The Year 2022

January

The year started with planting the first of our lettuce babies in or newest greenhouse! We spent weeks and months waiting for this day! 👏 January is also probably our coldest month of the year and we were grateful for some nice snows and of course so GORGEOUS sunsets! And the hope of the fact that the days are now getting longer! 😉 Got to help out at the Farm Show with my dad, brother, uncle and cousins! Helped serve blooming onions and watched the junior and high school rodeo! 😱🤠 Spent several days sick and enjoyed a little tea party with my little sister when we stayed home sick together 🤗. Always thankful for the warm, bright greenhouse during the long, bleak days of winter!

February

Dad took me to the Fruit and Vegetable Convention, and I sat in on several cut flower sessions. Also went to Chick-fil-A for lunch 😋 and got to ride shotgun in one of those cool tall vans cause Dad chauffeured a bunch of guys from his work. Had a belated Christmas party with some of our really good friends and enjoyed several violent nerf battles in the barn 😎 Made a short video clip which involved me dressing up as a secretary from the roaring 20’s and clacking away on a typewriter 😄 We didn’t get much snow this month, but we had several days of clear skies and showcased the beautiful barren brown of the winter landscape! Me and my siblings undertook the big project of painting our kitchen and living room! It was no small task, but teamwork got it done! We found out that our baby sibling was a boy (which shocked us all!) and that he had a rare syndrome called Trisomy 18 that made him incompatible with life. 😢 Cried many tears not knowing what the next months would hold.

March

Enjoyed participating in an online writing camp (three cheers for KDWC!), and making an effort to continue/revamp my falling apart novel 🤦‍♀️Swapped rooms with my parents, went on my final choir tour and had a blast – best one ever!! – finished up choir programs, hung out at the mall and coffee shop with several friends, enjoyed a little bit of snow. My sister, mom and I signed up to participate in Spring100 – a challenge to walk 100 miles during the Spring season- and so on the first day of spring, and throughout the rest of March, took walks almost daily. A cake decorating class, planting flowers seeds, my brother’s volleyball games, a birthday/graduation party for a friend, recording a podcast, and a night out with my brothers and the parents! 🤗

April

Finally, some bright, sunny days!! To start off the month, I got the privilege of going to my Great-Grandma’s and learning how to make her mother’s famous caramel candy! I have since made it several more times, and by no means perfected it, but I hope to continue to make it and maybe reach near perfection 😉 A youth group did a Ham-and-Cheese Sandwich fundraiser, and we raised a nice amount of money towards next year’s mission trip. Continued to go on walks with my sister, Mom joined in where she could, and often other little siblings tagged along. Our dog had puppies! (names – Coco, Canyon, Clifford, CJ, Chase and Charlotte) Took a mother-daughter-grandmother trip to the beach the second week of April. The water and weather was definitely not warm enough for swimming, but we enjoyed the sand, the sunshine and getting our feet wet! A highlight for me was taking two of my sisters to the beach early one morning, watching the sunset and spotting dolphins in the distance! Spent Easter with family, planted strawberries, took two of my little brothers to Chick-fil-A for their birthday milkshakes, and enjoyed a campfire at a friend’s house one evening. Also another mother-daughter-grandmother event – this time a brunch at church. 💕

May

Enjoyed the spring weather with many walks and evenings spent outside. Finished up the last of my schoolwork which means I am done foreverrrrr! Took a weekend vacation to the cabin with the family and my uncle, aunt, and their sweet little daughter. Campfires, games, books, ice cream, hikes and many memories. Back home, the farm was lively with new plants, budding flowers and happy puppies. Struggled with some blocks in one of the lettuce houses that meant the plants weren’t getting the nutrients they needed; therefore, they weren’t growing. That put us behind a couple of weeks but thank the Lord we discovered the problem when we did! We did a trial run for cooking BBQ chicken for my grandpa’s market, Dad finished building our new kitchen table and installed it, and we had our annual Mary Poppins and banana splits night at my uncle and aunts with all the cousins. Saturday evening, May 28th, my little brother, Isaac Lamar, was birthed into the arms of Jesus. He is alive and healthy in the Father’s sweet embrace. I love you sweet brother and I can’t wait to meet you in Heaven! 😭💕

June

We held Isaac’s funeral on June 2nd, and it was a very sweet memorial to such a precious life. I am so blessed and thankful for the friends who supported us through this hardship, but especially on the day of his birth, at his funeral and just that week in particular. 💕 Life on the farm continued, both planting and harvesting. The fields turned green – both with plants and weeds! Every Saturday we spent the morning/afternoon at the market, grilling and selling BBQ chicken. We sold our puppies and bought another female, a sweet gentle puppy we named Lexi. I enjoyed a special weekend camping with four of my cousins and my Paw Paw and Mimi. Briana and I completed 100 miles of walking, we harvested the first of the strawberries, and my first bunch of flowers. I officially graduated high school and got my diploma! Spent some busy days on the farm, and on the last day of the month my brother and I got together with a cousin and a friend for our first meeting for our upcoming Christmas short film! (Which you can read more about in this post, and now watch here on YouTube!)

