Beginning 2024

B and I did not go out for New Years Eve.  Stayed home and watched old movies, turned to Rockin Eve at midnight to watch the ball drop. Glass of wine, new years kiss and finished the movie and went to bed.  B says we are party animals. LOL

New Year's Day tradition is to turn the Rose Parade on tv and watch it while cleaning up Christmas.  I love decorating for the holiday.  I don't like taking it all down and putting it away.  We were surprised it only took 1 hour to clean up all the Christmas decor and put it away for next December.  There were past Christmases when it took us hours but that was when the boys were little.

We counted out our change jars that we fill all year, as well as the envelopes that we collect one dollar bills in.  This will be deposited in our savings account.  Also, we set a new goal for what we would like to have in the savings account by next December.  We reached our goal this year and were quite pleased.  Some things we do to help our savings grow are to reimburse the account if we have to take anything out of it for an emergency, etc.  Also, any bump we get in social security, we deposit that into the savings account too.  We are very pleased at how this is going.

We did a lot of decluttering in 2023 and will continue to do so in 2024.  It is amazing how much we have that we really don't use or need.

We are looking to "run away from home" at least once a month in 2024.  Mostly short trips but we would like to go out to Nevada to see our oldest son and dil if we can find flights that are not too expensive and not too many stops there and back.  We are also thinking of going to Florida in 2024 to visit my sister and her husband.  All this will be contingent on cost, weather and health.

My word for 2024 is "Hope".  With all the turmoil of the presidential election, war in the Ukraine and now in Israel, a record number of mass shootings in this country and just plain meanness and hatred for each other, I have "Hope" that 2024 will see a resurgence of peace and fellowship, of kindness, respect and care of the environment and of love toward all.  I know this sounds very "pie in the sky" but why shouldn't we try to "Hope" for the ultimate?

 

A Thought: One year after the start of the Pandemic

 Covid cases going down, vaccines given going up, businesses reopening slowly, kids going back to school....light at the end of the tunnel.

2021

                                             MY WORDS FOR 2021...HOPE & OPTIMISM

Well now that 2020 is gone (good riddance), I can now look toward 2021.  The first thing I usually do in a new year is come up with the word I will be focusing on.  This year I am focusing on two words...HOPE and OPTIMISM.

I used the word "hope" a lot in the beginning of 2020.  Hope that the pandemic would not be as bad as the experts thought.  Hope that with the warm weather it would go away like the flu.  Hope that by following all the rules, it would stop.  Each time, my hopes were dashed.  Instead of getting better, it got worse.  The sad part was that it seemed to bring out not only the best in a lot of people but it also seem to bring out the worst.  I hate to admit it but I lost hope many times and drown myself in negativity.  In the warmer months, I was able to get out into my yard and at least commune with nature but when the weather changed and began to get colder, into the house I was sentenced.  I kept trying to find a bright side to all of the sadness, the deaths, the sickness, the hate and one night I found it.

One night in October, I was computer surfing, a past time I like to do, and I came across a quote someone had posted on their site.  It was a quote by Pope John Paul II, a man I much admired.

              "I plead with you--never give up on hope, never doubt, never tire,

                and never become discouraged. Be Not Afraid."

One of the reasons this quote caught my eye at first was that it has the title of a hymn in it that I think of many times when I am in need of solace..."Be Not Afraid".

At that moment I knew what I had to do.  My husband and I had planned to tone down the holidays because of the pandemic and the health of our children but I knew that now was the time to do it as we had always done while making adjustments for the pandemic.  I informed my husband that we were going to do Thanksgiving with all the trimmings even if it was only the two of us.  For Christmas, we would decorate the house just like always and carry on the traditions we could with modifications.  At first, he thought being sequestered in the house had finally driven me over the edge.  But as we talked, we began to think of the good things that we had in 2020.  Two healthy sons and dils, 6 fur babies, food on the table, warm house, good financial situation and each other.  That was a reason to celebrate and then to add to it, 2 vaccines that would make things better in the near future (knock on wood).

On New Years Eve, we said goodbye and good riddance to 2020 and looked forward to 2021 with Hope and Optimism that life would get back to some kind of normalcy. And with that Hope and Optimism, we began to plan 2021 that way.  We talked of vacations we would like to take this year especially ones to visit the children,  projects we want to do around the house, events we want to take part in, etc.  Of course, we will pay attention to what is happening in our community and nation as we go day by day.  But just doing the planning has raised our spirits.

So to all of you and the people who matter most to you, I wish for you to look at 2021 with Hope and Optimism because, I believe, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Happy New Year!

 

8 Things I have learned from reading blogs

*  What to do with all my left over craft supplies.

*  Menu ideas.

*  Ways to downsize.

*  Retirement advice.

*  Travel ideas.

*  There is hope in light overcoming darkness in our country and world.

*  We are stronger when we stand together rather than let ourselves be driven apart.

*   I lead a very quiet, uneventful retirement life than most people out there writing blogs.