2013 Boersma Christmas Card

I went a little overboard with the kind of card we sent out this year, and therefore, could only afford to send 100 (and truthfully I should have kept it under 75...or been less picky about the cards on Shutterfly. And this year THEY OFFERED A SHIMMER FINISH...just stop). Anyway, I still wanted to share our Christmas letter with everyone on our blog. We've had a pretty bomb 2013...

"Come and behold Him, born the King of Angels..."

2013 was filled with excitement and stress; highs and lows; growth and change...and a lot of fun packed in between! We love spending time with family, especially now that our youngest siblings also call Ames 'home.' Opening our home to host parties with friends; college kids with their laundry; and connection group gatherings has continued to be one of our greatest joys as homeowners (as well as a great way to occasionally practice our patience!) Highlights from 2013 were..

January: Josh pushes snow. Mollie coaches Ames High Winter cheerleading. A friend moves into our spare bedroom for a few weeks. We buy new living room furniture! Mollie finally learns to sew thanks to her mother-and-sister-in-law.

February: Mollie coaches cheerleaders at State Wrestling for the first time (scary!). Josh plans for BLC's 13th summer. We babysit our niece and nephew overnight for the first time. We continue to love attending church at Cornerstone.

March: Chemical applications start for Josh. Mollie begins volunteering at Informed Choices (a pro-life medical clinic in Ames). We re-watch the entire series of How I Met Your Mother for the 5th time, starting with Season 1.

April: Mollie continues to enjoy working for 'her' realtor at Century 21. Josh has some equipment/warranty problems with Dixie Chopper. We spend a lot of time with our new connection group friends! Mollie still loves Pinterest.

May: Josh buys a new pellet gun with money from his 25th birthday. Mollie's sister 'moves in' for the summer. It rains 20" in less than a month and mowing is crazy! We have a lot of summer weddings to attend.

June: Josh's brother (and employee) leaves for a mission trip to Africa during the busiest part of the season. Josh works 80+ hours a week! Mollie re-paints the kitchen and dining room. We celebrate our third anniversary on June 19th!

July: Mollie road-trips with friends to Colorado for a wedding. The summer drought of 2013 begins. Josh buys Mollie an iPad as a 'five-months-early' birthday present. Mollie coaches at cheer camp and loves using her new iPad!

August: Josh works on the 'Man Cave' in the attic above the garage. The drought gets worse. A friend moves back into our spare bedroom for a few months and Mollie's sister moves into an apartment. We buy an acreage!!!!!!!!!!

September: Mollie decorates 422 13th St. for fall! Josh mows and treats his irrigated accounts but loses revenue due to the drought. Mollie gets her tonsils out and doesn't leave the house for two weeks. We make plans for fixing up our 'farm.'

October: We close on our acreage and the hard work begins. Our parents, siblings, and many friends stop by to offer their help with clean-up. Work for BLC explodes and Josh is very busy again! Mollie starts writing this Christmas letter.

November: We have 50+ people contact us with interest in renting our acreage! Mollie starts her cheer coaching season. Josh loves working at our new 'farm.' We host Thanksgiving for Mollie's side of the family. Josh prepares to push snow.

December: Mollie's Christmas decorating reaches new extremes (eight trees!). We host the 5th annual ThanksChristmas (a tradition our Salt Company friends started while we were all in college). We travel all over Iowa celebrating Christmas with both sides of the family. Josh can't stop watching Home Alone...Mollie can't stop glittering things...

All in all, we are thankful that God's timing is perfect in everything...and ours isn't. Josh had his fair share of stress and equipment problems scattered throughout the season, but we've survived another year as small-business owners. We are thankful that God has provided abundantly more than we deserve...even during a drought year! How great is our God?!

It's no secret; we're a little Christmas-obsessed (okay not a little...a lot). As we prepare to spend our 5th Christmas together, we've realized that the month of December has gradually spiraled out of control. For each of us growing up, Christmas revolved around Luke Chapter 2 and the wonder of the real Christmas story. Josh hardly remembers doing anything 'Santa' at his house...and Mollie's favorite family tradition was (and still is!) attending the Christmas Eve service. We love starting our own traditions; watching Hallmark movies; throwing parties; and celebrating old traditions with family...but we've found ourselves straying from what really matters at Christmastime. Those fun, cozy, tasty, Christmassy things are all wonderful (and help make this time of year so special!) But it's time for us to drop everything and...

