January felt like forever, but now February is running away from me as fast as she can! So before any more of 2019 slips through my fingers, here’s a couple of things about our not-so-new-anymore year 😉

In 2014 I started the tradition in our family to choose a quote for the year. Something to inspire us and to embody our goals and intentions for the year. Although I’m sharing it belatedly, we did choose a quote for 2019 (after much searching and discussion!), and here it is:

This quote about self-care comes from yoga teacher and author Amy Ippoliti. To me, self-care isn’t just for the sake of enabling us to serve others, but to empower ourselves for our own personal growth. James and I are passionate about our hobbies. For him it’s cycling and working to make our city more bike-friendly. For me it’s singing with the Common Woman Chorus. Making time for things we love to do, but don’t have to do gives us a way to replenish ourselves with energy we use to do our best in our careers and with love that we give back to our family. It also gives us opportunities to learn and grow in ways that are just for ourselves.

Our quote for the year is mainly for James and myself, but in a way it applies to the kids too. They also need time and space for rest and play to kindle their little inner fires of inspiration and curiosity. Calvin said that this year he wants to get better at riding his bike and climbing trees, and he wants to go to science museums more. Henry is becoming more communicative every day and learning and evolving in his play.

In the vein of self-care and being intentional about how I spend my time and energy, I am sorry to share that this will likely be my only blog post for 2019. I feel it’s time for me to admit that blogging just isn’t a priority in my life right now and I can’t keep trying to come up with ways to keep it up. I may update the boys’ info pages on the blog website from time to time. And I may get back into blogging in the future if/when my work life is less demanding. For now, it’s hello goodbye from me. I will continue to share about our lives as a 22q and dup15q family on our Instagram @surprisinglyspecial, and I’ll do occasional posts on our FB Surprisingly Special page. So if you’d like to keep up with us, please find us there 🙂

Thank you for reading, thanks to all who have followed my little blog here.

The other new year’s tradition that we dropped the ball on this year was sending out new year’s cards. So in lieu of an actual card (and about two months late!), please accept this lovely professional photo of our family along with our sincere wishes of peace and joy for you and yours. ❤️