Alright! So, starting today I'm going to try and do the unimaginable -- catch up the blog on over a year's worth of living! A daunting task, obviously, but putting it off each month is only making the daunt grow bigger and not smaller. Lol. To make things (marginally) easier for myself, I'm resorting to a straight-up bullet point style of recapping the main things I can remember from 2024. Let's see how that goes...
- What a Year It's Been
As per usual, we kicked off our new year with a little review of 2023. And also, as per usual, the kids (as well as myself) got the biggest kick out of reading back on years prior. It's always interesting to see how things like favorite books, colors, foods, etc. change over the years -- and equally interesting to see which things stay the same. Hahaha. {Unfortunately, Ethan's is missing for this year -- he did fill one out for me via a Google doc, but I never printed it out, and when I went back to try and find it, it says it's no longer accessible. Or something like that. I don't really understand why that's the case, but it is what it is. Meanwhile, Grace had to fly back out to school before we filled them out at home, so hers was also sent via Google doc, which I screenshotted for the blog.}
A little lagniappe for you -- Isaac filled this out at school for the New Year --
My...2024 Goals:
Spend more time with family. Read more. Help more. Go outside more.
(Worthy goals all around. Hahaha.)
GRACE:
A Little About Me:
Name: Grace
Favorite Food: McDonald's and Canes as of late
Age: 19
Favorite Activity: Roblox, Cody Ko, Friends
Favorite Color: green
Favorite Book: Percy Jackson, Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, Hunger Games, The Selection (all absolute classics)
Highlights of 2023:
Greatest lesson learned: I'm not made for math
Hardest thing of the year: People hating to see hot girls winning
Favorite memory: Road trip, Taylor Swift, Lana Del Ray, fsy, hiking timp, Sunday dinners
What I loved most about 2023: finally graduated
Looking Forward to 2024:
Want to learn: how to play piano and how to ski
Want to get better at: sleeping
Biggest goal: bench press 1000 pounds and be the next tren twin
A Little About Me:
Name: Sophie
Favorite Food: spaghetti
Age: 16
Favorite Activity: watching stuff
Favorite Color: pink
Favorite Book: Catcher in the Rye
Highlights of 2023:
Greatest lesson learned: none
Hardest thing of the year: Springwoods
Favorite memory: road trip
What I loved most about 2023: road trip
Looking Forward to 2024:
Want to learn: guitar
Want to get better at: dancing
Biggest goal: have fun
A Little About Me:
Name: Jane
Favorite Food: chocolate covered pretzels
Age: 14
Favorite Activity: listening to music
Favorite Color: pink
Favorite Book: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever
Highlights of 2023:
Greatest lesson learned: probs algebra idk LOLL
Hardest thing of the year: ELA
Favorite memory: FSY
What I loved most about 2023: went by somewhat quickly
Looking Forward to 2024:
Want to learn: backflip on tramp
Want to get better at: writing essays *rolling eyes emoji*
Biggest goal: stop biting/picking at nails and cuticles
A Little About Me:
Name: Alex
Favorite Food: mac n cheese
Age: 12
Favorite Activity: reading and video games
Favorite Color: pink
Favorite Book: harry potter and the deathly hallows
Highlights of 2023:
Greatest lesson learned: don't judge a book by its cover
Hardest thing of the year: retaining all a's and b's
Favorite memory: I don't know
What I loved most about 2023: summer
Looking Forward to 2024:
Want to learn: French
Want to get better at: ela
Biggest goal: Getting even better at hand writing
A Little About Me:
Name: Isaac
Favorite Food: Pizza Rolls
Age: 8
Favorite Activity: Roblox
Favorite Color: green
Favorite Book: Supernova (?)
Highlights of 2023:
Greatest lesson learned: Robin Hood
Hardest thing of the year: GT
Favorite memory: getting the swing
What I loved most about 2023: summer also
Looking Forward to 2024:
Want to learn: more cursive
Want to get better at: cursive
Biggest goal: getting a VR Alex
- Project Time
The first 2 or 3 months of 2024 featured my then foremost hyper-fixation -- refinishing thrifted and Facebook Marketplace finds furniture. I love me a good project, especially of the Before & After variety, so I was happy setting up shop in our dining room for the duration.
The piece that started it all...
I bought this coffee table at a thrift store for 15 bucks. It's solid wood (oak) and is apparently in the Queen Anne style. I did a lot of Google image searching for ideas of what to do with it, and I was really happy with the way it turned out.
Sanded down and ready to be stained and painted...
The top is stained with a Dark Walnut...
And I painted the legs a very light taupe color.
Here it is in all its glory in the piano room.
And THIS is what our dining room looked like through April of this year.
Going along side-by-side with my furniture makeovers was a Family Room revamp which included: getting a new rug and sectional, painting the brick fireplace, and adding some of the newly refinished furniture.
(For anyone wondering, the fireplace bricks were painted Sherwin Williams' Dovetail.)
The coffee table featured here is from a Facebook Marketplace find. It's possibly my favoritest of all the pieces I refinished. The wood is just absolutely gorgeous.
The Before...
Fun fact, in my Google image search for inspiration, I found a coffee table that was almost an exact match to this one that had been refinished and put up for sale with a price tag of $5,000. Meanwhile, I walked away with this one for a cool 20 bucks. Of course, the amount of money that went into refinishing it bumped that price up quite a bit, but when the end result is priceless, it's well worth the expense, right?? Hahaha.
When I scraped a sample spot to get that dark, old finish off, I was thrilled to see how beautiful the color was underneath.
The detailing on the perimeter and sides along with the inlaid pattern on the top are absolutely beautiful.
Stripping all the old stain off such intricate carvings was a beast, but totally worth it for the finished product. I didn't bother using any kind of stain -- just a clear top coat on the legs and sides, and a clear wax coat on the top. It really is a stunning piece.
- Kid Happenings
In other hyper-fixation news, Jane and I were on a crocheting kick for a big chunk of January. I'm not even sure what sparked the interest, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted. Hahaha. (Although, true story: it's now a full year later, and I've jumped back on the crocheting bandwagon and have found it very satisfying and therapeutic.)
Meanwhile, Grace took an impromptu solo road trip to California halfway through the month because she just wanted to go to the beach. There's nothing quite like getting a phone call from your kid at 1 in the morning to really start a panic spiral of worry forming, so finding out Grace had been pulled over by the cops for speeding through the desert in the middle of nowhere was truly a 0 out of 10, would NOT recommend, experience all around. LOL.
But at least she made it there safely in the end, and even got a selfie with a seagull to boot. 🤦
And finally, Isaac had a lot of fun attending a friend's birthday party at a martial arts academy and it was kind of hilarious watching him break the wooden boards they brought out towards the end.
I screenshot this pic from his teacher's class instagram, but I can't remember exactly what it's all about. I want to say it has something to do with the kids coming up with things they can do to contribute to a good learning environment? But I could be totally wrong. Lol. (It says, "Listening," in case you can't read it.)
There you have it -- the January 2024 recap is now in the books and it didn't even take all that long to do! Hahaha. I'm feeling wildly optimistic about the rest of the recapping that still needs to happen, so let's see how many other posts I can crank out today. (Or maybe this week...or month. Hahahahaha.)
*** Edited to note that it DID, in fact, take a long time to do. Hahahaha. Writing the text of the recap was fairly quick-going, but I didn't factor in the time it would take for editing, proofreading, uploading pictures, and adding captions. A rookie mistake. Let's just say I will not be cranking out another post today. LOL.
