2022 was challenging for us, but ultimately kind. The surgery, and illness I suffered from for the first six months of the year, resolved. My aneurysm was discovered, giving me a much better chance of survival. Attila and I had mild cases of Covid in October. My Mom, 91, had Covid twice, the first time felt a bit scary for us but she made it through no problem, the second time it was mild. Our heating system upgrade took most of the year, with some stressful moments, and a lot of pushing the companies on my part, but was finished on December 23rd, just hours before the beginning of the big Christmas Snow Storm. And last but not least, Ginger came into our lives in July of 2022!
I celebrate the health and good fortune of my family and friends. How glad I am of such warm and wonderful people in my life!
My heart remembers friends and loved ones who are no longer with us, most recently my two beautiful brothers Carl and James, and my dear friend Bex.
2023 looks like it might be planning on throwing all of us a few challenging situations. However, from anything my Mom has told me about her early childhood in the 1930s, times won’t be so very bad as that. I used to hope for better years, but no longer. Every year has its own unique ups and downs. I plan on meeting and learning from the challenges of the downs, and enjoying the ups to the fullest extent.
I arose early this morning, 5:30 a.m. Attila slept on.
I did my morning stretches, baked a loaf of bread, baked a pan of Pumpkin Squares, and made a batch of Condensed Almond Milk. By the time I had cleaned it all up, Attila had wandered out to the kitchen in search of his morning cup of coffee.
We enjoyed a breakfast of oven baked Sweet Potato/Squash/Onions, Attila with ham, I with an egg.
Today the Christmas Tree was taken down. Usually it is left up until the end of January, but this year I wanted to take it down to begin the New Year. I don’t know why, just a whim. The house always seems so bare when it is first taken down, but within days it seems as it should be. Human perceptions can be so adaptable.
Since the big Christmas Eve/Day storm the weather became milder, and now most of the snow has melted away. Of course there are parking lot snowbanks that are ten to fifteen feet high, they take a very long time to melt. The weather looks like it will remain relatively mild for the time of year, for the next few weeks at least. One night is supposed to go down to -13C, but I don’t really consider that to be extremely cold. Yesterday it rained all day. Today is cloudy and grey and mild. We went for a walk and it seemed like an early spring day. Old man winter, you do not fool me! There is more snow and cold coming!
Now that we are heating exclusively with electricity, our hydro bill rose about $30, due to the 100 km/hr wind gusts and frigid temperatures at Christmas. It will be interesting to see how much more electricity we will be using now. To offset any increase, we no longer need to purchase fuel oil, that was costing $300 to $1000 annually. I feel our total costs for heating will be less with the new system, and we have only one bill to pay, the hydro bill. The electric furnace, if needed, will use a lot of electricity, so we hope for winters with temperatures above -28C. The HVAC fellow called our new furnace “the toaster”, which seems accurate. If we find the cost of running it prohibitive, we can supplement the heat with the wood stove. We might need to bring firewood back from our Camp, and are lucky to have that resource.
Worldly
Weather
Updated on Sun, Jan 1, 12:25 PM
3°C
FEELS LIKE 1
Overcast
Wind 11 W km/h
Humidity 77 %
Visibility 24 km
Sunrise 7:43 AM
Wind gust 17 km/h
Pressure 101.3 kPa
Ceiling 900 m
Sunset 4:39 PM
Rain expected to start at 2:00 PM
Quote
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
Confucius
551 BC – 479 BC
I’ve always felt there was no substitute for experience. Age, although generally dreaded and unappreciated, can offer human cultures great wealth.
Oh my, Maggie! Just reading about your many daily activities makes me exhausted! I admire your stamina and work ethic! I hope the snow continues to melt and the weather becomes warmer for you. And by the way, have a Happy New Year!
Happy New Year Diane!
I enjoy being active, and feel oh so lucky that so far I can actually do the things I want to do. Over time restrictions pop up, due to aging, making me doubly grateful for what I can still do!
The mild spell continues, above freezing and cloudy. Yesterday’s walk was like enjoying an early spring day mid-March!
You’re right, each year has its challenges. I’m so glad you overcame the challenges of 2022. May you have good fortune in 2023. (Your breakfast sounds tasty, (I love sweet potatoes).)
Joan, thank you for your good wishes! Wishing you a healthy and happy 2023, and that your challenges are all successfully and satisfyingly met, and that your blessings light your world!
I love sweet potatoes too! We bought a ten pound bag of seconds, cooked them all in the instant pot, pureed them, put them in 1/2 cup containers, and popped them into the freezer. They are great prepared in so many ways!
That breakfast sounded pretty tasty, Maggie! I’m glad your new year is starting off in comfort and contentment; may it go on. xoxo Kate
Ginger cat looks so content! I wish you, Attila and Ginger a happy, healthy, and peaceful 2023. I wish that for all. Hugs, Sandy and Milo(who thinks Ginger is very pretty)
Happy New Year Kate!
It was a great breakfast. I seldom eat eggs, as I’ve been advised by the heart specialist to eat as little cholesterol as possible, so I really enjoy them when I do indulge. For Christmas morning I had bacon!, eggs, toast, and jam. For New Year’s breakfast I have the veggies with an egg. I probably will have another egg for my breakfast on my birthday. I do use eggs in baking, quite frequently, so they are an important part of our diet.
xoxo Maggie
Thank you Sandy, and Happy New Year to you and Milo! I hope 2023 brings you many joys! Ginger loves being admired, he is a vain and hedonistic being 🙂
Hugs, Maggie, Attila, and Ginger
Happy New Year, Maggie and Attila and Ginger! Hope 2023 is very good to you.
Happy New Year Eileen! Wishing you health, peace, and happiness in 2023!
Happy New Year, Maggie and Attila! Wishing you and yours a health, happy 2023!
From here, 2023 is looking like a good year – given the things we can plan for. We finally have all our retirement finances in place, so that will make things more certain.
We survived the big blizzard but our roads were closed for 5 days. Then after that things warmed up for a week. The rivers are running quite high but most of the rain didn’t fall here, we mostly had off and on drizzle.
We started taking our Christmas decorations down on New Years day, just 2 poinsettias and some lights on the living room windows left, now. We’ll probably take the lights down soon.
Teri, Happy New Year to you and DH! Wishing you a healthy happy 2023!
That is a real achievement, having retirement finances in place, congratulations!
Five days is a long time to have the roads closed. Glad to hear the high water levels aren’t impacting you, they aren’t impacting us here either thank goodness.
The poinsettias sound lovely, so much colour!
Lol! Definitely some colors in the poinsettias. DH chose one with a cream background that had blue and purple splashes – and not painted, either! The colors are actually part of the leaves and darken when the plant has less light. No idea how they got the plant to produce blue and purple.
My poinsettia was actually 3 smaller plants: one pale pink, one medium pink, and one medium pink with green along the edges.
Teri, wow, not the traditional red as I had imagined! They sound lovely!!