New Year's Resolutions - December Update

It's time for a look back at this past year.  What kind of progress did I make towards my resolutions for the year?  I have a list of things I hope to accomplish every year. While I don't always finish everything, I do manage to finish a significant portion of them!


1) Complete 12 Home Improvement Projects
This was a year of a LOT of home improvement.  Expensive home improvement!  I'm hoping that this next year holds no major plumbing repairs!  This month, we installed the shades in the kitchen windows.  Yes, we've been living here 10 years and never had shades in the kitchen windows.  Finally done!   The last improvement involved the work that the contractor never came back to finish up - despite my repeated calls to them.  Thankfully hubby is handy, so he was able to finish things up.  He installed the kick plates under the cabinets, and the laminate on the end of the cabinets.  He then installed a hardwood back to the empty space under the cabinet that covers the yellow tile and matches the laminate.  It looks very professional, if I do say so myself!  Actually, I'm really glad that I kept track of this one - sometimes it feels like we do nothing around here - it's nice to have an actual list of what we really do accomplish.


The list:
1) Recover the kitchen chairs.
2) Add the knobs to the cabinet under the kitchen sink.
3) Fix the sewer line out of the house, through the basement wall.
4) Replace the baseboard heater in the hall bathroom.
5) Replace the lighting in the hall bathroom.
6) Re-enamel the hallway bathroom tile.
7) Replace the light at the bottom of the basement stairwell.
8) Paint the cinder block wall in the basement where we replaced the pipe.
9) Fix the running toilet in the Master Bathroom.
10) Fix the leaking pipes under the toilets down in the basement.  (Copper Pipes)
11) Install shades in the kitchen
12) Finish out the portion under the cabinets in the bathroom that the contractor never finished.

2) Lose a few more inches around my waist.
Honestly, I wanted to lose 2-3 inches.  How hard can that be?
Difficult.  Very difficult.
It really does get harder as you get older.

I've lost 1 inch.  ONE INCH.  It's progress, and I'll take it.  But I really wish I'd lost more.

3) Get away with my husband - TWICE - this year.
Done!
The first trip was a long weekend to visit our oldest child at school.  (OK, that's a maybe..)

Second was the long weekend we spent in Princeton - he was up there for business, and I went up there for a long weekend at our own expense at the end of his official business.

We did get in a third trip - out to Denver for a Memorial Service.  We enjoyed ourselves, and had a great time catching up with family from all over the country.

4) Lenten Cleaning Challenge
 Done!  40 bags in 40 days!  I'm looking forward to doing this one again next year!




5) Post at least 12 book reviews on my Books for Teens Blog
I've been reading a lot of YA fiction this month!  Almost everything I've read has been a hit. 
You can see my blog here:
https://librarynut-booksforteens.blogspot.com/



6) Finish the Hallway Bathroom

9 years after the long nightmare began, we now have 2 working bathrooms in our house!  While the contractor wasn't everything I expected, we have working bathrooms!
  

7) Participate in the NoSpenduary Challenge
The moratorium is over!  We still don't wantonly spend money, but our savings account is back up where it should be, tuition has been paid, and we're plotting our big home improvement project for next year.  Hopefully, that one doesn't cascade into a larger project like this year's project did.

Who am I kidding?  It's a home improvement project on a 48 year old house.  OF COURSE it's going to be more involved than we want it to be.  We need to add an emergency cushion onto the funding for that project when we start planning it out.

8) Learn another language.
This one was a great thought, but it never has gone anywhere.
 
9) 100 Things Every Marylander Should Do
I've done a few!  Maryland is a beautiful state!  I might not have done as many as I wanted, but it's nice to have seen a few of the items on the list.

10) Daughter's Quilt
Progress!  I am making big progress!  It won't be finished before the end of 2017, but it will be finished before the end of the school year!

Luna REALLY likes the quilt.

11) Clean Out Closet and Dresser Drawers

Done!  And the stuff I no longer need has been sent to Goodwill. 

12) Clean Out the Little Room in the Basement and Make it Usable
A little progress has been made.  I moved the wooden shelves out and into another room.  I put oldest child's stuff on those shelves.  These are the boxes of stuff that he wants to keep long term but just doesn't have the space for in his current apartment.


13) Work on Landscaping the Front Yard
Well, since our next big project is going to be replacing the roof and adding a front porch to the house, I'm not going to do anything with the landscaping until after the porch is finished.  This one will be a no go for this year.

14) Take at Least One Class through the ALA 
I finished the class!  !  Hooray! Now to get the other 2.8 CEU's I need to renew my certificate before June of 2019.

