Out with the old and in with the new, happy 2023!

Looking back at 2022:

- My kid remains the best.  She is learning so much and gaining independence in leaps.  She doesn't need to be told to clean up very often, she is helpful, she is smart, beautiful inside and out, and beyond all -- kind.  She had her first recital (with dance) and joined back up for another year, but just for acro.  She loves playing with cars/monster trucks and is still into superheros.

- Another year with out a single cruise.  Avery, my sister S and I did go to my sister J's for a vacation however.  We made another trip to Idlewild.  We had a season pass to the local pool again and Avery made huge leaps forward in her confidence and abilities in the water without additional/formal lessons.

- The critters:  Saffy's health has remained good for her age, but she is skinny as a rail and does have bad days both with her mental acuity and not having accidents.  Zero is crazy, but has learned some calm to allow me a better time working.  The fish, named Indigo after this post last year passed just days after Thanksgiving, not making it a year with us.  Church - whooo... he really gave us a scare with his urinary blockage.  At this point most of the shaved spots are grown back in and he is doing well.

- More critters: We started fostering for the rescue from which we adopted Church.  Our first group was four babies (Sunflower, Lavender, Tulip, Clover) and their mother (Marigold).  They came in June/July and were all gone at the start of November.  Clover was a major loss for us, not doing well under anesthesia for his neuter just a week after Church's illness.  The second group remains here, three cats that were with another foster who had rescued them from outdoors (Vader, Buddy, Christian).  With these three I learned more about parasites than I want to, but they are well on the mend at this point and should be ready for forever homes early in 2023.

- Other than having way too much weight on me, my health is good.  My near vision is crap at this point and I have readers everywhere.  I did not get my water intake up as I had desired.  Typical aches and pains here and there - but I think many of those can be attributed to my weight too.

- Work has slowed due to a task ending, which was a relief, but in hindsight I wish I had capitalized on it more.

- No big activities here at this house this year.  There is lots that needs tending to as things are falling apart.  It's kind of hard to suck it up and replace carpet when you have an older dog and a younger kid.  Without the properly placed throw rug it is easy to step on carpet tack and hurt yourself coming into my living room.  If the dog goes running through between the living room and kitchen he kicks up the strip between the two.  There is a hole in the vinyl in my bathroom.  The grout between the tile in my shower is crumbling in several spots.  I debate if I should slush fund this or hold off until the mortgage is done.

- I was still on track to finish the mortgage by the end of 2023, but at present I am feeling like I need to build up a bit more in the slush fund since the cost of everything is climbing.  This is likely to slow me down and force me into 2024 with the mortgage.  I'm not too thrilled about it, but things could be way worse.

- While I have gardened every year I haven't mentioned it here in goals and successes.  Last year most of the non-tomato crop came from plants my favorite egg's parents brought.  This year I had my tomatoes, but I branched out a bit.  My potatoes, turnips, and carrots were duds but the peppers, tomatoes, and lettuce kicked butt.

Here is the wish list for 2023:

- Avery will put her toes back into sand.  She doesn't remember cruising, she doesn't remember being at the beach!  This needs to be remedied.  I never got us on that long weekend I mentioned last year and Disney's insanity made me question that desire.  I do want to get back down to my sister's now that my nephew's baby is here (our previous visit was while his wife was very pregnant)  Flying seems like a bad idea though given the recent airline issues.  I dunno, nerves keep making me postpone booking something..

- We need to get back to some of the activities in the burgh (Kennywood?  Zoo?  Children's Museum?).  I definitely want to hit the Pittsburgh Botanical Gardens - that is closer to me and not a trip into the burgh.  Maybe the Good Zoo in WV instead of the burgh's zoo.

- I want the end of the mortgage to be so close that I can taste it -- you know, since it's not looking as likely that I will complete it..  If I do finish it off my next goal is to start putting money away for the next vehicle.  My car is a 2016 but I bought it in early 2015.  Low miles, but it is getting up there in age.

