2020 Overview!

Hey all!

I can’t believe that yet another year has flown by. It seems as if it were just yesterday that I was starting this blog…my, how quickly life flies.

Anyways, it’s time for the yearly overview of how my year went. It was a great year, full of a lot of spiritual and emotional growth. Definitely a good year.

January – 2020

January was a great month! We had our first snow of the year, and the actual real snow of that winter (before, we had just had a little bit of snow, but not much at all.)

My family and I went on a field trip to the Marland Mansion, in Ponca City. We went on a tour of the building, the grounds around it, and a few of the nearby buildings. It was really awesome, and we had a great time!

I had the privilege of getting to hang out with my two lovely friends and neighbors, Hero (https://foxtale.art.blog) and Chloe (https://chloemail.wordpress.com)! They are both such wonderful people and I encourage you to check their blogs out. 😊

I was also able to go to a dance class, in January, with some of my best friends! It was SO much fun and I had a blast!

https://youtu.be/rbR0YKgprOY

Mom met up with her sister at a tea place, and she also let me meet up with one of my best friends, Riley!! We had SO much fun, and afterwards, went grocery shopping, where we ended up goofing around on the showcase laptop computers, in Wal-Mart (one of my favorite pastimes, while Mom is grocery shopping.). 😝

I had the privilege of doing the lights for an amazing play, with my very wonderful friends. We had a grand time together, talking in British accents 95% of the time (even when not rehearsing) and I had so much fun!

I learned a lot, in January. I realized how much I needed to love the people around me, to be selfless and sacrificial, to be a good friend, but to also tell others about my own problems. January was filled with a lot of fun times, but it came with its bit of hurt and anxiety. Overall, however, I found it to be an absolutely lovely month, full of lots of learning and new experiences.

We shall now move onto February…

February – 2020

February was such a fun, busy month!

First off, we went to my cousins’ house, to watch the superbowl. That was loads of fun, even if I was the only one out of 18 people who was rooting for the 49er’s. 😝

We had more snow to enjoy, in February!! We had so much fun, playing outside with our lovely neighbors!

Mom and Dad won a cruise to Puerto Rico, so our neighbors came over and stayed with us for a week. We had so much fun, and became really close!! (You can read more about that fun experience here: https://keziahe.home.blog/2020/02/18/siblings-for-a-week/ )

We went to a civil war ball, also in February!! It was loads of fun, and I had SUCH a good time! The dancing was just great, and I waltzed and polkaed, better than I ever had before. It was an experience not soon to be forgotten, and I hope to go this next year in 2021, again!

We made a short film with our dear neighbors, and had so much fun!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_tSCJ3mZZY&feature=youtu.be

I took a lot of photos in February, and had a grand time, tromping through the woods and getting some great shots!

February closed with us going to winter jam. It is Christian music’s largest annual tour, and we had such a great time, getting to hang out with friends!!

March – 2020

March was a great month, and I learned a lot of things. My relationship with God grew a good deal in this month, and I learned to trust in His plans more, and not my own desires.

We went roller skating as usual, at the beginning of the month. It was great, and I got to hang out with some awesome friends!!

My sister, Tirzah and I, went to the zoo with our dear neighbors, Chloë and Sophie!! Make sure to check out dear Chloë’s blog here: http://www.chloemali.wordpress.com

I wrote a lot in March, for my historical fiction novel! It was awesome!

And, as y’all know, March was pretty much when people got way more serious about COVID-19. The rest of March, we spent at home. 🙂

April – 2020

April was filled with lots of social distancing, but good times with the family. Here are some photos, from the month of April. 🙂

Dad was an “essential worker”, and we went on a couple of business trips with him, in the Spring.

May – 2020

The month of May was full of lots more work with Dad. We made sure to avoid as much physical contact as possible and to wear masks when required to.

We also got to see my aunt, uncle and their family, in May!!! It was so much fun!

Also in May, I was able to accomplish my goal of writing 200 letters, in 2020!!

June – 2020

June was a pretty great month. I got to see all my amazing best friends again after almost one hundred days of not seeing them. So, it was so awesome, getting to swim in the river, dance on the sand (and, also, the river!! It was amazing.) and just hang out. We all had such an awesome time.

