Goodbye 2025 – No Hard Feelings

The only festive things about this New Year's Eve is this graphic. Yesterday and today were just two old people hanging close to home – sneezing, coughing, and blowing our noses. And blowing snow. Must it snow every day?

As I mentioned, I'm a few days' behind hubby on this "fun" so he's finally improving and I am hoping to turn the corner tomorrow. Before returning to work Friday. Ugh.

I want to give some inspiring reflection on the past year (Can it end already? No hard feelings!), but I'm not feeling it. Especially after such a work-related stressful December and now feeling the crud. But my former boss (I miss her) shared this with me this morning and I think it could hit home for a lot of us who expect too much of this old year-new year transition business.

This Morning Matters More Than the Countdown
(A New Year’s Eve Morning Reflection by Levend Montgomery)

This morning is different. Not because everything has changed, but because you are standing at the edge of something finishing.

New Year’s Eve is often treated like a night to escape into noise, but it begins as a morning to stand in clarity.

Before the countdowns.
Before the reflections rush past.
Before the pressure to summarize an entire year into a sentence.

You woke up here on purpose.

You didn’t arrive at this morning untouched.

You carry a year’s worth of moments in your body.
Some strengthened you.
Some stripped things away.
Some required courage you didn’t know you possessed.

There were prayers whispered and prayers wrestled with.
Endings you accepted.
Endings you didn’t choose.
Faith that held steady.
Faith that limped.

None of it was wasted.

God is not waiting until midnight to be present.

He has already met you here.
In the quiet before the year closes.
In the ordinary hours that don’t get celebrated.

The God who carried you through the past months is not suddenly more available when the calendar turns.

Faithfulness does not operate on a clock.
This morning is not asking you to evaluate the year.
It’s asking you to stand honestly inside it.

You don’t need a final verdict on success or failure.
You don’t need to rush into resolutions.
You don’t need to tidy up every loose end.

Some things take longer than a year to make sense of.
Some growth only becomes visible in hindsight.

There is wisdom in beginning the last day slowly.

Slow enough to acknowledge what shaped you.
Slow enough to release what no longer needs to be carried.
Slow enough to thank God for the strength you borrowed when yours ran out.

This day is not a finish line.
It’s a handoff.

Walk through this morning grounded, not nostalgic.

Carry gratitude without romanticizing pain.
Carry hope without demanding certainty.
Carry trust without needing a full map of what comes next.

You are not closing a chapter alone.
And you are not stepping into the next one unaccompanied.

Goodbye, 2025! Whether you're ringing in the New Year with a midnight toast or a Nyquil-induced 9 p.m. bedtime, be joyous, grateful – and safe!! 

I Don't Care How Pretty You Are

I know the days are starting to get longer now, but today felt like 3 days' long! And that was without leaving the house!

We woke to about 5 inches of snow and below-zero feels. My hubby the winter hero spent the morning nose-blowing and snowblowing here and at his dad's. And I am about a day and half behind him on the winter cold/cough train. So I had absolutely no energy!

What I did accomplish was starting a trifle cookbook (well not really, but I do have 6 recipes done anyway for friends who got trifle bowls for Christmas). 

Then I switched to scrapbooking mode. It took all afternoon but I found and uploaded all my 2018 photos I want to use at Camp Crop-A-Lot in February – but since there are 392 of them they won't all fit anyway. But.... drum roll please... I ordered the prints!! What? I know. Crazy. Still have lots of prep and organizing to do once I get the photos, but this is a great start.

And for my final accomplishment of the day, I wrote a poem.

Thoughts on Winter

Dear, winter:

I don't care how pretty you are.

I still hate you.

The end.

Be careful out there, my friends!

Close Doesn't Count

The good news is that both hubby and I made it to church and sung in our choirs and coughing wasn't an issue! About time.

The bad news is that some things didn't go quite as we wanted after that.

I've been batting a thousand at BINGO this fall. Two wins in two sessions. But today this was the closest I got with one to go during Ring Around The Free Space.

There goes my streak! The only saving grace (besides having fun with my BINGO babes) is that no one won the Progressive Jackpot in the last coverall game so that'll be up to close to $4,000 in November! I'll just keep crossing my fingers!

The other negative, of course, is that while I was betting the odds, my Vikings were just odd. Ugh. I hate losing by one score! But since I didn't watch it personally, maybe the dirty Eagle were just stinkin' good. I have no excuse.

Unrelated... My undefeated Swedish Chef Mafia fantasy football team is sitting at a 99% chance to win. So there's that.

The WIN though is that I took a few pictures of fall colors yesterday. Because today we had so much wind the trees are quickly turning naked!!

And Jim was on the mission to bag them up! We may need one more round in about a week, but that's fine. This is the only case today where "close to being done" actually counts.

Positive Pink Vibes

As I mentioned earlier in the week, Thursday night was the Pink Out night to raise money for cancer treatment at the Royals volleyball game. 

I worked from home Thursday with my stupid lingering cough, but I think those meds finally started kicking in. I was feeling OK enough to capture photos of the volleyball match (hey, the zoom lens is like socially distancing) and, well, win a raffle basket, of course! More Royals merch. What I need know that my kid has been out of school (gasp) 9 years. WHAT? Also, they raised $3,292 for woman I told you about with stage 4 colon cancer. Nice work!

