops. We also took out the drop down ceiling above the cupboards so that I can set things on top of the cupboard. We painted the walls and the trim. (When saying "we", I really mean "Randy" as he did the majority of the work. Our friend who coordinated our kitchen cupboards/counters part of the project is coming tomorrow to hang the doors. While having them off has been handy, I'm quite ready to block out all of that visual clutter!
I see I only blogged about 11 times last year. I find blogging more difficult as my children have grown up...I don't want to step on anyone's privacy!
I did, however, intend to blog about 2020 back in December...but we were busy and then my laptop screen shattered and so here we are, the middle of January and I'm finally getting to this! When I looked at my schedule for next week, I realized that my life is pretty much back to normal as I have 10 varying appointments/events scheduled for the week. 😀
So without further comment, here are the highlights of 2020:
- January - mid March - Normal life. Homeschooling. Working. Church. Reading. Watching TV.
- Mid-March - end of May - Life kind of ground to a halt. Stayed home except for getting groceries. Wrapped up School.
- June - December - Resumed normal life as much as possible considering cancellations and accommodations.
- Randy - Continues to drive truck and work hard to provide a living for our family. We were blessed that he was able to work all year long. Quarantine projects included making us a beautiful new bed.
- Karen - I continued with homeschooling and household & child management. I read whenever possible. I continue to help Randy with his business bookwork as well as sharing Young Living with others. In the fall I taught a class on the Israelites at our local Co-op. I'm homeschooling Janae and Mark for the 2020-21 school year.
- Josiah - This year Josiah & Marisa got married! The plan was to get married in September, but Covid happened and plans changed. He bought a house in February, got married in June at a very small outdoor ceremony, and had a larger reception in September on the original wedding date. He also changed jobs and Marisa finished her schooling.
- Autumn - Autumn continues to work at Half Dozen Cafe in Reading. In November, she and Derek (Marisa's brother) got engaged! So we are looking forward to another wedding in 2021.
- Janae - Finished 10th grade and started 11th grade. She continues to homeschool. She also works at a hatchery vaccinating chicks and with a butcher packaging meat. She turned 16 and is looking forward to getting her license in 2021.
- Zachary completed 6th grade in May and returned to Gehman's Mennonite School in the fall for 7th grade. He is enjoying back at school after 3 years of homeschooling.
- Mark continues to homeschool. We had planned to send him to our local public school this year, but with the varying regulations, we decided to keep him home another year. He continues working with a tutor and loves to play with trucks and paint.
- Micah completed 4th grade at Gehman's Mennonite School last spring and moved on to 5th grade this year. He's into all things Star Wars.
- John Haydyn keeps us on our toes. He is now 4 years old and enjoys playing with his siblings and watching "Shaun the Sheep.''
- Vacations: We were able to work in a cabin weekend in the spring (our family) and summer (my extended family), Camping with our church family, and a week at the beach. I was so thankful we had not planned any road trip as the dynamics would have made that challenging.
- Other: We celebrated Randy's Parents' 70th Birthdays and 50th Anniversary. We stayed home a lot (those of us who are introverts didn't mind terribly much.)
