Reflecting On My Year

It’s hard to believe that this year has already come to an end.  Where did the time go?  As I'm sitting here watching New Yorks Rockin' Eve with the hubs, I can't help but reflect on this past year.........

It seems like we were celebrating the arrival of 2011 just weeks ago.  The year started out in sunny Miami for me.  That's where I set sail with Matt and both of our moms on a five day Caribbean cruise.

We had a wonderful time, but we were anxious to get home and find out news about the closing date for our house.  We unexpectedly closed on our home the day we got back from our trip.  We had one week to be out of our old house, and we hadn’t even started packing nor did we have a closing date arranged for our new home.

The timing for everything worked out, and we were able to close on the new house within the one week time frame.  Due to our work schedules, we only had one day to rent a truck and move into the new house…..in a snow storm no less.  I feel very blessed to have had this home shelter us from the ever changing weather of 2011.  It's sheltered us from winter snow and ice storms, spring tornadoes and thunderstorms, extreme heat of long summer days and steady cold raindrops of late fall and early winter.  I am thankful for the home the Lord has given us.


After moving into the new home, I decided that I wanted to journal my life's journey of being married and owning a new home, so in February, I entered the world of blogging.   Although keeping up with my blog has been time consuming, it has been something that I have truly LOVED doing in my spare time.  I’ve learned a lot since I wrote my very first post, and I look forward to learning so much more as I endeavor to grow my blog in the future.

Blogging gave me the push that I needed to use my creative side more and complete several DIY projects in 2011, all of which I’ve shared with you here my in my little corner of the internet.  It has been a true joy for me to create on a budget.  I look forward to sharing many more projects on my blog in the year to come.

While I love to DIY, traveling is something that both Matt and I really enjoy.  We had to postpone some of the bigger trips we had planned for 2011,  due to some budget adjustments after buying the house in January, but we were still able to fit in several small road trips here and there, all of which I've shared with you on my blog.   Before we bought the house, we already had the January cruise, February weekend getaway to Gatlinburg and March weekend getaway to Cincinnati  paid for.  That left us with enough in our budget to go to St. Louis for Fourth of July and New Buffalo, Michigan/Chicago for Matt's August birthday.   Getting away from our ordinary routine is so important to us that we even stayed in a nice hotel right here in Indy for our anniversary weekend.  We had a great time exploring our own city without spending too much money.  Looking back, we were able to do a lot of small getaways this past year on a tight budget, and for that I am thankful.  I will always cherish the memories we share when we can getaway from the hustle and bustle of our every day life and spend quality time together.

Another thing I got to do in 2011 is catch up on some reading.  Reading for pleasure is something that I really enjoy, and as I shared with you in a post earlier this week, I spent many nights curled up in bed with a good book during 2011.  I've already started my 2012 book list and can't wait to get started.

When I wasn’t spending time with my husband, working on projects for the house, writing post for my blog or reading a good book,  my time was spent at work with the girls that I nanny for or at the library working on classes for my masters.  I only have a few more classes to complete for my masters and would like to finish up in 2012.  As far as my job goes, I feel very blessed to have a good job in this economy and even more blessed that, unlike so many, I actually like my job.  I've been able to watch the girls grow up, and like each previous year that I've been a part of their lives, I've been able to make a lot memories with them.  Even when they no longer need a nanny, I will always have those memories and will forever cherish them.

While my job has gone well this past year, I can’t say the same for Matt’s job.  He started work with a new company at the beginning of 2011 and was really excited about what seemed to be a promising future for our family and his career…..but sometimes things don’t go as we think they should.  In November, Matt unexpectedly lost his job, and while he is aggressively looking for a new job, he hasn’t found one yet.  I haven’t really talked about this on my blog.  Sometimes I think if I don’t talk about it, it will go away….but the reality is that it isn’t going away, not tonight anyway.  We will wake up tomorrow morning to a new year, and it will still be a new year where we are forced to live on one income.  There’s no doubt that these past two months have been trying for us, seeing as how we base our monthly budget off of his income, not mine, but we trust that the Lord will provide our needs.  We don’t have to understand why bad things happen, although I really wish I did understand this.  All we have to understand is that God has a plan for us, and it will unfold in his time, not ours.  So while Matt and I didn’t buy each other Christmas gifts this year or go out to dinner for New Year’s Eve, we still have each other and that’s what’s really important to us as we say goodbye to 2011 and awake to a new year.