Each year starting around Thanksgiving I begin reflecting on the past year. This continues until the last week when we finalize our goals and plans for the coming year. The process has several stages and aspects that include:
- Mundane stuff like end of the year financial activities resulting in updated financial budget tools for the new year and tax preparation completed.
- Going through our “what we did and who we saw box” . This reminds us of the fun stuff we did and the people we saw throughout the year.
- Reviewing our calendars and planners. This supplements “the Box” information, filling in details. It also gives us a final a view of how we did on goals we set.
- Holiday correspondence via cards, email, BLOG and social media.
Three Wonderful Themes
First, there was the daily stuff, which is not particularly noteworthy for BLOG purposes. Things like:
- David continued to teach geometry at Northfield School four days a week along with serving as maintenance manager, handyman, contractor here at the house.
- I continued to keep the household as administrative assistant, CFO, COO, head gardener, chef and errand runner.
Second, the little house project hit a major milestone with the completion of sub-floor installation and closed foam insulation blown in. We are now putting away tools, disposing of excess supplies and completing a “front porch” on the tool shed. The latter has been in our plans all along and will serve as an outdoor covered workspace.
Meaningful Travel And Family
Third, we traveled, actually got out this year!
- In March, David made his annual spring break trip to visit his dad in Sacramento.
- In April, my mother’s father’s family gathered to bid farewell to the last of that generation.
- June I headed to Nampa, ID for the annual Mission Aviation Fellowship Advocate Summit. While there I visited maternal grandfather family
- uly, we headed to Denver for a major Lewis-Warfield Clan reunion. David’s mother’s extended family. We took advantage of the location for a mini-meetup with some of David’s high school buds and I saw a couple of long time friends as well.
- August there was an impromptu meet-up of the Miller Clan, my mother’s maternal extended clan in Jewell County Kansas.
All in all I saw three of the four branches of my extended family and David saw both sides of His parents family. We treasure these times.
Our trips to Texas came at the normal intervals, but this year one of them included moving both the biplane and the Aircoupe back to Kansas. It turned into a bit more of an adventure than planned. If you have not read about it, get ready for a plot twister!
Three Wonderful Themes To Come?
Many of you we “see” on social media, emails and even phone calls. I am grateful for each and every one of you.
We from Maison Steinbuchel, Dr. Dave, myself and our four remaining cats, send you our warmest wishes for the New Year.
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