See Ya Later, 2020!

 How in the world does a person go about writing a recap post on a year like 2020? Do we even want to recap a year like this one? Or do we just want to tiptoe quickly into a new year?

I thought I'd say see ya later to 2020 by looking back at some things we said see ya later to in 2020!

* In January, I said see ya later to something I didn't even know I was bidding farewell to at the time. It was my last time to organize and host a women's event at our church in Kokomo. We had a big canvas painting party and over 40 women came to participate. It was so much fun, and I am so glad I soaked it in and took tons of pictures. This ministry was one I loved being part of from its inception and adored overseeing during our last few months at the church. I'm grateful God allowed this dream to come true in my life, even for just a season! Maybe someday He'll allow me to say hello again to a ministry like this one. (Pictured below are just a few of the ladies there that evening.)

* In February, we said see ya later to our outdated guest bathroom at our Kokomo house. We ripped out everything except the bathtub and spent a few weeks redoing everything. By the time we said hello to it again, it was a whole new place. New paint, flooring, light fixture, toilet, double sink, and decor. It was a beautiful bathroom!! This see ya later was a great decision!

* March held several see ya later moments - the most notable one being the one we shared with the rest of the world, which was the literal see ya later to normal life. That's when we learned about masks and staying home and designated shoppers, and all manner of things that were completely unrecognizable.

We also said see ya later in the job world that month. I ended my temporary employment with our church, covering for my friend Abagail's maternity leave, and said hello to a new permanent job at the church...though I immediately moved to working at home. Ryan was reassigned from his therapy job at the rehab hospital and started working at the main hospital instead. 

* In April, we said see ya later to normal celebrations and had our first taste of making our own holiday fun while home alone. We celebrated Easter on our own and Ryan's birthday on our own, too! I know the lack of huge gatherings has been really difficult for a lot of people, but we enjoyed the change of pace and welcomed the rest brought on by staying home.\

We also said see ya later to our non-descript guest room, giving it the proper makeover I've wanted to give it since we first moved into that Kokomo house. Ryan indulged my desire to have an Anne of Green Gables room and made my dream come true!

* In May, we said see ya later to the idea that anything in our life would ever again be as we knew it. Our two months at home together while working altered schedules caused us to pray about pursuing new work - work that would allow us to be together throughout every day. We let go of the thoughts we had about what life should be like and said hello to new possibilities. It was the end of May when we had our Zoom call with a guy named Rob, who worked for Gateway Woods...

We also said see ya later to Indiana...for just a few days..to take our first actual vacation in about six months. We hung out in a tiny cabin in the Hocking Hills of Ohio and loved everything about our time away. 

* June put the phrase see ya later on repeat in our world. After having our three hour interview with Gateway Woods, we learned that they wanted to hire us to be the Community Advocate Couple at WillowBridge, and we said goodbye to our jobs. By that, of course, I mean that Ryan said goodbye to his temporary assignment with the proning team at the hospital and I said goodbye to my job at the church. At the same time, we found out that Ryan's permanent job at the rehab hospital was saying goodbye...along with the hospital itself. We learned that month about its pending closure.

We started saying see ya later  to our stuff: some of it permanently through garage sales and some of it temporarily into boxes until we could move to our new digs.

June also brought about our final goodbyes to our church. We went to our last services there and at in our birds-eye perch for the last time. We also said goodbye to our beloved small group and the people we've learned and prayed with for the last three years. That was a hard see ya later!

* July was another big see ya later month with more hard goodbyes! Ryan walked home from his physical therapy job for the very last time...

We said see ya later to our house for the last time as its residents, and see ya later to Braeya - temporarily - while we were gone for job training.

 

And by the time the end of July arrived, it was time to say see ya later to our house forever...and our hometown for the last four years!

* It's odd to think that August could have brought see ya laters, since we were in a new job and new town, but it actually did! We said see ya later to the temporary apartment where we moved when we first arrived in Grabill, and hello to our new permanent apartment, which we now call home!

We said see ya later to a life of normal office hours and hello to full work days with all sorts of new adventures!

By far, the hardest see ya later of that month was the day Ryan said his final, final goodbye to all his co-workers in physical therapy, when the hospital closed its doors for the final time.

* In September, we said see ya later to days off that have to be consumed with house projects. Since we were fully settled in our apartment by then, we were able start enjoying our time off with adventures like our new kayak, which we named Fletcher!

