It's nearly been a year...and what a year it's been. Life has a way of flying by. I wish I had kept up on this blog. I love having this digital scrapbook of sorts to look back over and see what we, as a family, have been up to. Someday I hope to have these printed and bound into books. What a treasure those would make! So this year has been filled with adventures. To bring you all up to date, I am currently homeschooling the children still, and we all absolutely love it! We are extremely blessed to have this freedom and opportunity. It is not always as an easy road, and this year has been tough for us financially, but God always sees us through. Work slowed down from about October of 2012 until just recently. Having Scott work part time is super fun because we are blessed with more family time, but it certainly put a crimp on the budget. We had to make some tough decisions and cut back on some extras for a season, but things are getting busy again and we are taking advantage! Speaking of Scott, he keeps himself busy with work, and his family. He is now into online gaming with Jordan and several other family members. It's a hoot to watch, sometimes I am not sure if he is actually having fun though!! :oP  Atira is now in swim lessons and she is doing amazing! She has found her passion, she loves to be in the water...and I am so happy to see her enjoying a sport so much! Jordan has made the leap into music! I am so excited to see where this goes for him. He bought a bass guitar...has only dabbled on it a bit and sadly, while dad was helping him tune it, one of the strings broke. We are in need of getting to the store to replace it right away for him! So...this is a picture heavy post, out of order, but I will do my best to caption our year, disjointed as it may be. I am sorry for taking so long, I hope this is the beginning of capturing our families adventures on a regular basis again.

The picture above was taken during Sukkot 2012. We had a fantastic season, our sukkah was beautiful and we shared some lovely memories with family and friends. This year we had a "sukkah open house day" where friends and family were invited over during an open hours kind of day. We shared lots of food and fun fellowship from afternoon to evening. It was quite memorable. We also had friends over this year to help set up our sukkah, we ended the evening with a bonfire. It was simply lovely. We were additionally blessed with beautiful weather!

Atira and Shaggy. This cat loves his sister AND he loves torturing her. Here he is intently watching her play with dolls. Funny thing we learned this year, he has no interest in her toys when she is not at home. He loves to hear her shriek when he gets into her stuff. He is a keeper. :)

TEA DATE! Mom, Atira and I enjoyed celebrating Moms birthday at Attic Secrets Tea house. It was a lovely afternoon and so very memorable. I am so glad we made time for this. I believe it will become our annual tradition for her birthday!

Cousins. Isn't this priceless? And a little bit sad? ;P Here they are, 2 on phones and one watching TV, still they are all together spending time. It's good to have family around. What a blessing.

Hanukkah 2012 - a special year celebrating the Light of the world.

BOWLING! We have found a fantastic bowling alley in our area that we really like. Small, family friendly, they don't allow swearing! How cool is that?! We have been a few times and plan to go back often. On Sunday afternoons they offer glow bowling with fun music and funky lights. Great activity for us all.

Reptile Museum. Fun? Meh. Interesting and education, YES! Jordan was wrapping up a study on all things reptilian, so we thought we would end the study here. We ended up sharing our time with friends there, it made it more memorable and less gross for me. :)

LEARNING TO DRIVE! He has grown up way too fast....but he is such an amazing and responsible young man, I look forward to see where God takes this incredible being He created. For now, it's school, jiujitsu and driving! Don't forget! He added Judo to the mix! He attends class up to 4 days a week now! ACK!

I do exist. Bad picture, but there I am! This was after our family passover, we are all reclining after our wonderful meal of lamb kabobs, hummus, olives, rice, tomatoes, cucumbers and dessert was coco rice crispy treats! YUM!

We were blessed with a wonderful visit with Gina and Cairo this year. What a wonderful time making memories. We love them so very much and look forward to all of our visits!

Jordan loves many things, and history tops his list. He has a passion and an incredible bank of knowledge when it comes to this subject. Here he is showing off his new WWII dress coat he picked up with his Grandma Joan, he loves it and it fits him incredibly well. He wears it for special occasions and sometimes sabbaths.He looks amazing in it!

Atira is our artist!When it comes to creative things, she is the girl to go to. We have been taking lessons together with a friend of ours who is both an artist and a jewelry designer. We have spend several wonderful afternoons with her learning this fun hobby. Atira always creates the most beautiful pieces....

Scott and I.  ♥

Another shot from the reptile museum. Ew, he's holding a snake. :\

This is the most recent photo. It was taken Tuesday 3/26/13. We had celebrated Passover the night before and since this is the first day of Unleavened Bread and a sabbath, Scott was home all day with us. We headed out since the sky was sunny and went for a hike. It was a beautiful day and we had a wonderful adventure. We saw an eagle right away, perched in a tree, we also found a hawk, heron, ducks, the tracks of a very large cat that I am super happy we did not meet up with and a few other fun finds. We will definitely be back to this hike again!

Rolling the scroll. Loved going to this. We have had a Messianic Synagogue move closer to us, and so we have been visiting here and there. We went this day for the end of the reading of the Torah portions for the year and the beginning of the new. It is traditional to reroll the scroll back to Genesis. It was a fantastic experience!

