Another Year to Celebrate!

One of my favorite parts about Facebook is the memories that pop up from previous years. I joined Facebook when Kate was a baby, so seeing old posts pop up with baby and toddler pictures just melts my heart. Those years have passed so quickly...and I still haven’t been able to completely wrap my mind around the fact that four of my children are actual adults!

It always amazes me how fast time goes by! As Gretchen Rubin says, “The days are long but the years are short.”

So.very.true!

The years just slip by so quickly...a blur of seasons, birthdays, homework, summer vacations and holidays.

Speaking of years slipping by, twenty-seven years ago today, Jay and started our married life together.  It seems like such a long time(!), and yet, I have a hard time figuring out where the time actually went. While there were certainly lots of moments that will forever be etched in my mind and heart, (happy memories like the births of my children, special memories like First Communions, graduations, and the first of my children to get married...and also some sad memories like the short life and death of our first daughter, losing most of our grandparents, having a son diagnosed with Autism), so much of those 27 years has gone by in a blur of daily life that is filled with laundry, dishes, and a million seemingly insignificant conversations with the people I love. As time goes by...(and boy does that make me sound old!)....I realize that it’s all these little daily moments that fill me and create a pretty amazing life.

You’d think by now...after 27 years...I’d have this marriage thing figured out. I totally don’t. I still struggle with those moments of selfishness when I don’t want to give of myself, impatience and unkindness when Jay bears the brunt of my bad day unfairly, and moments of pride when I just want to be right.


But each day is a new beginning.

Reaching out Anniversary and looking at starting a new year with new possibilities feels really good. It gives us a reason to talk about goals and ways to live life more intentionally this year; to have things to look forward to as a couple and as the family we find ourselves becoming. We need that! We are in the midst of a season of change. We are down to four kids living home on a regular basis. We’ve added a daughter in law to our family and in 7 months from today will add another. Peter is now a legal adult and navigating this new world and all the paperwork and plans we have to put in place to make sure he is cared for through his whole life is daunting. Ellie will be a senior next year and starting her own journey to independence. While seeing our kids become independent adults is a very good thing, it’s still really hard. It’s not easy to shed our old roles and figure out how to relate to our kids as adults.

All this change makes me SO appreciative for those two bonus babies that God blessed our family with. They aren’t babies anymore but at 7 and 10 they are still young enough to keep us in a parenting stage I’m just not ready to let go of yet. (Although at Luke’s physical his doctor brought up the subject of puberty and I.just.couldn’t. Just no...not yet! Hoping Luke is a late bloomer like his brothers!!)

I got Jay this card for our Anniversary....

...and an Almond Joy candy bar. Almond Joy is Jay’s favorite, and I think it sums up our lives pretty well: “A little nutty with a lot of sweetness and joy.”

My sweet, (with a side of sassy), Kate made us these thoughtful cards: 

"You love mom and it is strong"

"The world is big and so is your love with Dad"

I'm thinking she might have a future creating Hallmark cards;)

27 years with Jay summed up in three pictures:

I’m hoping for many, many more! I wouldn’t want to be on this wild ride called life with anyone else!