2011-A Year in Review

2011 has been a very memorable year for me and my family.  From political campaigns to eye surgery, a new blog and new friends, I think that 2011 may go down as one of the most memorable years in my life (so far).

The year started out with me waking up on January 4th with an idea to start a blog. I still find it hard to believe that it has almost been a year since I started this blog.

January also brought some medical drama into our family, as Dad had emergency eye surgery to keep his sight. 

February saw the beginning of a baking business and several other adventures for our family.

March brought about my favorite annual tradition, the Vision Forum Ministries Father Daughter Retreat.  We had such a wonderful weekend that it took 4 posts to cover it all. (click here for post 1, post 2, post 3 & post 4).

April was a quiet month, but May was very exciting.

In May we went to the beach for the first time in 9yrs! I had forgotten how much I loved the shore!  One of my favorite memories of the trip was watching my sisters reaction when they saw the ocean for the first time.  We also went to The Lady & Sons in Savannah.  In a word...YUM!

June was a wonderful, peaceful month.  We spent the long summer days canning, enjoying the summer's bounty and just living the good life.

July was yet another hot wonderful month.  I find that the "uneventful" months are often the best.  With time to rest, spend time with God and spend time with family.

I spent the majority of August training my blogging/photography assistant.

September saw the baby of our family turn two. It also was a great month on Southern Homemaking with over 60 entries in our giveaway.

October (my favorite month) was one large baking marathon!  Some of the stand-outs were Apple Pie, our favorite Pumpkin Bread and Pumpkin & Cream Cheese Whoopie Pies.

November centered around one thing CAMPAIGNING!!! 

And that brings us here to December.  Well we have all been under the weather this month, hence not much to post.  Thankfully we are all on the mend now and ready to run into 2012 head on!

Thanks for walking down memory lane with me.

Here is to many more wonderful memories in 2012!! 

Merry Christmas!

Family Christmas card photo 2011

Fabulous Friday Find (Christmas List Edition)

Happy Friday/Day before Christmas Eve everyone!

For today's find I have a list of things I love so much they made it on my Christmas list.  I try to limit my list each year, and have variety, i.e. everything can't come from Williams-Sonoma.

Trip Kit in Lagoon Blue from Vera Bradley

Pretty and practical. It is machine washable and has a wipe-off lining.

Canon Camera Lens Mug from Photojojo

You read that right, mug!  This super cool mug looks exactly like a Canon lens.
 

Tools & Techniques Cookbook from Williams-Sonoma

A great addition to my ever-growing cookbook library.  Now I need the tools.

Our Best Bites Cookbook

Another great addition.  This one is by the authors of my favorite food blog.

Zabrina Dot Rain Boots from Target

With the rainy season coming soon, these cute rain boots would be very useful.

Dior Addict #578 Diorkiss

 Heard great things about this lipstick.  One review said it feels like lip balm.

Rawhide Season 4 Vol. 2

I love a good western...and a good cowboy.  This is about as good as it gets.

Kitchen Ornament from Sur La Table 

I love ornaments, especially kitchen inspired ones.  The red colander is my fav.


 Well that is my list, what is on yours?

Hitting the (campaign) Trail

 We had such a great time campaigning for Mike Crane.  Not only did we knock on over 7,000 houses, we worked with some amazing people! Our team had young people from five different states, all united by a vision, to see a godly man serving in the Georgia State Senate.

It was warmth over fashion on the cold and wet November/December mornings.

Every morning began with a team prayer.

One of our many "Crane-mobiles"

Campaigning around Christmas is so much fun.

A volunteers first yard sign was a milestone, and always captured on film.

We always filled up any restaurant we went to.

Running was encouraged. The male competition came naturally.

I think the fatigue was getting to us in the this photo!

An Explaination

I want to thank y'all for sticking by me, and putting up with my lack of blogging.  I know I have said this before, but y'all our the best readers a blogger could ever ask for!

Now for the explanation:

Our family has been completely immersed in a political campaign for the past two months.

As I mentioned before in this post, our family has always been politically active.  But this campaign was truly special, for many reasons. First, we had a very special candidate.  Second, we worked with amazing people.  Third, we WON!!!

Back in October Dad received a phone call, or I should say the call.  He was told that our State Senate seat was going to open up, and did he know a solid conservative that would run to fill it.  In half an hour he had the man and we were gearing up for a truly memorable campaign. 

With 9 candidates it was a very crowded race, but Mike Crane stood out as the choice for Christian conservatives.  Mr. Crane is a small businessman, homeschool father and one of the finest men I know.  It was an honor to campaign for him.

We were the underdog in this race.  On November 8th we received 20% and then turned that into 60% by December 6th.  How did we do it? By the grace of God!

If there was one thing that was evident in this campaign it was that "God rules in the affairs of men".  The Lord brought the right team together, provided for all of the campaigns needs and amazed us at every turn. 

As for the team, they were fantastic!  Because of who Mr. Crane is, the people that were drawn to him and his campaign were very like minded.  On the first morning of our door-to-door team Mr. Crane asked who was homeschooled, every hand went up.  My kind of crowd!

One side effect of this is that I have slipped into what we call "campaign mode". 
These are the signs of "campaign mode":
4 hours of sleep a night tops!
Non-stop Blackberry use
Fast food meals
Campaign paraphernalia everywhere
Exhaustion and exhilaration at the same time

I will write more about the campaign later, but let's just say memories and friendships were made that will last a lifetime.

So what's next?  Well I am going to try to get out of "campaign mode" and in the Christmas spirit. That of course means, shopping, decorating and baking.  Catch up on past posts, and update this blog with new content.  And SLEEP!!!