Year-end Lists 2023: Personal

In 2023, we sold my mother's farm, and I've been spending the proceeds fixing up my house. As you can see, it's now got a fresh coat of bright yellow paint. After two years of hearing "Are you sure that's the color you want it?" it turned out lovely and I get plenty of compliments on it. Every other house on my block is grey, white, or beige, now that the one red house has been demolished. So it's about time someone added some color to the neighborhood. For Christmas, it looks like a gingerbread house with all the colored lights and red ribbons wound around the porch columns. But the more important fixes can't be seen. The crew replaced a lot of rotting exterior boards, plugged in the gaps where the bats got in, replaced the broken storm door, replaced the chimney grate, insulated the solarium floor, and built a new deck (with a handrail!). I also got new gutters, had some trees trimmed, a sewer pipe replaced, one new toilet installed, and had the dryer repaired.

But in the middle of all that, the upstairs bathroom developed a leak and I didn't know it until it seeped through my bedroom ceiling. The water filled a #2 washtub several times. I got the leak fixed pretty fast, but then insurance got involved, and they determined I needed a new ceiling downstairs and a new floor upstairs. The good news is that I found out my downstairs ceilings are not made of asbestos, as I had assumed. I also lost the wallpaper and overhead light in the bedroom. When the wallpaper came down, I found it was hiding a lot of drywall damage. So two rooms got renovated that I didn't plan on.  

While that work was going on, I moved my bed into my office, and reduced my work commute to about two feet. But it's all back to normal now, so I can dream of a new kitchen someday. I doubt it will be in 2024.

Gothgrrl achieved the title of doctor in February. Since then she's been practicing under supervision, still getting grades but no longer going to class. She will graduate from Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine in May. She also got engaged! They have tentatively set the date for December 2024, when he gets his PhD. Grad school is a good place to meet men. I will eventually have two Dr. Cellanias in the family, so I will have to come up with another pseudonym. I don't know what Dr. Cellania is going to do between graduation and the wedding, but she will have to start paying off her graduate school loans. I suggested she move back in with me, since there are plenty of veterinary clinics nearby that need help, which is not the case near the university. Then I found out how much money she is being offered even for temporary work, and saw that she doesn't really need my help to save rent money.

My grandson is now a toddler! He took his first steps without holding on to anything the day before Thanksgiving, and hasn't stopped yet. He's got places to go and things to do! He isn't speaking yet, but he's doing sign language, and understands two other languages. He has the world's most beautiful smile. The whole family is doing well. Son-in-law got his master's degree and a promotion in his job. Princess couldn't license my old car in Missouri without expensive upgrades, so she gave it to her future brother-in-law, which involved a lot of driving, plus insurance and paperwork from me, but at least it got us out of having to buy him a Christmas gift. And he will need that car if his fiancée lives elsewhere for work for six months or so next year. 

In my extended family, my stepdaughter gave birth to a healthy and beautiful little boy on the day of the winter solstice. That is also my late husband's (his grandpa's) birthday. He makes eight total grandchildren for me now!

When the family got together for Christmas, I was reminded that we all stated our goals for 2023 and all achieved them. I didn't even remember mine, but Princess did. What are our goals for 2024? Doctor and fiancé each want to graduate, get a job, and get married. I believe they will both do all that. Princess and husband want another baby. That's up to God, but it's certainly attainable. I don't have any particular goals for my personal life in 2024, which is odd but true. I've decided my goal is to make my church's food program sustainable. No, I don't know how, but without a goal, it won't ever happen. 

I also want to thank everyone here for visiting my site in 2023, and I wish you all the most wonderful 2024 possible!