Reflections on 2017

It's tough to reflect on a year when the events of the past couple weeks have definitely shaped my view on things.

Family

We had some great milestones with our immediate family this year.

DS2 graduated from his college and had his diploma in environmental law. He spent the summer exploring law enforcement and did a great job, but he's not sure if it is for him.  He is currently figuring things out.

DS1 's highlight was heading to the National Finals for his hockey. We played in an amazing championship game, saw a gorgeous city for the first time and looked on proudly as he played in front of about 20,000 people. It was a once in a lifetime experience.

Travel

We dabbled our toes in a new city with our April trip to Chicago. We did well maneuvering a new airport, new city, new methods of transportation. We had lovely weather and some great dining experiences. In October we did our last family weekend at my son's college. Each time we go to his city we see new things and I am sad that our time in that beautiful place is only months away from ending.

Money

Money held steady for the most part. Mortgage went down. LOC went up. I stayed CC debt free. I met most of my goals but not quite all of them. My good habits are deeply ingrained.  I hope to continue to grow those good habits next year, but moreso, I hope that they can help plan for some life experience

Health

My colitis continued to wreak havoc on my world. Limiting my outings. Exhausting me body and soul. Often coming close to breaking my spirit. I am now on monthly infusions instead of bimonthly. For the first time I was given a receipt for this and each one rings it at $3478. I think it is helping but I am not sure yet. I still have to be very careful and preplan any outings around my food intake and my bathroom needs.


Ancestry

I had a great time on ancestry.ca this summer. I found new family connections, some closely related and some farther away. We met one of my first cousins for the first time. It made my mom's summer to meet a long lost nephew.

Weight

I believe last year was one of the first in a long time where I did not set a weight goal. Ironically, I woke up one day in August and said 'this is it' and started on a journey of weight loss that is still continuing. I have blogged about it at Jolie - a year from now . It's not a very exciting blog by any means, but it  helps keep me on track to some extent. I am so lucky to have some great readers who encourage me on. You mean a lot to me. Thank you.

PS - I lost 31 lbs in 2017

Reading

I tried an alphabet game to make my reading more interesting, but it didn't do all that well to be honest. I need to bring more reading into my world again.


To sum things up, it was a year with some highs and some lows and a lot of flat in between.

I know 2018 is going to bring in some serious sadness. I hope I can find lots of good moments in between those to help get me through.

2017 - A Quick Glance

Peeking purely at the numbers, it would show that 2017 was not  a year of progress for my bottom line.  The mortgage has gone  down, predictably.




December 2009 - $70 771.99
December 2010 - $52 410.25 (down $18 361.74)
December 2011 - $40 055.29 (down $12 354.96)
December 2012 - $35 921.04 (down $4 134.25)
December 2013 - $25 925.49 (down $9 995.55)
December 2014 - $22 494.06 (down $3431.43)
December 2015 - $18 837.12 (down $3656.94)
December 2016 - $15 009.96 (down $3827.16)
December 2017 - $11 055.48 (down $3954.48)

That of course started as all debt and now just reflects mortgage.

However anyone following my blog knows I have a LOC serving as funding for DS1's college fees. I purposely did not choose to include that when it first was activated as that number has moved up and down within each year.



Debt 2016
Mortgage - $15 009.96
College LOC - $13 245.16

Total Debt - $28 255.12



Debt 2017
Mortgage - $11 055.48
College LOC - $21 343.00

Total Debt - $32 398.48

I added to the LOC a couple times during the year and I am slowly working on paying that down.  Side by side comparisons, however, show that the overall debt is up.

This is DS1's last year of college so barring anything unforeseen, this should slowly whittle down.

A year of snowflakes

I love keeping track of the little ways money can add up. For me, there is no side hustle. During the school year there isn't enough energy to make it happen and during the summer I am recharging. I suppose I could find something in the summer if I REALLY wanted to.

Most of the money came from Tax returns. I was able to claim both boys this past year. For 2017 tax year I will just have the one, as DS2's tuition was all paid before the turn of the year.

