LOOKING BACK AT 2023

 

I'm choosing to look back at 2023 today while we wait to leave for  downtown Boston. We're having coffee in our hotel room and it's lovely.....no rain or gloom today. Sun is starting to come out this Sunday morning and we are excited to be joining about 12,000 other people for First Night events. While I'm waiting around to leave for the T station, I thought I'd look back at some favorite events or things from the past year, before we move on into 2024. 

JANUARY

I don't have a pic but I was most surprised one morning to look out the window and see a pileated woodpecker at the suet feeder. This is rare for suburbia. Dave and I also started a new small group that month with several  couples coming together to discuss Philip Yancey's book What's So Amazing About Grace? If you've never read this, I do highly recommend it for anyone calling themselves a Christian. It's very eye-opening. 

FEBRUARY

My daughters, Courtney and Claire
Moreau Lake State Park

This is the month where I did a lot of reading of good books, a luminary hike with my daughters and 3  friends from church, as well as Dave and I getting Covid.  February seems like a blur now but those are the two events I remember well. 

image courtesy of the Albany Historic Foundation

MARCH

March brought the devastating news of a beloved campus burning down.  Kenwood Child Development center, located in the building on the far right baack of the U-shaped building in the center, was where I taught Special Education PreK from 1987 until 1995. I was fresh out of getting my Masters degree in EdPysch/Special Ed and had just become permanently certified with NYS to teach birth-geriatric populations.  This was where the bulk of my special ed career took place. the other buildings were a residence for nuns and the Doane Stuart school. The fire was obviously not a favorite or a blessing but it did bring some of us together on social media or with texting each other about fond memories we had there of our early teaching days.  How I loved this campus. How it's going to be missed! 

front flower bed:  SPRING!

APRIL

This month brought Spring after a fairly mild winter!  In fact, we didn't have significant snowfall until March this past year and so far this Winter, it's been snow free as well although hopefully, next week, the first month of 2024 we will see some snow. April brought a lot of smiles to my face. It's the month I officially announced that I would be retiring from teaching; it brought  daughter dates with both girls, some time away for day trips and beautiful blooms. 

Saratoga Springs at Spot Coffee

me on Moxham Mt overlook

MAY

May brought with it all good things we do in the Spring.  It was a beautiful Spring!  We had all kinds of flowers and plants growing including some basil I had started indoors in April.  Then 2 of the highlights involved friends:   my dearest friend from my childhood hometown  (Diane W) came for a weekend visit.  We had a blast going to the Saratoga Farmers Market, having lunch at a fave  coffee spot, walking around the city, and just hanging out with drinks on my deck. We also enjoyed a beautiful dinner out.  We had so much fun. Then Dave and I did our first mountain hike of 2023, with 3 friends from church.  It was a glorious warm day and we were thankful to be out in sunshine after the gloomy days of winter.  May also brought short walks and hikes after work, many fun work events with the students, Teacher Appreciation Day, and a Memorial Day hike with  another friend and then a kayaking day with Dave and the girls. May flew by and before we knew it, it was June and the end of Spring. 

Indian Lake in the town of Caroga
southern Adks
2.2 miles in from the parking area

JUNE

June was quite a busy month!  It began with a weekend social event for our small group.  We had breakfast at a local pancake place and then headed north a bit to the extension of Moreau Lake State Park that has some rugged hiking trails. We hiked around a lake named Lake Bonita and then went home to relax and have a grilled dinner on the deck. June also saw me hiking with my sister and brother in law to finish up a hiking challenge we were doing in the southern Adirondack Mountains. the photo pictured here is the destination....a lovely deep woods walk to a very remote lake that is absolutely pristine. It was a gorgeous early summer day and  not buggy at all. June also brought my teaching career to an end. The agency gave me a wonderful luncheon and many thoughtful gifts all with a hiking, wine, or nature theme.  It was heavenly although bittersweet. Father's Day was fun for Dave as we went to his fave BBQ place with Courtney and her friends Kai and Nate. We all ate so much food and it was a blast because we also played a board game while we were there.  June also brought our 33rd anniversary and we celebrated by going to Stowe Vermont for a week.  We stayed in a beautiful bed and breakfast inn and did a lot of hiking, sightseeing, historic tours, eating and drinking local brews. This was also the month, which for the first time in 15 months, that I didn't have a daily cervicogenic headache and could see some relief from the wonderful hands of my chiropractor. She's an amazing woman and I started to have hope for this issue. All of sudden, though, it seemed like Summer was really starting to be busy and it took off!

Courtney is 30!

