Goodbye 2024, hello 2025!

2024 was an interesting year. I wouldn't call it a great year, but I wouldn't call it the worst. There were moments that almost broke me. But there were also moments that I'll never forget.

January: one of the core memories of January was probably the 24 hour Curl-a-thon for the hospital. Curling at 2 am was absolutely exhausting but so much fun. 

February: February is always one of the oddest months. It's short but it feels so damn long. I took a new position at work which came with a well deserved pay increase. 

March: Blake and Corbin started 4H clubs. Which I would quickly learn meant a lot of involvement on our part as well. I also spent much of March over worked and completely burnt out. I think I found a new level of exhaustion. We also had our first IVF transfers, our first positive test, and our first chemical pregnancy. 

April: Lou turned 16. I wasn't quite ready for that. 

May: May was full of babies on the farm. Our geese hid a nest of 15 eggs from us and hatched 9 goslings. We also welcomed Cosmo to the family as Corbin's 4H goat... and Cosmo blessed us with Kramer 4 days later making my cheap Kijiji goat an even better deal.

June: June marked our 18th wedding anniversary, which we celebrated by going to Toronto to see Dallas Smith. It also marked one year at our house. Blake started working with his 4H heifer, which would turn out to be an even bigger project than we could have imagined. Calving season began, which brought a lot of heartache this year and frustrations. But with livestock comes deadstock which we learned a lot this year.

July: July was a mix of kids needing to be in 100 places at once, and trying to soak up summer the best we could. You never realize how busy you can be until all three kids need to be some place different all in the same day. I turned 40, which I celebrated by going to a concert alone, which if you know anything about me was a huge step. People are not my jam, especially 1000's of strange people. I also met Dallas Smith, almost puked on him, and felt like I made an idiot of myself. 

August: we spent most of our free time trying to halter break Blake's heifer. I think I lost all hope on that animal more times than not. I cried endless tears, I was purple from my shoulder to my elbow on my left arm, my legs were bruised, I still have a messed up shoulder from how much she dragged me and pulled me. Blake learned how to bond with an animal and we watched huge growth and development in him emotionally as he learned to care for something that could easily kill him. August also ended the "Summer of Dallas" with a impromptu trip to Quebec for the Balloon festival. We made some great memories, we went away for a night without the children, and ended the summer with a bang. 

September: Fair season. I never knew how busy fair season could be. Cattle shows are not for the weak. It was the absolute coldest day of September, it was raining, it was miserable. But it was also so much fun watching Blake show KandyKane, who was an absolute brute of a brat. She threw him around that ring like a doll, and he never let go. He came home from the fair exhausted and bruised and more sore than he has ever been. 

October: huge thanksgiving dinner + anxiety =not a good time. We sent our turkeys to the butchers and ended up with two being 34 lbs and three being 24 lbs. Next year we are going to try for smaller birds🤣  We also had our second IVF transfer which sadly ended in a negative pregnancy.

November: two words: walking pneumonia. November was also rough on my mental health. Between  being sick, exhaustion, stress, and life I was likely not the best company in November. Coming off fertility hormones is not pleasant, for both me or anyone around me. I isolated myself quite a bit.

December: I always have this love/hate relationship with December. It's always so busy, it's stressful, but it's also so magical. I always say I want to do a low-key christmas but it never happens. 

I hope 2025 is kind to me. I know we'll have some rough patches, but I hope they come with more happy moments than sad ones. I want to say I am going to focus on me this year but I think I go into every year saying that and then never do. I hope 2025 brings stronger bonds with friends, and shows the kindness and love to the ones who helped me through this year. I hope they know who they are❤️ without them I couldn't have done it.

Happy new year, 🥂

Xo B