Reflections on 2016

The year of 'meh'

I seem so many posts on 2016 about people saying that 2016 was awful in so many ways. Politics. Economics. Deaths.

I don't dispute those at all.

For me 2016 was a year of  'meh', which is a great word to describe that indolent shoulder shrug. Sure there have been lots of bright moments, but I didn't feel like I accomplished much. Worse yet, I didn't have the physical or brain energy to do much. Or to care.

I mean when a girl who loves notepads and lists sits down with a brand new shiny notepad and can't summon up enough brain cells to make a list - any list - we know that things are truly off.

My health has been shitty. Literally and figuratively. 2016 was the year of colitis 'accidents'. Humbling and degrading all in one.

My energy simply didn't exist. I got things done. mostly. but bare minimum seemed to be the standard of 2016. Exhaustion and I were BFFs

There were good things. I made it through my first year at a new school. A new baby in the family. My dad's 80th. A wonderful visit to DS at the end of September.

I met all my planned spending goals. There weren't too many Murphy moments. I didn't meet my goal to pay down my LOC to under $10 000.

I didn't read much. Correction - I didn't read anything new. Didn't have the brain cells to commit to anything new.  I reread a lot of things. Rewatched things on Netflix. Zoned out on computer games.

I honestly feel like an old lady sitting in her chair, passing time with trivialities. Not living. Just waiting to die.

I want to LIVE. I don't know what that looks like in my health limitations, but I want to live. I want spark. energy. zest for experiences.

What works?

Well mini goals work for me.

Something different but not too different to activate my mind.

What didn't work for me... doesn't take a genius to see that nothing I am doing is improving my health. When I did little spurts of WW or walking. It worked. I felt better.

I know...jaw dropping revelations.

I am not sure what new things or different things I need to do, but it's either that or roll over and wait for it all to be done.

Not exactly going to win cheerleader of the year with this post. Not looking for pity. Just ............ saying 'outloud' all the things I have been feeling lately.

And there has been a spark the past few days. The post Christmas, new budget, new goals, tabula rasa kind of spark.

I'll take that :-)

2016 - A quick glance

As you can see on the top right of my blog, my debt is currently sitting at $28 255.12

Part of that is mortgage and the rest is the college LOC.

The LOC has gone up and down this year. I keep whittling away at it each month, but a couple times a year I have to add more to make tuition payments or cost of living payments.   DS1 still isn't eligible for Canada Student Loans so for now, this will  have to do. His scholarship covers some, but all the other pieces, certainly do add up. It definitely doesn't help that this is in US dollars and our Canadian dollar is taking a kicking when we need to convert.

DS2 isn't eligible either. He has received a few scholarships in smaller amounts, and the money he made last summer goes a lot farther when it stays in Canadian funds.

The final number below is indicative of only the  mortgage. Adding in the current college LOC (and not counting January Semester 2 payments),  if I added it all together it would put me back at somewhere between 2012 and 2013.



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)

DS2 has 6 months left of his program but whether there are any jobs in his field has yet to be determined. There was a massive freeze last year and that is still in place. A lot of the Sask jobs were taken by Alberta folk out of work and 'coming home'.

DS1 has 18 months left of a four  year degree.

I feel like I made some progress but I definitely could have done more.

A Year of Snowflakes

I feel like 2016 was a meh year in a lot of ways. Nothing horribly bad happened. I didn't suddenly hate money or budgets or savings.  I think between the meds I was on, and my health, I just didn't have enough brain energy to apply to money.  Seriously hoping 2017 shakes that off.

Snowflakes this year came from my change jars, leftovers from the weekly budget, but mostly, the income tax return.

None of this was "I earned extra money somehow" money.


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

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 2016 the snowflakes came to $5872 with 60% of that coming from tax returns.

My change jar for 2016

One thing about blogging year after year is that while the entries may be boring, I can peek back in the archive for details from past years.

I honestly thought that like the rest of 2016, my change I rolled was 'meh'.  I was a little surprised when I counted up this year and checked previous years.

