HAPPY, JOYOUS 2016

To you, our beloved family and friends!

I'm sitting looking out over a snowy landscape, delighting in the nuthatches that have made an appearance at our new bird feeder, and taking stock of our lives this past year. I'm just soaking in the good memories and letting the bad memories slide down my cheeks and away. This life, this messy, beautiful life... So here's the good:

 After four, agonizingly long years, The Wood Artist was able to trade in his slick truck job  (hauling pipe in the Bakken oilfields of North Dakota) for a carpenter's belt here at home. What a blessing that, last August, he was able to get a job back at home in the construction field.  We are soaking up family time and giving thanks for every moment. He keeps busy helping me parent two lively teenagers, and getting caught up on long-overdue projects.

My year has been full of personal stretching.  Some days are best described as, "There appears to have been a struggle." But, truly, God has been so good to me! I still run my reading therapy studio and love my students.  This year I added an experimental group class in writing and literature. I'm testing the waters to see how I might expand my business as I have more time.  Another area that has been a dream fulfilled is that I started teaching at the hybrid school that our kids attend. It is a one-day school where you can sign up for various classes according to your need/interest.  The kids are accountable to the teacher, but are able to work at home within their own needs/learning styles. I get to teach humanities (a mix of history and literature) to twenty-nine 3rd and 4th graders.  I'm being stretched as I've never taught the Socratic literature circle before, but am continually inspired by the fires of curiosity that are lit in my classroom.  What an extraordinary group of kids!

My other activities are home schooling our kids and trying to squeeze in the healthy things like snow shoeing, walking, and personal education.  I'm pretty sure my posterior is welded to the seat of the car as I facilitate the myriad of activities our kids find to participate in.

 Laughing Water is 16 now. Wow! She was so little when I started this blog! She's a junior. We home school her, but really, with attending the hybrid school and taking a math class online, we really don't spend any time teaching her.  She lives in a world of books and friends, tea and conversation.  It is fun to listen as she talks about what she wants to do with her future.  Her faith is important to her and she spends much time deeply pondering it.

She has taken up writing in earnest and has her first article-for-pay being published by "Insight" magazine this month. She is involved in a journalism class and writes for our valley's home school newsletter.  This photo of her was taken on the Gulf of Mexico while she was enroute to Brazil for a mission trip.  She sailed on a mission boat up the Rio Negra and helped with health clinics and children's ministries.  Most of the trip was a wonderful experience. However, she came down with Montezuma's revenge and spent Thanksgiving Day on IVs.  She bounced back quickly, though, and returned with a plethora of wonderful stories.

She took driver's ed last summer and will soon be able to help me with all that driving.

Mr. Blueberry Eyes is 13 and in the seventh grade. He is one of the hardest working kids I've ever known. He is definitely happiest in a pair of downhill skis or on the back of a horse.  It was a year of stretching for him, too, as he spent a month working on my aunt and uncle's ranch in North Dakota.  He had just had to say goodbye to his own horse, so it was comforting to be around other horses.  He did lots of chores and helped with tack and equipment and even pulled a few weeds.  He is pretty sure he was born to be a rancher.

This boy has grown 2 inches since August, and that would explain his enormous capacity for sleep and food!  It is such a joy to watch his sense of humor grow and his curiosity about the world around him take on new levels.

Probably our best memory of 2015 was our vacation in June.  For a week, we participated in the Fort Seward wagon train re-enactment based out of Jamestown, ND. We were assigned a covered wagon with an experienced teamster and traveled 70 miles by riding in that wagon, walking, or riding horseback, all the while dressed in the clothing in keeping with the period. We ate at the chuckwagon and sang around the campfire, and soaked in the experiences that shaped our country. We had the time of our lives and by the end of the week had 150 new friends that felt like family.  I'll post more about it soon.

We send our love to you all in this new year!

-Nanette