The rest of the money came from my change jar, and the bits of money I was able to tuck away from jar money to repurpose for savings or debt goals.


In the past, this is how the snowflakes built up:

In 2016 the snowflakes were $5872
In 2015 the snowflakes were $8064
In 2014 the snowflakes were $3112
In 2013 the snowflakes were $3671
In 2012 the snowflakes were $3136
In 2011 the snowflakes were $4350
In 2010 the snowflakes were $5070
In 2009 the snowflakes were $4295

For 2017, my total was not the largest ever, nor was it the smallest. It floated in the middle.  $4770

My change jar for 2017

I do love my change jar.

Actually I have two of them. One is a piggy that used to sing when you put coins in. The toonies and loonies live in them. They other is a carafe of some sort. No clue where I got that from. All the other change lives in there.

I love putting my spending change in the jar and then counting it up at the end of the year. I still do it old school - hand roll and take into the bank. Love doing it that way.

For 6 months this year the change went towards the back to school planned spending. It seemed like an innocent and non threatening way to build up to that $500. After that, I put the jar money towards my 2018 TFSA, since I didn't make that goal this year.

Here are my ghosts of change jars past:

2012 -$549.50
2013 - $980
2014 - $512
2015 - $642
2016 - $825

Each year I think, hmmm I don't have that much. Especially when there are $0 months. then I do a tally and surprise myself.

January - $100
February  - $90
March - $0
April - $0
May - $100
June - $100
July - $50
August - $100
September - $100
October - $100
November - $100
December - $100

Actually this is spookily similar to last year's. Interesting.

For a grand total of $940

Not my highest ever but definitely up there.

I do recognize that if I spent less there would be less opportunity for change :-)

I plan to keep the same targets for next year - First $500 for Back to School and then TFSA.

If I were to have $100 per month (which I never do, then I would have a surplus of $100 to do go a third goal. We shall see.

Thank you change rolling for all those fun little memories.

First trip to the Cancer Clinic

(this is purely about mom's cancer so please feel free to scroll on if it's not the topic for you. I understand)


In the dark of -40C temps, we drove in the early dark hours to the city to take mom to the Cancer Clinic. I had blankies for the back seat so they would be warm enough. Mom was sick to her stomach for quite a bit of the journey.

It was an overwhelming day. The people there are very good at what they do. We had our initial greeting and the nurse went over the clinic, basic info and gave us resources of who to contact.

Next was a visit to drug review where that nurse went over all the meds mom is currently on.

We headed next to phlebotomy and that nurse was very good at what she did.

Off next for a longer wait to see the oncologist. The nurse for this doctor was incredibly detail oriented and worked hard to read mom's body language as she answered questions.

The oncologist was also very good, but less people oriented. Her sole focus was mom and she seemed annoyed my sister and I were in the room and gave dark looks anytime we spoke. If she's good for mom, I can get over that.  The results of the  tests are Stage 4 cancer. We are waiting for the results of the biopsy from the 20th to determine the proper course of treatment, if any. These tests have to be sent out of province and should be back about the  9th ish.

We were  sent next to the radiologist for oncology. He was incredibly good with mom, with explaining things and with my sister and I. His focus was to treat the cancer in the eye. He repeated a few times that he can't cure her, but he can improve the quality of her life if the tumor behind her eye responds to the radiation. Mom agreed to this treatment.

Next we were off to the main part of the hospital for an xray of mom's hip, to find out what is bothering it, and if it's cancer. They were incredibly quick and efficient.

Back we went to the Clinic (the buildings are attached). The first meeting in radiation is to create a mask/form that will hold mom's head and neck in the same position each time. We were unable to do this as mom has a deep cough and wouldn't be able to hold still for the 20 min it takes to create this.

So off we headed home. All of us exhausted. Mom was so tired and needed her bed badly. She didn't cry once throughout this today, so I had to step away to do my own tears.

We left them in the hands of another sister and I came home to crash. I doubt I will be awake much longer. I haven't slept properly in days.