The End of Yet Another Year

 As 2023 draws to a close I am taking a moment to sit back and think about all that has happened, or not happened, this year.  I read facebook posts about what a horrible year it was and how people will be glad to see it end and I know this year has been hard for many but for me, personally, it has been decent.

I look back on our accomplishments and there isn’t much to see — being retired and not as active as we once were, we are sort of treading water most of the time, just keeping on keeping on.  We did purchase a new car to replace my Subaru.  It was a much needed change.

We continued to help with after school care for Bean and also did some transporting of our other grandchildren, N, K, and E.  During the summer we took our grandson, N, back and forth to TCU so he could work as a tech at the Van Cliburn piano competition..  It is truly a blessing to have time with these precious kids — they are growing up way too fast.

We watched huge changes at our church.  At the end of 2022 we watched our beloved rector, David Klein, retire which was a good thing for him but we were sad to see him leave.  However, he isn’t far and has been sighted in the area and rumor has it he is visiting our parish often — I just haven’t caught him yet! In February of 2024 we will welcome a new rector, Sam Wilgus.  Our interim rector, Richard Moseley will be leaving us in that capacity but as he is a long time parishioner I am hoping he joins our ranks as a member again. 

Personally, we have been blessed with decent health — no major illnesses, no hospitalizations and no broken bones. The hubs did spend a good deal of the middle of the year dealing with vestibular vertigo due to a middle ear infection.  He spent three months in rehab to regain his balance and he is now sporting a snazzy pair of hearing aids which is a blessing to us all!

We did take a short trip to College Station last week which was fun.  The weather held and it was enjoyable to see the college campus again.  It is a really pretty, yet really huge, campus and it is fun to see the old and the new converge.

Trixie is well and even though we lost Bam Fox early in the year we have had fun watching the new crop of foxies that live under our deck.  Being a city gal I never thought I would be living so openly amongst wildlife but it is interesting.

I did start an anxiety journal that has helped with my sometimes uncontrollable anxiety.  It sort of turned into a daily routine journal but surprisingly that has helped enormously with the anxiety.  I find it very therapeutic to make a to-do list and actually mark things off — it helps calm the mind.  I will continue into the new year BUT that is not a resolution, just a promise — I don’t believe in resolutions.

While I haven’t done a lot of cross stitch this year (to be remedied soon) I have done a bit of reading.  My original goal was

45 books but around Thanksgiving I realized that I wasn’t going to make that goal so I changed my criteria — still not going to make my new goal but I am close.  I have learned that while challenges are fun it is more fun to read for the sake of reading than to read to satisfy some arbitrary number. 

I still have two to finish and I am sure I will finish one at least to almost fulfill my goal.  Who knows, maybe two. 

So, that is our year in a very small nutshell.  We have had many enjoyable moments this year, we have learned a lot and we have so, so much to be grateful for.  I am praying for more of the same for 2024.

I will end this now as it is beginning to sound like the dreaded Christmas newsletter!