Memories of 2024

Happy (almost) New Year! 2025 is nearly upon us, and as I sit and type in the dusk of the old year, I wonder what is ahead. 2024 certainly was different than I had envisioned it. I knew we would move, but I didn’t know what a move it would be. I had 2024 planned so well. I was going to get a job, buy a car, find a church, go on a mission trip, learn a language, start college, and have my life all figured out. None of those things happened. Some simply because I was lazy, some because circumstances didn’t allow it.

In 2024, my faith grew more than it ever had before. I fell in love with Jesus for the first time and realized that he was greater than any of the cheap pleasures the world offers. I came out of darkness into the Light of Life.

I learned so much about life, about death, and about love. I stopped complaining about not having a stable community, and friends I’d known forever, and I realized the value of my family and how they are my home. I learned to be comfortable in my body and to love being a woman. I learned how easily sin sneaks up if not guarded against, how lies look like the truth, and how we must make the most of life, for our years are few.

January

This was the month that God opened my eyes to his majesty, and to the truth of Christianity. It was glorious. We celebrated three birthdays, took a trip to South Carolina, and had a visit from Grandma and Grandpa, and their sweet friends, Bernie and Patti. ❤

February

We ate a lot of delicious food. We got to see our grandparents again and visit lovely gardens with them. My uncle and aunt also visited, and many people were ill with the flu at the same time. Valentine’s Day was celebrated with queso, cheesy movies, and a trifle cake. We had lovely (summer-like) evenings by our firepit, toasting marshmallows and dreaming/arguing/debating about the future.

March

Time for our famous Lord of the Rings food & movie evenings. Jehosheba and I gorged on clotted cream and felt extremely ill afterward. Nana, Papa and a whole entourage of uncles and cousins visited and we had a good time together. I got my license after much fear and trembling. Nahum, Baruch and I did a challenge to see who could walk the most in a day (our goal being 30+ miles). I went 30.2 and the boys did 33 (they were planning to quit at thirty but miscounted and accidentally went three extra miles).

April

I got a rescue sugar glider and proceeded to spend an exorbitant amount of money on de-pesting and neutering him. Mama, Jehosheba and I spent a fun but fruitless afternoon clothes shopping. Everything was insanely expensive and poorly made.

Jehosheba and I started to cover our heads. We celebrated a lovely Passover and had many delicious matzo meals for the week of Unleavened Bread.

May

I rehomed my little rescue glider. Snakes, alligators, and frogs came out in abundance, and the boys yelled at me for having a healthy curiosity of the first two. We celebrated Jehosheba’s high school graduation with a quiet party at home. We attended a lovely and very patriotic Memorial Day ceremony. I had my last day of working with Daddy in bathroom remodeling. 😢 We pulled out the old boxes and prepared to leave for Iowa. We wanted to be close to family and hoped to move there for good.

June

We bid Florida farewell (I couldn’t wait to leave) and set our sights on the Midwest. We stayed in Grandpa and Grandma’s basement for several weeks and had a nice time with them. Soon after we transitioned to a temporary house where we unpacked all of our stuff into the garage and went house hunting for a place of our own. Tragically, we realized that work wasn’t as expected, and it was likely that we wouldn’t be able to live in Iowa. We still had hopes, though, that happy June.

We celebrated Jehosheba’s 18^th birthday, ate a lot of sugar, spent time with family, worked on projects at the grandparents’ house, hiked, and laughed often.

July

We spent two weeks in Mayo Clinic in Minnesota while Grandpa was cared for as his illness progressed. Dovid loved it and made friends with all the nurses and got to know the patients. His dream was to either get put in the hospital or to work there.

I read a lot (Anna Karenina *wipes eyes*), drank amazing bubble tea, walked every inch of Rochester, and treasured precious moments. ❤ When we finally got back to my grandparents’ home, worn and weary, we found that the basement had flooded, and much damage was done. The next few weeks consisted of moving everything out and redoing drywall, paint, and flooring. We all had a good time working down there, and seeing the transformation of the space was really fun.