We also said see ya later to the mere dream of owning an RV and bought our very own little fixer upper RV, which we named Abby! (Yes. We name everything.)

* In October, we said see ya later to sugar for a week, while we did a detox to reset our systems. I wasn't sure I could do it, but we made it through, thanks to yogurt and smoothies! :) 

* We also said see ya later to Abby the RV's original looks, with our very own Demo Day! 

Annnnnd we said see ya later to the warm days of fall with a final weekend filled with kayaking and bike riding.

* In November, we said see ya later to free time (temporarily) while we painted, and painted, and painted in Abby the RV.

* We also said our first see ya later to work since beginning in July. We saved up some of our weekend days, crammed them together, and enjoyed a getaway to southern Indiana - with the CUTEST Airbnb in the whole wide world. 

* And that brings us to December! We started the month saying see ya later to another year of marriage and welcoming a new one!

And now we say see ya later to a year that has brought impressive challenges, welcome changes, and so much growth in our souls. 

See ya later, 2020. I don't really want to relive you, but I'm stronger because you were here. 

What I Learned (and Accomplished) in December 2020

It's been a month of celebration and joy, but it's also been a month of learning! And I accomplished a thing or two as well, so I'm excited about that. Nothing like ending the year on a win! 

First up...some of the things I learned! 

1. Eye doctor = chemist. 
I started following someone new on Instagram, and it turns out she lives across the pond. She talked about how one morning her son woke up with an eye infection, but she was pretty sure a trip to the chemist would take care of it. Did a double take on that one! I looked it up and though I didn't comprehend everything in this article, at least I figured out a bit! 

2. The wool balls you use in your dryer can wear out eventually. 
Ryan said he thought we should get new wool balls for our dryer, because we've had some overactive static electricity lately. I didn't even know they could wear out, but apparently they do actually have a shelf life - and I'm pretty sure we exceeded it a while ago. 

3. Milk sometimes comes in bags.
Mind. Blown. I learned this from Natasha's blog this month! I'm gonna be honest with you - even putting it into a pitcher to pour seems like a disaster in waiting for me. I better stick to cartons. 

4. Schuyler Grant, who plays Diana Barry in Anne of Green Gables is Katharine Hepburn's niece.
I was reading some trivia about Anne of Green Gables one day and ran across this little tidbit. Guess the acting genes ran strong in that family!

5. Ten years of daily blogging = a great discipline.
Can you believe it? After I press publish on tomorrow's blog, I will have officially blogged every single day for the last ten years. Every. Single. Day. Have they all been magnificent writing? Of course not, but they have been present and accounted for. I began this kind of writing as a personal discipline, and I am grateful for the way it has proven to be just that in the last decade. 

There were so many times I had no idea what to write about. There were times I shared my heart and then wished I hadn't been so bold. There were times when you walked with me through the difficult and celebrated with me in the good. Thanks for being here for whatever portion of that decade you've been here. Thanks for being part of this journey. 

And now...for the things we accomplished in December!

1. Address and mail Christmas cards.
We did it! We worked on it over our anniversary getaway, because we are the coolest like that. Coffee, a movie, and card-stuffing. LOL! But we enjoyed sending them out and reading the ones we received! Christmas cards are one of my favorite traditions!

2. Finish shopping and wrap all the gifts.
We did it! We used one of our days off to have a Christmas shopping date, and we watched Elf while we wrapped all the gifts. It was a fun day and evening. 

3. Work on (dare we dream to COMPLETE?) the backsplash and flooring - and more? - in Abby.
Well it was a good dream. The flooring is done, and that was a huge accomplishment. We did have help in completing that, but we are no less excited that it is done. We did not get to put up the backsplash as we were sure we would. We just ran out of time this month. But we'll hope again for next month, right?

4. Try out a mini capsule wardrobe.
I did it for about the first half of the month, and then I needed to switch up my color scheme. A mini capsule doesn't work for me, I've decided. It's too limiting. I love my pared down wardrobe, but a mini capsule is too pared.

5. Enjoy whatever version of the Christmas season comes to pass.
Done! I loved every single decoration in our apartment. I loved looking at lights with Ryan. I loved having Christmas day with Ryan. I loved Hallmark movies and the fireplace channel and special coffees at the coffee shop. It was a unique Christmas, for sure, but I did love every moment. 