- Starting the next thing with Avery.  Perhaps karate?  She loves to sing, is it weird to find her someone to work on that at this age?  Either way we definitely have Kindergarten in the fall.  I am hopeful we can get in at our first choice of schools.

- As noted, I wanted to finish the mortgage before investing in the house.  If I do leap the first things on my list are definitely the flooring and doing something on the sides of the fireplace.

- This year my garden will still have tomatoes and lettuce.  I will however plant rounds of lettuce to space out the harvest.  I am attempting to winter over the very successful pepper plants. I will give potatoes another spin.  I bought extra fertilizer and was gifted seed germinating mats from my wish list.  I need to figure out what else I will focus my space and resources on.  It might be decided by what seeds germinate well.  I wish I had the space and dogs that didn't dig/stomp so I could create a legit garden out back (beyond my buckets).

We had a nice Christmas.  The roads weren't pristine, but good enough despite the crazy cold temperatures.  Avery was pleased with her gifts - that is all that matters.  The big winners this year were the remote controlled cars and the microphone.  Not to lower the rank of numerous other gifts that are getting play time as well.

Per usual we went to my favorite egg's aunt's on Christmas eve.  Christmas day we hosted his parents, but easy peasy with dinner from the crock pot.  Monday we hosted my sister M and her husband.  All visits were fantastic, but I am very glad I have two more days scheduled off to try and relax a bit and call it a holiday "vacation".  Today I got a massage and had a nice lunch (with a rita).  The laundry is drying and other small to dos are getting checked off.

It's cold, it tried to snow, I'm gonna start my yearly complaining now.  It sounds like my old hood got a legit snow whereas we barely had a dusting, so... I'll stick w/ complaining about how the cold burrows into my bones.  Let's be honest, I've put on enough weight in the past two years that if it's getting to my bones it is really friggin cold.

I haven't allowed this to stop us though.  We still headed out on Saturday night to the Laser show at the UP church and to the outdoor live nativity event at Iddy Biddy this evening.  We made it about 45 minutes petting and feeding llamas, goats, and a camel before we snagged a hot cocoa and packed up.  --and I had leg warmers on!

I think this is going to be a rough winter.  The way the world is going I don't think the tin foil on my hat has to be thick to believe that we could have power outages.  Good thing I have more blankets than a human being should own.

Watching the brewing storm and hoping I don't have cause to argue against our Christmas-proper activities.

The first round of meds are complete.  I need to do another deep sanitize.  Vader's poo seems to have become less fluid-like, so that's a move in the right direction.

This weekend we got our Christmas cookies made - chocolate chip, no bakes, and pizzelles this year.  Not that I need cookies at the house.  Some have been packaged to go to a vendor event with the cat rescue.  I'm really glad I snagged several dozen of eggs two weeks ago before the prices took another leap up; pizzelles take a dozen after all.

Most of the gifts are bought, still a few more to figure out.  Several haven't arrived yet.  The gifts that were here at the end of last week are wrapped and under the tree -- except for Avery's, I will need a window of time while she is at school to achieve that.

I have to admit to myself that the pace at which I was paying off the house cannot continue thanks to the increases in everything.  Gas, electric, food like crazy, cat and dog food like crazy, even the HOA is nickel and diming for another $1 a month (despite not having the yearly meetings they're supposed to have).  I'm blessed either way.  It's just that when you are forcing your checking account to run on thin margins after boosting payments and savings you can see quite clearly where things start to go crazy.

Medication handoff took place yesterday before lunch so I got on top of treatment.  Today was day 2 and I'm already leaps and bounds better at giving liquid meds to cats.  Thank God they're such sweet cats or I am sure I would be have an eye clawed out by now.  After getting Avery to bed I took a solid pass disinfecting in the room. 

The beds and toys were steam sterilized in the dryer.  The liter boxes and scoop were scrubbed, bleach sprayed, and totally swapped out for new liter (the garbage guys will love picking that up next week).  It wreaks of Lysol in there as I sprayed the carpets and blankets across the bed (rather than exposing the bed itself to the cats whiles I washed them at this time).