We got to visit our good friends when they came to Iowa! We hadn’t seen them for several years, so it was a very special treat. ❤

August

Yoveil and I took many trips to Hobby Lobby, Chick-fil-a, and the Dollar Store. I bought a new sewing machine and lots of cheap fabric to go with it. The kids decided to do a home movie contest, so we had lots of filming sessions. The little kids also sold cookies in the yard and made a bunch of money!

Grandma and Grandpa celebrated their 57^th anniversary, and we were blessed to be able to be a part of that celebration. ❤ We made special Austrian food, gave gifts, and ended the night with The Sound of Music. My cousin was there, too, so it was nice to see her as we don’t often get to have much time with her. ❤

By that point we had decided that Iowa wasn’t going to work out and realized that we needed to return to either Florida or Georgia where work was abundant. No one wanted to go back to Florida (the horrible heat, the humidity, the beach culture, the never-ending sand, the tragic lack of holiday spirit, the ugly palm trees). Georgia it was, and we took a week-long trip down there to house hunt. Nothing other than much frustration and tears was found.

We spent time with both sets of grandparents, ate more food, and enjoyed what we thought would be our last few weeks in Iowa.

September

We planned to leave for Georgia, but the night before we left, Grandpa’s health went downhill, so we decided to spend another couple weeks in Iowa with him and Grandma before going to Georgia. We made lots of good memories – s’mores around the fire, stories at the dinner table, and quiet evenings playing Five Crowns. Yoveil and I got a temporary library card in Pella and greatly enjoyed our new access to books.

We went back to Mayo and spent a little over a week there, before returning to Pella. We left for Georgia at the end of the month.

October

We got a look at our new house in Geogia. It was very dirty, in a less-than-ideal location, and all around disappointing, but we were much happier with it once we’d cleaned it up. We unpacked our things and got our lives settled a bit, and celebrated Rosh Hashanah. We took a trip to Alabama to visit my friend and to check out Huntsville (a next possible move location – yes, it’s never too early to start looking).

After we got back from that trip, we had a couple days before we again packed our bags and went to Iowa to be with Grandpa as he had entered hospice.

October was really a full month. We spent about ten days in a hospice house. I didn’t expect it to be as pleasant as it was. Grandma & Grandpa’s friends, Patti and Bernie, stayed the whole time. We all hung out in the room with Grandpa, we ate too many cookies, we read, we sang, we laughed, we cried. Some of the kids learned morse code and practiced piano while I read a biography on Hitler. Grandpa went to be with Jesus on the 16^th. We miss him very much. The funeral was later that month, and shortly afterward we returned to Georgia.

Baruch and I celebrated our birthdays. One of my sugar gliders had a joey. Yoveil got her ears pierced. We had a nice celebration of Reformation Day.

November

NaNoWriMo began and I plodded my way through a novel I’d hoped would be brilliant but was rather drab. I listened to as many rousing classical pieces as I could find, drank too much tea, and was frustrated beyond belief as my story disobeyed me.

I applied to college. We celebrated Yoveil’s birthday.

We decided to take a camping/history trip. We went to Virginia where the boys spent five days hiking on the Appalachian Trail. We girls toured many Civil and Revolutionary War sights (we got to see Monticello, which was sooo cool!!)

Nahum got a very severe poison ivy rash and swelled up bad. He had to go to the ER and later Urgent Care while we were traveling, and eventually got steroids to help. The poor guy was miserable.

We returned once again to Iowa for Thanksgiving and had a special time with both sides of the family. ❤ We got to see Papa sing in a concert, which was amazing! We also got to visit Daddy’s cousin and his family.

December

We went to many Christmas markets and festivities, watched our favorite traditional movies, drank chai, ate truffles, and studied. I went job hunting and kept finding reasons to put off applying.

Dovid celebrated his sixth birthday. *cries* My babies are growing up!! Christmas was a lovely afternoon at home with food, gifts, and the reading of Luke 2. We attended a Christmas Eve service that evening.

Hanukkah started on the night of the 25^th. It was beautiful as always, and we are dripping with oil and sugar now.

Mama and Daddy celebrated their 24^th wedding anniversary. We went to Chattanooga on Saturday and visited the aquarium there. Their actual anniversary was very sweet. ❤

And that’s 2024! What was your year like? I’d love to hear the highlights in the comments below!

~Hattush