See ya, 2015

So long, 2015. Let's be honest, you were a doozy. Nevertheless, we had some good times too. The Word Of The Year was "DO," and do we did. Here's a little review of the ups and downs of 2015:




The very first day of the year, my brother's roof literally came crashing down from burst water pipes in his ceiling. He and his family stayed at our house for a month or so while his apartment was fixed. We all learned a lot about living with other people, and we enjoyed the company. Plus, I got to cook my first pheasant, compliments of my brother's hunting prowess.

I got to try out my snowshoes, and did some hiking, more hiking, more snowshoeing, and even more hiking!

Taking a leap and turning in a piece of artwork for the LDS International Art Competition was scary! I hadn't focused that hard on a finished piece of artwork in a long time, but it came together with a steady schedule and purpose. That was a lot of work, but I learned a lot about my art process along the way.

I had been really interested in beekeeping and took a class about it. I loved it! Bees are so amazing and I feel like we are kindred spirits. Oh tiny sisters, I love you! Unfortunately, we can't have bees in our current house, so it will need to wait until we have a different home.

I got back into rock climbing! It had been years since I last enjoyed it, but with a trusty friend to show me the ropes again, I took it up again and had some of my best lunch breaks!

For my birthday, we took a trip to Zion National Park with friends and went on some wicked cool hikes. We got to do some light bouldering and also visited the Valley of Fire, which will forever hold a special place in my heart. We stopped by a crazy cool ghost town and of course an old cemetery. We played games and talked without any children interrupting. Yes, it's a thing!

Not too soon after that, Kirk got laid off due to the dip in the oil market. Well, poop. While it was a major bummer, we looked for the silver lining and decided to move forward as a single income family with a stay-at-home parent. What a lucky kid we have! We had to make some major adjustments. It was a palette cleanser and turned out to be the catalyst for many life introspections and realignments in our lifestyle and the direction in which we want our family to go. All good things, but a painful route.

With a clear and free schedule, we were able to attend a wedding in San Diego last minute. The sunshine was just what we needed, the little kid got to go to the beach for the first time, and we got to see family that we hadn't seen in forever. Cousins, guys.

I got up the guts to submit my first piece of art to the Springville Museum of Art's Spring Salon. It was so much work too, but I am proud of the final product and loved the way the piece turned out.

Also, I got up the courage to get my own website up and running. There are a lot of moving parts and every time I would change something, I would discover 10 more things that I needed to do. Gah! So. Much. Work. But also, it's a labor of love that I'm super proud of! And, I got some business cards made, which helped me feel a lot more official. Being a business owner has been so rewarding and I can't believe I waited so long to get started. Once I got through all the worrying in my brain and got things done, it finally came together. I finally found my purpose and style, which was a major win!

I had my first art booth at the Beehive Bazaar last spring! For some reason, it was a super scary step for me to take but I was blown away by all the support from friends and family and was humbled that people liked my art enough to buy it. Thank you, friends! And, I got more comments on my booth than anything else. Kirk made it for me to display my wares. Isn't it amazing?

Our family took part in a fun run.

We were in charge of a large family reunion, and it was full of crazy fun times and crazy fun people. We hiked along a petroglyph ridge, visited our old stomping grounds in Nevada, spent time splashing in the pool, and swapped stories. We also got to spend some time with our little family visiting Zion again, and tricked our daughter into hiking with us there.

Pepper took some swim classes and turned into a little fish and may have proposed to her instructor.

I did some hiking, more hiking, even more hiking, and solo hiking.

Then, there was that one time I had a baby. He arrived a couple hours after one of my favorite woodsy hikes. He just needed a little encouragement but he came with a smile and a sense of humor. We took a couple weeks off of our regular lives while we adjusted and got to learn how we would be as a family of four. We spent those weeks exploring the wilderness, exploring more, and exploring even more.

We planted and cared for and harvested a garden and flower beds this year. We also got some unexpected blessings from our labors and dried, juiced, and froze some of the best food.

