New Year's Eve and a New Decade

My family all left Friday afternoon to head their seperate ways, so for New Year's Eve we were on our own. Plus Jonathan and I have colds (though I'm almost better and Jonathan is still not feeling well,) so it was low key. We played some family games, though we tried to keep Benjamin downstairs by himself watching Backyardigans so he wouldn't destroy the games we were trying to play. Than we watched The Fantastic Mr. Fox. It's definitly unique, and I don't know that it is really a kids show, but everyone enjoyed it. Then at 10pm we pretended it was midnight and the kids blew noise makers, (they had actually been blowing those all night,) and did poppers and threw streamers. They then all went to bed. I myself went to bed a little after 11pm and Jonathan fell asleep on the couch downstairs watching tv. Real exciting and romantic, I know.



As I laid in bed last night waiting for the nighttime medicine to kick in, I realized that it was not only the end of a year, but the end of a decade. That's pretty crazy! For us, the first decade of the 21st century brought 2 bachelors degrees and a masters degree, 5 children, 4 states, the ups and downs of married life, the ups and downs of life as parents, many challenges I never expected to face, many friends, memories and great things. As I look forward to the next ten years it's shocking to realize that come 2021 my oldest child will be 21 and my youngest 12, and that we will move from the challenges of parenting young children to the challenges of parenting teenagers. I would think there might also be another state or two in there, though no more degrees are in the plans. Hopefully as we go along in our marriage we get better at having more ups than downs. I hope the next 10 years will bring an increase in family in the forms of sisters and brother-in-laws and some more cousins for my kids, etc. What can I say, I like family. If the past ten years have taught me anything they have taught me that I'm going to run into many unplanned things and dissapointments. I pray that as I grow older I hopefully grow wiser and more able to gracefully, happily, gratefully and peacefully navigate the bad with the good.