So here is the data I have:
2012 -$549.50
2013 - $980
2014 - $512
2015 - $642
2016 ------

So I had a few months of not enough change of any category to roll. The rest of the months had a bit of a predictability to them.

January - $0
February  - $100
March - $25
April - $0
May - $100
June - $100
July - $50
August - $100
September - $100
October - $100
November - $100
December - $50

For a grand total of $825

If I recall correctly I used the first $500 as  a non stress way of saving for Back to School costs for me. The rest went as payments on the College LOC.

I would have to say that of those two options, I got more of a rush out of the saving for Back to School. Took one thing off the budget line.

Oh Christmas tree

As I sit here sipping coffee (which may contain Baileys) beside my lit up tree, I don't have the heart to tell it that tomorrow is it's last day. The needles are dropping everywhere and as adorable as it is, it's time to go.

We have had a real Christmas tree for 98% of the holidays DH and I have been together. At first it was a habit, and then it was a fundraiser through hockey. The old, buy from us now and when your kid is at Pee Wee we will buy from you too.

I always felt guilty going to bed early when he's just sitting there, twinkling ever so prettily. Time is short with him so often I fall asleep on the couch, just for a little while, with just the glow of the tree.

He is the promise of family and togetherness and excitement. And days off from work. and not knowing what day it is.

Mr. Tree is the promise of too much food and sleeping in. Of just forgetting for awhile and staying in your jammies all day if you want. Of the heartbeat of my boys.

Of endless movies on in the background and losing myself in a book, and hockey hockey hockey

Once he comes down, it's like a giant neon sign blinking "reality sets in". Cleaning. sorting. budgeting. planning. school. yeah school. and marking. and planning there. and heavy thoughts about money. and health.

But back to the tree.....at least for one more day.  And the heartbeat of my boys.

I have DS2 for a few more days.

DS1 flies back to the US tomorrow. One more day with him and then he's gone until June.

My time with them is no longer quantity. but oh how I appreciate the quality.

And the twinkling lights of my little tree.

Boxing Day doings

Well DS2 is feeling a bit better. He was able to get up and shower and get some food to stay down, so that is progress. He even opened his presents. That may mean the tree comes down tomorrow. Or perhaps on the 28th to distract me from DS1 flying back to the US.

Today DS1 is still at GF's. I do believe he took part in a curling bonspiel. One of his cousins drove out there to partake as well.

As for me, today was a productive day. It started with Pirates of the Caribbean and worked its way through a few of the sequels. Then it was World Jr Hockey. 

That was in the background.

In the foreground I was a cleaning machine. I think that seems to be a Boxing Day tradition for me. Some sort of deeply ingrained...new things in the house, clean out some old things.  Whatever the psychological reason, it felt productive.

I got through four big drawers in the kitchen, the dreaded 'under the sink' and the pot cupboard.

I also did my dresser and got rid of clothes that were too small or worn out.

DS2's room smelled like the plague so everything in there had to be washed. Four loads of bed linens and then his laundry he brought home from College.

I even worked in a wee nap and a 45 min visit with sister 3 as she came into town to bring her MIL back from Christmas at their house up north.

I enjoyed my tree. I read a bit and I had a glass of icy cold wine (left the bottle in the non heated garage. I am lucky it didn't freeze and burst).

I hope this feeling of getting things done continues on tomorrow. I think I need to go through the big box of tree decorations and sort, tidy and purge.

I hope your day was greater, no matter how you spent it.

Christmas Day - Plan B

So Christmas Day didn't quite work out as we had planned.

By 10 AM DS1 and GF were up, but there was no signs of life from DS2. When I went to peek on him he was a sick little boy. I think he picked up the flu. He spent the day sleeping or in the bathroom being sick. Not his happiest Christmas Day.

DS and GF opened up their stockings and gifts. We got them a nice tent so that they have their own when they head off camping in the summers instead of borrowing one of ours.

