How do you judge a year?

You hear it all the time. "Bob, it's been a good year," or "I tell ya what Joe, it's been a bad year." I am guilty of saying the latter, for this I can be sure. Tough times - they come to us all, don't they? Even the richest man has his down time. Why do you think there are such highly paid psychiatrists out there? For what one man considers his worst day, another man would consider it his best. The same goes with how you see your year.

There are days, I won't lie, that I look at the past three years and think about how rough they've been. And trust me. We've sailed some pretty bumpy waters for quite awhile now. And the truth is, that most days aren't bad at all. In fact, I wouldn't trade them for anything. The problem is that when you sit around with idle hands and mind and let yourself slip into the dark pit of despair from all that pointless dwelling, that is the day that seems the worst. And with Josh going on almost a month of zero work, it was only a matter of time before I would fall back into that pit. Yesterday was that day when all I could manage was to pinpoint the annoyances of the past year instead of all the good things. I'm human. It happens.

So I decided to write something that would help me remember that you can't let the 12 bad days ruin the other 353 days of the year. One day, when Alex and Abby (and baby number 3) are reading this to see how life was growing up, perhaps it will help them through those 12 or so days that stick out in your mind during those certain times. I could easily list my year with the bad pinpoints like unemployment, no money, allergies and flea infestations. But what good would that do? So this is how I remember my past year:

First day of school smiles, backpacks and field trips, birthday parties and lots of cake, new tutus and smiles to match with well-loved and stinky ballet shoes, saving caterpillars from the dying garden, Finding live grasshoppers in little pockets, breaking out the jackets, the zoo in the fall sun, homemade football brownies and two chocolate smiles, rediscovering favorite long sleeve shirts, stained and holey Wiggles shirts new in the eyes of a little boy, pumpkin patch and Halloween decorations with annoying singing skeletons, jumping in leaves, parades and candy and fairs and freebies, more birthday cake and smiles with family, Super hero family pictures, football every week, hubby dressing up as Dresden, pirate costume and trick-or-treating, discovering football, dad and son on the couch watching football together, milk-free pumpkin pie, Thanksgiving, bubble bath beards, proud pre-school art projects, first school Christmas program with singing 5 year olds, sitting on Santa's lap, decorating for Christmas, singing Christmas carols the whole day long, Christmas movies watched too many times, rediscovering each ornament for the tree, Santa ate the cookies, reindeer hoof-prints and magic oats, presents, stockings, joyful kid smiles, saying goodbye to the gingerbread house, seeing the first snow through your kids eyes again, dirty snow forts and snow sculpting in the backyard, tiny snow angels and climbing dirty snow mountains, snow ice cream and snowball fights with too cold noses and fingers, hot cocoa every night with warm fleece blankets and two snuggly kids in bed with me when it's bitter even in the house, first days without jackets and snow turns to rain, puddles and muddy little legs and feet, setting leprechaun traps and ripped leprechaun pants, more birthday cake and new friends, a new baby on the way, one excited brother and one excited sister, Easter eggs and stained tables and hands, first fishing trip of the season with Grandma and Grandpa, new fishing tackle for two smiling kids, baby bunnies all over the yard, owls at night, homemade soy-ice cream cake with the happiest chocolate faces smiling back at me, last pre-school days and more singing at a school program, tears for a pre-school graduate, brother and sister discovering the baby bump on mommy's tummy, the zoo, garage sales, backyard picnics, catching butterflies, evening bike rides and walks, Playing in the pool-no matter the size, swimming lessons and watching my two little fish learn to swim, kool-aid popsicles, movie night, catching fireflies, gathering empty locust shells from trees, mowing the grass, teaching baseball in the backyard, fireworks, first sparklers for my big kids, water balloons, hours in the sandbox and on the dilapidated swingset, daily walks to get the mail no matter the heat index, sprinklers, washing the van turned water fight, ladybugs and box elder bugs, walking to the library, sitting in the shade just talking about the fun day at vacation bible school, brother and sister feel the baby move, sharks and pink unicorns and the aquarium, Wiggles concert and cousins with crawdads, and early morning baseball in the backyard with a tiny touch of fall in the air....and so we come full circle.

And that's how I judge my year.