July

Of course, we’re busy with farm work – July is usually a fun month – we’re fresh and ready to get back into the summer grind. This year it was definitely harder – I think just with the loss of Isaac, things were rough. Grief touches so many aspects of our lives and emotions, and sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint why we feel the way we do, but I think often, especially after a big loss, rough days can be pointed back to that. In the midst of the busyness of the farm, I had some fun days of spending time with friends, getting ice cream, baking cookies, and hanging out and chatting. Briana and I had a joint party for her twelfth birthday and my graduation and that was a really special evening. So many beautiful sunrises and sunsets that served as reminders of God’s goodness in the midst of trials.

August

August on the other hand, is an especially hard month. The heat, the humidity tire you out so fast, and it’s the time of year we start to get behind on things like weeds and bug control – which means it’s harder to find good quality produce and it just means more time spent in the fields. But we find things to laugh over during the long days and we make fun 😁 I was so thankful for a sweet friend who dropped by with a coffee for me when I was out working in the fields in the evening, our dogs who sometimes kept me company in while picking flowers, and my sweet little sisters who always had smiles and hugs for me. One blessing of the month was getting the opportunity to give a bouquet of flowers away once a week. Had fun getting creative and giving flowers to a neighbor and our mailman.

September

The mornings final started cooling down! Enjoyed a night spent a church campout, the special visit of a camp friend all the way from Estonia, a doggie roast at my grandparents’, a fall party with the ladies from church, some better strawberry-picking days, campfires, going to the cabin with Youth Group, and enjoying time with family. 💕

October

Then comes the hard of simply persevering to the end, as we wait for a killing frost. Lots of lettuce work, a birthday party for my grandpa, bundling up warm to head out to fields in the mornings, a lot of planning for the upcoming film, a peaceful, refreshing weekend at the cabin, enjoying the last of the flowers, babysitting siblings when my parents when on an anniversary trip, and the wild and awesome experience of filming a movie.

November

A crazy month filled with filming, many late nights, little sleep, answered prayers, lots of family time, cousin time, the last of the strawberries, Thanksgiving gatherings, time with my mom, shopping with my Mimi and cousins, evenings of watching soccer with the fam, special teen time with our parents, beautiful fall colors, cozy sweaters, and hot coffee. Finally got back into writing, wrote two short stories and a poem. Spent a lot of time journaling, pondering my life, my work, my relationships, etc. The peace of God has been especially comforting during this season of my growing up years.

December

I wanted this to be a month of spending time with family, rest, and relationships. While it was pretty busy, I did have many moments of just enjoying my family and having fun. Some shopping trips, coffee with a friend, making caramel, family gatherings, cousin time, a watch party with all the cast and crew from REASON – where we got to see the short film all finished and complete! A weekend at the cabin with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, a new desk for my room, walks in the snow with cousins, watching soccer, baking cookies, reading books, drinking lots of tea, puppies (names – Dexter, Daisy, Dixie, Dottie, Dani and Daphne), watching Christmas movies, studying the Christmas story in my personal devotions, and precious times of learning to trust God and rest in Him.

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I know many things this year were not what I expected when the clock struck midnight last year. And it was a really hard year for me in a lot of ways. A lot of processing, a lot of asking questions – in a good way – a lot of growing and learning and drawing closer to God.

My word for the year was purpose. I chuckle a bit now, because it feels like the whole year, I’ve been wondering what my purpose is. What does God desire for me to do with my life? Here’s what I wrote beginning of this year: “So this is my purpose (noun): To always purpose (verb) in my heart to follow God’s call.”

So often I lose focus! That’s why it’s so important to remember and reflect. It’s really good for me to look back over my year and see what I accomplished, not just physically, but spiritually too. While I see a lot of room for growth, I can look back and see that growth has happened and is happening. I can know that because Christ lives in me, I will always be growing and improving and that’s an encouragement and a comfort to me!

I can see ways God called this year and I followed. And I’m excited to see where He leads because of that. Scared too, of course, but I know God is with me, and His plan is good, so that means the scary is good. Looking forward to seeing how He leads and guides in 2023 💕

Cheers to a New Year!

-autumn