12 in 2014 - It's been a slice!

Dwija the Loveliest is kind enough to host a link up of this years best pics, and I'm so happy to have an official way of creating this sappy post because there's little I enjoy more than looking back at pictures of my growing children and becoming a puddle as I see how much they've grown before my very eyes! 2014 has been a wonderful year, and I'm thankful for all of it, even the snow.

January, heck - the whole of last winter, was rough for me guys. Vastly outnumbered by children, two of whom couldn't navigate the easiest of parking lots themselves, so many cold days, so much not leaving the house. I still have some PTSD when I think about it. This winter has been slightly better so far, but January is just tough to get through. I did post a little decorating of Gemma's room though, and some beauteous G.K. quotes that helped keep me.

See. Winter was rough for all of us. We managed to get through though, with sledding, extra trips to the city, and wine. Or at least wine for me. Here on the blog I got fired up about internet talk about the Catholic subculture not being awesome, because it is, and wrote about it. Jen held her annual 7 days of 7 posts and I am pretty happy that I made it and posted everyday for a week. I also wrote a lot about books as usual and specifically about all the Catholic-bashing in modern fiction.

My baby turned one! Grumpy Kitty had a wonderful day, and was my first one-year-old who blew out her own candle, which seems like a real accomplishment if you ask me. We journeyed through lent, I shared my love for Agatha Christie, pointed out ridiculous fashion trends, and waxed poetic about naming homes. It was a good month.

This is a pretty accurate representation of us all. Luke's off trying to capture something, Dom seems perturbed at our asking him to smile, Gemma looks calm in a sea of crazy, Max is trying to escape, Nora is unimpressed, and I'm yelling at someone. And this was us celebrating Easter! I started a series on moms trying to find time to read books in the midst of the chaos of daily life, I recapped some awesome Mad Men episodes, and had some rough mothering days. 

May came and we finally got rid of winter and dandelions took over the growing grass. I just love this shot of my offspring picking dandelions with our home in the background. It's an A-plus for homeschooling kinda shot don't you think? We had birthday parties, campfires, soccer, and tree house building. I didn't write about any of that though, just the importance of life online, made some sangria for a great book, and talked about how just reading books can challenge your mind when you feel like you're losing it at home with a bunch of kids.

The spring and summer are so beautiful here that I completely forget about how awful and hard the winter is and only think how wonderful it is to live miles and miles from civilization. Kids are outside, the greenery is everywhere, flowers bloom, kids are outside; it's all around awesome. I did however, fall down the stairs to our deck outside which left my incapacitated for a couple days but I couldn't help but thank God it wasn't worse because I basically fell down stairs fully on my back. I talked about summertime classic movies, and loved sharing the things I say a million times a day.

July was out of control with busyness. The oldest two kids went to bible camp in the city for a week and stayed with their grandparents, but emotionally damaged their mother. We went on our first family vacation with five kids to the mountains for a couple days. We didn't even let one fall off the side of a mountain! Then we had swimming lessons at the lake and I flew to Texas for a little thing called Edel and had the most fun I've had in years! I also managed to blog, which looking back on now was pretty amazing. I covered a variety from NFP to G.K. Chesterton to what I learned from Edel. 

August went by in a blur. There was lots of barbecuing, swimming, sprinklers, and popsicles. We didn't hit the books because we have to savour every ounce of warm weather we can, but I did start thinking about the new school year. I also started contributing to the wonderful Catholic devotional site, Blessed Is She. There was also some talk about going to Mass with all these little kids, and I talked about chick lit.

September saw my fifth baby, the girl who refused to crawl let alone walk on two legs, become the first of my kids to break a bone. She broke her leg and had to wear a cast for four weeks. I'm still traumatized even thinking about it, but she's completely fine now. We also dove back into the routine of homeschooling, so it was a rough transition for all, but mostly me. I mostly blogged about my cute children because I was trying to get over the routine change hardiness, and why we should just own our own cooking styles and let go of all the worry.

We had a beautiful October weather-wise so we got to spend more time outdoors which was great and even helped my dad with moving cattle around Thanksgiving. The husband and I also got to escape to Seattle for three whole nights by ourselves and it was a blissfully wonderful trip! There was also a bunch of Halloween business, decorating for fall, talking about building a living Church, and a workout that combines fitness and prayer.  

We're back to living with piles of snow in November, and I started having flashbacks to never leaving the house, but thankfully the kids are much more into Lego this year. That's all I have to say about that. I was also up to my eyeballs in trying to figure out the technical aspects of starting a podcast because Haley and I thought it would be a fun thing to start doing! I also laid a smack-down on the whole capsule wardrobe phenomenon. 

December has been a beautiful, frosty month, and although Advent and Christmas is a ton of work when you're a mom of little kids, it's also magical and exciting. The kids were all atwitter with anticipation this year for Santa, Christmas Mass, Christmas cookies and of course, the Christmas tree that it can't help but make your heart grow three sizes bigger with love. 

Thanks for hanging out with me this year, for reading, for commenting, for sharing your encouragement and inspiration with me. It's been a pretty great year, here's to a wonderful 2015!

---

follow along:

facebook ~ instagram ~ pinterest