"Come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord."

Time for Another...Acreage Update!

Where did November go? I'm sorry, is it really DECEMBER FIFTH TODAY?!

No. No. No.

We knew this was going to happen. We had mentally prepared ourselves for months for how crazy this farmhouse monstrosity would be. But there is just no amount of planning and organizing that can prepare someone for a December like the one we're about to have. I'm admitting defeat.

I should have started my Christmas shopping and crafting in August. Because at this rate, none of you will be getting presents, and our letters won't arrive in your mailboxes until January. Seriously.

I knew it was a good idea to start writing our Christmas letter in September! I KNEW IT!

So the house...where do I begin...storm windows are up on the outside and there is plastic on all the windows inside. Bathroom is in the process of being torn apart and put back together again. Fun Fact: We currently have a nice little 'laundry chute' from the main level to the basement, in the form of a rotten hole in the bathroom floor! That probably freaked you out a little and made you question our sanity (like you have been for the past two months)...never fear. My husband is Josh Boersma. And a rotten bathroom floor is nbd.

Josh replaced some pipes in the basement. Our plumber/heating/cooling guy ran ducts/vents upstairs to the three bedrooms that didn't have heat, and fixed a laundry list of other small things. The propane tank is filled! The water softener is on and operating correctly! Kitchen cupboards are up and the kitchen is FINISHED. Parlor is FINISHED. Two out of three upstairs bedrooms are FINISHED. Landing/Stairway is FINISHED. That felt good...here's what's left.

Bathroom re-do. Front entrance re-do. Final coat of paint in the 'Great Room' (aka the living and dining room...). Final coat of black paint on ALL floors (so excited for this part). Priming/painting/finishing the third upstairs bedroom. Rolling out living room carpet. And a final cleaning sweep of the entire place. I'd say the end is in sight, but my husband isn't exactly feeling that way today (the impending snow storm, his lack of extra helpers, and the hole in the bathroom floor are a perfect recipe for high blood pressure).

We're meeting with our favorite renter candidate today at the farm and praying that we will have a signed lease very soon! With that part off our 'plate' I think we would be able to enjoy the remaining work at the farmhouse a lot more.

My farmhouse projects are at a standstill until more 'stuff' is ready to be painted. So in the meantime, I'm attempting to keep our finances, house, and schedules organized. Oh, and make plans for hosting the annual ThanksChristmas party. :) I tried meal planning last night but realized that I'll be gone for supper for about 8 nights during the next two weeks (thanks to a busy cheer schedule). So instead of planning meals into my Google Calendar, I inserted a shopping trip to Fareway tomorrow night after the basketball game to buy more frozen pizza. Yes folks...tomorrow night at 8pm, my schedule reads, 'Pay monthly bills' and 'Grocery trip to Fareway'. I gave it a good effort though, right?

And a midst all the shopping and spending and farmhouse craziness and Christmas insanity I have managed to get a Nativity in almost every room of our house, and plastered every chalkboard surface with Christmas Hymn's and verses...because I WILL NOT let this season slip away, and forget to give GLORY TO THE NEWBORN KING!

Stay tuned for more 422 13th St. Christmas magic. ;)

MmB

#imabirthdayprincess

It seems completely inappropriate that I haven't gotten around to blogging about one of my favorite things in life...MY BIRTHDAY...until December 2nd, but better late than never, right? Here are a few highlights from my birthday week celebration AND and a small update on what we accomplished at the house during that week.

Monday of birthday week was celebrated by going shopping for my birthday present with Jamie. She bought me this adorable pillow that looks perfect on our magical Christmas bed. I ended the evening with a visit from my BFF Nikki and a bottle of Prairie Moon wine...the perfect way to kick off birthday week.

On Tuesday I got to see some friends at Connection Group, which was fun, but missed Josh being there because he was working. I like having a birthday week because people start to forget when my actual birthday is, give up, and just wish me happy birthday all week long. This has been part of my master plan from the beginning.

