Oh, It Was A Good Decade

(NOTE: AFTER READING THIS POST YOU WILL KNOW I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT COMPUTERS. SORRY ABOUT THE PICTURES.

Oh, but it was a good decade. It was. It wasn't evil, anymore evil than any other. If the Great Recession hadn't happened would so many people be complaining about the last ten years....regardless of world events. We Americans have a habit of only complaining when something directly effects our immediate happiness.

And so, here's is to this last decade! It just happened to be my best one yet. Sure, it wasn't easy. No way. It was hard. It was stretching. I grew into my role as adult, and being an adult means that I have to fix my own messes and stop passing the blame. I ate the fruit; Eve did not make me.

I am fully admitting that this blog is a blatant copy of a good friend. So here is her link and you must read hers since she did it first. (I let her know I was doing this.) Her blog is called The Short Years.

We bought our first home! This home represents our firsts: first remodel job, first flooded basement, first neighbors, first mortgage/debt, first vandalism, first "city" living, first nursery(baby), first garden(plants), first backyard bbq's.......first stress and first place of rest and peace. My memories abound. When we decided to buy it I could see a little boy, naked, running on its oak floors after a bath. It was here, in the kitchen, that I starting my tutoring business. It was here that I learned to cook. It was here that I planned school lessons, graded papers, wrote my first novel(ha!), and dreamed of vacations and other things to come. It was in our home that my husband and I grew from our discord and our harmony. I wouldn't change and thing.

In this last decade I went to Georgia, twice. Georgia is a piece of my husband. It is where his mother grew up. It is the place of Grandma Daisy and all that means.

This decade also represents careers and jobs and choices. I saw my dream of being a teacher come true. I loved all my classes, all my students. I learned and grew from all my successes and failures as a teacher. My first class is now in their 20's. I was a very young teacher, 21-years-old. My husband went from youth ministry, to going back to school to get his Masters in Teaching. Oh, those were the lean years....so we thought at the time. We were working toward a goal, and we achieved it.

These pictures are of one of my classes and a group shot of Tween Camp, which we directed for four years. I loved my years in youthwork. We had a lot of fun building relationships with other youthworkers and the kids. This was also the decade of Quakers. I evaluated my beliefs and felt affirmed in my relationship with Christ. I received healing from a bad church split that happened in my teen years.

This last decade was a lot about us, my husband and I. We waited 6 years before we had our oldest, and we lived those six years up. We loved finding fun new places to eat in Portland, listening to music, going to the beach on a whim, trying new things, and traveling. We went somewhere every spring break and every summer. I do miss traveling like we used to, but I am enjoying the shift from 20's travel to family travel. Here are some pics of some of our adventures.








But, the best part of the decade started in 2005. We went from two to three to four to five.



We moved from all we knew and took a step of faith, based on our listening and trusting God. We moved back to the farm. It is good. So much good has come in these last two years: good job for my husband, unique relationship with my parents who live 100 feet to our east, being part of an authentic church community who is enthusiastic about God's truth, friends....the list goes on.

Even the passing my my grandfather was a blessing in this past decade.

I give thanks to God, and I anticipate what the next will bring. After all, by the end of the next one I will be the mother to three teenage boys.