Looking back over 2025 2026-01-04

Hello Freinds and Family,

Well, hello again there. Looking back over 2025 one of the things I realized was how much I valued the blog posts that I had made. You might not go back and look at them but I really love looking back over them. In many ways they are a digital scrapbook for us as a Family and me as a mom. With 6 kids I can feel like I just dont have the time to write and post but you know what I could not tell you what I spent the time on when I did not write them so… I will pick to write for it is one of the few things that is lasting. A year from now I will have this post to look at. Granted the house is not perfect and sure there are things that I could be doing but in the end what do we really have to do? What is a have to do and what is a want to do? To much theses days I see moms that are just exhausted, run ragged, and dont have time to breath. All for what? We don’t have to make our own food, own cloths and house work is a lot simpler then is it use to be. Most of us have running water and maybe even a robotic maid for even better yet a live human maid. So lets face it most of that is running us ragged is the wants not the needs.

Jordan took a week off at Christmas which was so nice. I realized just how much I was stressed out. And I could just not go back to how things were. So I desided that going forward that I would just focus on 3 things a day that had to be done. #1 workout 30 minutes a day or more and #2 teach Merideth to read and make sure that Eomaer reads out loud for 1 hour each day. These are the things that I would be really consistent about come hell or high water and the rest of life was just plain optional. As a side note no the house did not get neglected we all have our jobs and things are still getting cleaned and people fed.

Simplifying life has given me more time to do things that nourish me as a person. I started reading again and let my self sleep more (when I can get it). I feel more like myself and my husband sees the difference and loves it :-}} As I get older (just a few more days and I will be 41) I realize more and more that it’s what I become and my relationship with others that will bring me lasting joy.

The pictures cover some of November and all of December. There are lots of cute pictures of Liliwen. A freind assked to see how our house was arraged right now so there are some pictures of just the yurt. Maybe next week all get some of the little yurt. A Costco trip, with our little green trailer (it was a Christmas present from my Dad. It turns a Suberban into a working truck and is much loved). Arywen and the little girls all doing yoga in the morning. The kids making a Ginger bread house from Costco. That was Jordans idea and it was a good one the kids really got into it. One night Liliwen was just being rough so Jordan took her and pretended to fixed their toy slide together. She just loved it :-}} This year we got a Christmas tree that was 14 ft tall and we put it in the center of the yurt. It was quite the tree. Liliwen loves Chocolate… as you can see by her digging into a chocalte bar all by herself. She really is a Chocolate fiend… We had a big wind storm that blew over a lot of trees on our land. Merideth and I had a fun walk documenting some of the changes made.

Hope to see you next week,
Love Heather