2018 Resolutions

I have big plans, big things I want to accomplish this year!  How much will I actually manage to get done?  There's a lot of change coming in the next year, and so many things I want to do.  Hopefully I can get them all done.  I've found that by keeping track of my resolutions on the blog, I actually manage to make most of my dreams happen!

1) Participate in the No-Spenduary Challenge
I've done this several years now, and every year I find that it has been well worth my time and effort.  Money is saved, debts are paid, and home improvement projects are done with the money that is saved.  Traditionally done for the month of January, you can find more information here: http://www.frugaldebtfreelife.com/main/2015/1/1/starting-the-new-year-with-a-no-spenduary-challenge.html?rq=nospenduary

2) 40 Bags in 40 Days
The idea is to clean out 1 bag of "stuff" out of the house every day during Lent.  It's a great way to get junk out of the house!  I'm looking forward to doing this one again!  You can find the challenge here:  White House Black Shutters.

3) Get Away With My Husband Twice
What did I read in the back of Debbie MacCombers last book?  They've begun their "Adventure before Dementia".  It's time for us to do the same.  Time to start knocking some places off of our bucket list.

4) Pay off 1 Big Debt
Gotta get it done!

5) Finish Daughter's and Husband's Quilt
I need to close the edges of husband's quilt.  I've repaired the quilt top made by my Mother in Law before he went to college. I put a new back and new lining in, and I retied all the layers together.  Now,  I just have to sew the edges together now.  Daughter's quilt needs to be finished - it's over half quilted now.  I need to finish quilting it and then sew it together.

6) Get out to visit Middle Child this year
Since he now lives halfway across the country, I want to get out to see him at least once this year. 

7) Replace the Roof on the House
We're missing shingles now.  Husband got up on the roof and did a temporary repair - but it needs to be professionally fixed.  I'd like to get a front porch added when we replace the roof. 

9) Exercise MOST days during the week.
This has been more of a challenge than I'd like to admit since I've gone back to work full time.  I'm going to define MOST of the week as 4 days.

10) Make my Christmas gifts this year.
This one is tough.  I've made Christmas gifts for my extended family in the past, but I quit when I found out that my relatives gave away the hats, scarves, etc. that I made for them.   Kind of disheartening when you realize that the $40 worth of yarn I spent weeks making into a felted hat was thrown out.  For them, I go with gift cards.  I'm thinking more about my very close friends and co-workers.

11) Cut my grocery budget to $250/month.
So, now that we're down to just me, my husband, and the youngest child.. . I need to cut down our expenses.  I've been a little out of control over the last six months of the year with middle child home and having gone back to work full time.  So, I'm going to keep a closer eye on our spending this year on keeping this under control.  With only  of us living at home, we can easily keep our expenses down if I really put an effort into it.

12) Turn my yarn and fabric stash into something more... (but what?)
I've got a lot of yarn, and a lot of fabric.  What am I going to do with it all?  This will be the challenge of the year!

13) Take one item off of my Bucket List
Which one?  Where to begin?  What to do?

14) Have one Media Free Day per week
There is so much noise going on in our world... and so many distractions.  And my job demands constant media exposure and knowledge.  One day a week, I'm going to shut them all out and spend the day in peace with just myself.  Who knows what great things I'll accomplish on my day off from the media?


15) Visit 12 libraries I have never been to before
I know, I work in a library.  But, I absolutely love visiting libraries!  I want to go to 12 libraries I haven't been to before and then post pictures.  How about you?  Would you be willing to share your library photos with me?


16) Get Away With My Husband - Just the two of us - Twice
After last year, I'd like to add the caveat that it not be for a funeral.  I'd like to just get away and spend time away from home being just us.

I have a couple of professional goals I want to meet, too.  I'm not going to list them here, but they're in the back of my mind!

1) PG #1

2) PG #2

It's a long list!  I didn't knock them all out last year. Can I do it this year?  

What about you?

Food for Thought

New Wheels

I shared the sad story of the demise of the van here.



Since then, we've been searching for a new to us car.  There's been a lot of discussion about this.  With oldest child out and on his own, and middle child moving half way across the country, do we really need a van?  When we go on family vacations, we're either going to meet there, or we can rent a van.



So, what kind of a car do we need?  We've got a Civic for great gas mileage, but we also need a car that can haul stuff back and forth.  We have a basement and garage full of my in-laws junk that we're still trying to clean out.  We are also moving kids around.  So, we need something big enough to haul stuff around.



Funny thing is, middle child has been doing a lot of research on cars.  He is looking at buying his own car, so he is basically a walking encyclopedia on cars.  We gave him our parameters on what we were looking for and he gave us a list of cars.