We then headed over to my mom and dad's for brunch, after checking in with DS2.

That full brunch of bacon and eggs, sausage and pancakes tastes the best twice a year: once at Christmas brunch with my parents, and once at the lake in the summer when we cook everything outside.

My mom finally stopped buying gifts. There are just too many of us and it's silly to spend that kind of cash for a day. To compromise, she got everyone a copy of our family pic we took at the lake for dad's 80th birthday. Best present ever.

The kids headed off out of town to GF's place to spend the rest of Christmas and Boxing Day with her family.

We were supposed to head out to Sister2's place for her Christmas supper but with DS sick I didn't want to go that far out of town.

Instead DH headed over to his sister's and spent Christmas afternoon with them and had supper there. I stayed home to nurse DS2 and curled up to read by my tree, with a coffee and baileys.

Plan B was very peaceful and I was ok with that.

I even ( don't tell anyone) watched the Unauthorized Biography of Beverly Hills 90210 on TV. Had never seen it before and there was NOTHING on :-)

Right now it still looks a bit like Christmas morning with my tree lit up, my Christmas jammies on, snow lightly falling and DS's presents and stockings under the tree.

Christmas morning

Christmas mornings are very different when you don't have little ones. It's more of a 'when will they wake up' scenario.

The cat and I are curled up by the Christmas tree with  Diner's Drive Ins and Dives on, while I sip coffee.

The stockings are ready for the three of them to get up. WAY more fun filling GF's stocking than the boys lol

We talked a lot about the northern Christmas's we used to do before the family got too big.

Here is a link to when I wrote about them a few years ago.

Northern Money Tree Christmas Celebrations of Days Gone by

Classic Christmas Eve

I must be getting wiser because I appreciate Christmas on such a different level than I used to.

Perhaps it isn't Christmas itself, but the gathering of family and the moments that ensue.

DS2 finally made it home on the night of the 23rd, and DS1 and GF made it back to town earlier today so for a few hours I had all three heartbeats in the house.

The boys were busy wrapping the few things they bought. DS1 always tries to make it a challenge to open them.

DH had gone out ice fishing and by 4 PM we all headed over to my sister's for Christmas eve supper. There were 25 of us including 6 little ones. 

Food is always in shortage there............is our running joke. We are blessed to have an abundance of food on the table. We had a lovely supper with turkey and ham, potatoes and gravy, deer sausage, cabbage rolls and all the other little fixings.  My mom brought her home made buns and there was pie and cheesecake for dessert. Not that anyone had room right away.

It was fun to watch the little ones run and play. My nephew's three little girls were excited to see GF. They adore her and think she is a princess.

Games are a big part of our celebrations. We started with one where everyone puts a paperplate on the top of their head and one of the daughter in laws gave drawing instructions of a Christmas scene.  Then we played one I have seen on facebook videos. Person 1 has oven mitts on and a Santa hat. He or she has to try to open a tightly wrapped gift while the person beside them rolls dice.  If the roller gets doubles then they get the oven mitts and hat and get to tackle the gift.

DS1 went first and he looked like a reindeer pawing at the present in his oven mitts. He desperately wanted to use his teeth but that's against the rules.  When DS1 went he twitched as he is the camper and his reflex is to get out his pocket knife.   They had fun.

They also played Heads Up and some other new game but I didn't catch the name on that one.

GF had had to leave about 6 pm to go work a casual shift at a group home. She got back about 11 PM and we got home shortly before midnight.

Lots of laughter. Lots of food. Lots of people. Not much space :-)

my abc book list for 2017

So this year I thought I would try something a little different with my books. I have seen a few friends with a variety of ways to challenge or expand their reading.  Some went by author or category or subject.  I decided to try an ABC list by title to see if I can read one by each letter of the alphabet. If nothing else I will have read 26 books, which is more than I have in years past.

I have made a new tab at the top to keep track.

Really hoping this inspires me.