On Wednesday THIS arrived at the office for me which was a surprise for a couple of reasons...1) It was Wednesday and technically not my birthday and 2) Jamie has no money and she STILL sent me flowers. What-a-sis. 

Thursday was extra-fun because my best-friend-since-2nd-grade-Erryn and her husband Sean came up to Ames for our annual birthday celebration supper. I had grand plans to take them to The Cafe, but when the wait was 45 minutes, we ended up where we always do...Hickory Park. :) Erryn's birthday is on the 18th, so we've made a big deal about our birthday's since our first sleepover in 2nd grade when I had Erryn over but she left at 8:00pm because she didn't want to spend the night. Which was actually some sort of weird foreshadowing because with their hectic work/school schedules, Erryn and Sean usually like to end our dinner dates by 8pm so they can get home and get to bed. ;) It was a great night and we need to fit them into our schedules more!

Aaaaaaaand Friday. The grand finale. My dad called me at 7am to sing Happy birthday; Josh's dad texted the words, 'Have a fantabulous day' (hahahaha Vern); Nikki and Peter Seehusen BOTH called to sing Happy Birthday over the phone in it's entirety (note: neither are known for their singing talents, so this was pretty special); everyone at C21 wished me happy birthday, cheerleaders wished me happy birthday, my fellow cheer coaches/friends got me a Starbucks gift card, my boss Tami got me a scarf (she knows me so well); a voicemail from G'ma Junice; and to really make the day, JOSH BOUGHT ME FLOWERS!!! My husband has never gotten me flowers in the three and a half years that we have been married, so this was a big deal. In fact, when Stacey brought them back to my desk she said, 'Are they from Josh?' and I said, 'Oh no they have to be from my parents, Josh doesn't buy me flowers,' and SURPRISE! He even specifically asked for a hydrangea to be in the bouquet because he knows that's my favorite flower. :)

My birthday present from Josh this year was an iPad in July and a car that came a couple weeks after my birthday...both of which were totally over-the-top, undeserved, and wonderful because I have a husband who goes all out, or would say it's not worth doing at all. This is a pretty good example of that. ;)

We went to Old Chicago for birthday supper and then to the movie About Time which was REALLY GOOD! Josh even liked it...probably because of the touching father-son twist at the end. It wasn't what I expected for a romantic-comedy, but it was still really good.

Just when you thought birthday week ended on Friday...just kidding! We partied hard all weekend long. And the partying hard consisted of guilting as many people as possible into helping work at the farm in honor of my birthday. :) Nikki and Kate got up early on a rainy Saturday morning to come help paint, along with both my mother and father-in law and Jamie. We primed 'The Great Room' together in the morning and Kurt and Jill joined in the fun during the afternoon. I reward everyone with Casey's pizza when they come help, so let me know if you're interested...I'm convinced that at this point, we are the ones keeping the doors open at Casey's in Huxley we've ordered so much pizza in the past month. 

Saturday night was birthday celebration with the Boersma side thanks to Vern and Applebee's. My sister-in-law crocheted me a red infinity scarf and hat and Vern and Patti gave me money for the brown boots I bought back in September as my early birthday gift from them. ;) 

Sunday meant more work at the farm finishing trim on the bedrooms upstairs, and touching up places where we missed in the stairway. My parents visited both of my G'mas that day and swung back through Ames for my final birthday supper and presents at Noodles and Company. I got a serving bowl that matches my Christmas dishes and Sarah Palin's new book about Christmas...which I am planning to crack open today. :)

Of course I love getting presents and feeling special during my birthday week...but the most special gift this year has been all the help we've been getting at the farm from friends, and especially our family. Both sets of parents have been RELENTLESS in coming every weekend to help. There hasn't been a single weekend since October 18th that we haven't had one or both sets of parents helping on Saturday or Sunday or both...which is pretty amazing. Our siblings have all pitched in to help and people keep congratulating us on how great the place is looking and how much work we've accomplished and it's totally NOT US. We wouldn't have 1/4 of the work on this farmhouse done if it weren't for our families...I know I am in the minority when it comes to the amazing relationship I have with my in-laws but that's become even more clear in the past couple months. So this is just one big THANK YOU FAMILY. We are so blessed and so thankful for ALL OF YOU.

Here's what upstairs bedroom #1 looked like after birthday week...

MmB