With a hot cup of tea to the side, some dark chocolate covered graham cracker stars to munch on, and some beautiful, instrumental Christmas jazz music playing in the background, I’ll write a bit about this past year.
For starters, it was a year of beaches. And did we have a blast exploring some new places! In May we drove down for a week in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We stayed in Corolla, but enjoyed many other places on the Outer Banks as well. (Duck, Currituck, Kitty Hawk, and others.) What an amazing area of the United States! And the seafood there is second to none! We loved it so much and hope to return as often as possible! We also enjoyed time in Ocean City, New Jersey as well as in Sea Isle City, New Jersey. (I especially enjoyed Ocean City!)
Aside from the beaches, we were able to visit with family down in the Asheville area of North Carolina. We always enjoy our sweet time there visiting with them. The Blue Ridge Mountains are breathtaking. Asheville is super fun to walk. And the food is delicious! (North Carolina just has some incredible food! Lol!)
There were some big milestones and events this past year as well! Our 12-year-olds Bud and Sierra became teenagers! So now instead of the house abuzz with children and teenagers, it is absolutely nonstop with them all being teenagers and young adults now! And now we have six kids under our roof! As I have written a little about before, after corresponding and talking on the phone with him for three years, and then him coming for a one month visit, Richard moved in, in May. Truly it is like he’s been part of the family forever. We love him dearly and he is such a blessing to be around! We can’t imagine family life without him now. We thank the Lord for the pretty amazing ways that He worked in order to bring Richard to where he is today. Maybe we needed us. But just maybe we needed him too! 🙂
There were three graduations in June! My nephew, Johnathan, graduated from high school as did my niece Mylee. But they were not the only ones! Hailey also graduated from high school! There were fun graduation parties aplenty. And it was a pleasure to not only celebrate the graduates, but to enjoy visiting with so many dear relatives in the process. Another great time of visiting relatives was at my cousin’s wedding! What a very beautiful, inspiring, and encouraging ceremony! (And the most beautiful outdoor reception that I have ever been to in my life! The venue…oh…be still my beating heart!) But relatives flew in from Idaho, Montana, Hawaii, and many other places to be there for it. And it was a blessing to be able to hug them and talk with them again!
Steve continues to enjoy his position as one of the directors at PDQ. He is a great leader and has such an amazing environment to work in, as well as coworkers who are wonderful and are really more like family. Steve came down with Covid around October/November, but thankfully he recovered nicely and none of the other seven of us got sick from it! I am still homeschooling, among the other hats that I wear. It is a bit sad being down to three students now. But we are having a great year! My days are full. And I am super happy, content, and satisfied. 😊 In my free time I like to read, write, dabble in digital art, get out into nature, go through Survivor and Amazing Race with Steve, play games and watch movies with the fam, and enjoy all things Jane Austin and BBC with Anjali! (Our latest favorite being Sherlock!) Tyler continues to do excel at PDQ as well. And he has been bumped up to now having his own cubicle and doing computer work in addition to everything else that he does out on the floor. At home his room (or should I say the loft which we turned into his room) is kid central and a hub for their gathering pleasure. Lol. They love to visit, watch movies, and play games together up there. It does my heart good. Richard is now working at PDQ, full-time, as well! 😀 He is an amazing chef, a sweet, smiling soul, and does so much to help out around the house. His desire is to start studying at Lancaster Bible College in the fall. Hailey continues to work on her art. (She is really good!) She plans to be working within the next month or two, save for a while, and then to possible begin art school. She had a big scare this past autumn when what we thought was going to be a quick trip to the doctor turned into a trip to the ER and then a week in the hospital! She was diagnosed with having colitis and is now back to normal. Steve’s bout with Covid came on the tail end of Hailey’s time in the hospital. I then ended up with a non-Covid virus after Steve recovered. All in all it was a pretty crazy month and a half for our family until all said and done. Anjali is doing well. Physically her scoliosis has worsened, by quite a bit, and there is now talk of possible spinal fusion surgery. We will know more in January. She is seen regularly(for a number of years now) at Nemours DuPont Hospital For Children in Delaware. It’s a fantastic hospital. And her doctor is the chief of orthopedic surgeons there at the hospital. He’s wonderful. We know that she is in good hands. And God’s got her back, figuratively and literally, more than anyone. No matter what the outcome may be. And we trust Him. Other than that she loves school. She loves to read. She is learning both Korean and Spanish. She’s taking a college level anatomy and physiology course. She is Miss Academia. (And makes darn good cupcakes and crepes to the side!) 😉 Bud is no longer a little boy. He is taller than me. And he is now taller than Anjali! He does well with math, enjoys building with Legos, he has taught himself computer programming, creates the most incredible worlds through the computer, and has become an amazing pianist in his own right! (Both in composing as well as in performance.) (I love to hear him play!) Sierra is the spice in my life! Lol! She has just started basketball for the season. She enjoys baking. We love doing devotions together, one-on-one, before she goes to bed at night. And she is an energy-packed stick of dynamite! Our personalities are polar opposites. And that comes with challenges both teacher-student, as well as parent-child. But we love each other deeply, And God is using me to grow her, and God is using her to grow me. In ways that I didn’t see coming. But it is all good. And I am thankful for the journey. ❤️
I will close for now. May you have a blessed Christmas season! May the Lord’s spirit be born in you today. 🙏🏻
The Noble Home Chronicles 