Winter Storm

 The weather people were so excited last week!

They said we were going to get a HUGE snowstorm, and then it was going to be really cold after that.

Now often the Weather People are wrong in one way or another, but this time they were so very right.

We got over 12 inches of snow on Saturday and Sunday! That is an incredible amount of snow for Southern Ohio.

From inside our barn.

Kevin toiling away.

You can see how very cold it has been now! Brrr.

Our back deck is incredibly full of snow!

Kevin made snow ice cream which made people really happy.

Isaac has moved out!

 Yesterday, Isaac did indeed move out. He and Joseph and Kevin saddled up (in two cars) and drove away with his stuff packed in the minivan and Isaac's car. He doesn't have a lot of stuff.

The apartment is about 45 minutes from us. Isaac will be stopping by here after church to collect a few things that he needs, so we will see him today :-).

It does feel very weird not having him here. It makes me a little meloncholy, along with making me happy because he is a young adult and he has launched.

I am excited about organizing the boys' bedroom now. Yesterday I realized that there were a great many clothes that none of the boys were wearing. It happens -- they just shove stuff into dressers and think, oh, that must be someone else's shirt. So I am organizing and decluttering.

Rose was happy to hear I wasn't messing with the room she shares with Sarah. I came across this yesterday and was amused. Like why are there stuffed cats on books? Part of some game, no doubt!

 

Kevin and I finished a puzzle yesterday. It was pretty brutal with a lot of sky and a lot of sand. We are proud!

Well, that's about it. I am unfortunately still not hearing clearly out of my right ear but it has improved. If it still isn't clear next week I may go to the doctor. I think it is just the remnants of my cold.

Wah! I am sick!

 Just a cold, but my right ear is plugged and I cannot hear well. And I am tired.

It isn't a huge deal. My breathing is great, anyway!

Kevin and I are trying to finish up a book this week.

Also, Isaac is moving out in the next week or so.

Lots going on!

Gang was all here

 We had our New Year's Feast today.

Angela had to work New Year's Day which is why we waited until today.

Kevin prepared almost all the food.

It  was fun and tasty.

 

End of December

 Tomorrow is the last day of the year, and then on to 2026!

We have had a very pleasant Christmas season. Mostly.

The one real disappointment is that Joseph got laid off yesterday. Like, what???

He only worked for three months so it was a shock.

But...

He was hired on with two other people, and both those people disappeared a week ago, and Joseph was laid off yesterday so we think likely the company in question needed extra people for the holiday season and are now getting rid of them. The company is one that sells stuff so looking back, we think they took on extra people for the holiday rush.

That is just a guess, of course, but seems a reasonable one. He never got any negative feedback before they let him go.

Anyway, he is back to job hunting. By the grace of God, his rental application had not been accepted yet for an apartment so the plan now is for him to live at home until he gets another job.

Such is life!

But yes, everything else these last weeks have been really nice. I took a break from school, and the children and I both enjoyed it.

We enjoyed celebrating the birth of Christ and the birth of two children. Our last birthday of the year is tomorrow, also known as the last day of the year :-).

I finished a puzzle that was really hard. I am proud of myself. It had a lot of green on it and the pieces were all the same shape. Not the same size, but the same shape. The green pieces at the end were frustrating.

Kevin bought me at least 10 new puzzles and I am working on one now that should be far easier because the puzzle pieces have a variety of shapes.

So yes, life is good, and also disappointing at times, but that is Ok.

Isaac still plans to move out next month.

Happy Feet and Birthdays and Christmas

 First, feet!!

I have been having problems with my left foot for about a month now. I had quite a bit of pain on the top. My nurse practicioner suggested that I see a podiatrist, and I did last Thursday. They did some x-rays to rule out any obvious skeletal problems and then did a test to make sure I didn't have neuropathy.  And I passed that with flying colors. No signs of neuropathy!

I have been diabetic for 20 years so I am very thankful for that. I assure you that it did not just happen. I have been eating carefully for decades now. It is nice that saying no to excessive carbs has actually resulted in something good.

The podiatrist messed with my left foot and then gave me a pad thing to put in a certain place on my foot (it fits around my foot) and basically the pain has gone away. I am grateful!

We have started Birthday Season for kids. We have three within a week of Christmas. We are mostly ready with presents. Mostly.

This morning, Kevin and I led singing at church. We did four Christmas songs. Kevin had to learn them all in less than two days so yeah Kevin!

I have five chapters to go on my current book. I will probably have it done by the New Year. We have a lot going on with celebrations so I likely won't make as much progress as usual with writing this week and next.

We will be having a wet and warm Christmas. It is supposed to rain and be in the 50's. We have already had a lot of snow for Ohio in December so I am not too sad about a warmer Christmas. It will make driving easier.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Mid December

 

We had quite a snow on Saturday, and then the temps dropped. Right now it is Monday morning and seven degrees, up from close to 0 last night. BRRRRR!

We had two kids working on Saturday and both had to drive home through a snowstorm. One was Angela, who is a very new driver. She made it just fine, and I am so thankful!

Big news! Isaac has accepted an offer for an engineering job!  We are very excited and happy for him. The job is about an hour away from us, so he will need to find an apartment. The start date is late January so he has about a month to get organized and moved.

Joseph is also apartment hunting but his job is close to us so he needs an apartment nearby. The boys were considering living together but with Isaac's new job, that won't be happening, which is totally fine. Both boys will be making enough that they can comfortably live alone.

Neither big boy has any debts. We were able to pay for Isaac's college without needing debt either for him or us. I have opinions about college loan debt. First, yes, it is necessary sometimes. Second, universities have been jacking up tuition prices crazily for decades and I think the ready influx of money through student loans is part of the problem. Universities haven't had any reason to be careful with money when loans are so readily available. And then the poor students, who were young and financially stupid in their late teens and early twenties, find themselves having to pay back huge loans, which is really hard on them.

There has been this big fuss about nursing degrees being shifted away from "professional" to something else... nurses have been screaming about how the Trump admin is evil for saying nursing isn't a profession.

Of course nursing is a profession. Everyone knows that. Everyone I know admires nursing as a profession. Very hard job! The question is weather a nurse should be able to borrow over 100K to get a nursing degree. Nurses often make good money but wow, 150K is so much!

Social work is also admirable and doesn't pay well, and young people with social work degrees should REALLY think about loans and how they will affect them in the future.

It will be very odd having the big boys out of our house, but it is also a good step in their journey toward full adulthood. There are so many things we are taking care of that they don't have to think about -- soon they will have to determine what to cook and when to grocery shop and all that stuff.

A few comments on health problems of my own: my plantar fasciitis has popped up again and I am wearing my boot at night. My foot is better than it was a week ago, so that is good. Still hurts some.

Mostly I am in fine shape for a 56 year old, but there is a little of this and a little of that bugging me. I am grateful for padded boots and doctors.