My, oh, my, another year has come and gone and I find the saying to be true, “the days are long, but the years are short.”
At every year’s end, I like to look back and reflect upon the year- the ups, the downs, the good, the bad, the ugly, the ways that YHWH has provided for our every need and watched over and protected us. Each year end blog post is a gift for me to look back upon and remember. So without further adieu, here is our 2023 in a nutshell.
One of our biggest accomplishments this year was to be outside for 1000 hours. When I first learned about this challenge, I loved the idea behind it, so it was easy to jump right in! While it was our goal to meet the thousand hours, my ULTIMATE goal was just to get the kids outside more- off of screens, using their imaginations and connecting with nature. Despite the harsh summers here, that are nearly unbearable to be outside, we met ALL of the above goals. We spent our days hiking, exploring, kayaking, camping, having bonfires, fishing, swimming, playing at playgrounds, drawing with chalk, blowing bubbles, having play dates, puddle splashing, worm hunting, gardening, having picnics, riding bikes and learning about plants and animals. I have had several people comment to me that they just love how my kids are outside all the time, making up games and using their imaginations. They can be outside for hours and hours (1,070 hours and 8 minutes to be exact)!
January started off our year with our first family 5K! Jedi came in 2nd place among all the kids. Levi followed, then myself and Trent finished later with Eliza. They had bouncy houses, archery (which Jedi is actually VERY good at!) and other games, and of course, free post-race cookies and beer!
Trent and I got a chance to go see the season 3 finale of “The Chosen” in the theater (our first date of 2023). I wore my “Chosen” t-shirt and some earrings that another extra in the filming had handed out. They are little fish that say F5K (feeding the 5,000). This was exciting because this was the episode that my mom, Eliza and I had been extras in the previous summer. We left the theatre slightly disappointed that we didn’t spot ourselves, and yet were not in the least surprised seeing as there were SO many extras that day. It wasn’t until much later in the year, the fourth or fifth time we’d watched through the season, in fact, that we decided to actually try to pause the big crowd scenes at home and see if we could spot us. Although I didn’t see any of us, Jedidiah “Eagle Eye” Logsdon immediately spotted us. I thought, “Wow! How cool that we made it into one scene!” And as we continued to go on, we found a few more cameos. So we did make it into the episode after all! #almostfamous lol
We got to watch our flower girl (from just a *few* years ago) play in one of her high school basketball games. Not only did we get to see her, but her momma, Missy, and Melita, some of my dear friends from when I first moved here to San Antonio. Sometimes it feels like time doesn’t pass so quickly, but when I see her or some of the other kids we have watched grow up, it gets pretty real. Anyways, Jedi and Baylee used to hang out when we’d pick her up from school and watch her a few afternoons a week, so it was fun to see them together again (both have grown and changed so much!).
We also rung in the Chinese New Year together with our friend Todd. Not that we ascribe to much of the traditions that come along with this, but it does help us remember our time in China and share a little bit of our experiences there with our children. Plus… we get to eat Chinese food… so, enough said.
February brought a very special celebration for a very special lady! Trent’s mom, Debbie, turned 70 this year, so we did our best to make it memorable. I went through old photos and found a bunch of her with her kids and lots of her and the grandkids and collaged them all together on big cardboard numbers, 7-0. They turned out great and it was so fun to watch all the grandkids go through the pictures and try to identify which baby was which. We also all wrote things we loved about Nana- 70 of them to be exact- and put them in a jar for her to read and to know and be reminded of how very loved she is!
We also got to visit with an old friend of ours who was actually a pretty integral part of Trent and I getting together so many years ago. It was much at her urging that we met and began to hang out. She and her husband were also integral in our decision to move abroad to teach for a few years. She and her hubby just moved back stateside after 10 years in Malaysia! We’d seen them a few times over the years (including once in Kuala Lumpur), but it was really fun to get all the kids together and we enjoyed our outing to the Witte Museum!
February is also rodeo time in San Antonio! We always wait for the free family day and the kids always enjoy seeing all the animals! This year we watched bull fighting- which was anxiety-inducing for me, but the boys absolutely loved it. They were enthralled. To this day one of their favorite outside “games” that they play is to swing our big swing and dodge it, pretending like they’re bull fighting.
March brought another special celebration- our 12 year anniversary! While we usually don’t do anything particularly special for our anniversary, I came across an old box full of wedding mementos and my mind went to work. As a family, we took a trip down “memory lane,” sharing 12 special/unique memories from our wedding day with our kiddos. We finished with our wedding video and they got a kick out of seeing people they know from 12 years ago!
