12 in 2014

And to rejoin the internet world after two full weeks of traveling and family parties, I am joining a linkup at House Unseen, Life Unscripted hosted by Dwija to review 2014. And looking back I realized that it has been a tragical, but hopeful year. (We are listening to Anne of Green Gables on our road trip, and tragical has entered my vocabulary.)

JANUARY

January began with a nice visit in St. Louis, and we returned to St. Louis a week later when my Dad had an aortic dissection and emergency, lifesaving surgery. Besides that it was way too cold for anything.

 
FEBRUARY

February was surviving the winter through pancakes, sunshine coming in our windows, reading books, and staying inside. Nothing too exciting happened. We probably did some preschool, and got ready for Lent.

 
MARCH

In March we continued to monitor the snowmen on the blog. The ones that lasted from December to April. We had a thaw that brought a bit of water into our basement, which we quickly solved. M and G had their back to back birthdays. We went to St. Louis again to see Dad since he could not come to see us. And I discovered that I was pregnant with JP, and had ridiculous fears about having more children. I also shocked some Traditionalists by claiming things about the new Mass.

APRIL

 April brought another sad event for our family, and that was the loss of our unborn baby. It was a very hard event for all of us, but we had the hope of Easter week to carry us through, and my trip to the ER ended well for my health. We also got more of our garden prepped for planting.

 
MAY

May brought resolution as I spent a lot of it resting and recovering from postpartum hemorrhaging on the couch and we buried JP. Spring finally came! The girls and I stalked the baby bunny that lived in our yard from the kitchen window. Our well fenced garden began to sprout, and I got better enough to bake lots of cookies for M's students.

 
JUNE

In June, a creeping postpartum depression hit me again, but we nipped it in the bud with some progesterone supplements. M and I had a fun anniversary date with delicious food. The garden had its first harvests. And we had an amazing peanut butter chocolate pie for my birthday. We also began our summer canning with strawberry picking and jam.

 
JULY

 

 In July, I took a small vacation break from normal blogging and hosted a beautiful novena for marriage to Bl. Louis and Zelie Martin. We took a road trip to visit family in Georgia, Ohio, and Michigan and came home in time to can Georgia peaches. I also broke my little toe on the right, which was annoying. 

 

AUGUST

August brought more visiting with family, as my sister and her family came to play and then we went to St. Louis again, because I needed my fix of Ted Drewes Frozen custard. We continued to harvest the garden, and had some good times with friends. M decided to repaint the exterior of the house, and boy did it need it!


 
SEPTEMBER

In September we relished the food. We grilled several times a week. We canned tomatoes, jam, and apple sauce. We tried new recipes. We really lived up the best month weather-wise in Minnesota. We also started school for an hour every day. We kept up with our kindergarten for a whole semester.

 
OCTOBER

 October consisted of more canning and waiting for the 7 week ultrasound of our growing tiny baby. We shared our joyful news of a new baby on the way. School went well, but my appetite got more picky. M traveled to two conferences, and we had several out of town family visitors.


 
NOVEMBER

November flew by with two birthdays and Thanksgiving. It suddenly got cold, and the snow came. The kids loved the snow for about two weeks. I gave up on all things too mind consuming and decided to reread all of Jane Austen. By Thanksgiving, I was getting over most of my nausea.

 
DECEMBER

December I wrote like crazy for about a week, and then the full brunt of Advent preparing hit me. I did a lot of making gifts (dying scarves, sewing scarves). We sent out Christmas cards. M finished his semester, and did lots of grading. I was tired all the time. And we went to see family for Christmas.

And I leave you with this, Merry Christmas!

(This was the best shot I got)