Christmas 2012
Greg and I will be
celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary this month. I feel we owe this
success to mutual affection, some hard work, and not driving in the car
together too often. I’ve noticed recently that Greg makes different
(wrong) decisions than I would while driving. Just today, when Greg
parked in the farthest away spot at Target, I, in an effort to not be a
control freak, said calmly, “Our minds work differently” and left it at
that. Which is why I found it so ironic that tonight, during the
hour-long lip-sync/dance/play the girls put on for us in our living
room, Greg turned to me and said all the things I wanted to say to him
earlier: “It’s not going anywhere!...It’s like they haven’t even been
practicing for the past four hours!...There’s just no organization!”
Seems I’ve finally rubbed off on him.
Besides heckling
our daughters, and teaching his regular English/Media Communication
class, Greg has started a new film studies class this semester (which is
a harder class than it may sound.) He’s also excited about offering
Holland Christian’s first film production class next semester! He is a
well-loved teacher, even though he’s still much harder on himself than
anyone else is. He still sings at church—mostly my parent’s church oddly
enough, because Dad loves to hear him sing and because Greg can’t say
no to his father-in-law. Greg loves to do home-projects (I think…he
spends a lot of time on them), and this year it has involved re-doing
our front 3-seasons porch and tearing out the wall between it and our
living room to make our living space larger. It is at a livable point,
and will be a wonderful addition….someday.
Kate is in
second grade, and has the “world’s best teacher!” Seriously—she’s
beautiful, sweet, kind, and full of energy. She has helped Kate grow in
confidence this year, which has been so wonderful to see. At the
parent-teacher conference I learned that Kate is a lover of vocabulary
(she writes down words she doesn’t know so she can check them out later.
I know…Greg does this too!) and is being asked to be in a “vocab group”
to help the rest of the class. She loves to read (mostly Mary-Kate and
Ashley “mystery” “books”) and is sweet to the world. Besides her
obsession with the Olsen Twins, High School Musical, Taylor Swift and
Miley Cyrus, she is a lot like her father. Greg recently traded in his
guitar for a smaller traveling version that the girls can use, and began
teaching piano lessons to both girls. We’re hoping they will take after
him in this arena as well.
Elia is in kindergarten and
finally wanting to learn how to read (a bit). The only slightly negative
thing I heard at her parent-teacher conference is that Elia needs to
“work on telling the truth” more (just like her mother, dad says). But
at least her stories are good! Elia is always energetic, always
expressive, and almost always sweet. One phrase I’ve heard from her a
lot this year is, “How can you do this to your own daughter?!” or “I
thought you loved me!” or, once after Greg made her clean up her mess in
the basement, “Daddy broke my heart!” Her career ambition is still to
become a rock star. Elia brings joy to many people…and frustration to a
select few.
Kate and Elia ran the flower-girl circuit
this past year, walking in the weddings of Greg’s three brothers. Their
tour included Denver last Thanksgiving, Los Angles during Spring Break,
and Grand Rapids in October. They are excited about their new aunts, but
now are looking for new ways to display their talents (and cuteness).
This
year I’m continuing my 3 part-time jobs (babysitting, appointment
scheduling and cleaning) which allow me to be home with Elia every
morning! I’m teaching Kate’s (and I bring Elia—part of the deal) GEMS
church class every other Wednesday night and am challenged and beloved
by the 9 girls in my group (or so I am told by my friends who did not
want the job). Since now every year I’m getting closer and closer to 40
(ack!) I find myself on and off the exercise bandwagon (Jillian
Michaels), and my record was 55 straight days of working out (after
which, to celebrate, I’ve been taking the last 2 months off). All of
this apparently is to no avail, as Kate mentioned to me that she’s not
sure how her newly pregnant teacher (the beautiful one) will be able to
fit her baby in her belly, ‘cause it “goes in, not out” like mine . =)
Ahh…children. She probably has a belly button too. (**if you do not get this reference, you'll have to check past blogs.)
Just
quickly, we added to our family in April—we ‘adopted’ Molly (Anne) the
kitten! She has been a super soft, super cute addition to our family. I
slept on the couch next to her when she was wee-tiny and sick, I clean
the litter box every day, and I pay for her food and vet visits, but
somehow she mostly (and perhaps only) loves Greg. Go figure.
