Looking back at 2012

As I sit back and reflect on 2012 one word comes to mind.

THANKFUL.

We had so many ups and down in 2012 I don't even know where to start...

There were lost friendships, new friendships, friendships that blossomed more than I could have ever imagined.
We said goodbye to our old preschool and hello to a new one.
We now have a 6, 4, and 2 year old.

I had a very very traumatic health scare with my stroke in July.

A new car.

New members added to our families.

Growing this little space of mine in the blogging community and meeting some truly amazing women along the way.

We went through struggles, high times, low times and every in between times.

I learned to accept and allow help in times when we need it-rather than to let my pride get the best of me.

I learned that time with my children is more important than having a clean house.

I learned to not take anything, anyone, or any opportunity for granted because tomorrow is never promised.

I learned the true meaning of giving, even when you don't feel like you have much to give.

I learned more forgiveness that I ever thought possible.

And this year I really truly learned to stand strong and steadfast in my faith.

I look back to this time last year and I was a completely different person than I am today.

I have grown so much spiritually that now my whole day focuses around the Lord.

Most mornings the first things I do rather than get caught up in social media is read my devotional.

The lessons we teach our children are based on His words, and His ways.

We learned to lean on Him in times when we didn't know what to do.
We have become incredibly close to and cherish our church family more than we ever have.
2012 was certainly a year filled with more downs than ups....but oh how those ups were so very sweet after triumphing over those lows!
Goodbye 2012...hello 2013

Our Christmas

Our Christmas was a good one! I am just so thankful to be here to celebrate with family this year! I wish I could say we enjoyed a nice quiet Christmas Eve and day in our warm house opening presents and enjoying each others company- but that was not the case. Instead we hosted Christmas Eve dinner for all of my husbands family plus our family of 5. Our house was definitely full of love and laughter. There was no shortage of alcohol either which made for some good times as well. Everybody are until we were stuffed and then we opened some presents and said goodbyes to out of town family. The family that did stay kept up our tradition of opening adult gifts to one another at midnight and I'm happy to report I got a new sewing machine! Woohoo!! I can't wait to get my shop up and running again :) Christmas morning went way too quickly as it seems to every year. All 3 boys enjoyed opening their gifts and were truly thankful and content this year for what they received. Then we served breakfast for our guests, cleaned up as much if the wrapping paper and cardboard mess we could and were off to visit my side of the family. We spent te rest of the day opening presents, eating lots of yummy homemade food, and enjoying the company of those we love! Then sadly, the next day I was back to work :( boo no fun! Not to worry though I learned my lesson and have already got vacation days planned for this same week next year haha! How was your Holiday?

I made it!

Well I survived my first week back at the office...barely!

I am sitting here with my glass of wine while the kids watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas, our Christmas tree is lit, and we are totally getting into the Christmas spirit.

Now that it's Friday and we had a 1/2 a work day today which also included an office work party {yay!}, I am able to say that I made it through my first week alive.

However, if you had asked me that say oh Wednesday night my answer would not have been the same!

The same goes for Thursday night.

It's really hard to get back into a flow after being off the past 5 months.

Work days are long.

8 hours long.

And then when said work day is over I have to shuffle home to take care of three kids...

who expect dinner, every.single.night!

Just kidding...well kind of!

It's exhausting!

I already need a maid because my house is in shambles and we're hosting Christmas Eve dinner at our house for ALL of my in-laws....yeah I should probably get on the cleaning train :)

Anywho....even though I was exhausted this week it was a really good transition week for me.

There were only 3.5 work days in my week this week and there will be 3 days next week because of the holidays.

I'm hoping this will help to ease me back into a schedule that won't make my brain completely explode.

How was your week?