Tuesday, December 31, 2013

LOOKING BACK

2013 IN MY REAR VIEW !!!
Back at the beginning in January we had an interesting month of weather. With a couple of flooding rainfalls and other near flooding kept the mud in its glory around here. We had an ice storm and a dusting of snow then the temperatures soared to summer levels of 70+ degrees.  Nothing exciting happened as we all spent the month dodging the weather with only one market Saturday canceled. I made it to watch daughter coach some basketball games. I also lost a cousin I had never seen with the passing of my second cousin Jack Moore on January 12.


      February brought more wet weather but only one icy event during the month.  Hubbie and I made a trip to the Biltmore House on one of the really nice days with a pair of free tickets sent to us by one of my blogger friends, thanks Betsy. A long time neighbor passed away on February 10th as Lavinia Garren died at the ripe old age of 90.




      March brought the more winter feeling weather as it stayed cooler than normal and windy almost the entire month. We had a snow that closed school for a day and I kept Nicolas Dalton for the day .      #2 son put his new house that he moved into this past November back on the realestate market. He didn't like living that far from his job. We celebrated his birthday along with daughters during the month of March and celebrated the birth of little Evy Lynn Pearl who was the daughter of our renters as she came into this world on Easter morning which was the 31st day of the month.



        April was another cooler wet month as we struggled to find a time to get our early garden in the ground in between showers. G-son had an accident and wore his first cast as he dislocated one of his elbows playing on a jungle gym after one of his soccer games. We celebrated d-in-love's birthday in this month. Daughter,g-son, hubbie and I made our spring trip to the Pickens Flea Market during spring break from school. There was a national tragedy as terrorist set off a couple bombs at the Boston Marrathon.
 


 
  May brought to a close a lengthy ordeal for the sale of hubbie's old family house as we finally sold it to an extended family member.  #2 son unexpectedly discovered that his jeep Rubicon was using oil excessively and decided to trade it for a new Toyota Tacoma pick-up truck. Daughter had an unexpected career change when a teaching job opened up at the high school she coaches at and she was able to pass the business teachers test to land the job. I had a wonderful Mother's day and added another wonderful little one to my baby sitting routine as little Evy's mom returned to work part time.
Another rainy month forced our summer garden planting time to be a little late but we finally got it all planted. Our old milk cow Snowball turned 19 years old this month.





        June brought more rain and cooler than normal temperatures so the garden just kind of stood there.  G-son graduated kindergarten as his first school year came to an end.  D-in-love traded her jeep patriot which started giving all   kinds of trouble in for a new Toyota Corolla.  #2 son's house sold but the closing is at the end of July.  Little Evy had colic and was a miserable little one a lot of the time. She just melted my heart. Hubbie turned a year older this month to 58 and also had a great father's day.


         July was the rainiest of all the prior months with rain falling on all but 2 days during the month with clouds everyday. The lack of sunshine hurt the garden vegetables and we still had nothing fresh from there. Hubbie and I helped #2 son move into a friends condo out at Wolf Pen gated community the weekend before we went on our yearly weeks beach vacation. Oak Island was the destination for this year's beach fun.  Daughter came late as she had a teaching workshop in Greensboro the first part of the week. Luckily we had nice weather all week unlike the weather at home which continued to be rainy as Rebekah tended the farm for us. #2 son had to leave the beach a couple days early as some problems arose with the house he had for sale. Luckily he got them all worked out in time to make the closing on time. We came back from the beach just in time for Bible School which began the next day. Daughter and d-in-love taught this year. The month ended with me getting a year older !



 
August started with the remainder of VBS. Rains continued,keeping everything soggy.  #1 son and d-in-love decided to buy #2 son's house and were able to close quickly. We helped daughter prepare her first classroom for teaching her high school business course.  G-son went to a workshop to prepare for the beginning of first grade which started the third week of the month. It has been a strange month for me without any produce to can or preserve from all the rain we have had. I had another visit from cousin Kathleen and her sister from Ohio. Great nephew Easton turned 2 years old this month. G-son loved getting the use of the pool at #2 son's condo community.




       September was the first normal weather month we have had all year but it still started out with flooding rains. We helped #1 son's family move into the house they bought from #2 son and helped Aaron and Rebekah move into #1 son's house.Daughter is coaching the JV volleyball team and assisting with the varsity at the high school she is teaching at. They are both having good seasons so far.  I went to a couple fall festivals in town this month and we had our "Fall Old Timey" day on the last Saturday of the month.


    
  October is always an exciting and busy month with the changing of the leaves and the last of the tourist trips to the mountains. The weather pretty much agreed with all the leaf peeping and other outside activities this month. We celebrated two birthdays on the sixteenth of the month as g-son turned 7 and his daddy turned 32 . Also went to great nephew Maddox's party on the 11th when he turned 3 .  Had a hard freeze as well as our first frost in the last week of the month.  Ended the month with a fun Trunk or Treat at church to celebrate Halloween.



          November was a great month for #2 son as he bought his ex-aunt's house just up the road from our farm. It is the perfect house for him.  Daughter switched from volleyball to basketball with the loss of the volleyball team in the second round of the state playoffs. My hens got a new larger lot with a new house that Hubbie and I built for them. Our family lost a beloved member as hubbie's mother's sister Christine died. Thanksgiving was good with hubbie , #2 son , daughter and me in attendance.  #1 son's family went to Tennessee for d-in-love's grandparents dinner and Aaron and Rebekah are in Ohio celebrating with her family.  We actually thought we were going to have our first "white" Thanksgiving as a surprise dusting of snow on the Wednesday before coated everything but melted quickly in the warm sunshine. The month ended with Old Timey Christmas celebration at the Curb market.


           December was a blur for me as I feel like I baked 1000 cakes this month. The first two weeks I alternated between getting my decorations up and getting a 100 cake order done. Delivering the final 40 cakes on the 11th freed me up to finish the decorations and then concentrate on Curb Market customers on Thursday and Saturday which were pretty busy all month. The month was full of activities with Christmas programs at church and school and a school surprise class party it was a fun time for me and g-son we even made it to a couple of daughter's basketball games. After enjoying Christmas gatherings with families and friends I succombed to a flu like illness on Christmas day but it wasn't serious enough that I couldn't hit some of the after Christmas sales.  The month ended on a very sad note as I lost a friend and fellow market vendor as Elaine Staton died on the 29th of a bout with a lung infection.








This has been an all around good year for my family. Weather keeping records were shattered when we got over 2 1/2 inches more rain than any other year in record keeping history. All the rains caused problems with garden vegetables along with the oak trees in the yard that we are hoping recover from a leaf spot fungus that caused the leaves to die and fall off in later summer. The year has been filled with exciting changes for #1 and #2 son and Aaron and Rebekah as they all have moved during this year and also for daughter as she made a huge career change and became a high school teacher.
Hubbie and I are humbly grateful for all the blessing we have received helping the kids as we have watched their happy faces throughout all the activities.
Looking forward to many more blessings in the upcoming 2014 year as we are all humble grateful to our Heavenly Father and recognize that none of these things that happen to us would be possible without His grace.
Good Bye 2013 !

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