2009 Year in Review

I can not believe that today is the last day of 2009. When I think of how 2008 was closing I knew that God had some major changes in store for us in the coming year. Again I can not help but feel as if there are more changes that God is preparing us for in 2010.
So, with that, here is a run down of the highlights and lowlights of 2009.

January--E & K both celebrated birthdays. E turned 8 and K turned 6.

February--Tia, B's sister who had lived with us for a few years, got married. Both kids were in the wedding. She met an awesome guy and I know that God has His hand on their marriage.

March--On the 15th, the children publicly accepted Jesus as their Savior through Baptism! The following week, B got a phone call offering him a position with a new job. We had 24 hours to decide if he would take the job--kinda funny when you think about it, since he had initially pursued this job in Oct. 2006.

April--A whirlwind month. B left on April 21st to go to a 6 month long (really 28 weeks) out-of-state, training for the new job. Before this, B had been working from home since E was 3 months old. So, to not be around him at all when we were so used to him being around was hard. The first few weeks were extremely hard. We had a few things that kept us busy, such as the kids sport activities.

May--B was able to come home for the weekend of Memorial Day. This weekend also happened to be K's dance recital and I was beyond thrilled that we would be together as a family for this short amount of time and that B would be able to see K's year of hard work!

June--I had decided back in late April that I would try to work at two Mother's Day Out programs in the summer to keep us busy, so this month is when it started. It was hard. Most of the month is a blur.

July--B and I were able to spend the July 4th weekend together. The kids stayed with some friends and I flew out on the 2nd. We had a great weekend together and went to the beach to see the fireworks show on the 4th. A few weeks after that B was able to come home to spend some time with the kids.

August--The kids and I took a mini vacation with Aunt J to Abilene. We needed the time away and it was so much fun.
K began her 4th year of dance. I started schooling the kids again. E is in 3rd grade, K is in 1st.

September--I left the kids with some friends and went on a trip to New England with J, my mom and my aunt. This trip had been in the works since 2008 and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to go when B accepted the new job. Thankfully one of my friends allowed the kids to stay with them until B was able to pick them up. This trip was a much needed respite from single mom duty.
B's company had the labor day weekend pre-arranged as a trip home, so when I got home from the airport B and the kids were at home waiting. We took B back to the airport on the 8th.
On Sept. 9th we received word that my dad's mom, my Grandma Louise, had passed away. I spent the next 24 hours trying to figure out where to send the kids as it was to expensive to take them up to New York for the funeral. E had a trip to D.C. already scheduled with my sister, so he spent an additional day at her house while my friend L offered to watch K for me. So, on Sept. 11th my sister J, my brother and I headed to New York to meet up with my parents who had already traveled there.
I really didn't know my grandmother that well. I can only remember a handful of times that we saw her.

October--B had one more pre-arranged trip home, and it fell on the 2nd weekend of October. On the 20th, I celebrated my 30th bday. I worked that evening at church ( I do childcare) and my friend who I work with had decorated the room for me and brought me a gift and some balloons. It was such a sweet and heartfelt gesture. B's birthday was on the 26th and it killed me not being able to be with him and celebrate.
I left that weekend though to go to GA for the last time to spend the weekend with B while the kids stayed with my mom. We headed up to Savannah and even had dinner at Paula Deen's The Lady and Son's restaurant.

November--My trip to GA lasted until the beginning of Nov. B graduated from training on Nov. 3rd and we began the trip home. The trip lasted about 17 hours of driving time. We picked the kids up from my parent's on the 4th, and I was relieved to have my family all back together.
B started his new job on the 6th, and we celebrated my 30th and B's homecoming with friends that weekend.
We also were able to celebrate the adoption of my friend S's baby girl. What a humbling experience.

December--This past month has gone by in a flash. We have slowly started to settle into a routine.

While B was gone for those 28 weeks, I honestly felt that I needed to just survive. We would have arguments because he would say that I should be flourishing, but I felt like I was doing all I could to just survive.
I could not have possibly made it through the time that he was gone without my friends and family. There is a gentleman at church who constantly called asking if I needed help with anything and he helped me with the lawn work and other household things that would pop up and need replacing/fixing. My friends were there for me when I needed them most and listened to me when I needed to talk. And my family. The kids and I spent a lot of time with my family, especially my sister J and I cherish those moments.
Finally my God. I could not have survived without His love and grace. The first month or so that B was gone I had trouble sleeping. Any little noise would disturb me. I went to bed thinking of ways to protect my kids and myself and I woke up thinking of ways to protect my kids and myself.
Let me end this with my life verse:
2 Timothy 1:7 For God did not give me the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind.
God would place that verse on my heart and in my mind and I can clearly say I have felt His peace through all I have been through.

Gingerbread Houses

We went to a friends house for our annual Gingerbread House decorating day, and this is E & K's masterpiece for 2009. Unfortunately it collapsed on itself later in the evening. Could it be all of the candy piled on top that had something to do with it???

Another post about recipes

I am so proud of myself! I have been trying to make more new recipes since B has been home. I have made at least one or two each week. Some of the things I have made based on recipes I have recently found include potato soup, lazy cabbage rolls, sweet potato fries, and a ridiculous amount of cookies.
One of E's Awana leaders called Tuesday morning to ask if I could bring 3 dozen cookies for their party on Wednesday evening.
I knew that I wanted to bake some for K's class as well and then send any leftovers to work with B.
I also knew that I wanted to make cookies that I don't normally make.
My friend E sent me her recipe for Williams Sonoma peanut butter cookies, so I made a batch of those. I also made a batch of snickerdoodles, andes mint cookies and m&m cookies.
The least time consuming were the m&m cookies--I literally just made the batch up and put it in the oven. The other 3 batches of cookies had to be chilled in the fridge for as long as 2 hours!
When I was putting the last bit of cookies on the pan to bake, K came into the kitchen and was shocked at the counter full of cookies. She started counting them, and said there had to be at least 102 cookies on the counter. I think there were actually more like 150 cookies on the counter.
I did try one of each cookie, but the rest are out of the house!

One of my favorite sites

I have several websites that I go to on a daily basis. I am addicted to blogs! One site that I check at least twice daily, if not more, is foodgawker.com
It has a ton of different food dishes that are submitted by different bloggers daily. I love to browse through there and see if there is anything there that I would actually make. Clicking on the picture actually takes you to the blog where they usually give the recipe for that item.
So, on Wednesday I was searching through there and decided to try out two recipes there. One was apple spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting(moderndomestic.com) and the other was roasted chickpeas (askgeorgie.com). While I don't care for chickpeas, I thought B would enjoy them. He takes a salad to work for lunch almost every day and I thought that the chickpeas would add a different dimension to the salad instead of the almonds or walnuts that he usually has in his salad.
Both of these recipes turned out well. I will definitely be making the apple spice cupcakes again. I am not sure if B loved the chickpeas but he did like them--though he has yet to have them on a salad. He tells me that he has just been picking them from the container.
I already have a few other recipes pulled up on foodgawker that I would like to make! I can't wait!