I would NEVER have thought I’d reach this milestone. When I began blogging, NEVER would I have said I’d still be blogging ten years later. I remember celebrating when I reached ten days!! That felt big! Somehow, today feels like slightly more of an accomplishment. Well, actually, maybe not more, I suppose, but definitely different.
I started the blog when Dekker was a baby. I enjoyed writing, and with a new baby, I had stopped journalling as often. I was also learning that I was not good at maintaining a baby book for him, but I still wanted record of our life, and all the cute little things. So the blog began as an outlet for me, where I could record things, keep in touch with people, and to start conversation, make friends and feel less lonely.
My single regret is that I didn’t begin the blog one year earlier. I missed Dekker’s first ten-ish months of life. It would be pretty cool if all the kids had a pregnancy series leading up to their birth, but it had to start somewhere!
Over ten years on the blog, we’ve had four of our five children, and four recorded losses.
We’ve celebrated 54 birthdays just within our family.
Ten anniversaries.
Brady and I moved from our twenties into our thirties.
We moved from Radisson to Furdale to Dalmeny to Saskatoon to Dalmeny.
We had our dream home built for us.
Hoping to do that again someday.
Brady consistently resided in the home building/contracting industry until just this last year. That was a very consistent thing in the last ten years on the blog.
We went from our little Mazda to a minivan to our passenger van.
Four of our kids entered the school system.
We played a LOT of music in church, and a LOT of music in coffee shops.
This blog saw a pandemic. It saw the schools close indefinitely. Stores shut down. Food and product shortage. Everyone wearing masks in public places. Limited people in households. Scary strange tides of change. Historical change.
We have gone through countless bouts of illness and appointments. Yeast rashes. Chronic pain. Hand foot mouth disease. Fevers and flues. Jaundice. Hair loss. Births. D&C. Covid. Twice. Strabismus. Eye surgery. Glasses and patches. Anxiety. PTSD. Counselling. Breath holding spells. Silent reflux. A broken collar bone. A concussion. Teeth pulled. Uterine surgery. Spinal surgery. Paraplegia. Pressure sores. Clonus. Cancer. Chemo. Radiation. Migraines. Pulmonary embolism. Nails pulled out of hands. Nerve damage. And more ultrasounds/xrays/CTs/MRIs/scans than one family knows what to do with.
Our ten years on record have been loaded with information, history, and memories. You have watched us grow and change from a floundering couple of kids with a baby, to a thriving settled family, back to floundering, and back to thriving.
I know there are those we have lost along the way. Sometimes a daily blog is a lot to keep up with. I totally understand that. But there is also the reality that not everybody likes us or who we’ve become. Thats always a hard pill to swallow – when you truly feel at your best. In SO many ways, our life is better than its ever been. Our family is at its strongest, because we have lost ALL of our own strength and have only relied on the Lord. And if those around us don’t like that, that is very sad, but we must move forward. We have suffered some loss, but our corner has never been more full of love, care, and support. We absolutely could not still be thriving the way we are without God’s constant care, and by His guidance, bringing our community of people together 💜
I won’t lie. I considered concluding the blog at this point. Especially with the recent malware issues, it felt like maybe things had run their course. But then what? We just stop recording our life? What about all the fun thats still to come? There were a lot of things privately in the works before Brady’s surgery, and none of them are off the books, but merely on pause. What if we want to share those things with you?? What about our future road trips? Our kids accomplishments? Our family goals? Our gatherings? Our businesses? There is SO much that I’m still excited about, and maybe I’m a little self absorbed (?), but I imagine at least some of you are also excited! So, for now, we keep on going 🙂 I can’t promise for how long. I can’t promise the blog will stay the same, and I also can’t promise it’ll change. But I am completely THRILLED to have hit TEN YEARS! Of all crazy milestones!!
We have come a LONG way.
Thank you, all, for witnessing our lives over the past ten years! I am incredibly grateful to have the outpouring of support and love from so many of you. The blog is vulnerable by design, yet I have no regrets. And that says a lot about YOU.
From my household to yours, thank you for coming along for the ride. The train is still chugging, and we look forward to seeing how many of you will hop in for another round 💜