Goodbye 2009

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Ours went very well, better than I thought it would. It was so nice to watch babies and my hubby open the gifts, Ms. Action was old enough to be excited this year, and Ms. Drama takes her cues from her sister, so we had two ecstatic little children on Christmas morning. And I got the ultimate gift from my hubby, a hard drive to store all of our pictures on! Yay! Now I can store everything off of our ancient computer and it will be safe from the impending computer crash that I can just sense is going to happen.

This is a very busy time of year for Ministry families. We are unable to be with our families, but we are busy just the same. My hubby has had 10 church services to prepare and give in the space of 15 days. Add to that the fact that our immigration paperwork expired on the 26th and our paperwork renewal has been delayed for reasons unknown and because we have no current paperwork we are unable to renew our Auto registration or drivers license, and you have a recipe for craziness.
So this upcoming month we will be experiencing life before automobiles, at least until our paperwork comes through. We were able to stock up on groceries before the expiration, so we should have enough to last us through.

So anyways, Jen at Conversion Diary had a post about what she learned in 2009 and asked what we have learned. I think I’ll include my thoughts here.

I’ve learned that it is incredibly hard sometimes to live far away from family.

I’ve learned that Debt takes a long time and alot of work to pay down.

I’ve learned that exercise is essential to many aspects of health and isn’t something to avoid simply because you hate it.

I’m not sure its possible to describe all that I’ve learned about God and the Church. (Like I said, I should have started this blog a long time ago.) But suffice it to say, the Catholic Church isn’t nearly as scary as I thought it was, God meets us wherever we are at, and God always comes through.

I’ve learned that it is possible to run a house and care for 3 children and a husband. And that my little family rocks.

I’ve learned that discipline is not the same as punishment.

I’ve learned that curly hair does not tolerate sulfates or silicons well.

I’ve read about love languages and realized that my hubby really wants to hear from my lips how much he means to me.

I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter if “so and so” keeps her dishes done, her laundry caught up AND keeps her hair perfect, I can be OK with the fact that I will NOT get everything done today.

I’ve learned what a budget is and how to make it work.

Now, so you know, I have not NEARLY mastered all of these things. But those are the learning curves thrown my way over this last year. I feel like its been an intense year. I am happy to end this year with my God, my hubby and my little girls.

Because of my short time as part of the blog world, I may need to expand and clarify on some of the things I’ve learned in 2009, but I guess that’s what next year is for. 🙂