I also cut my hair, mid-June!!! I hadn’t cut my hair that short for ten years, so it was a total new experience for me. I loved it, though!!!

We were able to start attending our house church again, also in June! It was amazing, getting to worship and learn with some of my best friends, again.

We celebrated one of my cousin’s birthdays and were able to get all of Mom’s side of the family together for it!! It was great, since that usually only happens on a holiday. We had a grand time. 😊

One of my other cousins, also had a birthday party, which we were able to go to. It was a party at TopGolf and it was SO fun!!

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I am officially obsessed, with taking selfies with mannequins. I’m telling you. It is loads of fun to see people cast glances at you and think you’re so strange, while you pose… But I just love it.

Our dog had six, adorable corgi puppies in June!! Here is me with my favrotir one, which I named Sweet Maria, after one of my favorite authors wife… (Bob Goff – wife is Maria Goff. 😊)

July – 2020

July was a FANTASTIC month!! Definitely a great month of spiritual and emotional growth and I learned a lot, all while having a

great time with family and friends.

So, my brother found a wolf spider that had been paralyzed by a hunting easo. Being the kind of person who loves bugs (especially spiders), I took it up on myself to nurse him back to health. I initially named him “Inigo Montoya”, but when he survived, I renamed him ” Miracle Max” (You are welcome, all you Princess Bride fans out there. 😊

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Of course, the 4th of July was loads of fun. We went to Iowa to celebrate with some of Dad’s family, rode in a parade, played foursquare volleyball, had a water balloon fight and lots more.. It was great!!

My aunt and uncle came to visit us for a little bit, along with my cousin. She was absolutely adorable and it was so fun to get to reconnect with my aunt and uncle and play soccer with them.

A lot of our neighbors (and a couple of families in the surrounding area…) got together for an evening and it was so great to be able to hang out with them all!!

I counted all my letters I had received from people over the years, with writing, and I counted 590! (The count has gone up now, since I’ve written and received a whole, whole lot more…)

I got together with my wonderful group of friends and we practiced our dancing at the river, again! It was loads of fun and I was able to get some more dances learned!

August – 2020

August was a really good month. We started school, I got to be with friends and it was just very great.

September – 2020

September was SUCH a fun month for me!! We started our homeschool co-op, had lots of dancing, I ran a 5k…it was great!

Some of my family members and I ran a 5k to raise money for a pregnancy crisis center. You can read about it here, and I just want to thank everyone AGAIN for helping me reach my goal!!!

October – 2020

October was DEFINITELY one of my most very favorite months of the year. It was such a good, growing month. It was rough at some points and I learned a lot. But also, a very joyous and lovely month to live in. 🙂

(Photos…Left to Right, starting at top: )
1. Some of my really awesome friends and I, on the way up the “mountain”. 2. My best friend and I on the way back down. 🙂 3. All of us at Braum’s to eat!! 4. Moms and kids at Braum’s. 5 (bottom). Some of us carpooling on the way there! 6. Two of my siblings and I, at the top! 7. All us kids, before leaving for the hike. 8. Me at the top! 9. All of us kids at the very top!!! 10. Hiking up there! My friend Micah and I. 🙂

So, we hiked up Elk “mountain” with a pile of really great friends and it was so awesome!! We had a super fun time and made lots of great memories.

We helped our dear neighbors with the building of their house. We got pretty dirty, but it was great!

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My brother Laz and I had a fun time, taking some photos…

We had a dance practice for my ball, halfway through October. It was so fun!!

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I am a part of a re-enactors guild, and we decided to have our own photoshoot, dressed up in our Victorian attire. It was loads of fun!!

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It was a lot of fun (and really tiring!!) to get ready for the ball… But it was good. And we had some great friends to help. ☺

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The ball was amazing (read more about it here)!!! There were definitely some stuff that we could have done differently to make it go better, but for a first-planned ball, I thought it went marvelous. 💕

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We had a huge ice storm come through our area! We were without power for 94 hours and lost lots of tree limbs, result in in massive clean-up. You can read about it here.

November – 2020

Let’s just say, this was an interesting month. It was filled with a lot of growing, in my life…

I took our family photos at the beginning of November, and it was great! If you want to see more, check out my post here, all about it.

