A 2022 Appreciation Post

Hello friends, and happy New Year!

I hadn't originally planned to do a 2022 recap post simply because, well... it was a busy, multi-dimensional year. :'D An amazing year in a lot of ways, but also hard to summarize. Then I saw my friend Lily's recap post where she shared brief highlights and a few photos from each month, and now I'm stealing that format. XD Thank you, Lily.

And now for a peek inside my 2022, four days late...

January

January was pretty quiet; a welcome break from crazy December. I practiced with my new DSLR, started a new college class, and had Emily over for a birthday sleepover and photoshoot.

Highlights:

• Organizing a Smile Project for a sweet friend of mine

• Hanging out with Emily

• The gorgeous snow and ice formations left after a quick freeze

• Spending time with rarely-seen cousins

February

I wasn't expecting to have a very exciting 16th birthday, but the week was filled with unexpected little surprises from friends and I felt very loved. :) Later in February my youth group had its huge winter retreat weekend which was incredible- God worked in some pretty cool ways in my life. This was a fun month!

Highlights:

• My small group leader coming to the barn with me the day before my birthday

• My barn friends giving me a mini surprise party on the same day

• The laughter and tears and hugs and posed photos of Amplify weekend

• Going for a walk at a park with a friend I hadn't talked to in a while

• The way God unexpectedly used this month to set the tone for the whole year :)

March

March was relatively quiet if I'm remembering correctly. The defining event was getting to be a leader at a conference in Kentucky with a whole bunch of 4th and 5th graders from my church! When I was that age I desperately wanted older girls to invest in me, so it was pretty cool to get to be that person for a vanful of crazy preteens.

Highlights:

• Superstart conference weekend with some pretty amazing preteens

• My aunt, uncle, and cousin spending a few days with us

• Lots of time at the barn

• Making lots of progress on my fantasy/dystopian novel (starring my fictional child Jack)

• The first glimpses of spring

April

April was nuts, in a good way. It feels like 35 separate events happened in my one week of spring break this year. XD This month I went to a For King & Country concert and a Gray Havens concert, spent a night at Emily's house, got my driver's permit (finally), made a silly video with my dad, we bought a car for me to use, and I spoke onstage at youth group and taught a horse to paint. *gasps for air*

Highlights:

• The two concerts- wildly different but both amazing

• Dressing up Emily's goats and photographing them

• Not wrecking any vehicles

• Being whacko with my dad

• Celebrating Easter!

May

Oh look, another fun one! XD Most of the month was spent overthinking about the spring Celtic Ball because that's what I do. :'D But then the ball finally came and it was a-may-zing, as always. Then school ended and I got to go on a serve trip with my youth group to a little summer camp on an island in Lake Erie!

Highlights:

• Feeling like a princess at the Celtic Ball

• Celebrating the last day of school with the little girl I babysit

• The craziness of the serve trip (Where the cover photo came from, too)

• Getting a great final grade in a hard class

June

June actually had barely anything going on, which was pretty nice actually. XD I got to catch my breath after the crazy spring and work on a bunch of art projects.

Highlights:

• Visiting my grandparents in Columbus

• Lots of time for art and photography

• Lovely weather outside

• My cousin's graduation party

July

Julys are always busy for my family, and this one was no exception. :'D Looking through all the photos from this month makes me miss summer. I spent two weeks at camp as a junior wrangler (barn staff), and it was one of the greatest parts of my entire year!

Highlights:

• Celebrating the Fourth of July with friends and family

• Seeing a Marvel movie in the theater

• Getting to see some online friends at a Charlotte Mason homeschool retreat

• All the amazing parts of camp- making new friends, riding to my heart's content, seeing God work

• Taking walks with my dog and hanging out at our favorite spot

August

Before summer came to a close, I got to have a few more weeks of quiet. It was a relatively uneventful month, but a good one!

Highlights:

• A fun photoshoot with Emily

• Helping her family bathe chickens before the fair (and not having to get stitches when I got a deep scratch XD)

• The most gorgeous skies practically every night

September

My family prefers to take vacations around Labor Day weekend when places aren't as busy. This year, we first went to a family camp weekend at a camp run by old friends of my parents, which was so much fun! I just love camp. :P Then we spent the rest of the week in a little town on the coast of Lake Erie called Lakeside; very chill and nice.

Highlights:

• Ziplining and other camp things on part one of vacation

• Hanging out as a family on vacation part two

• Thrift shopping with Emily and my mom

• The end of an amazing summer season at the horse barn

October

Autumn this year was absolutely stunning! The brightly colored trees made normal fall activities even more fun.

Highlights:

• My cousin's wedding!

• Taking lots of pictures with my DSLR when our community group spent a day together

• Inktober

• Dressing up as Anna from Frozen for Halloween as a surprise for my sister

• A quick visit from some friends who moved out of state this summer

November

November has historically been one of my least favorite months, but this one was decent. XD I didn't take many pictures for whatever reason, so you get two from the autumn/winter Celtic Ball.

Highlights:

• Getting my driver's license (finally)

• Dancing all night at the ball with the best people

• Hosting Thanksgiving at our house

• All the love and support I get from various friends- it was especially evident this month. :)

December

And lastly, Christmas season! Our Christmas break looked a little different than usual this year because we got sick and a big winter storm gave us sub-zero temps for a few days (the windchill got down to -30°). :'D But staying home was actually pretty nice, and we still got to see family later in the week.

Highlights:

• Driving to a coffee shop to get work done

• Finding epic Christmas gifts for various family members

• Finding out some Very Exciting News (more on that in a second...)

• Petting sweet bunnies at a farm park near where my grandparents live

• Hanging out at home on Christmas day and then driving up to Michigan the following week

Well that took a while to write. XD Overall, 2022 was pretty fantastic. It definitely wasn't all sunshine- last winter was incredibly hard for different reasons, and there were weeks this summer where I just felt so overwhelmed and lost. (I explain more about that in this post.) But all year God was working through the good and the bad, through my worst moments and my best, to change my heart in tremendous ways. I've grown so much this year, and it was only by God's grace that certain situations played out the way they did to produce many of the highlights I've listed. There are countless books, songs, conversations, and experiences that shaped me this year, and they're really hard to summarize! If you're a friend and you made a special memory with me this year, know that it was absolutely one of my year's highlights too- your friendship is so important to me, and if you're not mentioned here it's because I wasn't sure if I could share a photo of you or there wasn't room! :P Thank you for being part of my 2022. <3

Lastly, before I sign off I want to let you readers know that I will be double posting this week! This post took a long time to put together and I have some exciting personal news about something happening in 2023 that's rather time-sensitive, so I want to start sharing about it as soon as possible. Stay tuned!

As always, thank you bunches for reading and encouraging. :) How did your year go? Feel free to message me if there's any way I can pray for you this new year. Here's to 2023!

-Alayna