Last year brought me and my family a mix of good and bad. We had an abundance of humor and good times spent together. But a lot of things went wrong, from the minor inconveniences to the major traumas. My blog reflected that. There were happy posts and unhappy ones.
To commemorate the year, I put together a representative selection of posts, one for each month. You can read the first paragraph or sentence of each here on this post. Use the link at the beginning of each one to take you back to the original post.
This is how I remember 2017—
A Birthday Celebration 1/31/2017: Livia had a birthday this month. She is now six years old! It’s hard to believe, because I can still remember her as a baby. Baby Livia would tackle every obstacle head-on, wearing a big smile, and with a gleam in her eye. In many ways she’s still like that, only she’s bigger now and doesn’t drool so much.
Never Apart 2/18/2017: A little doppelganger of my husband sits on my shoulder while I’m clothes shopping. I pick up a shirt in a pretty shade of blue-green. “No teal!” the little husband hollers in my ear. I move along. Next I find something in gray. “Too drab,” he objects. “You should wear brighter colors.” I move along. Soon I spot a comfy-looking sweater. The little husband gets apoplectic over that one. “That’s something your mother would wear!” Is that such a bad thing? “It is!” So the little husband steers me toward a more form-fitting sweater, but he nearly flips on me when I reach for the blue-green. “I said no teal! Try the brown.” I hesitate, because he did just tell me to wear brighter colors. “It’s OK. It goes with your hair.” He’s right. It does.
You Didn’t Breathe 3/15/2017: Dear Peeps, late last night I went downstairs to tell Faithful Reader something. He said, “Shhh. Peeps is making the strangest sounds.” I stood on the stairs, listening, looking down on you. You were sleeping on your favorite spot on the couch. You stretched and relaxed. Faithful Reader said, “Her eye is open.” I said, “She looks dead from this angle.” I was only joking, but then you didn’t breathe. We waited for you to breathe, but you didn’t.
Kite and Flight 4/29/2017: It’s cute and frustrating and almost inspirational the way Livia refuses to believe us when we tell her that her homemade kite won’t fly. Not only is the kite not built properly, but there’s hardly any wind. Never mind. She believes she can do it if she tries hard enough and applies enough tape to the torn parts.
Improper Attire 5/29/2017: Heard around the house: Hey, hey, hey! Cups are not shoes!
What a Mess 6/19/2017: Total chaos in the kitchen!
Proud 7/21/2017: Earlier this year I started working on a special photo album of nature pictures and posts. It took weeks just to sift through all my photos and writing. I found more material than could fit in a single album, so I split the project in two. Then I had to cut and paste, arrange, edit, and proofread. After months of working on it, it still wasn’t finished, and I had begun to think it might never be.
My Vacation: Part I 8/27/2017: Our vacation destination was a cottage on a lake located about six hours from our home. It’s a long drive and, as is usually the case, we left late. We also hit traffic. As a result, we arrived after dark. My parents and my brother and his family had already arrived and selected their rooms. Aside from one room with a double bed on the main floor, all that was left was the basement, which smelled musty.
Now We’re Cooking 9/12/2017: How to cook delicious soup in three easy steps:
- Find a slow cooker recipe for delicious soup.
- Buy all of the ingredients.
- Hand recipe and ingredients to husband and say, “Here. Make this delicious soup.”
A Perfect Day for a Hike
Life Without the Internet 11/6/2017: A nor’easter hit the Northeast on the Sunday before last. Had it brought snow, who knows how bad the damage might have been. As it was, the winds (hurricane-strength in some areas) knocked down trees and power lines all over the place.
All I Can Do Is Laugh 12/9/2017: I have my own particular set of sayings that I use frequently. One of them is “make it snappy.” I use this saying on the kids when they’re slow to do whatever it is they’ve been told to do. But Marshall has decided to take the saying literally. If I tell him to “make it snappy,” he starts snapping his fingers and doing a little dance. Usually we’re in a rush, so I ought to get angry when he starts dancing instead of following my instructions. His snappy dance is just so hysterical that all I can do is laugh.