As the hours wane for 2018, a tradition of looking through the thousands of photographs I've taken throughout the year commences.
t first begins with just me reliving the past year but inevitably, I begin roping in my clan to join in the memories. With the ease of technology in this age, not only do I have photographs to recollect, both in digital and hardcopy forms, but short videos and memes I’ve designed as well. This morning, we marveled at how our lives changed throughout this past year and how many fun memories we made just enjoying our day to day. Last year’s focus was, in fact, making memories.
For those who wish to just read the highlights:
- Keira is living in an apartment in New Underwood, tackling night classes and management classes while working full time. She is also New Underwood's resident Cat Lady.
- Sydnie moved into her first apartment in Rapid City, graduated high school, and is holding two jobs with one being in the healthcare field, with on the job training for becoming a nurse. She was accepted to SDSU but has chosen to decline the offer until she truly knows where her interests are.
- Summer is an avid Summer....doing her thing, taking high school classes, being a role model “big” sister and designing and creating her costumes for the next comic con.
- Finn began the year crawling and finished the year sprinting and toilet trained. She is an artist, gardener, chef, housekeeper, sports lover and outdoors girl obsessed with her hatred of flies.
- Clayton knows stuff.
- Cris knows lots of useless but interesting factoids.
We began our year traveling for business in a record winter storm. We found ourselves in minus 21 below as a high, just a few mere miles from the Great White North, staying extra days to make an important meeting for his career. We still remember quite fondly just how warm the hotel's wonderful pool was. In South Dakota, the weather was unseasonably warm with open waters and Summer, Finn & I took in more trails of the beautiful Black Hills with our four footers. Our backyard was still welcoming as we practiced our yoga daily outside and Finn explored the grounds crawling around.
February brought the snow to our area, forcing us indoors more often, and thinking about the possibilities that our future held. Dreams abounded! My artwork took on more meaning, more of me poured into each stroke. After years of self teaching, I challenged myself to not mask my visions any longer or get wrapped up on the rules. My Clayton has unlocked any door I had. I found myself painting more often and with purpose....not lost or anxiety ridden as I had always been before. My days of nurturing our wee Finn with breastmilk were quickly coming to an end and I took in every second I could. I kept to my autoimmune lifestyle and my hair has been the longest it has been in over 25 years!
March is monumental in our family...it hosts the date of our marriage plus the start of what we call "the birthday season". Finn celebrated her first birthday in Finn fashion at a local hotel's swimming pool with our family and some of her extended family. Her older siblings were joyous to "swim with the Roo" and the grandparents enjoyed watching our family be a family together. Our kids, ranging in ages from 1 to 20, have lots of varying goals-There's lots going on for us to enjoy!
Our April was filled with birthdays and fun stuff like Finn AND Clayton's first kite flying adventure. We celebrated the arrival of spring with backyarding, hiking and cycling. We enjoyed our Mustang and listening to the birds talk in our yard. Prom was in our midst again and the weather held perfect. We were no longer held hostage indoors, reflecting on things yet to come or not come on the business side of our lives.
My sweet husband adopted a bonsai tree for me for Mother's Day and I began the art of bonsai. Steeped in history, this art quickly is becoming a passion for me. The tree still lives. My birthday was spent in a tree line along a crest of the Black Hills with two of my favorite people. And true to form, the girls and I were lost for a short stint. Our adventure brought us to breathtaking views and laughs. Also, when we got cell service again, I found myself ribbed in texts by beloved cousins about my coupe of the year older persuasion and I quickly let my parents who had been waiting in our driveway to take me to lunch that we were alive and well and 20 minutes out since I knew where we were finally. Such is the fantastic life of an immensely lucky home gal.
Summertime in our house means outdoors as much as possible. We swim, we hike, we bike, we stargaze, we dream, we love, we laugh, we savor. We garden and enjoy what our backyard offers us. It is my art studio, our family gathering place, movies under the stars and as a wildlife watching point as deer live in the backyard next door. We got to see our resident doe calf twins there. Magic happens when you open your eyes and see. I am a nature mom....getting to be home has been simply amazing. We were outside by 8am, backyard outdoor yoga at 9, playing and artwork or basketball or swimming or blowing bubbles, playing the uke and inside by 8 lol. I didn't think I did as much hiking this year - until I looked back at my photographic history.
e might have rivalled our 50+ miles we put on last year! This year, Summer bypassed me in height too and those long legs served her well on the trails with her finishing first for a change.
Our summertime ended with a few car travels - we enjoyed the hospitality of the big city Minneapolis on a business excursion, with Clayton having an important meeting and the girls and I taking in the local transportation to downtown. We took the girls to a fondue restaurant and the Mall of America. We finished our summertime season with a joy ride to New Mexico, staying at their state parks in our tent with our four footers. We loved everything we experienced there from the locals to the vast views and beautiful colors Life is a bit slower there than we are accustomed to in the north. We swam in sinkholes, looked at aliens and apartments.
On that trip, we were called by mom to say dad was rushed to the hospital for his heart failure condition. His emergency visit prompted his doctor to push his heart surgery that seems to be working wonderfully. Mom is semi-retired (if there is such a thing) and they seem to be on the go! She had her share of health problems but with the right crap (I’m being literal) she is her old self again!
Our fall was busy with Sydnie moving into her first apartment and graduating from high school. She is working two jobs, one in the healthcare field working her towards becoming a nurse. Keira is living in an apartment with her boyfriend in New Underwood and taking evening classes, working on management classes for her job and working full time. She also is New Underwood's resident Cat Lady. She is loving being a fur baby mom. Summer began the year in middle school classes and finished the year excelling in high school classes. She is a wizard in algebraic forms and advanced high school geometry. She also is celebrating the fact that she can finally read movie subtitles in the amount of time needed without pausing the show....#dyslexialife.
Winter arrived for us in our last night in the tent - on a camping trip at Angostura with my parents and uncle. We had a glorious bike ride around the reservoir, good food and campfire laughter and awoke to snowflakes as the heater in our tent kept the cold out.
My extra time away from much social media has afforded me more time to work on personal goals. This fall, my newest artwork captured the eye of a curator and I was encouraged to submit artwork to a board of their curators. I was awarded not one, but two, one-year contracts by an INTERNATIONAL art gallery, 1340gallery, that represents "not only artists you know, but artists you should know". This gallery is a tremendous opportunity towards my global art goals. Locally, one of my pieces was used as a business’ IGChristmas greeting. In June, I traded a few paintings for a ukulele and boy did that turn into a massive obsession. I also have achieved a third grade level in Spanish and am still working on it. I'd say the grammer or proper use of grammer has been the biggest difficulty. Finn can take direction in both English and Spanish at this point. I practice using it in real life with others on my Instagram and that has been a huge asset since I have to spell things correctly too.
Clayton and I have learned the art of patience not only with this gaggle of girls but in his career path as well. The government works like molasses in winter sometimes! We plan on supplying details in the near future...however, we thought that last January!
Happy New Year and to all and a prosperous and blessed 2019!
