2025 is wrapping up and all in all, it wasn't too bad of a year. I am of the opinion that our best year in the recent past was 2019 and I came to that conclusion looking at pictures and remembering all that we did and experienced. It was that last year before Covid. My memories have nothing to do with that although while in Houston that year I got some kind of a cold or crud before leaving to come back home.
This morning we are having our first strawberries of the season from Florida and they are quite tasty. The familiar life cycle ends and begins this week. Barbers Orchard closed for the season on Christmas Eve afternoon but then a day after Christmas the Florida strawberry season begins at Publix.
I officially stopped seeing ads from Jen Hatmaker on skincare. My goodness always in my FB feed. Years ago I had a bad experience with that particular brand so on top of kind being aggravated by her book because of her self absorption and self centeredness, now I no longer have to see bits and pieces of her skincare regimen with a product that didn't like my skin. I don't know if it takes care of the other merch she is selling and yes, I am totally aware of how many times I referred to me in this paragraph. Ha!
2025 is the year I rediscovered reading, like all the way through, books. Several years of a devastating short attention span has taken toll. I have always had a selective attention span but even that is shorter than usual. Although, the shortened attention span never seemed to affect the love of buying books. Guess I'm practicing from yesterday's post, the intentional clutter, no matter, always a trend setter. Ending this particular thought with a HA!
The best $4.00 I spent this Christmas for myself, earrings with four different color of Christmas bows, red, green, gold and silver. Got them from Penland's in Marshall. I'll put them away just and have them for next year. We just finished getting our Christmas decorations put up. We didn't do much outside and only decorated the dinning room. These rambunctious kitties would have demolished the tree if we had put one up. We did get a few things this year and while putting it all in containers I came across Christmas decor from our first year living in Cinco Ranch. Bought it on NYE day when they were pricing everything to go. Now, I just need to remember these things next year. I also found a jacket that I totally had forgotten about. Now, to keep or not to keep, that is the question.
Sometimes we get a little help putting thoughts together when we read a story told by another, even another we haven't ever met. Our circumstances are nothing like the story but the emotions and feelings are. These past couple of years we have noticed that familiar places and people have expressed their wishes not verbally but with silent heart wrenching actions. You know where one can feel like there isn't room to fit in or even not desirable enough to let one down easy. Gee, I am guilty of doing this in the past, especially my tennis days and because of that I try not to behave that way. It used to be that I would pursue an answer, push for it. Of course the answer would hurt me but at the same time the feelings not to be expressed are and so there is that uneasiness. In those Covid years a friendship was lost that I would have bet money on never losing. Basically, on the political scene meshed with the harsh symptoms I was experiencing from the Co Vac caused a misunderstanding. We talked some but there was no rescuing anything. I stopped. It hurt too much to try. That comfortable ease in conversation was long gone. Then last year some family news came to me and dang it hit me hard and then it didn't. We made adjustments and moved on. The last paragraph of the story I read, "Don't wait for someone to make room for you in a life where you don't fit. The highway is long, the map is wide and the best seat in the house is wherever you decide to park."
Today, is the last Monday of 2025. I'm looking forward to the holding some wrap up on projects and taking some time to read for book club. I am also reading Theo of Golden. It got rave reviews and so far I like it but don't love it. Of course I am just a couple of chapters in it.
There is a woman at church who looks just like my Grandma B. Same hair, profile and glasses. I wanted to take a pic to send to my brother but thought of her privacy and I am not one who usually takes pics in church. My goodness it felt so good to see someone who reminds me of some of the best childhood memories because of her. We didn't do anything special like trips cause my goodness she couldn't drive. But spending summers there at her home, exploring the apple orchard out back and reading her Reader's Digest Condensed books in that little nook off the dining room. That nook was just some white shelves underneath the windows filled with books and magazines. Plants were thriving on the top shelf and her outdoor metal and wood rocking chair was just right even though it was rather spartan in comfort. I have a picture I found in a magazine of a warm, inviting space with comfortable oversized chair and a small table nearby. That isn't how it was at grandmas in real life, but in my imagination it was that picture and so much more.
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