THANKFUL FRIDAY

In these last few weeks of December, I’m finding myself to be at a loss. I’ve finished my Christmas shopping. Things at work are slowing down so that no one is on a microscope on Mondays and the calendar doesn’t fill up until Thursdays. Then I have two days of being busy and the rest of my time has been spent reading up on live cell nuclear stains. I am also spending a large amount of headspace on squashing the feeling that I’m missing something. For instance, did I really book the Airbnb for Christmas with my family or did I dream that part? Have I purchased enough gifts to make all the people happy? Have I made any real plans for the coming year or are those still roaming free-range in my head?

I can tell you that the answers to those questions are yes, probably not, and a nope.

I’m sure that being this organized around the holidays is meant to be a good a thing, leaving time for just enjoying the moments. This is the reason that I make the effort to be ahead of the game this time every year, so I can sit back and bask in the holiday glow. Maybe do some baking (that’s hilarious and I said maybe). Avoid the crowded mess of people shopping for last minute gifts. Turns out that I’m not so good at basking and the doer inside me can’t stop thinking that I need to do something.

Karen Walrond sent out a recent newsletter with journalling prompts for reflecting on the past year and taking time to celebrate your joy. I know many people who really had a rough go of things in 2023 and they’re more than ready to start anew in 2024. This makes me think back on years when I had a rough go of things and I wonder if I have the experience to encourage people to take a moment to celebrate your victories of this year before moving on. I’ve had plenty of years when my joy to celebrate is just the act of getting out of bed in the mornings. I don’t feel that 2023 has been much of a struggle for me. I did some things that challenged me and were outside of my comfort zone, but those things led me to goodness.

I have yet to sit down and do any of the journal prompts, but I did go ahead and compile an album of pictures for the year. There are pictures from this year where I had to pause and ask myself “Did that happen this year?!” not because I don’t remember it happening. Some of it just feels like is happened ages ago. Usually my end-of-year slide show goes on and on. This year, I made a real effort to only include pictures with people and animals, but it was hard to not throw in some pictures that I took of places. Some of my best pictures do not include a single person and they were taken in moments of great joy. But today, I’m celebrating moments of joy that includes the wonderful people in my life.

2022 IN PICTURES

It is the time of year where I like to take a moment and look back on all that happened in a year’s time. It’s important that I do this before I start jumping ahead to the new year. My brain is already buzzing with things I want for 2023 and lately the buzz hasn’t gotten so loud that I want to start screaming like that guy studying for his midterms in Real Genius. Looking back on the year is helping my brain be less buzzy. I did some real self care work and earned a Self Care Advocate certificate of completion. We traveled some and we had moments of being silly. We made good on a promise to take the Cabbage to Canada, but what I really see when I look back at my pictures for this year is love. I captured so many moments of love. Family, friends, friends succeeding at things, people celebrating love, so much love. I want more of that in 2023.

THANKFUL FRIDAY

This is my last Thankful Friday post for this year and a good time to reflect and be grateful for the life lived in 2018. Really, it was pretty good. There was lots of travel and sight seeing. There were opportunities to squeeze some people that I don’t get to see very often. We ate some really good food and we finally cleaned out our basement. I haven’t spent any time really seriously considering what I might want next year to look like. There’s an adult beginners fiddle class starting up at the end of January that I am considering. I need a violin. I want to eat fresh snails. Not frozen or canned. Fresh ones. I want to do more yoga related things and I want to use my camera more often. I want to write something.

But for right now, I just want to sit back and enjoy the memories of this year.

2017 IN PICTURES

As I was putting together this year's picture video, I couldn't help but notice how different this year looked compared to last. I travelled a whole lot in 2016 and not so much in 2017. The result is that my pictures include more faces of the framily I'm building in KCMO. I like this a whole lot. In 2017, we all watched as our friend Charles became an ordained priest. We marched for women and we marched for science. We camped and added a lot of stamps to our National Parks Passport. We added new framily members. We witnessed a total eclipse. The Cabbage turned seven and got her ears pierced. Politically this year sucked, but personally, this year was pretty good to us. 

Next year will bring new adventures and new joys, but right now I'm going to be grateful for the adventures and joys of 2017. 

THE YEAR IN PICTURES

I'm not going to say that 2016 was the worst. Trust me when I say that I have had way worse years then this last one, but 2016 has kind of sucked. I saw a headline about how Generation Xers have lost a lot of childhood touch stones this year. I don't know how many times I watched Labyrinth and wished with my whole hear that David Bowie would one take my virginity. There were so many summer drives through back country roads with the windows down while blaring Little Red Corvette. I used to joke about how cute and teeny Prince was, how he was so tiny, he'd fit my pocket. I suppose the final nail has been the death of Carrie Fisher. Carrie portrayed a character that every little girl wanted to be, but it was listening to Letters To Grandma while driving across Texas that will stick with me for an eternity. 2016 has been hard on our celebrity icons, but it has been all that great globally either. There was Brexit and more terrorist attacks, refugees, Aleppo, and the division of a country. 

Yet, personally, I can say that 2016 was not so bad and I have pictures to prove it. My wish for 2017 is that we can bring some peace to this world. My wish for 2017 is to bring more happiness to my world. May you all have a safe and wonderful New Year.

THIS YEAR IN PICTURES

Most of our day has looked like this

"Most of our day has looked like this"

2015 was not a bad year for us. We added six living creatures to our family and all six are still alive and thriving. We are all amazed. Albus came sauntering in the other morning and then immediately attacked Josephine. This led to an honest to goodness real life version of a cartoon skit where Josephine chased the cat. Or tried to because Josephine could not gain traction on the hardwood floor and spent some time running in place. We have real life episodes of Tom and Jerry, The Bugs Bunny Show, and the Coyote and the Road Runner playing in a loop constantly in this house. It's the Josephine and Albus Show!

Michael built a work bench, a chicken coop and some dang sturdy shelves in the basement (I actually have more about those shelves, but this post is about the past; not the future). We got chickens! We ate eggs from those chickens! We also ate a lot of squash and tomatoes from our very own back yard. We took an epic road trip and the Cabbage got her first taste of the ocean. No really. She got hit in the face so many times with waves, I'm sure she ended up drinking at least a gallon of sea water. We had a great day on the beach with Tiffany, Tom and Allison. We drove through seven states and spent way too little time with Chad and Jess. Then in July, I took an impulse trip to New York. Talaura and I hung out at BlogHer and then she took me to a whole bunch of new places. In August, I travelled to Oregon for a conference and some much needed time with Todd, Yuko and the boys. 

Michael won me a new bicycle while playing bingo. The Cabbage turned five. Michael turned forty. We replaced the old yucky fridge with a new shiny refrigerator and we have had serious talks about staying put in this house. The year was so good, we're both willing to make this tiny house work for us. I hope your year has been just as lovely. I hope that you can look back on 2015 and see the good things. And with that, here's our year in pictures. 

Enjoy!