2010-2020.....A short look back.....

Wow - 2020 is here!  It came so fast.  My daughter keeps telling me how she can't believe the holidays are over.  You wait and wait for them and then all of a sudden....done.  We were very grateful for the break though.  We have never been able to have my husband home for so long.  He's back at work today.

We did a lot of reflection over the last week and have more reflecting still to do, as we aren't just looking over the last year, but the last decade.  We were all amazed what had happened in ten years as it was just over ten years ago that we packed up and moved here and now we have lived a full decade in Niagara.  Here are a few of the things we remembered:

- we had two babies in Niagara, miracle babies from what I've heard as they were both in my 40s, and apparently that is pretty rare!
- we built a house, bought/renovated a farm, sold a house
- we went from no animals to cows, horses, chickens, turkeys, pigs, cats, lizards and tarantulas
- we started multiple mini-businesses from my daughters' photography business, piano teaching, cake pop making, to my son's dog breeding business, kitten selling and even lemonade stands each summer
- we did a microgreen business this past summer
- my husband went from being self-employed to college-employed, from lead research to center manager
- we graduated 3 kids from homeschooling
- 2 have gone on to further schooling, a 3rd will this Fall
- our children went from no jobs to 4 having full and part-time work
- none driving to 3 driving and 2 owning cars of their own
- a couple of operations and at least one broken bone and a few stitches here and there
- from dilapidated barn to redone roof and floor
- started Bible quizzing and started the junior quizzing program, memorizing many books of the Bible in the last 10 years, so far 7 kids have been in the program, only one left and he starts this Fall!
- piano lessons so far for all 8
- kids began to self-teach guitar, ukelele and now drums and bass guitar
- planted gardens, vineyards, hay
- international travel has happened for the last two summers
- careers have been launched with our kids
- learned to can and preserve food on a very small, but fun, scale

Clearly, a lot has happened in the last 10 years.  We are amazed when we reflect on all that has happened.  We can't even imagine what the next 10 years will hold.  We hope for a few marriages and grandchildren!  That would never have been in my wildest dreams 10 years ago.  It's happening in my sister's life this summer, so we have to believe it could be our experience, too!

I am excited about the future and though I have struggled with fear a lot throughout the past decade, I hope to see my faith strengthened and fear less and less.  I have too many answers to prayers to look back on to remain in a state of fear.  I have learned to be thankful first and then the miracles comes after.  That was probably the lesson of the decade.

I think our next decade might be a little more musical.  Let me explain....When my husband was self-employed, he could dictate his own hours and how he spent his days.  Working for someone else now, they dictate his hours and how he spends his time.  This has been a challenge as now his work gets his best hours and he comes home feeling tired, yet the kids and I still need his attention.  This Christmas he invested in some musical instruments.  He, himself, is quite musical and has taken guitar lessons and self-taught himself mastery of the instrument.  He's really good.  But he wanted to do something that would involve more time with the kids, so crazy us, went and bought a drum set, for the 9 year old in particular and a bass guitar for the 13 year old.  Turns out every single person, besides myself, has sat at the drums this last week and have been playing non-stop.  It was never a quiet house before and it certainly isn't at ALL now.  But, to our amazement, the kids are all learning very fast and doing great.  RM gets to play alongside his kids and they are all loving it.  I'm not sure that a family band is the goal, but at least they are playing music together A LOT.  It's actually really amazing to hear.

I still have big dreams about all that I want to see done around the house, but I have learned to let that go this past decade, too.  I now try to accept the fact that it might take another decade to get things to where I'd like them and that's ok.  If I look back to what the house looked like when we bought it, then I should be in awe of what we've managed to finish in the ten years, all while raising a family, crops and working full-time.

My oldest daughter's gift to me this Christmas is to help me slowly but surely organize my house and create systems that will work to keep it organized and tidy.  So much clutter always comes into our house and she is known for her ruthlessness in getting rid of stuff, so I'm hoping she'll help me be ruthless as well as I hate throwing things away that I MIGHT need one day....thus the clutter.

As usual, where do I stop....I could go on and on.  I am so grateful for this past decade.  If I were to say which one was my favourite, it has to be this past decade.  Not because it was the easiest, but SO MUCH HAPPENED.  We left the suburbs and moved to the country where I've felt the most fulfilled ever.  I absolutely love it out here and I thank God so much for the experience.  If we have to move one day (we talk about it all the time), I will be grateful that we had at least 10 years here.  If God allows us to stay another 10 years that would make me super happy.  That is another thing I've learned, everything can change in a moment and contentment in the moment is key.

A couple more days before the kids and I resume school.  Somethings never change - I have loads of laundry ahead of me and always cleaning, organizing and meal planning.  That never stops.  If anything that will increase in the next ten years if our family multiplies.....but I love it.  |Ten years ago is one thing to look back on, but this year will mark our 25th anniversary.  That's nuts.  I never could have seen what was ahead 25 years ago!  We started out downtown in a condo...to 8 kids in the country.  It's unreal.  I'm sure I will enjoy reflecting more and more as the year passes.

Our pastor shared Psalm 117 on Sunday.  It has to be one of the shortest psalms in the Bible.  But it's message is clear, "Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol Him, all you peoples.  For great is His love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever."  That's it, the one constant in my life over the past decade, let alone 25, or 50 years, even, is the Lord's faithfulness and love.  The pastor was saying that because there had been some sad losses of husbands and fathers in our church over the year.  Can we celebrate even when there is loss?  Can we reflect fondly even when there have been tough times? Yes and yes and yes.....we had many tough times over the last ten years, but over and over we saw God's goodness to us, almost moreso in the hard times.  So I can be like the psalmist and praise Him for His amazing love and faithfulness to us, to me personally.  That was another major takeaway for me, especially this past year.  God met me, in a hidden way to others, but very clearly to me, over and over.  I'll give one final example....

This past decade was a tough one for me and appliances!  Everything went - the washer, the dryer, the dishwasher, the fridge, the stove......yikes!  I won't even get into cars, but anyway!  We eventually got them all working or replaced them.  Who knows how.  When my husband finally fixed the dishwasher after two years of handwashing, we were all so grateful, so when it went again a couple of weeks ago inexplicably we just threw up our hands in the air, bought dish gloves and started handwashing again without even skipping a beat.  RM figured he would find time to take a look at it over the holidays.  This past Sunday, we were sitting having lunch and, I'm NOT JOKING, I suddenly heard a sound coming from the kitchen that I hadn't heard in a while....the dishwasher had suddenly started running ALL ON ITS OWN!!  What?!  How does that happen?  I just assumed someone had started it, but no one had!  And how could it start on its own anyway when it hadn't worked for weeks and we had tried everything to get it going?!  It was the most bizarre thing.  I wasn't convinced it was working though so stopped it and tried to restart it thinking there was no way it would work again as I had tried many many times before.  To my utter amazement, it did restart and hasn't stopped since!!  I cannot explain it.  We are calling it our dishwasher miracle.  We had a fridge miracle a few weeks before that, so it seems to be God just coming down and resurrecting our appliances just because he can.  So funny!  I am not about to question it and again, maybe there is some way to explain it, but not very easily!!!  Even to my engineering husband, so to me, it is just God's way of saying, "I'll take care of you....and your dishwasher....."  Crazy!

So, will I worry about the next year?  or the next decade?  or the next 25 years?  How can I?  His faithfulness to me has been obvious, so I think whatever comes in the next year or more, He'll be faithful.