Again, we participated in the Beehive Bazaar. Kirk's booth construction was all the rage again, and I added more pieces to the booth. I loved making all the art!

We got to cheer Kirk on in his half marathon through the beautiful fall foliage. He practiced diligently and did a great job!

I submitted my first-ever art piece to the Springville Art Museum's Religious and Spiritual exhibit. Again, it was a ton of work but I love the way the piece turned out. (The post will be up soon!) Plus, I was able to see a vast difference between this piece and my first submission from earlier in the year. Progress, guys!

I read some books.

Pepper's preschool ended, and she said goodbye to her friends there and hello to a full-time life with a great stay-at-home dad. She started a dance class, though, and fell in love with performing on stage!

My brother got married! In a whirlwind of familial excitement we spent loads of time planning, prepping, doling out unsolicited advice, and participating in general merriment. I took photos of our family with all the new additions before we all went our separate ways and started our own roots.

I got in some delicious autumn hiking, more hiking, and even tried mountain yoga hiking!

We partook in some of our favorite holiday traditions during the fall and Christmas seasons. The last quarter of the year is always one of our favorites! We also started new traditions to make our family life more intentional and to encourage one-on-one time and great family times too.

We cheered Kirk on in another race and got to share in the sugary spoils.

I tried a new thing on Instagram where I posted a different art series every month. I did an alphabet bird series, an autumn leaf watercolor series, and a series of requested wildlife sketches. I love being able to share my art with others!




2015 was indeed a doozy. While we are still trying to figure things out, we are managing to make the best of it and enjoy our precious family time while we can. 2015 was a good lesson in reevaluating constantly, making purposeful decisions, and getting up the courage to do things (because waiting through all the thinking is oftentimes more painful and difficult than actually getting things done!) So, there you have a few of our highlights from last year.

After talking with a friend about how I didn't think 2015 was a really good year, and that I felt I hadn't accomplished much, I was encouraged to write about it. Once I started writing, it opened my eyes to the many positive things we experienced last year, even amid the challenges. It was a great exercise in positivity and looking back I was surprised at what we were able to accomplish during crazy times and despite a definite funk.

So, if you've made it this far, first, you're a dedicated soul (thank you!) and second, I'm passing the advice forward. You don't need to post it publicly, but I encourage you to reflect on your past year if you haven't done so already and write down some of the major events. Looking back on your photos and social media accounts might help you out. So what do you say?

How To Freeze Corn

I have fond childhood memories spent at my grandparents' house helping my aunts and uncles and parents freeze enormous batches of corn each year. This year I decided to give it a try, because no canned or store-bought corn ever tastes quite as scrumptious as when you cook it fresh yourself. Here's how:

Get a couple of big pots of water boiling. In my youth, there was so much corn we would use canning pots, but for our little family, a couple of stock pots were enough for us.

While those puppies are heating up, shuck your corn. We had a four-year-old helping us, so our corn was extra hairy. Mmmmm. We're cool with that because we prefer a helping child over smooth corn kernels. Hopefully next year it will improve.

Next, put your shucked corn in the boiling water for 10 minutes. Don't forget about displacement. Plan for it, folks. Bill Nye gave a memorable lesson on that here.

Once the time is up and they've reached a bright happy yellow, pull out the cooked ears.

If you're an Amazon warrior, need your fingerprints to disappear, or have mom fingers, go ahead a start slicing the corn off. Or, if you value your phalanges, wait for those suckers to cool a bit before slicing off the kernels. (Not to brag, but I totally have mom fingers, so I started slicing right away. Just kidding. That was definitely a brag.)

Then, bag the sliced kernels and pop in the freezer for quick, fresh-tasting mealtime happiness.

Have you ever done this before? It took us maybe 1 1/2 hours from start to finish with roughly 4 dozen ears, and we ended up with about 8 quart bags sitting in our freezer. It's surprisingly easy when you aren't trying to do this for 40 people.