Dreams and Goals for January 2021

I can't remember if I started my monthly goal-setting posts last year or the year before, but this I know: I love writing these posts each month. 2020 indeed proved challenging with them, because so much of the year was out of our control entirely, but I still enjoy and appreciate the practice of setting goals and working toward them to the best of my ability each month. And as we sit here on the edge of a brand new year, I want to renew my focus on being purposeful about these goals! Anyone with me on that? 

So here are some of my dreams and goals for January, 2021.

1. Get back to walking 10,000 steps a day.

For years now (ever since I've owned my FitBit), I've been absolutely methodical about getting 10,000 steps a day. I always give myself Sundays off to observe the Sabbath, but the other six days a week, I get those 10,000 steps no matter what. It's always easier in better weather, when I can take walks outside to help, but I've always made it to 10,000. Until we moved here, that is. I did pretty well until the weather turned cold. But even then, there were days I missed. There are a thousand reasons why, and some are valid, but the bottom line is it's good for me to move throughout the day, so I am resolving to find a way to make the time and the space to walk the steps.

2. Read three books.

I used to read a book every week and then I went back to work full time a year ago, and that sort of fell by the wayside. Ryan and I actually have several books we need to read for work, and we have to make time for that in our days. Plus, I just miss escaping into books. So my goal for January is to read three books - between work and pleasure. 

3. Do daily devos together with Ryan.

We already purchased our first devo for 2021, and our goal is to spend time together every day doing them. We've always been good about doing devos individually, but we want to do them together, because we think it will help strengthen us for our jobs. We're really looking forward to beginning!

4. Pack away the Christmas decor and decorate for winter.

Normally I'm adamant about having Christmas down before the new year, but I'm not sure that is going to work in our schedule this week, so if it runs slightly into January, it will be okay. I'm more interested in packing it away well so it's ready to go for next year! I want to sort through what I have and see if there are any decorations we need to part with (or donate to WillowBridge) so I want to take my time with this project, even if it means delaying my timeline. I also want to make the place cozy and pretty for the winter months, which will mean re-envisioning everything I'd done last year so it fits in our new space.

5. Be purposeful about diffusing oils each day.

One thing I've learned about living in community is that germs live in community too. We're working on extra measures to sanitize our common living areas, but I want to be diligent to diffuse oils in our apartment every single day. We've seen that it helps when we do it regularly. One of our diffusers died, so we have ordered a new one and I hope that helps. Moving the one we have from the living room to the bedroom every day/night hasn't worked out so well, so having one in each space will, I hope, help this goal. 

6. Put up the backsplash in Abby the RV - and maybe work on the privacy curtain project, too.

This was a December goal that (spoiler alert!) didn't get done. We've had the backsplash for a few weeks but we haven't had a chance to install it yet. We're also working on a privacy curtain project that will no doubt be more involved than we anticipate, but it would be great to at least get started on it!

And there you have it! Dreams and goals for a new month in a new year. We'll see how reality pans out in comparison to the dreams we have!

Our Christmas Celebration

We had the unique opportunity to spend Christmas day all on our own this year, and I will not lie: I loved it. Holidays, as many of you know, can often be spent running from one gathering to the next, so to have an entire day where we could simply rest and reflect was a gift to us in and of itself. (Our work days are long and our off-days can be equally busy, so this one was extra precious.)

We carried on our annual tradition of sleeping by the tree, and we turned off all alarms so we could just wake up whenever our little eyes popped open. Amazingly enough, they didn't pop open until about 9 a.m. 

We had plans to enjoy brunch together, so Ryan made protein pancakes, and I made my lazy, mixed up version of omelets.  (That basically means scrambled omelets.)

You might remember that our tradition is to purchase something together each year that serves as our "big gift." We choose it together and want it to be something we can use throughout the year. We found this year's gift back in October, I think! Our apartment has all vinyl flooring, so we wanted a rug for our living room. We happened upon it one day while grocery shopping at Sam's. It was in our price range (very few are) and we liked it (we haven't liked very many) and we bought it on the spot! So Christmas came early this year!

(We did take a picture with the rug on Christmas, but I failed to get it from Ryan's phone before I wrote this post, so it won't be featured here today.)

Then we exchanged our stockings - which were full of all manner of practical but fun for us gifts. 

And after we did our stockings, we just enjoyed the rest of the day. We watched TV (and no, it was not all Hallmark) and talked and took naps and made wings for dinner and had a grand time.

I'm not sure I ever did make it out of those jammies all day long.

It was a perfect Christmas, and I'm grateful for it.