WARNING: If you neither know, nor like Sarah's family of origin (the Nieuwsmas), read no further! However, do scroll down for pictures!!
Josh
and Mere have had quite the year. In late January Josh got a job at a
D.A. Blodgett—St. John’s, local nonprofit, where he is a Multi-Systems
Therapist. His clients are troubled youth and their families. He mostly
works with the parents of these kids helping them make better parenting
decisions. He says his work is rewarding and challenging. He has two
more years on a limited counseling license, and will likely stay at D.A.
Blodgett until he is a fully licensed counselor. Eventually Josh would
like to go into private practice.
My favorite Josh story
this year is when Greg excitedly told him all about our home renovation,
and how it was the plan to have it finished this summer. Josh, without
blinking said, “Oh, it won’t be done till at least Christmas.” Greg,
quite offended, worked hard to make things look good before Josh came to
our house a few weeks after that. Josh walked in, looked around and
said, “Oh, you’re doing some renovations?!”
Meredith
does leadership development, consistory training, and a whole bunch of
other stuff at the Reformed Church in America. She travels about 30 days
a year. She still loves her work and thinks she could potentially
retire from the RCA. She just got back from a trip to New York, and will
be leaving shortly for Phoenix. Not bad for a Michigan girl to have to
spend part of January in Phoenix!
Avery is three! She is a
very busy little girl. She goes to day care during the week and loves
it. Every day when Meredith picks her up from day care, she asks Avery
“What did you do today?” Without fail, Avery answers “Nothing.” Meredith
is pretty sure Avery does something at day care, but who knows what.
Avery refuses to be potty trained. Josh and Meredith are hoping that by
next year’s Christmas letter they will be done with diapers. We’ll see.
Despite what it might sound like, Avery is absolutely delightful. Her
favorite thing to do right now is play tea party with her grown-up tea
party set and real water in the teapot. She can spend a couple hours a
day playing tea party. At least she’s well hydrated.
Dad
is planning on retiring from full-time pastor next summer. About 20
members from his old church in Battle Creek surprised him by showing up
at pastor appreciation night at Dorr CRC. He’s taking a course in
clinical pastoral education just in case something opens up in part-time
hospital chaplaincy after he retires…Mom is still planning and cooking
elaborate meals. Only now she ends them with poignant questions (as she
did after thanksgiving) like, “So can you guys just tell me why you
voted for who you did?!”
The nine of us took a trip to
Ontario Canada last August to spend a week at Uncle Len and Aunt
Elaine’s new cottage up by Bobcaygeon. While there we went fishing,
water skiing, and swimming, besides doing an excessive amount of
reading, eating, and drinking, and just general relaxing.
Halfway
across the bridge to Ontario, Elia looked out the window and said,
“Canada is more beautiful than I ever imagined!” Yes my dear, it’s a
magical place! On the way up, we stopped by some old haunts in
Bowman-ville, Cobourg, and Grafton. Dad and mom could hardly believe
that the schools where they taught, once in the country, were now in the
middle of subdivisions. Dad was also very displeased to see the barn
gone and other general decrepitude at our old place north of Grafton.
The neighbor’s barn had disappeared too – no, wait; that happened while
we still lived there when Josh and his old friend Michael were
experimenting with matches.
We will all be leaving the
afternoon of Christmas Day for Gatlinburg, Tennessee where we’ll meet up
with my mom’s family for a 3-day Dykstra reunion. (The Nieuwsma’s meet
again in Iowa next July.)
The Nieuwsma family
experienced more loss this past year. Grandma Nieuwsma died in March,
and my dad’s sister Donna’s son Joshua died in an accident in May. He
had just finished his first year at Dordt. Last October my dear friend’s
3 year old son very suddenly died from a brain tumor. It seems death,
divorce, and sickness surround us too often, and I know I’m often at a
loss of words of what to say in these times…but find these mourner’s
testimonies of God’s faithfulness so powerful. Even when this life seems
too long and painful.
On that note I’m going to bid adieu. May God grant you much joy and peace this year…with much love,
Duane, Barb, Josh, Mere, Avery, Sasha-the-dog, Greg, Sarah, Kate, Elia and Molly-the-cat!