A Weekend of Tears

Our lives aren't terribly sad, that was just a sensationalist hook to put a little pep in our household activities. We shed tears all weekend long because we chopped and dehydrated loads of yucky garden onions in order to turn them into their more delicious dried counterparts:

Yum yum yum! Just imagine the delectable dishes we can throw these in! There were sacrifices involved, too, though. Such as:
1. Crying all weekend (although I think my eyes eventually just gave up and got used to it) and
2. Having several people tell me I smelled like a pot roast even though I had scrubbed and scrubbed.

I suppose there are worse things I could smell like, so I'll take it as a compliment!

Potato Blessings

 
Guys. Things are not all peaches and cream although we try our best to live and learn. Sometimes trouble comes in pairs (or trios!) when it is least welcome. We've recently moved from being a double- to single-income family. While there are many benefits to such a change, financial comfort is not an immediate result, so we've been super careful and even more stingy than before (as if that were even possible!)

Enter trouble. First, it was our blender, a casualty in the kitchen. Then it was our microwave, a victim of over-heated rice bags. Next it was our dryer, which we ran into the ground and kept asking of it all it could give us. Fine. A blender could be considered a luxury, so we'll deal with that loss. Our microwave decided to keep on chugging despite the abuse. (Thanks, little buddy!) But life without a dryer? No thank you. We've already done that before and we have an infant (AKA- clothes destroyer), so we pinched our pennies and got ourselves a grand old beauty. These dryers, it turns out, are lovingly referred to as 'woodies' because the wooden back panel indicates the ancient nature of these rare specimens. I don't care what it's called, though, as long as we don't have to hang our clothes in the icy winter winds to dry them! (It's all about perspective, as I like to say.)

Then, in the midst of all the crazies on crazies and crazies, a small miracle occurred. We did not plant potatoes this year, yet we had some volunteer plants because I guess we sucked at digging up our harvest last year. When we went to harvest them just for kicks, we found fortune was indeed on our side and were surprised at how much and how big these guys were! What luck! Nature did not disappoint (we can always count on you, Nature!), and I feel like it was the Universe's way of telling us that we're ok after all.

I accept these delicious potato blessings. And thank you, Nature, you're the best!

Present for Mammaw

To celebrate the joys of grandmahood, I gave Kirk's mom an album of our baby's first year. It was full of some really good pictures that she probably hadn't seen and that I have been trying for a while to find a good way to share. I ended up using Close To My Heart's digital scrapbooking program, which was a great way to manage the thousands (I kid you not!) of photos I had taken of our babbling, drooling pride and joy.

I have been so excited to give the album to Kirk's mama that I couldn't sleep sometimes! Do you ever get that way when you have a surprise for someone you know is perfect for them? (Plus, I knew she'd have to love it, because when it's her only grandchild, she has no other choice!) The longer I worked on it, the more excited I got. So, with no further ado, the present for Grandma (or "Mammaw," if you're a 2-year-old):

Instead of bore you with individual shots of each page, you can have some more artistic shots instead. For the wrapping paper, I carefully opened a paper grocery sack along the seams, and crinkled then flattened it out several times. I love reusing stuff. Cheap, I know, but there's no denying it's awesome. I taped the paper together with decorative tape, tied it with some twine, and added a handmade card. Perfect packaging in seconds!

Bird Feeder

Here's a fun idea sparked by Pinterest:

It's a bird feeder in hollowed out fruit casings. I made a bunch from oranges and mangoes, and hung them all over our back yard, which probably took 10 minutes total to complete. Plus, it was super inexpensive. The local fowls really like them, and we've seen quite an avian variety! I must admit that I love birds so much that I even accept the vast amounts of poop in our carport as payment for having starlings build their nests there. Do you have bird nests around your house?

Twinkle Twinkle Little Shoes

Twinkle twinkle little shoes
here is what I'll do with you:
hide your age and make you shine,
cover up each little line.
I'll make you look so neat and new
with glitter! How I love you, shoes!
     -impromptu ode by me

These scuffed shoes got a new and happy life with a layer of fabric paint, followed by generous amounts of glitter, followed by more fabric paint to seal in the glitter. Every place feels "not like Kansas anymore" when I wear these twinkly slippers!