We are thankful for all the Lord's blessings of the past year, and I want to use the last day of 2010 to make note of some of the growth we've enjoyed seeing in our family.
Mike and I will celebrate twenty years of marriage a few short weeks from now. We are amazed! How quickly the time has flown, and we've been so very blessed to share this grand adventure together.
R, HA, HW, and Baby S are all healthy and growing, and we praise the Lord for the privilege of parenting them. Having a toddler, a preteen, and two in-between is keeping us young! We are enjoying this year of home schooling very much. Our most important focus each day in Pecan Bluff Home School is still on the Bible, and we find that listening to God's word sets a good tone for our entire day. We are very proud of the academic progress of all the children, and we are thankful for the opportunity to teach them.
Thanks to teamwork, we have a pantry full of home-canned goodness, including rows of pear and fig preserves and pint after pint of green tomato relish. Mike loves our home canned pepper sauce and I'm glad to have a freezer full of homegrown pasta sauces, pears, broccoli and zucchini to bring us through the winter. It was a steep learning curve that got me through the canning seasons, so I feel I'll be better prepared to tackle the job next year when harvest time rolls around.
We also have a nice stack of firewood ready and we really enjoy heating the house with our woodstove. The boys are doing a great job keeping the wood box filled and the kindling box topped off. The kids learned so much about living off the land this year, and we enjoy learning right alongside them.
R is our beautiful twelve-year-old. She is in seventh grade this year, and she's doing well in her studies. She's also the best big sister around. Her brothers can always count on her for games and giggles. She truly has a natural gift for tenderly caring for her little sister. She's a good student and enjoys reading nonfiction how-to books. She likes sewing, quilting, and working on 4H projects. She loves playing violin with the orchestra, and we are amazed at all she has accomplished with her music in the past five years. She had several great performances this year, and she also frequently gives us concerts here at home. It is so much fun to see her enjoying herself with music. She found a sport she loves when she played her first season of volleyball! She is still growing taller, and she got a big kick out of passing me up in height this year. With two brothers who seem to be hungry all the time, she is a true blessing in our home as an accomplished cook.
Her home-keeping skills have been a big help with putting up all this fresh produce this year, and she cheerfully tackles many projects that help keep our home buzzing. She is a crafty girl, too, so she made some great gifts for loved ones this year, and she is our official birthday cake baker. Thankfully, she enjoys working in the garden, too. Her sense of humor and cheerful spirit continue to delight us, and we cherish these special years with her as she grows into a lovely young lady.
Our HA is eight years old and is in the third grade. This year he discovered a love for Legos, and he's designed and built some spectacular vehicles. He also still enjoys designing and building railway layouts with the boys' wooden train set.
He was especially thrilled to continue to tradition of setting up the electric train in their room for Christmas. He is a devoted student of all kinds of wildlife, and he loves to read just about anything. He got glasses this year to reduce eyestrain, and he looks so handsome when he wears them to read. He began studying the classical guitar and had several great performances and concerts! We are so proud of him for working hard at it. He is still very loving and tenderhearted and gives the best hugs. He has grand adventures every day with HW, laughs a lot with R, and is a very protective big brother for S. He loves helping his Daddy with fix-it projects around our place, is a helpful gardener, and keeps my herbs watered. In just the past few months he's developed a cheerful attitude when doing his chores, and it is a real blessing to me each day. He is hoping and dreaming of the beautiful horse he hopes to own one day. He has a tender heart for spiritual things, and we are so happy that he obeyed the gospel and was baptized this summer. He is growing into a fine young Christian gentleman, and we feel blessed to help him grow in the Lord.
Our HW is eight and is in third grade this year also. He is mischievous and always loves a good joke. He likes to sing, and he's very interested in how things work. He is an avid reader of everything from encyclopedias to history books to dictionaries. He is full of big words and he sometimes surprises us when he slips one of them into conversation. He loves making Lego creations and playing just about anything with his brother. HW has a vivid imagination and can make up some very complicated and interesting scenarios for his Lego men or trains. He loves learning about insects. In fact, whenever I find an icky bug that snuck its way into the house, he is the one I call for help. He first investigates it, identifies it, and then takes care of it for me. He plays patiently with S, and he is good at keeping her entertained. He loves to cook with R and me and he is always excited to do special projects to help around the house or farm with his Daddy.
He's grown several inches this year and is such a handsome young man! He works ahead in many of his school subjects and he truly loves learning. He is always quick to help and a cheerful, thorough worker when he does his chores each day. He works hard to please us in everything he does. We are very proud of him and he brings us great joy.
Baby S is our adorable and very busy two-year-old. We are thrilled to hear all her new words each day, and we are very thankful for her good health. She is such a happy toddler and is really a joy. She is attached to her blanket, loves music, is in constant motion, and has all her grandparents wrapped around her finger. She always wants to be outside, no matter the weather. She played hard in the fun snows we had this year, and then she swam hard in the kiddie pool all summer long. She really loves the water. She also loves long walks, throwing rocks into the creek, digging in the dirt and playing games like ring around the rosy with her siblings (she calls it "Ring Row! Ring Row!") Her baby talk is especially precious. She loves to hold hands and walk together. HA is the first person Baby S asks for each morning, and HW is the one she calls to whenever she needs a playmate. Baby S and Big Sister R are especially close and share a special language together. It is so wonderful to see the sisters' close relationship. S loves to learn everything, and she already sounded out her first word on the chalkboard ~ bed. She sits like a little lady while I fix her hair each day. She still eats things she shouldn't when we aren't looking, but I'm thankful she seems to be growing out of that tendency.
And did I mention that she is full of boundless energy and keeps me hopping? It's a good thing that she also loves her naptime and her bedtime! We are in awe of all the Lord has done in her life, and we feel blessed that she is ours.
As we watch 2010 fade into the past, may each of us be moved to share the love of Jesus with the precious children of our world who don't yet know just how much He loves them.