March was also time for us to take our annual bluebonnet pictures. We’ve tried to make this a family tradition as we don’t get many family photos. They’re nothing fancy- just self-timered photos, but I’m always thankful to have them!
April brought the beginning of the spring feasts. This year we celebrated Passover at our friend Megan’s house. Last year they came to our home and celebrated with us, this year we went to their house and celebrated with them! We enjoyed our Seder dinner together and loved our time spent with these special friends!
We wrapped up our first year of AWANA, where the kids learned many Bible verses and had a whole lot of fun!
We also had a really great time at Folk Fest in New Braunfels. This was our first year hearing about it and we ended up running into several friends there that made it even more fun. The kids made hand-dipped candles and bricks, had “high tea” (aka lemonade and cookies), and saw lots of animals!
We ended April on a bit of a low note. We were headed to camp in Concan to celebrate our friend Ross’s birthday. It was a very windy day when we were driving and there were a lot of severe storms to the south of us. All of a sudden I began to feel a lot of drag on the car so I pulled off to the side of the road. As I looked in the rearview mirror, I saw that our pop-up camper had ripped open and was basically a huge parachute behind us. Basically the wind had gotten underneath it, ripped the clasps right off of the camper and jammed the front end up, while the back end was stuck down. We had two sweet, sweet teenage boys stop to help us and they were a total Godsend. They ended up ratcheting the camper down so we could at least finish our drive. When we got to Concan, the people working there were also super kind. They offered us a cabin for the night at half price and we ended up having a wonderful weekend! Unfortunately, the camper ended up being a total loss. The insurance wouldn’t cover it and it’s going to cost too much for us to fix, so we’re still not sure exactly what we’re going to do with it. Right now it’s just a big paperweight…
May wrapped up the Spring feasts with Pentecost, brought a birthday celebration for our middle child and delivered a big change for our oldest, Jedidiah! After 8 years without a haircut, he finally decided to cut his hair. It was a pretty big event around here. Some of our dear friends gave him his first haircut and while it took us a while to get used to it, he loves it and we think he looks ever so handsome!
We were able to celebrate our dear doula, Shelby, who was an integral part of the delivery of all three of our children. After lots of hard work, she is finally a licensed midwife! She has been a huge blessing to our family and it was an honor to celebrate alongside her!
We also said “see you later” to a good friend and colleague, Maegan, and her family at a fun local axe throwing place. She has been a great resource for Trent’s real estate business and a wonderful friend over the years. If you ever need lending, Mortgage Mama is her biz and she will take wonderful care of you!
The end of May brought an epic safari-themed birthday party for our animal-loving Levi. We love going all-out for birthday parties (but not spending a whole lot of money). This party didn’t entirely go as planned, because we got a monsoon in the middle of May, but all the kids still had a blast celebrating. One of these days when I actually have time, I’d like to actually blog about each of the kids’ parties.
June brought VBS at our church. This was my first year leading a class, but I got teach Levi’s class and we had a week of fun learning God’s word, singing, watching skits and doing crafts. This year’s theme “Kingdom Keepers” was filled with medieval flare and centered on the armor of God found in Ephesians 6.
We also spent a lot of time swimming, splashing, and the kids went tubing for the first time ever!
We went to the zoo and the aquarium and had a rather scary experience hiking at Pedernales Falls State Park. We had been down by the falls when Eliza slipped and fell. Although it didn’t look like a hard fall- it was actually kind of a slow and awkward slip/roll- it ended up being quite scary once we realized she was bleeding from her head. Since she had rolled into the shallow water, her hair was already dripping wet so the blood was mixing with the water and I couldn’t tell where the wound was or how bad it was. We didn’t know if it would need stitches or what she might need in terms of help. We didn’t have cell reception there and it was quite the uphill hike back up to our car and the ranger station (in 105 degree weather, might I add). I grabbed her and powered up what felt like 100 steps and a steep hill right afterwards as she bled all over. When we reached the top of the hill (almost at the parking lot), there was a group of people and it looked as if a park ranger was among them. I asked if anyone there knew where the nearest ranger station was, and one of them (not the one I thought) told me she was certified in first aid and asked if she could take a look at her head. I was thoroughly exhausted at that point, dripping with sweat and panting from the climb. Moreover I was absolutely ready for someone to assess her wound so we would know what to do next. Thankfully, it was just a surface wound that wouldn’t require stitches. We just needed to get the bleeding to stop. I did, however, have to watch for signs of concussion (there weren’t any). She recovered relatively quickly, we got some ice on it and enjoyed the rest of our day at the park together.
