2017 Year in Review

by Rumour Miller on December 31, 2017

Pin It

2017 was the year of relationships.  Knowing which ones lift you up, which ones bring you down, which ones aren’t clapping when you are succeeding and which ones you need to let go of.  Helping our girls navigate their own relationships and learning boundaries.

I haven’t been posting on my blog much this year.  I’m thinking of giving it up.  I have to be careful about what I post about.  I have to consider the girls and as they get older, the things that a Mom would talk about are more personal and sensitive.  I have considered using a password to protect the posts so that they can still be written for the girls to read in time.  But I’m uncertain how I will navigate this phase on my blog.  So far, I’ve just not been posting much.

The days seem long but the years are short and I’m just a mom left wondering, “How did it get so late so soon?”

The girls are all full into their hockey seasons.  After a rough year with our association last year, this year has been a welcome change with so much calm and camaraderie.  It is what hockey is all about.  Friendships.  Winning is fun too but the friendships for both the players and their parents tops the lists.   Our major fundraiser has bloomed this year and is even more successful than in years past.  This has afforded our association to provide many perks to all the girls and has been such a blessing.  We are so blessed and thankful to the community members who continue to support our fundraiser.

We moved back into town at the end of June and it has been a life saver for us this year as we spend countless hours at the arenas for the girls to play hockey.  The girls have more freedom and are able to jump on their bikes and go a bit.  Piper got herself a paper route and is earning some spending money and she also opened herself a bank account and is saving money.  We put in an above ground pool and logged many hours swimming in July, August and September.  I love our family time.

The days seem long but the years are short and I’m just a mom left wondering, “How did it get so late so soon?”

Craig is taking the Right of Christian Initiation of Adults and I am his sponsor.  He is officially joining the Catholic Church and we are hoping to renew our vows in the Church this July on our 17th Anniversary.  We need to put our mind to planning that.  Piper is receiving her sacrament of Confirmation this year and Quinn is receiving her sacrament of reconciliation and first communion.  We are all really happy to be taking this journey together and we are all enjoying our community with the Church.  It was quite some time ago that I blogged about Craig and I wanting to get back to Church and the difficulty we had finding one we liked and felt like we belonged to that was close to where we were living at the time.  We didn’t put any further effort into it and now the time has come.

The days seem long but the years are short and I’m just a mom left wondering, “How did it get so late so soon?”

We took a family vacation to Las Vegas this summer and had the time of our lives.  We splurged on shows like Cirque One, a Michael Jackson tribute concert, Nathan Burton Magic Show and Britney Spears.  We spent the hot days in the pool and did some shopping.  None of us were ready to come home at the end of it all.  We just had so much fun.

It was another busy and hectic year for our family but I see no way of changing it and slowing down.  With five people, all with interests and friends and things to do, there is no way that we can possibly slow down… and I would not ask any one of us to make a sacrifice and give up anything just because we as a family are too busy.  There will come a day when these three girls have moved on and don’t need us or want us around as much as they do now.  That day will come all too quickly and my heart will break when it does.  So I’m thankful for those in my life that understand that I still want you to think of us and send us an invite even though you know that we, unfortunately, might have to decline more than we can accept.  So thank you for that.

And this brings me to the friendships that we have made over the last few years.  Some are friendships that have picked up where we left off after high school and I moved away for twenty years, but some are fairly new.  These friendships have been life savers for our family.  We have many friends that we are able to socialize with as a family and I can’t tell you how much this means to us.  We don’t have to choose between family balance and a social life.  So thank you for that.  We have had to rely on our friends this year more than we ever have before to help us get our kids to and from arenas and games and fun.  And we have been able to and have been there for our friends.  So thank you for that.  We are thankful and enjoy it when our friends send us a quick text saying, “what are you up to?” and when we are actually at home, they stop by.  This is usually after a night at the rink or a meeting and a result of the fact that we live in the center of town.  But we enjoy those visits on the deck or in the living room and will gladly sit around and have a drink.  Even if it means we are up a bit later and a bit more tired the next day.

I’m thankful for the friendships that my girls are creating and fostering.  The knocks on the doors for the girls to go play.  The kids that arrive in the summer with their towels in tow for a swim in the pool and jump on the trampoline.  The afternoons spent at the dining table playing a board game.  The invites to shinny or the movie or the outdoor rinks.  The mounds of boots and jackets and ski pants on the floor by the back door.  The chaos.

One day I will wake up and my pool will sit empty, the trampoline with no one to bounce on it, the house quiet and still.  My entry way will be clean and free of boots and shoes.  My pop and chips will stay in my cupboards and the board games will gather dust.  One day Craig and I will sit alone in the living room with no expectations of kids coming in the door.

The days seem long but the years are short and I’m just a mom left wondering, “How did it get so late so soon?”

So as I stare at the horizon of another year and get ready to say goodbye to 2017 and welcome 2018, I’m glancing in my rear view mirror watching my girls grow up before my eyes.  And sometimes I’m thinking ” I don’t know how to do this!”  I don’t know how to mend broken hearts and encourage dreams I don’t know much about.  I don’t how to be a mother to a tween and two girls that want their hair curled and nail polish on their fingertips.  I have to remind myself that I thought those same things about having babies but for a brief moment my chest fills with air and I need to force myself to exhale.  I need to remember to be in the moment that is my life and feel full.  Full of love, full of blessings and full of happiness.  I realize that not much of this has changed from last year and …..

All the while, I am just a mom taking it all in and thinking 2017 had gone in the blink of an eye.

How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn.  How did it get so late so soon?” Dr. Seuss

All the best as you enter the new year. To my family and friends, I wish you love, laughter and hockey. Game on 2018!

Follow Me on Pinterest

Previous post:

Next post: