Hello friends!

Every year I make these posts to reflect on what has filled the past twelve months. This year, the answer is… a LOT. Getting married and starting a new household has been quite an adventure, and one I don’t want to forget. So here’s a little recap of my 2022. Enjoy!

Highlights of 2022

Got married! I spent about half the year planning the wedding and the other half getting settled into married life. The wedding was AMAZING and the honeymoon was lovely, but I’ve honestly enjoyed regular married life with Sully a whole lot too. It’s so fun to have a best friend to go on adventures with. Of course there have been plenty of sad days and hard conversations too – marriage can be hard and painful, even within just 7 months. But it’s also like the best thing ever and always worth it regardless. Highly recommend. 🙂 I love being married to Sully, I love all the memories we’ve made already, and I’m looking forward to growing together in the years ahead. (Photo credit: @fredericksphotoandfilms)

And other weddings! My brother Logan married Chessie in September and I got a new sister-in-law! It was a lot of fun preparing for + being in their wedding. It’s crazy how quickly our family changed this year, goodness. Anyway, besides family weddings, I also got to attend and/or photograph several others. So beautiful and special.

Work recap. My Etsy shop did really well – especially the past couple of months – and I’ve almost made it to 900 sales! I made tons of tiny paintings this year, including some fun custom orders. I also got to design Jill Winger’s newest homestead planner and it turned out to be the best yet. On the farming side of things, the hay business has been quite busy as well and I went on many deliveries and did much rebaling. Dad and Mark have been teaching me how to do more tasks around the farm.

Housewife life. One of the most fun parts of married life has been getting to run my own house. I love cooking for Sully, decorating our living space, and even cleaning sometimes. 😛 I’ll probably make a post more about this in the future, but I enjoy occasional days completely at home, packing Sully’s lunch and sending him off to work after breakfast, tidying the house, listening to music while shipping Etsy orders, and relaxing over supper and a show or movie with Sully in the evening.

Church updates. The church we currently go to got a new pastor and the church plant group we’ve been in for a few years hired a pastor and is starting next year, ah! Church has been a big part of my year in various forms, groups, and conversations. I’ve visited several different churches (especially Sully’s old church) played piano and sang on the worship team at our current church, and greatly enjoyed food and fellowship and spiritual growth with the lovely church plant group. It’s going to be a huge change to start this new church and leave our current one and dear friends there. 😦 But I’m also super excited.

Current events. Recently everyone’s talking about ChatGPT and the new wave of AI intelligence. Will everyone use AI to write their school essays and social media posts in the future? Speaking of social media, BeReal became much more popular, but is still way behind Instagram. I think I’ll do that next year instead of my video-a-day challenge. In global news, an awful war between Russia and Ukraine started and is still happening. Gas prices went through the roof here – almost to $5/gallon – and inflation also skyrocketed. People say a recession is on the horizon. God knows what the next year will bring. But you know what? Despite all the scary or bad things that happened unexpectedly, we’re still here. I think He’ll be faithful next year too.

Gratitude lists

I wrote down at least one thing I was grateful for every day this year. Here are a few excerpts as a way to remember some happy moments and favorite things. 🙂

• Six inches of beautiful snow and a safe drive home
• Helping Mom can 76 quarts of applesauce!
• Making a good, homecooked supper
• Beautiful YouTube videos
• Sam and Graham’s engagement shoot was a success!
• The power is back on! And good sermons to listen to
• Quesadillas and Princess Mononoke with Sully
• My wedding dress came and I LOVE it! ❤ 😀

• Working on wedding invitation designing
• “Rise and Fall of Mars Hill” podcast
• Journey, Sam’s Club, and “Shaun the Sheep” with Sully and Aria – AND WE GOT THE HOUSE!
• A lovely Valentine’s date and wonderful Valentine 🙂 ❤
• Surprise b-day party for Sheridan at Maggiano’s
• Twosday party at the Alexanders
• The Jordan/King Cinderella play + Frosties
• Worship team practice here – I love singing!

• Photoshoot with Carmen and Nellie
• Pajama day at Brusters 😛
• Megan, ah. What would I do without her?
• A super fun annual family Costco trip
• A last, beautiful, foggy “Shed Thursday” with Sully ❤
• Cleaning our new house with Sully and my family – and pizza!
• Book club, Gram’s, Ann Marie’s, tire changing, and a double date with my parents
• Moving stuff into our Farmville house and setting it up!
• Church plant picnic at the Kings’
• First premarital counseling with Julie

• Dance lessons and practice with Sully
• An enchantingly beautiful bridal shower from Aria!
• Burritos and singing with Sully and Aria 😊
• Reading good books
• Powhatan Snack Shack with Sully and Jeff – and baby bunnies!
• A green truck ride to Cumberland with the cousins and Chessie and Sully ❤
• Sam and Graham’s wedding!
• Getting wedding gifts in the mail
• A productive day

• Pizza making contest and watching home videos
• Successfully made about 350 wedding doughnuts!
• Rico’s with small group, and Maggie’s life ❤
• A lovely birthday card and, just, Sully ❤
• Buffalo Party at the Beach House
• Chessie making my hair curly 🙂
• Foraging in the woods
• WE GOT MARRIED!!! 😀
• An amazing honeymoon

• Coffee shop internet, friendly cashiers, and a loving husband
• Sully singing at Karaoke Night 🙂
• “Babysitting” Carmen
• Gardening with Taylor
• Chessie’s birthday party and INTERNET!
• Lightning show in the sky
• Gyros at Elliott’s
• I made sourdough bread, yayyyy!

• Taro boba and Top Gun with Taylor and Chris
• Sully’s new blog and fireworks at Farmville
• Water Country USA with the Alexanders!
• I GOT MY PURSE BACK, AHH!
• Busch Gardens with Sully!
• $50 in tips from hay deliveries!
• Charter fishing with Dad’s family!
• Nick’s ordination service
• A rainbow!
• Sully! And a good birthday celebration, and AC

• Gwyn coming over for tea 🙂
• 10 hours of planner work done
• Chessie’s hair and makeup day and meeting Lydia Harrison
• Raymie the puppy and Sheridan’s haircutting skills, and Sully’s steadiness
• Name change at DMV completed
• Rockingham Fair and puppies and Aunt Edith’s water slide
• Embroidery and crochet with Emily Grace 🙂
• Mangoes
• Watching Princess Diaries and eating noodles outside
• A cute little girl at the hay delivery
• Sully taking care of me when I’m sick

• A safe art lesson day
• Petting a turkey 😛
• A fun “spa night” with Sully – face masks!
• Chessie and Logan’s wedding, ah!
• Bethany and Elliott are expecting!
• Our lovely little house
• Talks with Sully on long drives
• Fixing/cleaning Chessie and Logan’s house to surprise them 😊
• Beach trip with the Buffalos!
• Women’s Bible Study at the schoolhouse

• Visiting Gram and Granddaddy
• Fred stories and meeting baby Jonas
• Safety from the past hurricane (Dan)
• Women’s retreat and teaching watercolor class there
• Carmen’s play and Waldy’s ice cream
• Fall fest!
• Watching Sheridan sing on Journey’s worship team ❤
• How marriage reveals my weaknesses…
• Japanna day

• Leisha’s piano recital and after party and a good doctor appointment
• Gilmore girls episode 1 with Sully 😛
• Finishing editing the course videos!
• Art museum with Sully!
• Squeezed in an Aldi trip
• Helping Harrison with Christmas lighting!
• Jeff’s surprise birthday party
• Six wonderful months of being married to Sully ❤
• A fun Thanksgiving with my family – chameleon and planning
• Decorating our house for Christmas ❤
• Sully’s care after I passed out
• Church plant talent show

• Finding and setting up my Christmas tree!
• Girl talk with the Alexander girls 😛
• Sully’s patience with me
• Beery Christmas with shrimp and oysters!
• Making the dairy coat rack with Sully
• Hosting the Alexanders Christmas at our house!
• Photographing Rose and Devin’s engagement!
• Fezziwig ball
• Christmas caroling with the church plant group ❤
• A fun, relaxing Christmas day with Sully

blog stats

Blogging is going out of style (has been for a while) and it makes me sad. 😦 I’ve missed the chance to interact with others’ posts because… no one really posts anymore. Gone are the days. I feel like eventually I’ll have to stop blogging because I’ll be the only one who’s interested in it, haha. Anyway, I still made good memories, had good conversations, and was blessed with amazing readers this year. ❤

last year’s goals

Get married! Success! I already talked about this earlier so… yeah! It was the best decision of the year. 😉

Take a video every day. Success! Well, I missed a day or three but yes, I took a short video clip every day this year and am almost done making them into a movie. I am so happy with it.

Update my blog design and maybe URL. Success! Only minimally updated, but I at least changed my blog name and URL.

Rely on God, not others, myself, or my opinions. Man, I don’t know about this one. There were times when I felt more dependent on and trusting of God than ever, but I also fell into the trap of putting my happiness and worth in the hands of other people all too often. This is something I’ll have to work on for a lifetime.

next year’s goals

Get back into poetry. I want to start writing poetry more regularly again and maybe publish another book. 🙂 (You can check out my published books here.)

Be there for others. I’ve been so blessed by friends and family’s generosity, time, and love this year. I want to be more purposeful about serving others in that way. And hopefully by hosting more people at my house too.

Work on compassion over defensiveness. I’ve come to realize more clearly a lot of my strengths and weaknesses this year. (Marriage is great for that.) In light of that, I pray I can improve in listening without interrupting, allowing disagreement without having to be perfectly understood, and just having the humility to admit when I’m wrong instead of making excuses.

Finish reading through the Bible. I’m close to finishing my third reading of the Bible, and as I finish that in my own devotion time this year I’m also planning to read through it with a group of friends and family for a customized reading plan. It will be nice to have a group to be accountable to.

And that’s a wrap for 2022! This year held the best days of my life and some of the worst too. Lots of sadness from other people’s sadness – loneliness, drama, cancer, death… But also a boatload of happiness and joyful memories: exploring the town with Sully, hanging out with family and friends, going to so many fun events, and all the beauty around our wedding and the weddings of friends. ❤ Here’s to a marvelous 2023.

What are some of your goals for the next year? And what were some highlights/lowlights of 2022?

Thanks so much for reading, my friends, and have a lovely new year!

***Allison***