I kept Avery home from school today due to some ich -- which hasn't happened much in her 5 years.  She was sneezing and coughing last night and she commented about being tired before bed time.  No fever or anything but I decided I would let her sleep in and play it by ear.  She didn't sleep super late, but did wake up saying her throat was a little sore (probably drainage) and coughing.  So she got to chill on the couch and I fed that cold a bit.  I convinced her to nap after a dose of medicine and she came bounding in around 3pm to tell me she was ready to go to school.

I'll tell you, this kid is awesome.  When I was a kid, before dimetapp came out with that yummo grape flavor, and the medicine was gross good luck getting me to take it.  I cracked a bottle of "bubble gum" flavored Tylenol (she picked it over grape and cherry when we were at the store a while back) last night and she informed me it was gross.  She still took today's doses without more than a scrunched up nose.

It was nice to get a taste of what it will be like when she starts going to real school.  Not needing to leave the house in the morning or to watch the clock to run back out at a certain time was quite nice.

Giardia.  Yup.  So much for these fosters coming and going quickly.  Ugh.  One had loose stinky poos.  It's possible the others don't have it... but prb not likely.  All will be treated and I will need to continuously disinfect their room - which is an extra challenge w/ carpet.  Thank God the were kept separate.  Eff.

I neglected to mention the critters in my earlier post.  First, Indigo - our betta - passed, Christmas would have been a year with us.  It didn't seem to phase Avery.  I am a bit sad about it; I feel like I should have done more for her.  My monthly subscribe and save is in shipping, which included more filters.  Go figure.

Our other critters are well.  The fosters are adjusting decently.  Vader, the longhaired black cat is a delightful cuddle muffin.  Christian, the gray shorthair, is playful.  Buddy, the orange tabby, is terrified but still sweet.  All three allowed us to trim nails without too much complaint -- color me surprised. 

Today I put in some work cooking.  I cooked up ground beef for tacos which I froze, roasted yams and butternut squash, made a match of chicken soup, made a few chicken-stuffed green peppers, and prepped the mix to stuff the small sweet peppers.  I should be eating off of this all week.

I wanted to get all of the Christmas decorations up, but that didn't happen.  Yet another chunk of the tree would not light, so the extra lights I bought last year to supplement wouldn't cover me.  We ran to Big Lots and snagged more warm lights, but they are pretty cool compared to the other warm lights -- so they cannot go together.  I ran the three strands I bought unplugging all other lights and it was pretty thin.  Several batches of colored lights had chunks burned out.  I almost lost my sh*t and pulled out the lights from when I was a child.  Yes, I fully expect the nearly 50 year old light to still work.  Instead I pulled two tri-colored strands that allow control over how the lights change -- these are probably 25 years old, something I bought early in my adulthood.  Neither of the tree toppers match the color of white so I threw something Avery made at the top and called it a night.  No ornaments have made their way on there yet but that seems to be too bad at this point.

I'm finally sitting down on the couch for a minute and the cat has swarmed me.  Sorry Churchie... I need to go spend some time with the other kitties too!  But first, some of that soup.

I have moaned about it enough here through the years, so I'll cut the mixed emotions and sadness about holidays brief in this post.  As usual we went to one of his aunt's/uncle's. The weather was decent enough that we had our appetizers outside. It receiving a dose of sour on the way home really ruined the day for me.  I'm grateful I don't have to host a big to do because I feel like the amount of work that goes into preparing just a few (unappreciated) dishes isn't a worthy investment.

I am trying to back off the Christmas shopping this year - finally giving in to my sister telling me to not do anything for her and her husband.  I am spending less on my niece and nephew -- well, actually some of the nephew spending is instead going to their kiddo instead.  I am not buying for all of the kids in his family - I'm so over needing to hunt and hunt.  I don't know what to get for him... and it's all odds and ends for Avery at this point - no big/main gift.  Not a thing is wrapped, the thought of that is part of the reason why I am willing to back off how much I am buying.