We then went to Car Max with our list of cars.  There were three cars on the lot that met our demands and fell in our price range.  After giving the cars a cursory glance, we quickly narrowed the list down to 2.  Once we took the cars out for a test drive, we found the car for us.



It's a 2015 Honda CRV.



It has 25,000 miles on it.



I'm calling it the Orville.



And it's smack dab in the middle of our price range.



Once we bought it, we took it to our mechanic to give it a once over.  If there was anything wrong with it, I was going to make sure I took it back to Car Max so they could fix it.  (There's a very small window of time to have things fixed once you buy it.  Our mechanic squeezed us in to make certain that he looked at the car before the window was closed.)  The good news is, the car is in tip top shape, and our mechanic gave his thumbs up!



I really like my new car.  Since I only drive 8 miles one way, I drive the CRV.  The Civic goes on the longer journey back and forth with daughter to school.



This raises the question - do I change the name of the blog to "SUV Mom Blog?"  or  "Empty Nest Mom" or "Mini-Van Empty Nester drives a CRV now Blog?"  HAH!  I don't think so!   I'll be keeping the name, but the tag might change.  Since we're almost empty nesters... Does the 20 year old living at home and commuting to college still count? I guess since we're still feeding her, she is technically living at home. 

Squirrels

Maryland

I have a soft spot in my heart for these playful little rodents!  I've got several who live in my yard, and they play in the big Maple Tree next to my garage, torment my cats, and just recently began climbing on the window screens.  I'm pretty sure they're the cause of a lot of the leaf mess in my back yard.  But I really do enjoy watching them play!  Funny thing is, no matter where I travel, I see squirrels.  But, they are not the same color as the squirrels in Maryland. 

Weird right?

I've been taking pictures of them over the years.  In my quest to clean out my phone before I replace it, I've finally tracked down my "good" squirrel pictures.  You know, the pictures where the squirrels are actually visible and not a small dot or a smudge on the camera screen.

SO, here in Maryland, our squirrels are grey-brown.  More grey than brown.

And the ones in Colorado?  Reddish- Brown.

Colorado

The ones in Canada are the most striking of all.  They are a gorgeous, beautiful shiny black.

Let me be specific.  I found these beautiful guys around Niagara Falls and Ottawa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canada

So, what color are the squirrels in your neck of the woods?  Inquiring minds want to know!

Savage Library

I posted these pictures back in April, but I'm posting them again!  I'm cleaning out the 3,000 pictures on my phone.  *sigh*  Some are being printed out as prints and put into an album.  Some are being deleted, and some, I'm posting on here just to make certain I've got a copy of them somewhere!  Enjoy!

Back in the spring, I stopped in at the Savage Library in Howard County.  When the kids were little, I used to bring them here for story time.  Especially Little Miss.  The librarian just "clicked" with my daughter, and she adored her and made many friends!  The library was remodeled several years back.  The building had been shared with the Senior Center.  A new Center was opened in the area, and the library expanded into the other half of the building.  I really do like the use of space.  What was a very dark, closed space has been opened up, lots of windows have been added, the service desk expanded, more computers are available, and the teen section is pretty phenomenal.  Even better, they have added a large meeting/auditorium space where the senior center was located.  It's a very light and airy space.  One thing I've noticed while visiting the Howard County Libraries is that they seem to be using a consistent color palette throughout their buildings.  So, while the buildings might be different from place to place, they have a consistent color theme that carries across all buildings.  I'm not sure how I feel about this - because it takes away the individuality of each building - and some of their buildings were designed by internationally renowned architects.  I like the individual personality of each building - I feel it reflects the community.

In the meantime, come venture through the library with me!  I found a new tool on my iPad that allows me to write on the pictures.  I've written on some of them, and I've blacked out faces.  (Just in case if you find yourself wondering what the heck is going on in the pictures....)

Reading corner back in the older children's area.

Check out desk straight ahead.  Picture books to the left.  Computers to the right.

Love that long run of shelves!

The carpet is great!  I think I've seen it in other HCL buildings. 

I entered by the check out desk, and turned left.  Wall is on my left - computers to the right, YA ahead.  See the stools on the left just before the open doorway?

THIS is the stools that were up ahead on the left.  Nice laptop bar!

The YA section.  I like the fact that there's a designated eating space right here.  No sneaking food in the stacks, no empty containers of food to find in hidden corners. 

And this is the hallway to the multi-purpose room.

More YA.  I'm very impressed with the size of the YA collection!

STILL in Young Adult.

MORE in the young adult section.