Atira love Adventure Soccer Camp!She was able to go again this past summer of 2012, and had a wonderful week with her friends! She is a wonderful athlete!

Scott and Cairo playing together. This particular toy was Scott's when he was little...amazing to see him sharing it with his little cousin so many years later.

Gunner, this is just too cute not to post! For those that don't know our total animal round up is as follows: Gunner (our black lab), Kayli (our yellow lab), Shaggy the cat, Adrian the frog of which there will be no pictures, he is quite ugly, and Kitty the betta fish. I think that about does it. We're nuts.

My girl indulging in her swimming passion! Her goal is to be up to a conditioning class by her birthday of 2013. She is very close!

Ew. Another snake picture, because if they hold one, you have to take a picture. Ew.

Jordan rollin' the scroll!

Enjoying a hike on a sabbath day. We took the dogs out and let them swim around as well. It was a fun and memorable outing.

Since our family is all home together and we do not celebrate Christmas, we decided to head downtown to Seattle and check out the Gingerbread house display at the Sheraton! It was FANTASTIC and if you are in the are, I highly recommend! We will be going back again!

Jordan and Gina with little baby Alexander in the tummy. ♥

Atira and I in the teddy bear room at the Faremont hotel in Seattle. So cute.

Jordan and his guitar. Great shot...they look so tough! ♥

This was our only serious snow this season and it JUST happened! 3/22/13 - the day we hosted a group seder at our house. The snow was 3" deep that morning and it was beautiful. Atira ran right outside in it and built a cute snowman. We all went back in the greenbelt and listened to the little stream run faster because of the extra water...it was quiet, beautiful and serene. I love her passion for God's creation and the way she admires His handy work. She is a beautiful and insightful child of God. Blessed.

This is another shot of Scott and Atira with Gunner and our friends granddaughter as we went hiking on a sabbath day. It was such an incredible day.

Grampa, Cairo and Atira. LOVE

Scott rollin' the scroll!

Passover 2013 - this was a shot from our group seder. It was a fun night with 15 of us around our dining table! It was crowded elbow to elbow, but made for many laughs and fun memories. In attendance: Jeff, Patti and Jaelynn, Michelle and Larry White, Michele Libin, Joel and Sarah Cohen, Char Rose, Terri Anderson and Shelly Rivera. Blessed to have such sweet people in our lives.

This is the face of education today! Jordan was in need of help with math, well through the internet, specifically Facebook, I have a friend (who I have not met in real life, only know her through Facebook) and her sister is a math tutor. My Facebook friend lives in Alabama, her sister lives in Texas! I contacted her, hired her and now Jordan is sitting here Facetiming with her for his lesson! He now uses a computer and skype, but isn't this amazing? Sitting in our dining room being tutored from Texas on HIS PHONE! It's the time of the Jetsons people. hang on!

Scott and Shaggy. They are quite the pair. This goofy cat loves Scott, especially when he is engaged in anything, that's when he most wants attention! Scott of course spoils him right back. So sweet.

 

And this is me. If you made it this far...well, I figure I would share a little of my year with you. I have gone over a million times in my mind if I wanted to share some of my journey on here or not. But I do believe in time I will be glad I did. Last year I began dealing with some issues that I have worked on here and there for many many years. I have off and on struggled with anxiety and fears, things seemed to be getting worse so my doctor recommend I see a counselor. I was quite resistant to the idea at first....but with wise guidance from my loving husband I decided to accept the advice....however, I was not really happy about the whole plan. I was wrong. It was a good plan and a plan I feel now God had orchestrated for my benefit. I saw him just a few times and he recognized right away that I would benefit greatly from a recovery program for adults who grew up with alcoholism affecting their lives. Again, I was not a fan. I am not sure why I was so resistant to this whole idea...but it was HARD. Thankfully, my husband encouraged me to push through and give it a try. I attended a few Alanon meetings...which I really did not like much. I found a program called Celebrate Recovery, which is based in faith, in God. That God has the power to help us walk through this journey called life and we are not called to do it alone, it is teaching me how to let go and truly give things over to Him. Although I have always walked with God and He has called me on an amazing journey, this was clearly a part of the refinement. I could not seem to let go of trying to control my life and honestly, others. I am learning, I am growing and I am making mistakes and having incredible successes as well. It is a journey, and the goal is not perfection but rather learning to lean on Him as my Father, my Dad. I pray He uses these experiences He has given me to benefit others.

At the same time as all of that was going on I decided to join weight watchers, I needed to lose about 15 pounds, and I knew if I started right away, I would not end up needing to lose more! Today, I am AT GOAL! I have been for three months now and I am quite proud of my accomplishment. I have a buddy at WW and she helps keep me accountable and motivated. She has also become a sweet friend, I am thankful for her.

So, life is good. God is great. I am working hard to overcome the challenges in my life to live in freedom and walk that out "one day at a time". Thanks for taking the time to read my little update on our lives. May you all be blessed!