That's a Wrap!

By way of a catching up, here is the tail end of 2019.

It's funny, as I was going through the pictures from December, I realized I took very few.

I should try to do a bit better with that for sure!

The girls joined Homeschool Orchestra this year!  Kayley played cello, Maggie the violin.  They enjoyed it very much.  They learned a lot and made several new friends.

They played a great Christmas concert which was standing room only!

Of course, by March all classes were canceled and we have been unable to go back since.  Hopefully we will be able to attend in-person classes next year?

We also took our very first trip on The Polar Express.

We had a great time! 

Meeting Santa. 

Christmas was as great as always! 

We made a trip to Bennett Springs during Christmas break.  It was fun to have my brother, his wife and my nephew here!  The weather was gorgeous and we didn't even need a jacket by midday.

Kayley also was given the privilege of dog sitting for a couple weeks.

She loved it.  I learned that I do not want to get a dog anytime soon. LOL! 

And that ties up the loose ends from 2019!

To Blog, or Not to Blog?

I sat down today to try to recover some old photos from Picasa (which is where all my blog photos are currently archived).  As I went through the old albums I was lost down memory lane for at least an hour.  I really enjoyed blogging.  For the longest time I loved blogging.  But, as the girls have gotten older, I just haven't done it as much.  It has become such that, I don't necessarily want my girls pictures plastered all over the internet.  And, they don't necessarily want me to plaster their photos all over the internet anymore either.  

As they have become young ladies, their adoption stories have become their stories to tell.  Not mine.  I have to respect their privacy, their wishes, and the level of openness they are willing to share.  It has been a transition of sorts, but an unknowing one.  

Things became a lot quieter here too when I stopped reviewing with The Old Schoolhouse, Mosaic Reviews, Propeller, and Deseret Book.  I chose to stop mostly because my girls lost interest in "trying out" so many new curriculums when they just wanted to focus on studies of their own choosing.  I miss reviewing fun things.  Maggie enjoyed it sometimes.  Kayley enjoyed it rarely.

We also have been using the same computer for years and it just runs slower...and slower...and slower, to the point where it can take quite a while to upload pictures.

And I always enjoyed blog tours...which, doesn't seem to be much of a thing anymore?  But they prompted me to blog, even if I didn't have much to say...

BUT -

I also realized that, going back through my blog...our lives have been thoroughly documented since well...since 2007? 2008?  What an amazing, delightful record of our family!  As I have slowed down, there appears to be big gaps in our lives.  What HAVE we been doing for the last 6 months?  It looks like nothing...(and with Coronavirus quarantines, it kind of HAS been nothing.  LOL)  But really, we have done some things.  Things that would benefit from being documented.

So, with that, I am going to try to get back into the swing of blogging.  Because I miss the record of our days...  :) 

Thanks for swinging by!