Looking back towards the children's section.  Years ago, the wall that divided the two halves of the building was just past the laptop bar - right where you see the wall jutting out.   AND, there were bookshelves everywhere, literally stuffed everywhere.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

That's supposed to be part of a song.  Do you recognize it?  Even if you don't, it sums up what's coming up for us.

Middle Child graduated in May.  He spent one last summer working as the head life guard and aquatics director while he searched for employment.  He put out applications.  He went on interviews.  He went on second interviews.  And he never heard back from anyone.

He widened his search area.  He had someone look at his resume and cover letter.  He had more interviews.  He had second interviews.  And he never heard back from anyone.

I tell you, if I hadn't spent a good 6 months looking for a new job last year, I would have thought he was blowing smoke up my ass about how many job applications he had put out.  In the first six months of 2016, I put out over 150 applications, went on multiple first and second interviews, and NEVER HEARD BACK FROM ANYONE.  And I have experience. 

Middle Child has been applying for jobs since September of 2016.

In October, he finally heard back from an employer who was interested.  They had a second interview with him.  They followed up on the interview.  They asked him to fill out some paperwork.  They continued to follow up with him as he provided paperwork and did another set of interviews.

He was offered a job two weeks ago, which he accepted.  HOORAY!

The problem is, the job is in Kansas.  Kansas City, to be exact.

That's a long way from here, Dorothy.

Make no mistake - I am thrilled for him, and excited he has a job that he is so excited about.  I am happy that he has found meaningful work in his chosen field.  But why does it have to be halfway across the country?

He is out there with his Dad this week, looking for a place to live.  They're going to check out the area, and scout out walkability and churches and everything else you need to know about when you move to a new area.   He starts his new job the fist week in January.  We'll be moving him out the last week in December.

God, I am going to miss that kid!  I know he'll do great, but I am going to miss having him so close!

Sollers Point Library

I stopped by this beautiful library and community center recently.  This gorgeous building housed a full service library, a small museum and a community center with a gymnasium, cafeteria, and several classrooms.  This building had a little bit of everything!  When I drove up and got out of the car, the one overpowering thing that I noticed was the overwhelming smell of water in the air.  Sollers Point is located within a couple of blocks of the Bay.  The shipyards were within sight of the parking lot.  One thing I didn't know about the community is that this area is also known as Turner Station.  Those familiar with the story of Henrietta Lacks will recognize the name of her home. The little museum in the Community Center had a display dedicated to Henrietta Lacks and the medical advances that have been made with the tissue samples that were taken from her before her death.  You know that this beautiful little library is a great asset to the community!

The entrance from the Community Center into the library.

The view from the back corner of the library across.  The entrance is to the left in this picture.

From the same spot as above - the back corner - looking left.  The entrance is behind that wall that is straight ahead.

A better look at the children's area.  Love the big windows and all of the natural light!

Just behind those trees are the shipyards.

I love that there's a baseball diamond and rec fields just outside the library.

The view of the desk from the hallway in the community center.

This last picture is not from the library.  It's from the museum.  It chronicles the journey of the HeLa Cells, and the major medical discoveries that have been made from Henrietta's cells.  There's so much more to see in this little museum.  If you're headed over to the East Side of Baltimore to see the library, make certain that you go when the museum is open so that you can also check out everything that they have to offer.

The End of the Mini Van

Driving the van in Niagara Falls, CA.

It was a day like any other.  Daughter has been the primary driver of the van for a while now.  We figured that the oldest car should be the one that is going back and forth to the Community College and now the 4 year college.  She walks a few dogs during the week.  All of her clients are located within a couple of miles of the house.

I was at work when I started getting text messages from her.

"The van seems to be handling weird.  It's like the power steering is gone."

"Walking Ben now, I'm going to try to drive the car home."

"Is the van supposed to be smoking?"

In good weather and bad....

Of course, I was not in the same room as my cell phone when these messages started coming in.  I walked back to my desk to find the above string of text messages followed by:

"Lots of blue smoke coming from van.  There was a large thump."

"I pulled over into the field.  Walking rest of the way home."

"I went over to the car with Dad after he got home.  It won't start again."

So, after I got home, I heard the rest of the story.

Our van dropped it's transmission on the way home.  After 150,000 miles, we decided that the van has lived a wonderful life.  We are not going to try to fix it.  A new to us car is in the works.  For now, we've got the van sitting in our driveway, waiting while we decide what we're going to do with it.

Loaded up to move oldest kid to Pennsylvania.

Overall, it's been an amazing car.  It's taken us to Canada and back.  To Niagara Falls.  Out to Minnesota.  To the Black Hills of South Dakota.  To Indiana.  On multiple field trips with the Girl Scouts, and on several very memorable trips with the Robotics Team.  I've had a good chunk of the kids from the high school in my car over the years.  One memorable incident involved one of daughter's friends swooning when she realized that she was sitting in the same seat that "Boy Gorgeous" sat in a couple of days before.

