The Best of Times

Walking through downtown Galveston, on almost the last day of the year, we spotted this cute, handwritten sign. Even though we were all somewhere on the Virus Train of Death and not feeling very well, this stenciled sign made our family smile.
Thank you, Charles Dickens, for the poetic words. They have named my blog, named our beach house, and, now, will help us categorize our year as the best or worst of times.
It was the best of times…
…buying Best of Times (the beach house, that is) was a delightful surprise. Delightful because M and I knew we would like having a place in Galveston. We’ve often bugged realtors on the island to show us houses we couldn’t afford and dreamed about making one our own.
It was a surprise because God finally lined up all the variables of down payment, a house on the market too long, a teeny extra time in our schedules, and a healthy dose of faith at just the right time. We took the plunge and have loved owning Best of Times and operating it as a hotel. Every step of Best of Times Beach House has been surprising in how delightful it is. We will remember 2013 as the year all this started.
… all four kids at the same school this year. If you’re a new parent, going to be a parent soon, or an old parent, there’s something you should know: navigating your kids’ education is hard. Whatever you’ve figured out today could change tomorrow. You could suddenly realize you’ve had them in the wrong school or wrong class or missed an entire part of their personalities all together (more on that later). All those happened to us this year, and we finally moved Catie to private school. The best of times part? She loves it, she’s thriving, and we’ve learned how important small classes are for her.
Having Nate at the school this year too rounds out the Hergenrader population to an even 4. That’s just a fun bonus.
…starting a newspaper for the kids’ school was one of the best times this year.
One of my fanciest, most prestigiously-educated friends once confessed to me: “In another life, I was a hairstylist. I LOVE thinking about hair styles.”
My hidden love, what I love to think about , is pictures and text. You know, like newspaper photos that tell a story and which fonts to use for captions and headlines.
Just as much as I love graphic design, I love teaching. I get to teach at speaking engagements and Bible class. But besides Christmas cards and birthday invites, I don’t get to play around with desktop publishing much at all.
Until the kids’ school let me start a newspaper. Now I get to teach kids once a week AND I get to spend hours on Pages playing with fonts. In the grand scheme of my career, this may not be a great use of my time. For now though, it’s all very fun.
…this blog. My other hairstylist-beta-career-choice is blogger. I’m addicted forever and ever. If I could, I would just blog several hours a day. Seriously. I don’t care there are 2 million mommy blogs out there, this space is my happy place.
Thanks for coming here to read. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Knowing that all of you stop by to see what I’ve posted absolutely makes my day. Or, if no one stops by and my page views are down, crushes my day.
And the first time I got a check for you clicking on those ads on the side of the page? Overjoyed. Ecstatic. It could have been $100 or $1 million and I would have felt the same… someone was paying me for blog! Total best of time for this year.
…wonderful family memories, fun travel, friends new and old, close and far, Manny the Greyhound joining our family, and one zillion other blessings every single day were the best of times this year.
But it was also the worst of times…
…maybe it’s just because we have been SO SICK lately, but my heath can still be temperamental. Lots of prayer, a squeaky clean diet (how squeaky clean? no alcohol or coffee and very few processed foods), and lots of exercise keep me on the well side of chronic viruses. But for a day or two every month, those viruses come out of latency. That sucks
…four kids have a lot of needs. There is just a lot of them. I spend most of my day taking care of four other humans in the most intimate and best ways I can.  I don’t get much time to myself and that can get really hard. If you have four kids, let me know. I would really like to connect with someone else with a large family, someone who gets the pressures and struggles.
… between the blogging, the newspaper, the beach house, the four little people, the husband, and the commitment to my health, I’m not writing books right now. Almost every hour of every day, this bugs the crap out of me. I really, really wish I had a book coming out right now. I really wish I was dedicating lots of time to writing a book right now. But I’m not and that’s that. Maybe 2014?
… sometimes discovering how your kids learn is painful. This year we discovered so much about our kids, their learning abilities and disabilities, our expectations, and the reality of it all. This has a tough process. Man, I hope we’re doing everything we can to help our kids be successful.

The other side of that cute stenciled sign said, “Best or Worst of Times…You’ll always have a good time in here!”
That restaurant’s sign is exactly how this year has been. We’ve had some high highs and low lows, but through it all, our family has had a good time together.
And isn’t that the best you can hope for any year?