Last night I had the best night of sleep in 2+ weeks. Hardly any coughing. YAY.

Since today is Friday I was already working from home. So no special exceptions needed. Didn't cough much all day. I think and hope hubby and I are both at a turning point for the good. But I shouldn't jinx that any further! 

Since we don't have a football game tonight, we're both hanging close to home. As in sitting in recliners shortly and cheering the heck on the Brewers! Come on, guys! Even non-Brew fans want this for you!!

Hope we all wake up with something positive on our minds in the morning!

Get In Line

The beautiful sunrise commute inspired me this morning as I made my way back to office for the first time in a week. To be honest, my body was not ready to return but I wanted to deliver that darn birthday trifle. 

Another night of coughing (for both of us) so I was pretty exhausted. I think that's our unfortunate current state of existence.

I did give it the old college try though and made it until lunchtime before deciding to drive home and work remotely for the afternoon. Since hubby had went back to the walk-in clinic this morning and got some prescriptions, I figured I better head over there, too, as my first order of business.

Turns out we are not the only ones with respiratory predicaments. Get in line! Thank goodness they had the Hallmark channel on in the waiting room!

My appointment took forever and, turns out, I have some prescriptions of my own. But here we are 6 hours later and the pharmacy doesn't have them ready. According to my app, they are super busy and "Sorry, we're running behind schedule." So we'll see what time we get our goods. 

And how quickly they produce any results.

I'm not going to be a birthday hero or any type of martyr tomorrow, that's for sure. If my coughing is the same as today I'll just stay put. I feel super blessed that this is something I can do with my current job. 

Hope you all are escaping the fall crud!

This Is Why We Go Through Crappy Mondays

While I was clearly griping and whining about my second round colonoscopy prep going like the first (Up-Chuck City), I came across the announcement about our Royals Volleyball team's annual Spike It To Cancer night...

The recipient of this year's fundraiser is the woman the exact same YOUNG age as me – and she's battling stage four colon cancer. Wow. That was a wake-up call.

How dare I complain about my literally crappy Sunday and Monday and this is her "every day"? Please help spread the word so we can fill the gym and help support Christine. JV game starts at 5:30 and Varsity game will be at 7 p.m.  Basket raffles and 50/50 will be drawn during the Varsity game. We should all be feeling lucky about right now. 💙

As for my experience today, they did do the procedure. Thank God I didn't feel anything this time (another nightmare). And they only found one thing they gotta get tested. Was home by late morning and took a little nap on the recliner.

Our Hack-A-Thon in this house did not take a break during this other crappy drama. Right now I feel like my cough got worse. Dang!! I did manage a second nap and will go to bed early with actual cough syrup I can now have that my procedure is over.

I did have one task to get done this afternoon. No worries. Did not work at all. Wise advice. I did however promise to whip together for a birthday at work tomorrow. 

First I masked up because no one needs what we've got going on here!!

Secondly, I followed doctor's orders and did not operate heavy machinery. My mom's rolling pin was the heaviest!

The result...

The ugliest and most sloppy-looking trifle I've ever laid claim too. All my layers are merging. Ugh. Maybe the anesthesia hasn't totally warn off. I mean, they'll still probably eat. Hopefully I'll have more normal stomach and appetite back tomorrow so I can too!

Have a great week. Hope to some of you at volleyball Thursday night! 

Airborne for the Win

I rarely do any type of product endorsements here, but about mid-morning when I remembered we had this in the medicine cabinet, it was a win. I worked from home again to not spend the day coughing on co-workers.

But that magical effervescent tablet in mid-morning was really the cure for me. (Unfortunately not for hubby so much.)

So I got through work, got through a middle school volleyball photo shoot, and fake suffered (LOL) through an always wonderful Girls Night Out (with Mexican food) that I hoped would clear up my sinuses. Pretty sure it helped, at least.

Now if us non-Brewers fans could just help them win tonight. Hey, when our teams are out, the Blue Jay Drive team is like "go, Wisconsin!"

Home Hack-A-thon

So here's an interesting fact. Large companies like the one I work for often have huge IT departments and they occasionally have a "hack-a-thon" to test our company's cyber security. This week, though, it's been a bit of a different kind of hack-a-thon between hubby and me.

He wins. 

Or loses really. Coughing so much it's insane. I think I'm a day behind on this. So today I worked from home with my stuffed up head and sore throat while he went to the clinic to see what the heck was up.

All we know is that we are COVID-free. Sometimes we forget that's still an option. And there's just "crap going around" that we'll have just have to "let it run its course." Which according to Dr. Not Helpful could be 7-14 days. Boo.

Anyway, so here we are stuck at home after work. No golfing for him and no choir practice for me. Just trying to cheer on the Brewers in the post-season. But that didn't turn out so well. Sorry, friends.

Now we'll just see what we should eat for supper. Since stuffy noses lead to no taste. But don't feel sorry for us. Neither one of our teams our baseball teams are losing the playoffs.

Mainly because they've been eliminated! LOL. 

Yeah, someday I'll find humor in that. For today, just welcome any prayers for good health!