Our Happy New Year rang in with a fire in our fireplace. At last, we have fire!
I grew up snuggled around one on Sunday afternoons. Lying on the floor in front of a fire with the bottoms of my feet towards the heat was always the set up for a perfect nap!
Our new house, which isn’t so new anymore, came with two old fireplaces. Both were deemed unsafe to use when I had them inspected after the move in. We were all very disappointed.
This fall, I decided it was time to tackle at least one of them. I found a great mason and he started working on it. Needless to say, with any old house project, things just kept going more and more awry. But finally, after a month of up and down on the roof, peering up through the fireplace, and lots of brick, mortar, and dust it was finished, on December 31st!
And here we are today, January 2nd, lighting it up for the very first time after many, many, years of dormancy. We are so excited!
With our fire blazing, here we go into the new year. Kind of fitting I would say.
As with any flip of the calendar page there is always that time of reflection. Some of it is fun to go back to and remember, and some of it is not so fun to look back on…and instead we would rather forget.
I decided to put together a few things that I wanted to remember about 2019. Things that I thought defined it, and made it slightly different than any other year. Here we go..
Hardest laugh of the year: Playing Loaded Questions with our dear friends the Fowlers.
Best show/concert attended: Phantom of the Opera–my first time seeing it!
Family quote of the year: Sam, in response to my sister coming in to quiet down the cousins for bed, “Aunt E, if you have to pluck me out, I can sleep with my mother.” We have laughed a lot over that one Sam.
Best Day Trip: Entire family bike ride through the Saratoga Battlefield in October. What an unexpected great day!
Most bittersweet parenting moment: Watching my son drive away after getting his license.
Best habit started: Waking up at 5 am to work out Monday through Friday.
Jump off the cliff moment: Signing the paperwork to buy Ghost Writers Inc.
The feeling of greatest tranquility in 2019: Fishing off the pontoon boat at Lake Umbagog. A beautiful day..
What I want to carry with me in 2020: Happy kids.
What I want to leave behind me in 2020: An un-controlled work schedule.
Greatest lesson learned in 2019: The importance of setting boundaries.
Most unexpected gift of 2019: August 21
The phrase that is going to carry over from 2019 to 2020: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
Song that I listened to the most in 2019: Preacher by One Republic
What brought me great joy in 2019: The conversations that I had with my kids and watching their basketball games.
Feel like a kid again moment: Catching a big fish.
Best physical work activity of the year: Splitting and stacking the wood from the red oak tree.
Word that best defined 2019: Dynamic
The road of 2019 was full of twists and curves, ups and downs and around the bends. There were a lot of unexpected gifts during the year. We had some challenges too, but we got through them. I figure it’s God’s way of giving us character. 😉
We have love in our hearts and we smile. Through the good times and the bad we have each other, ourselves and our faith.
Here’s to 2020! Let’s make every day count..with all the fire that we can muster. 🙂
With love,
Kate
0
