Friday, November 25, 2022
To All the People We Have Loved Before:
I’m stuffed to the gills, I’ve online-shopped to the
hilt, I’ve lived life to the fullest, and I’m still in my bathrobe at 9:38 a.m.
That’s right—it’s Black Friday/Christmas letter-writing day. I’ve assumed my
position at the computer and locked the children out of the office. Let’s rock.
2022 has been a blessed year for the Pennsylvania
Jolleys. January will mark three years since our residency began at the
Commonwealth, and we enjoy the rural life we live but also our close proximity
to many major cities. We still homeschool, and this year has been the best yet
due to the wonderful friends we have made. Our kids have been extremely blessed
by the association they experience with kids named things like Obadiah and
Philemon. We are definitely the rough family in the group, and we are grateful
that they put up with us.
June “Goodall” Jolley is 10 and loves animals, books,
and science. She still attends horseback riding therapy every week, where she
is one with the animals and nature. I’m still the slowest learner there and
have resigned myself to be the best pooper scooper around because it’s the only
chore I seem to do correctly. June regularly recites obscure facts about
animals, to which I must simply nod because I have no idea if she’s correct.
During one particularly exciting riding lesson, a fellow rider was attacked by
a buzzing insect and started to scream “Bee! Bee!” to which June shouted,
“Wasp, not bee! Bees have hairy bodies, and that bug has a shiny body!” The
fellow rider found great comfort in that.
Gwen turned 8 this year and was baptized a member of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was the most wonderful day!
Even though Dan regularly tries to reduce costs in our budget by offering
persuasive arguments for Gwen to quit her dance classes, she has learned to
tune out his repeated chants of “No! More! Dance!” and enjoys both ballet and
jazz. Ever our resident extrovert, Gwen never wants to leave a party and claims
she is bored within two minutes of arriving home. Gwen always seems to be
injured (whether by accident or sibling-inflicted), but she gets lot of practice
at bouncing back and is very resilient.
Harris is now 5 and was excited to hop on the
homeschooling crazy train this year. He is learning to read and loves to do
math problems. He and Beck pushed each other down the stairs in a big box one
day in August, and Harris’ head met the hard floor and split open. Four staples
later, and he’s doing just great. The real triumph of that day was that I
remembered to grab the novel I was reading on the way to wait in the ER. Harris
is sweet, shy, and a little anxious. Anxiety is the name of my game, but
shyness is definitely outside of my wheelhouse, so we are learning how to
navigate through it together. He cried through but eventually loved t-ball, and
we are currently in the crying-through stage of a new wrestling season. But
really, singlets should make everyone cry.
If Harris is anxious like me, Beck (3) throws caution
to the wind like Dan. The boy never met a dangerous activity he didn’t like. We
finally waved farewell to our baby years because we potty trained Beck earlier
this year. I never thought I would be that mom who is sad about the closure of
potty training, but I felt my eyes well up a few different times at the thought
of being finished with diaper-changing. This is what happens to us once-shiny young
moms turned crazy hormonal pooper scoopers. (Update: After not having an
accident in months, Beck just peed his pants whilst I was penning this letter.
My bittersweet feelings have quickly soured to straight bitter in about 3
seconds flat.)
Dan is the Man. He works, he cleans, he parents, he
lawn cares, and he is currently cleaning up the Beck potty accident that just
occurred. It is because of acts like these that he finally won our decade-long argument,
and we went on a cruise as a family--despite my fear of boats, seasickness, overspending,
tiny rooms, and buffets with massive amounts of jello. He loves the Hershey
Company, his family, the Lord, and his country. But we won’t ask him to rank
those categories here.
I turned 38 this year and celebrated by wearing a
hoodie backwards without noticing for several hours of the day. I don’t know
how someone doesn’t notice a giant hood protruding from her chin, but I
managed. I have been much more proactive about managing my anxiety this year,
and everyone in the family (and surrounding areas) has benefited.
We love the Lord Jesus Christ and are so happy to
celebrate His birth again this year. He makes everything possible, and for Him
we are forever grateful.
Love,
The Jolleys
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