We've moved three kids in and out of college... and the oldest into his house at Grad. School.  I wish we could have made it a few more months.  We have another big move coming up next month.  I really would have liked to have the van to haul stuff. 

Oh, the memories we've made with that car!

New Year's Resolutions

In spite of everything else, I have been keeping this list of goals in mind over the last few months, and I've been working towards getting them accomplished!



1) Complete 12 Home Improvement Projects
This month has been a two-fer!  First, the plumbing under the toilets gave way.  We had to replace the pipes under the toilets.  MORE plumbing.  That damn copper piping keeps giving way.  There's still a lot that needs to be replaced - but I'm crossing my fingers that this is it for a while.  Second, the toilet in the Master Bedroom was running almost constantly.  We were at the point where we had to turn off the water to the toilet after every time we flushed.  Husband fixed that last weekend.  I'm ready to move away from fixing the bathrooms and plumbing and onto something else.  Like the roof - and adding a porch onto the house.
 

New Pipes in the basement.

The list to date:
1) Recover the kitchen chairs.
2) Add the knobs to the cabinet under the kitchen sink.
3) Fix the sewer line out of the house, through the basement wall.
4) Replace the baseboard heater in the hall bathroom.
5) Replace the lighting in the hall bathroom.
6) Re-enamel the hallway bathroom tile.
7) Replace the light at the bottom of the basement stairwell.
8) Paint the cinder block wall in the basement where we replaced the pipe.
9) Fix the running toilet in the Master Bathroom.
10) Fix the leaking pipes under the toilets down in the basement.  (Copper Pipes)


2) Lose a few more inches around my waist.
Honestly, I wanted to lose 2-3 inches.  How hard can that be?
Difficult.  Very difficult.
It really does get harder as you get older.



3) Get away with my husband - TWICE - this year.
Done!
The first trip was a long weekend to visit our oldest child at school.  (OK, that's a maybe..)
Second was the long weekend we spent in Princeton - he was up there for business, and I went up there for a long weekend at our own expense at the end of his official business.

We did get in a third trip - out to Denver for a Memorial Service.  We enjoyed ourselves, and had a great time catching up with family from all over the country.

Princeton

4) Lenten Cleaning Challenge
 Done!  40 bags in 40 days!  I'm looking forward to doing this one again next year!

5) Post at least 12 book reviews on my Books for Teens Blog
I've been reading a lot of YA fiction this month!  Almost everything I've read has been a hit. 
You can see my blog here:
https://librarynut-booksforteens.blogspot.com/




6) Finish the Hallway Bathroom

9 years after the long nightmare began, we now have 2 working bathrooms in our house!
  

7) Participate in the NoSpenduary Challenge
The moratorium is over!  We still don't wantonly spend money, but our savings account is back up where it should be, tuition has been paid, and we're plotting our big home improvement project for next year.  Hopefully, that one doesn't cascade into a larger project like this year's project did.

Who am I kidding?  It's a home improvement project on a 40 year old house.  OF COURSE it's going to be more involved than we want it to be.  We need to add an emergency cushion onto the funding for that project when we start planning it out.



8) Learn another language.
This one was a great thought, but it never has gone anywhere.

9) 100 Things Every Marylander Should Do
One more!  I walked along Carroll Creek in Frederick.  It is a beautiful walk, through the heart of downtown Frederick and through the old section north of the city.  What a gorgeous walk!

10) Daughter's Quilt
Progress!  I am making big progress!  It won't be finished before the end of 2017, but it will be finished before the end of the school year!

Luna REALLY likes the quilt.

11) Clean Out Closet and Dresser Drawers

Done!  And the stuff I no longer need has been sent to Goodwill. 

12) Clean Out the Little Room in the Basement and Make it Usable
A little progress has been made.  I moved the wooden shelves out and into another room.  I put oldest child's stuff on those shelves.  These are the boxes of stuff that he wants to keep long term but just doesn't have the space for in his current apartment.




13) Work on Landscaping the Front Yard
Well, since our next big project is going to be replacing the roof and adding a front porch to the house, I'm not going to do anything with the landscaping until after the porch is finished.  This one will be a no go for this year.



14) Take at Least One Class through the ALA 
I finished the class!  I submitted two of the lessons that I wrote, and they have been approved as library programs for this summer!  Hooray!  It's going to be a great summer!  Even better?  I got a few more CEU's to add to the total number of hours I need to renew my teaching certificate.

Are you still working on your resolutions?  Have you made progress?