July brought all sorts of delight! The month began with our 4th of July celebrations- we enjoyed the annual parade, followed by ice cream at DQ, then a pool party at a friend’s house with our nature group.
We had a lot more outside time, including a hike at McAllister Park where we happened to come across the very spot that Trent proposed to me after a mountain-bike ride together many moons ago. It was fun to show our kids where their daddy asked me to marry him.
July also brought us a gift from half-way across the world- our Taiwanese exchange student who we hosted 5 years ago, returned to us!!! She had planned on coming before, but Covid and its repercussions delayed that quite a bit. Yi-han came with her sister, Ruhan, to work for the summer at Horseshoe Bay, only about two hours away from where we live. The reunion was so very sweet. When she left 5 years ago, Jedi was only 2 and a half and Levi was a newborn, so it was very cool to see them connect all over again. Eliza loved “the sisters” and this ended up being the first of several visits. She got to reconnect with all of our family and friends she had met while she was here. We’re so thankful that we got to spend that time with them this summer! We already miss them terribly and the kids ask often when they can come to our house again.
At the beginning of the month we dropped off our van because it would occasionally not start. The problem had been getting worse and we wanted to get it taken care of before our big July road trip up to Minnesota to visit my family. What we didn’t know then was that the part (as MANY parts are) was on backorder and we wouldn’t see our beloved van again until mid-December!!! My mother-in-law graciously let us borrow her car for the trip (and for several months after) and we began the three-day ascent “up north.” Along the way we stopped to visit the Essers and the Barrons, both dear friends that we met during our time teaching in China. Upon our arrival in Minnesota, we were able to celebrate my nephew’s 2nd birthday, go to a water park, help raise monarch butterflies, play at parks, fish, watch horse races, visit friends, spend time at my sister’s cabin and visit my old college stomping grounds at Northwestern College. Minnesota could easily be its own blog post, but this is just a rough overview of the highlights!
August brought us further north to my sister and brother-in-law’s family cabin for a weekend and then up to Breezy Point for a week at the lake with my family. We swam and swam, went boating, kayaking and canoeing, played at the playground, had lots of sweet cousin time, ate tons of ice cream and I got to go horseback riding (which I haven’t done in years).
We left Breezy a few days early so that we could swing through my TWENTY-year high school reunion! It’s crazy to me that I’m old enough to be 20 years removed from high school. In some ways that feels like yesterday and in others, it feels like a lifetime ago! I wasn’t really sure about going, but I’m really glad I ended up there. It was super fun to catch up with some of my old basketball crew (and other friends too!)
We powered back from Minnesota in two long days so that Trent could start back teaching again. This time in a closer district and a closer school. But it didn’t go as planned, and due to a toxic situation, difficult teaching environment, and concerns over his mental and physical health we decided once and for all, that teaching is not something we need to keep going back to. He put in his resignation mid-November and spent the rest of the month into early December getting his insurance license. He is now licensed in both Texas and California and sells all kinds of insurance. He is an independent insurance broker with ORR and Associates so he has access to all the databases and can make a true comparison finding you the cheapest policy! He is still doing real estate as well, the market just hasn’t been kind to most people and home sales are down everywhere. Don’t forget (and tell all your friends), “Why rent? Buy with Trent!”
August also brought the start of school for both boys and fall soccer for Jedi. This was our first year not being with Coach Abby and it was definitely a different season for him. But it was really encouraging to watch him step up as a leader both on and off the field and we enjoyed watching him play!
September began the fall feasts (The Feast of Trumpets and The day of Atonement- Yom Teruah and Yom Kippur, respectively) which we observed as a family. Each year we have learned more and more about YHWH’s feasts and there is such DEPTH in them! We are so blessed to continue to learn. I’m being sparce on the photos here, because I really want to do several separate posts on how we celebrated!
We also went to Typhoon Texas and attended the Comal County Fair.
October wrapped up the fall feasts with Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles. What a sweet week of celebration together!
We attended our neighborhood “National Night Out,” visited Chief Grandma Wanda, Levi jumped on the haircut bandwagon (this was his first haircut as well), we attended a banquet for “Options for Life,” went camping with our nature group at Inks Lake State Park and I went to the women’s retreat with the ladies from our church.
I also started watching our neighbor’s baby for a few hours each weekday while their work schedules overlap. My children LOVE “Baby Abby” and are constantly asking when she can come (and fighting over who gets to hold her!)
Oh, and I don’t ever want to forget an incredible kindness that was shown to us this year. We’d been down to one car for quite a while. I was waking and loading up the kiddos every morning to bring Trent to work and then loading everyone up again each afternoon to pick him back up. Some friends tried to loan us their car but ended up just giving it to us. Like, who just gives someone a car?!? (Except- cool story- it was actually given to them as well) It was a tremendous help and we still feel incredibly grateful and blessed!!!
