Wow, I can still hardly believe it’s December 31st. I mean how does time fly so quickly? Each year seems to go by faster than the year before.
But yes. It is December 31, 2021, and in one minute it will be January 1, 2022. I think my first grammar mistake of the year will be this 2021 2022. 😄
2021 was a really good year. Once spring hit things got insanely busy, and that hasn’t changed since then. I sometimes feel like I’m being pulled in so many directions at once! But I’ve had a lot good experiences. Many have been hard, many have been stretching, but they have also been very rewarding.
– January –
The year started off with me going to bed. 😉 When I finally got up I spent the afternoon in the lettuce house – a lovely place to be while it’s raining outside. We were able to spend the next day with some really good friends. The month was filled with normal winter activities – school, work, and lots of games. Some highlights were rollerblading with homeschool group, enjoying some beautiful sunsets, a litter of puppies, snuggles with my sisters, and helping cousins move.
– February –
The last day of January we got some lovely snow, and it stayed the whole month of February! Not that first snow, but whenever it was almost melted, we’d get fresh – so we had snow cover from the 1st to the 28th! (I’m very thankful this wasn’t leap year because I couldn’t have said that then. The 1st of March, the snow was gone). We celebrated Garrett’s birthday, I read an amazing book in about a day (Hunting in the Highlands by C.R. Hedgecock), did a bunch of baking, cuddled puppies, and made a special treat for Valentines’ Day. We also started giving choir programs and I usually wrote the word Courage on my wrist so I could look at it and it would remind me to rely on God while I would sing. This choir year was really good. We also made applesauce and planted the greenhouse with tomatoes towards the end of the month.
– March –
The big highlight of this month was choir tour. We had some good programs, played alot of jug-a-lug and made some great memories. Hans turned 8, and it started getting warmer! We had several campfires, Dad and the boys prepared the fields for the summer, and I spent a lot of time in the greenhouse and planted some flower seeds. Our finally choir program was amazing – we sang our hearts out! We got a new dog and started selling our puppies. Also had an opportunity to serve at a food bank and pray at an abortion clinic (which also meant parking in a parking garage in a big van 😨)
-April-
Had a lovely Easter with cousins, and egged some other cousins. Also read a series of books that still have me screaming (War of the Realms by Chuck Black), enjoyed the premier episode of season 2 of The Chosen, got the stomach bug, helped Mom pick out a new couch, celebrated Mom and Dad’s birthdays, did a bunch of biking, planted ALOT of strawberries and other crops, got to spend the night at my aunts with some cousins, and a work party for the farm/market employees.
-May-
Alot of lovely time spent outside, a beautiful weekend at the cabin with friends, planting and maintaining crops, track-and-field with homeschool group, and many evenings spent playing outdoor games with sibs. Briana’s birthday. Mulched for Grandpa and Grandma, a picnic at the park with Benji and Melody, car troubles, failed my driver’s test, and passed the next week. Baling hay, some great Chosen episodes, and Elisa started walking.
-June-
Finished my junior year of school on the first day of the month, welcomed two new cousins, had an amazing and stretching and hard and incredible week in Cherry Creek South Dakota, helping to teach VBS. Lots of fun driving myself around, started picking strawberries and harvesting sunflowers. A fun hike to the woods with the whole family in a (mostly) futile search for black raspberries. Some fun social events, picnics etc. Jospeh’s birthday.
-July-
Filled with lots of summer vibes! Flowers, strawberries, lettuce and other produce. Lots of warm weather and summer treats. Also Colton’s birthday, and I got to go camping with grandparents and two cousins, and us teens got to go mini golfing with Dad and Mom. We had a bunch of campfires and several times played croquet in the cool evening air. We also took over a new lettuce house, half an hour away, which felt like it doubled my work load.
-August-
Beautiful sunrises (which made getting up early to work totally worth it!), lots of farm work. Had some fun Youth Group activities, a shopping excursion with Briana, and a Sunday afternoon walk with Mom and my little sisters. Also, some more car trouble, Stephen’s graduation party and another litter of puppies! Celebrated Stephen’s 18th birthday and Elisa’s 1st! Sadly, by the end of the month we were throwing out gallons and gallons of strawberries.
-September-
September was a rough month. Rain, bad berries, and just weariness. Highlights were chilly mornings, puppy snuggles, sweatshirts, and the beautiful September sky! The second week of September, Mom hurt her back and a lot of my little siblings got sick around the same time. It was really stressful for me trying to do all the farm work for my Dad, and do my own flowers, and then feeling like my little sisters weren’t doing a good job of keeping house. There were so many things I could be doing. And I was just burning out from days of working in the heat and feeling like we were just throwing everything out. It was basically a month of going from one thing to the next without any free time in between. But it was a good season of relying on God and I learned alot. Kaleb, Deidra and Celeste all had birthdays, I got to help out with a church play, went to the cabin with the Youth Group and mini golfing with friends
-October-
Went to the park and had a pizza party as a family. A lovely, refreshing weekend at the cabin that ended too soon. Strawberry season ended and school season started. I thought maybe things would calm down but still just as crazy as ever trying to balance school and lettuce work. Did flowers off and on throughout the month. Also had fun feeding my cousins’ horse while they were on vacation. It got cold and I also got a cold! Got my senior pics taken, soaked up the fall beauty, enjoyed a final campfire and found out I’ll have a new sibling next year!! The last day of the month was spent with a friend at my cousin’s football game.
-November-
Hightlights were participating in King Daughter’s Writing Camp all month. I started writing a book for school and wrote at least 18 hours. Also turned 17 and had a sleepover with cousins. Packed 100 Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes with Youth Group. And we started renovating a greenhouse into a second lettuce house so we can move all the lettuce to our place and not have to travel to do lettuce. Had a lovely Thanksgiving with lots of great food.
-December-
Had a great time going seeing The Chosen: The Messengers in theater with cousins. A bunch of Christmas shopping and Christmas dinners. Things somewhat calmed down and I find time to write most mornings. The rest of the day is filled with lettuce work and school. Also had a great weekend at the cabin with family for Christmas. And the day after Christmas had a lovely walk to watch the sunrise with cousins. Sadly, we only got about two little snow dustings so far this winter.
And that’s a wrap on 2021!
Overall it was a pretty normal year, with ups and downs, fears and joys, fun and hardship, and a whole lotta God’s faithfulness! He is so good through it all!!
Happy New Year Friends!
-autumn
Bursting Through The Darkness 