We went on a field trip as a family and ended up at a park. It was really pretty and Mom wanted to take some photos of me…

I was able to do a photoshoot for our neighbors and it was great! I had a fun time doing that with them. 🙂

Dad is into real estate. He bought a house which had a lot of 1950’s stuff in it, so I took some and set to work making it come back to life. I got over 30 handkerchiefs, a little baby stroller and baby clothes and lots more…It was a lot of fun!!

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I mended a couple of vintage formal dresses and did a photoshoot with them…They’re all listed on Ebay and Etsy, for sale and I can send a link to some, if you’d like. 🙂

We attended an airsoft fight near the end of November, and had a super fun time with that!! It was my first official airsoft fight, and I had a blast.

Of course, there was Thanksgiving. We had two of our neighbor families over and had a super fun time, eating too much, laughing so hard and flipping pies. 😊

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My brother and I invested in a house with Dad, and got my sister and some friends of ours, to help us work on it. We had a super awesome time and for a lot done!!

December – 2020

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We worked more on the house we invested in, and got a lot done (plus it was extra fun to do with friends 😉).

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We were able to attend a big airsoft fight (69 people fighting) on my birthday!! It was super fun and we had a great time.

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We got another mid-December and LOVES it!! We don’t usually get a ton of snow, in Oklahoma…. We rollicked about, I did a photo shoot with myself, and had a friend over to do one with her. 🥰

Of course, there was Christmas and Christmas Eve. We had Mom’s family over to celebrate Christmas Eve, and had a super great time.

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My cousin graduated in December, so we went to that and had a super great time!! We hung out, played Dutch Blitz and Spoons. 😊

I had a ton of goals I wanted to accomplish for 2020 (I always do so many…I figure, why not go big and try to do them all?)… These are basically the only ones I remember…

I wanted to write 200 letters. – I ended up writing a total of 524 to 111 individual people.
It was crazy, but amazing!! I LOVE writing letters and enjoyed it soo much (and if you’d like to write me, I’d love it. Just contact me via my contact form. 😉 ).

I wanted to drink a lot of tea and read my Bible every day. – I think I missed one day of reading my Bible in 2020? I have no excuses. I was SO upset at myself for it, and have strived to do better…

I wanted to learn more dances. – I learned a lot more!! Not sure how many…But a lot. I love dancing sooo much. 🙂 ❤

Learn the splits – Miserable fail. This is my….4th year, of trying for this? Oh well…….I’ve given up, making that a goal…

I wanted to love people more. – I think I’ve gotten better at this? At least, God has definitely been teaching me more about that and I learned a lot in this regards, during 2020.

I wanted to grow in my relationship with God. – God totally did that!! God taught me sooo much, this past year of 2020. I LOVE how God never, ever stops teaching us, when we open ourselves up. And how, no matter WHAT, we will never stop learning and growing in Him. ❤

Some of my goals for 2021….

Read my Bible EVERY day and grow more in my relationship with Jesus. ❤
Get my license (yes I’m 17 and yes, I still haven’t gotten it yet….I don’t particularly enjoy driving….ah well. I am committed to getting the license this year!!).
Write a lot. (No set-goal in particular…)
Graduate from high school (woohoo!).
Invest in at least 5 things.
Have 2 hours of time TO MYSELF per week (excellent usage of time, to just sit and think…we’ll see how well I accomplish this. 🙂 ).
Love others more and put them before myself in my day-to-day life.
Use my time for other’s and God’s glory (I really, REALLY want this next year to be a year focused on serving more and putting others before myself. <3).
To do a plank for 12 minutes straight (my current record is 7 minutes…)
To be more consistent in journaling.
I wasn’t going to say this, but…….. I suppose I will, seeing as y’all will figure it out eventually, I’m sure. I should be entering a courtship after I graduate this next year in 2021, so that’s really exciting. My goal for that, is to honor God with it and for it to be a time to look back on with fond memories, and not regret. 🙂 ❤

That’s about all of the goals!!!!

Well, to end this very, very long rambling post (sorry about that!!)…. 2020 was filled with a ton of new experiences. I learned so much, I felt pain, I felt joy…. It was a full year. But overall, I have loved it and I can’t wait to see what 2021 brings. Here’s to a better year, full of God’s love and constant growth. ❤