In November we got to attend Trent’s cousin Maggie’s wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and a sweet time of celebration with family!
Jedidiah turned 8 years old this month and we celebrated him with a fishing-themed party (followed by a trip down to the pond for some actual fishing). The boys are all about fishing right now, so it was perfect! I can’t believe that we have an eight-year-old!!!
We enjoyed our second annual “Friendsgiving” with the Mosbys, which is always a soul-filling time with these dear friends. The kids loved playing together and of course, it was wonderful for us to be with our besties too. Great friends, good food and matching jammies for the win!
Shortly thereafter, we celebrated Thanksgiving with our family. It was also a great time and so good to see everyone!
December brought yet another celebration for our youngest. Following her brother’s fishing party, Eliza’s theme was “under the sea.” We loved celebrating our sweet three year old!
Other than that, our year stayed busy with Bible Study Fellowship. I stepped out of leadership (as the Assistant Children’s Supervisor for the home school program) in May to have more time to homeschool, so now I am back to just being a regular old BSF attendee, which has been a blessing to me in this season. I definitely miss the ladies in leadership, but I’m thankful for the extra time with my family. And I’ve been lucky to still spend time with these ladies outside of BSF.
We have been super blessed by our Wild + Free group this year. Our weekly meetups have taught us about many different subjects (there’s a new topic each month), have challenged us to research and share through oral presentations in front of our peers, and have afforded us opportunities to attend things like the International Fair. We’ve listened to excellent speakers and learned about so much! We’ve taken tons of field trips- to the aquarium, caves, the aquifer, a local farm and have visited so many beautiful places and made such sweet friendships! I’ve also been super blessed by the moms in this group and we’ve done book studies and had mom dates throughout the year that I always look forward to!
Other things that we did throughout the year were attending various “hymns and hops” events, being involved in book studies at church, gatherings with friends and going to SO many birthday parties and playdates.
Homeschooling has been a huge blessing to us as well. We spent tons of time outside in nature- journaling and exploring, took so many field trips, read, did presentations, went to the library, planted a garden, sold lemonade, created, baked together and listened to copious amounts of audiobooks. We learned about so many different things through reading- different places- both here and abroad, history (Chernobyl, segregation, book smuggling, frontier living, the monarchy), and have engaged in stories of friendship, bravery and survival. Listening to audiobooks has become our favorite thing to do in the car- and we drive… a lot! We listened to 16 chapter books from late July through the end of the year! One thing I added this year was to our wall maps- any time we read a story about an actual place or event, we add that book to the wall with a string leading to the place that the story was about. Inside each “book” are some of the main things we learned about in that book and a small illustration of one of their favorite parts. I’ve loved doing this with the kiddos!
They also found/acquired several animals this year (most only temporarily)- at some point we had several rough earth snakes, a worm farm, crawfish, tadpoles and minnows from the creek, frogs, a turtle and a horny toad. They continually added other insects/snails/caterpillars/butterflies that they found. But with each animal they brought home, we had to research what they ate, what they needed to survive and how we could best take care of them- it was all a great learning experience (for them AND for me!). And all these were all in addition to our regular ol’ cat and chickens!
We took on various small-scale home improvement projects this year. In the early part of the year our in-laws gifted us with rubber mulch for the “kids” half of our backyard. They came over and we all laid it down. It looks great and has made for far less mud being tracked into the house!
We also tilled the other half of the yard and laid grass seed in the early spring. It took and looked great… for about a month… until summer. Texas summers are just brutal. It didn’t make it. (queue sad music)
We got a new roof put on both the house and the man cave, and added some small skinny shelves on the side of our cabinet.
Eliza got some big girl upgrades to her room- she graduated from her crib to a big girl bed and she got a kitchen! She absolutely loves playing with it and is always cooking for us!
One of my goals for this year was to do a puzzle each month and I don’t think I quite made it- I think I hit 11 puzzles for the year, but it was really good for my mental health to have some time to just sit uninterrupted and quiet my mind.
There were quite a few rough patches this year- My phone randomly went out, I got hacked and couldn’t get my Facebook account back for over a month, the camper busted, our car was gone for what felt like forever, our other car had issues, hard work stuff, starting something new (which is always a little scary)… and yet… I will choose to remember 2023 as a year filled with friendship, exploration, outdoor adventures, family, learning, growth, provision, the Lord’s protection and so much more!
Logsdon's big adventures! 