With my several days off I am hoping to get numerous things ordered.  I got some organizing achieved and some light cleaning checked off.  I also have quality time in front of the TV cuddling with Church and time in the hot tub on my agenda.  I have also been working to get to know 3 new fosters that joined us between Tuesday and Wednesday.  These 3 were with another foster - along w/ 4 others that she trapped as kittens. They're fully vetted, so hopefully their stay will be short.  There is Vader, a long-haired black cat who is a sweet cuddly guy who loves attention, Christian, a gray guy who was a bit more reticent but still quite friendly, and then Buddy who... if I'm being honest, up until a couple of hours ago I thought could be a spicy boy.  He wouldn't return slow blinks and had buried himself under the dresser after pushing books that blocked his path out of the way.  Earlier today I tried to get his attention with a toy (again).  He sat ignoring it until I put it just in front of the dresser.  Next thing I knew a little paw reached out slowly... and then a head popped out.  Next I knew he climbed out and asked for pets!

Waking to another dusting of snow this morning.  I once again am fighting with my sinuses.  It is the same 'routine', so I am pretty sure I can call this chronic sinusitis.  First the drainage gives me a sore throat.  I've gotten smarter and pulled out the netipot sooner during all of this to shorten that part of the process.  This of course clears it out and avoids a sore throat, but it leaves me with nosebleeds and swollen sinuses.  The drainage isn't colorful, so I don't think there is infection - just lots of pressure and inconvenience.  I think I'm headed out the other side already (which is definitely a shorter run) but maybe I'm just feeling better because Tylenol sinus is doing that good of a job.  Hot tea has been a good friend.

Today's the day... first snow.  For a while there were some big fat flakes falling.  Ended up being enough to coat the lawns, but nothing stuck on the roads (thank goodness).

What incredibly odd weather.  Sure we have had several Novembers and Decembers with unseasonably pleasant/warm temps but today had a different feel and smell to it.  It felt like spring - something tangible, maybe the humidity levels?  You can hear the evening sounds like it is spring.  The only thing missing this weekend was my motivation to get a bunch done.

I really need to wash my windows.  What better chance?  Lost.

I did get some organizing and laundry done.  Halloween is all down and on the dining room table - but not away like it should be.  I even put the battery for the drill on the charger so I could properly store the outdoor items (note I bought the brackets I want so screw in LAST Halloween and half-ass put away these items thinking I'd properly stow them in the near term.

We did see Tulip off yesterday afternoon.  Yes, I cried for a minute after she left.  Lavender is set to leave tomorrow while Avery is at school, so she got some extra play/cuddle time in this evening before bed.

It will be a busy week.  Tomorrow I head to get the tires changed out.  Hopefully that all goes as planned and at the cost anticipated.  Later in the week the dentist gets to terrify me again.  There are consignment items to ready and take to an appointment. Oh.. and that voting thing.  God help us.

Ah, anxiety.  There isn't one thing I can put my finger on that is triggering it, but perhaps it is death by 1000 cuts.

I woke up just after falling asleep the other night not quite in a panic attack, but with my brain very focused on an awful event that happened back in the mid-90s.  Yep, it sucked, but I had also not thought of this in years... and the individual involved put me through way more painful stuff a few years later, so what the hell brain?

I tortured myself a bit last night by watching a video an old friend posted.  Sadly, I am no longer part of that person's life and (even more sadly) I know they hurt another friend very much.  Seeing how their life moved on just hit too close to home, likely exaggerating the feelings all around.

There is of course the insanity of our world today.  Prices in general, looming shortages/outages, the forthcoming election... all of it.

I had a day trip for work earlier this week.  Fortunately the weather was good.  It was good to see familiar faces and to have a brief change of pace.  But even this leaves me with unease that feeds the anxiety monster.

Good news that may also add to the pile (simply because I am terrible with change) is that 2 of the kittens are slated to leave for their forever homes in the next week and the third may also have an approved adopter in the next day or two.  That would give me at least an hour of each day back.