Relaxing start

Well DS2 isn't coming home until tomorrow now. Said he is not feeling well. He gets migraines.

It was a lovely morning just curled up here. My cat was deeply concerned when I didn't get up at 6 like usual and she was certain my alarm broke so she kindly woke me up. We dozed together for another hour and then I just got up. So much for sleeping in on my first day lol

It was so nice to plug in the lights of the Christmas tree and just curl up with my coffee and watch the news and then some HGTV...all with kitty safely curled up on my lap, purring.

It was a treat to have time (and mental energy) to read through some of your blogs and see what is happening in your worlds. I feel very out of touch. My own fault.

I spent a bit of time going through my budget lines and  making sure that all the planned charges to my CCs were paid off from their planned spending categories.

Our usual payday is the 25th of each month. Our district traditionally pays us on the last day of school for the month of December. So the 21st this year.  I made sure yest morning to quickly transfer that into my savings to be 'held' until the actual 25th. It would be far too tempting to think 'oooo I have lots of money' and spend recklessly while the kids are home over the break.  Much better to wait and then handle it like  the regular paycheck it is and allocate the money to the proper categories.

And now I am off to lunch with three friends. Though most of us work in the same building, it's pretty big and we never get time to just relax and talk. This is our Christmas tradition. Always a lot of laughter.

Last Day of School - First Day of Holidays

And..............let the holidays begin.

I was down 11 children today, for the last day of school. Three were gone out of the country and the rest............. no idea.  I have a very diverse group of students with some able to go away for the holidays and some that will be lucky to be able to pay their heat bill this month.

We were out at 2:30 (an hour early) and my first stop was the public library where I checked out FOUR books. Ahhhh the thought of time to read...........for pleasure. very exciting.

I got home to find a message from DS1 that he and the GF were on their way home from her house, so it felt like holidays were truly about to begin.

It was great to make supper together and share conversation....all those things that just seem to hard to ask by text or I forget to when we skype.  They both fell asleep on the couch after supper. The cat happily climbed up on top of DS and curled up for a nap too.

 They'd had a big day with her 3 year old niece. DS is still figuring out how much work it is to have little ones around and she was so glad to see her uncle that she stuck to him like glue. He had to take her tobogganing.  Then they took her to the rink and he was teaching her to skate. GF sent me a video of DS and the little one zooming about the ice. I am not sure who was laughing more or saying WHEEEEEEEE louder :-) 

We watched a bit of the Canada game for World Jr hockey. One of DS's teammates is playing on USA so we will have to catch one of those games too.

Then DS went off to play a pick up game of hockey so GF and I did some no bake baking. I hadn't made saltine cracker bark before so we attempted that. Turned out not too bad.  She wanted to make some oreo cheesecake balls so we made some of those too. Neither of us have good melted chocolate coating skills so they look more..............rustic than refined. They taste delicious!  We also learned that white chocolate is not the easiest to melt and managed to get it to seize up beyond repair.

Lots of laughter.

DS just nicely got home and is raiding the fridge.

DS2 will be home tomorrow

First round of Christmas grocery shopping

When the boys both went off to college last fall, I did not change my weekly jar allowance for grocery. Instead I tucked $20 automatically into a Christmas grocery jar. Any spare $5 or $10 went in too.

It was nice to have that money when I headed off today with DH to buy all the non perishable Christmas groceries and a few final presents.

First I made DH help me clean the fridge and tidy. You can't come home with bags of groceries and put them in a messy fridge or cluttered pantry. He grumbled but helped out.

It didn't take long to fill the cart with items from the list.  It felt good to have the pantry and cupboards full and ready to go.  It had gotten more than a little lean.

We just don't grocery shop the way we used to when the boys lived here full time.

Where the money stands

as of December 3

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

Total Debt - $28 255.12



Savings/Planned Spending
TFSA/EF - $8200
RESP - $ all gone
RRSP - $13 473
Summer 2016 - all gone
Back to School - all gone
XMAS 2016 - in progress
Plates 2017 - $300