2022 Year in Review

Listen, I know that the blogging boat for writing a Year in Review post has long since sailed (it is the 3rd week of January, after all), but for my own sake I wanted to be able to look back on a little recap post of the year 2022. It was QUITE the year! At the beginning of 2022, we were living in one of our rental properties in a different town, we had three kids, and we were attending the same church that we had attended for 11 years. And we had no plans to change any of that over the course of the next year. By the end of 2022, we are living on five acres of land, have a significant amount of animals, are pregnant with our fourth child, and left our church (we are almost finished with the membership process at a new church). It was a BIG year with a lot of changes!! Here are some of the highs (and lows)

January

• Ezra gave up his paci!
• We redid our front room and made it into a gorgeous homeschool desk/play room
• Enjoyed lots of snowy weather!
• We were sick a lot

February

• We were sick A LOT this month
• We went snow tubing with Dan and Corinne
• Tera hosted a Valentine tea party
• We went to the Hines family reunion and found out we had a new nephew!

March

• I drove to Cleveland for a baby shower
• We continued to struggle majorly with illness and pulled Ezra out of preschool
• Theo and Tera went to the Daddy/Daughter dance
• I went on a ladies weekend with some of my dear friends
• We completed this “egg hunt” at our local park that we thought would be really simple but it took us WEEKS. We were obsessed with finding all of them
• Theo turned 31!
• The kids and I went to the ark encounter for the first time!
• We had spring break from school, but it was MISERABLY cold and Theo still had to work the whole time

April

• We hit 100 hours outside of our goal of 1000!
• Theo and I left the kids with my parents and went to a marriage conference in Indianapolis. The day we left, we asked our realtor on a whim if we could look at a property really quick. He showed us around. While we were at the conference out of town, we put an offer on that property!!! That weekend, we also decided that we were leaving our church. It was a big weekend full of very big decisions and I’m so glad we were away at that marriage conference while we were thinking through all of those big things.
• For Easter weekend, we got to see a bunch of the Hines family AND we got to hang out with a bunch of Niger MKs who were getting together. My Mom hosted Easter lunch, but it was at my house haha.

May

• We packed up our entire house in preparation to move!
• Ezra tested negative for Cystic Fibrosis. Hallelujah!
• We closed on our new 5 acre property!
• We participated in the Miami Valley Women’s Center (now called Hope Rising) Walk for Life
• The same day, we loaded our moving truck up and moved out of our house, spent the night at my parents house and moved into our new house the next day!
• Kiah lost his first tooth
• We wrapped up the school year
• I turned 31
• We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary!
• We left our church after a slow process that rapidly sped up when crap suddenly began hitting the fan and lots of drama/trauma unfolded (on my birthday, no less)
• We hosted our first guests and invited all of 1st grade, 2nd grade and pre-k (plus lots of siblings and parents) to our house for a bonfire. It was AMAZING
• We caved and bought our first homestead animals- CHICKS

June

• Let’s be real, I needed at least a week to recuperate from May
• We unpacked our house and started to get settled
• I learned how to drive a zero turn lawnmower
• We spent hours and hours and hours each day outside
• The kids and I went to a Dayton Dragons game
• I went on a CHESS Ladies retreat
• We went to Cleveland to visit Josh and Jamie and also the Cleveland zoo
• Theo and I went to Florida for a week on a kid-free trip to celebrate our big 10th anniversary. The kids spent half the week with my parents and the other half with Theo’s parents
• On our way to pick up the kids, we got to visit Isaiah and Sarah at their house
• We started attending a new church and loved being in a healthy church environment

July

• We settled back into our homestead routine and taking care of the animals
• We celebrated the 4th of July (Theo worked)
• We got three pigs
• We found out we were PREGNANT with baby #4. I had about four good days before I got sick, sick, sick, sick
• We had Isaiah and Sarah visit for a few days
• We went to the Hines family reunion in Michigan

August

• I was very sick
• We got together with the DeValve side of the family for the first time in 4 years!!
• We announced our pregnancy publicly
• We went to a hot air balloon festival
• I barfed a lot
• We started back to school! 3rd grade, Kindergarten, preschool and teaching 1st grade!
• Tera turned 8 and got a bunny for her birthday
• Did I mention that I was very sick?

September

• My sunflowers bloomed!
• We celebrated Corinne’s bridal shower
• We got a puppy
• We celebrated our school homecoming, and Tera got to hand out the flowers to the homecoming nominees
• Tera and I went to a True Girl event
• We found four abandoned kittens in our barn and started to bottle feed them
• Tera got her ears pierced

October

• Kiah turned 6!
• Dan and Corinne got married and it was the most beautiful wedding weekend EVER
• I smashed my toe by dropping my laptop on it
• We got our FIRST CHICKEN EGG!!
• Fall in Ohio was STUNNING
• We hosted Barnabas and Eryn and family and had Ethan and Kindrea and family hang out at our place for most of a weekend. We have 14 kids (plus two pregnancies) between our three families so it was a FUN weekend.
• We found out that baby is a BOY
• We did Trunk or Treat

November

• I made a trip to Charlotte to visit my dear friend Joy and her family
• We soaked up the warm weather while it lasted and also got our first snowfall!
• Ezra turned 4!
• We participated in a holiday parade representing our school
• We decorated for Christmas
• We celebrated Thanksmas with my side of the family

December

• I went to my staff Christmas party
• We tried to get into the Christmas spirit, but this year it was a total dud, to be honest
• Theo crashed and totaled his car (thankfully he walked away without a scratch, and it was NOT his fault)
• Someone GAVE us a new car (well, the model is a 1998, but it’s new to us!!)
• We did puzzles and cuddled with cats
• I was sick for all 14 days of Christmas break
• We had a quiet Christmas morning at home with my parents before Theo went to work
• Our pig gave birth and then rejected her piglets so we started to bottle feed five piglets. Two passed away and we brought in the new year with three bottle fed piglets 🙂
• I hit 30 weeks of pregnancy with only 10 weeks to go!

Phew, I need a nap after recording all that!!! I don’t know if life will ever slow down for us, but I am also so thankful to look back at year’s like this and remember the goodness and sustenance of God through it all.