Tuesday, January 01, 2008

2007 to 2008

Happy New Year! (And happy engagement anniversary to us) I LOVE this holiday! We had a fantastic time celebrating last night at a neighbors' party and then had a birthday/New Year's brunch this morning. Entertaining certainly is different with children. I think we may start this tradition of an 11:00 am party, complete with pajamas, champagne, and football.

On our drive back from Michigan the other day, we reminisced about the past year. Here are a few recaps of things we've learned:

1) Life is much better and also much more challenging with two children. Mali was born to be a big sister.

2) As Mali came into her own (and Brinn will soon do the same), we came up with our own philosophies about disciplining our children. Setting boundaries, teaching skills, enforcing consequences, infusing humor and hopefully grace...what a responsibility.

3) Jonathan dubbed 2007 as "the year of craigslist". It is amazing how useful and addictive that site is. We can't imagine our life without our minivan now. Or having the clutter around that I managed to get rid of thanks to craigslist.

4) Speaking of clutter, we also learned how to simplify our schedule and household more this year too. Weekly routines were essential during the hectic times of 2007. We definitely recommend the tips we learned from flylady.net, even if the website itself is over-the-top cheesy at times.

5) Did we mention that having two kids keeps us on our toes? While attempting to slow down during the season of Advent, we made more decisions regarding life simplification. (More on that in another post).

6) Finally, and most importantly--pregnancy tests can be wrong! On New Year's Eve 2006, we were disappointed with a negative test. However, weeks later, my growing belly alone was proof that Brinnly Ruth Ward was on the way. I knew those cravings meant something!

What did you learn over the past year? Advice welcome!




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

what have i learned That God keeps me on my toes!!
can't tell you how much i miss you all already! we weren't ready for you to leave thats for sure. kiss those sweet babies for Auntie Julie. An don't forget if Mali pops you on the head its Aunt julie's fault! " pop, oh nooooooo".
love you glad you made it all home safe.
love,
julie

the larsons said...

HOLDING HANDS! That is the cutest thing ever. You guys look just great, so happy and rested. Is that possible?

What have we learned this year? Probably the biggest is even on the difficult, long, trying days of parenting two little girls, to step back and appreciate the seemingly everyday moments, b/c it's gonna be over before we know it! Stella's already 3 1/2 - I think when you and I reconnected she was just a baby. Time flies!

Happy New Year!Come to Asheville!