JULY

This month brought many day trips to the mountain lakes, a quick trip back to my hometown area, an extended  family BBQ  at my sister Hope's house where her husband Donny had set up their new pool so we also enjoyed an afternoon of swimming with them.  It was my oldest daughter's 30th birthday and i surprised her with a vinatge 1960s teacup and saucer I found in an antique store out in central NYS.  This month was also my husband's birthday and we celebrated by going out for Japanese food with both girls which really made him happy. July saw me in the backyard either in my new ADK wooden chair with a book in hand or on the deck sipping iced tea and reading. It was a month that also had a lot of rain so the times in the backyard were a lot fewer than in summers past.  It was one of the most rainiest Julys on record for the Capital Region and actually most of the state! We also had to fun our central air alot as it was one of the most humid months on record. I was actually happy to see August arrive and with it, drier conditions and less heat and humidity. In fact, some evenings were downright chilly and perfect for bonfires. 

backyard bonfires

farm stand produce

My 15 yr old niece Mady and me on summit of Kane Mt
town of Caroga Lake, southern Adk

AUGUST

We enjoyed many backyard bonfires this month because things were finally drier and cooler. I loved every minute. Sometimes the girls would come over for a visit but most of the time, we had the backyard to ourselves or a neighbor would pop over for a chat. I also hosted a book club in my home over the summer with 4 other church friends and we read Discerning the Voice of God book by Priscilla Shirer which was quite powerful and important for us. Our youngest daughter also accepted a new job offer to be the supervisor of optometric techs at a new and upcoming vision company.  We were very excited for her.  We also did some day trips to more mountain lakes and 2 different state parks.  And my sister and I found the foundation of our great grandparents camp on an old logging road in the town where my dad's family had a summer camp, where I grew up every summer in our camp, and where my mom was born!! The month also had me and my niece hiking up a small mountain she had never climbed before.  We were the only ones there that day and we chose to go up the hard trail (STEEP and short) and then took our time going down the other side which is longer but less steep.  We had a blast!  I treated her to ice cream afterwards of course.   And before we knew it, it was almost Labor day weekend and our trip to Michigan via western NY and Canada!

Ann, Dave and I
Port Huron, Michigan

Lake Huron from the Lake Huron Retreat Center Beach

Lake George Steamboat Company

SEPTEMBER

This was a huge highlight for me:  A trip to downtown Buffalo, NY (I hadn't been since we attended a wedding there in 1992 when my college BFF got married).  Dave loved being at the minor league baseball stadium for a really good game.  And then we took off to Canada and  across to Lake Huron/Port Huron where my childhood friend Ann has been in ministry for the last 25 years.  We had a wonderful 4 day visit with her and she was a great hostess. September also brought us back to co-leading a small group in our home doing the book The Art of Neighboring.  I also went on a  Lake George cruise with my childhood friend Cheryl and one of her other friends. We had a great day. I also started to look into volunteer opportunities in our area as well as did some more solo hikes and some fitness walks with a new hiking friend who lives near me. I'm thankful for new friends!!  It was a warm, beautiful September and the start of Autumn was dry  so we were very thankful for that!! 

trail at local nature preserve

Amsterdam, NY

Dave begins to climb up Mt VanHoevenberg
High Peaks, ADK

OCTOBER

This month found us meeting my aunt Helen and her husband for a deep woods hike to one of my fave ponds in the upper central Adirondacks region.  Then that whole week, Dave and I had a little mini vacation in the High Peaks region of the mountains staying in an old inn on the edge of downtown Lake Placid. We had a blast checking some things off my bucket list including finding some waterfalls after a short, steep hike and then visiting some villages to get my Challenge book signed. We ate good food and had amazing drinks at the ADK Brewing Company and we just had a blast hiking up one of the mountains I've always wanted to do. Most of the month was local walks in nature preserves around our region and a couple of solo day trips north to some spots to do some early Christmas shopping. There was an afternoon women's conference that I attended with my church friends. I had a hiking date one Sunday after church with my oldest daughter and a shopping trip to the outlet stores in the Berkshires of MA with youngest girl.  I also started a walking group for women in my church although there ended up just being 3 of us who were committed to it. I spent a lot of time re-doing a front flower bed into a rock garden and then spent time reading and writing on the deck because this was one fabulous autumn weather-wise. 

my in-laws Warren and Betty with 3 of their 5 granddaughters
Hanna, and my two: Claire and Courtney 

NOVEMBER

November was busy with lots of Christmas shopping, a date day with Dave on Veterans day to do a fantastic lunch at a place where we had a gift certificate followed by some Christmas shopping and a hike at our fave state park; Choir practice for Xmas Eve was every Sunday afternoon for 2 hours; busy with wrapping up our small group study; baking, visiting neighbors; and then to Plymouth County for Thanksgiving vacation.  Our oldest daughter stayed with her friend Kai in the same hotel as Dave and I and our youngest stayed with Dave's brother and his wife who also hosted dinner. Dave's oldest sister and her daughter Hanna did the brunt of the cooking and  some of the food was catered by a local restaurant. It was a great family time and my in-laws were happy to have 3 of their 7 grandchildren here this year. The thanksgiving weekend  also involved a hike in the area and  a trip to Ikea before we headed back home to NYS, where a whirlwind December waited. 

DECEMBER

December began with the house getting decorated, our small group ending with an evening of food and fellowship; more choir practices; wrapping gifts, doing a bit more baking; sending out cards; celebrating my birthday and our youngest girl's 25th birthday.  Christmas Eve was super special as Dave, Courtney and I served in the music ministry (The Christmas Eve Choir).  Lots of good family time with an extended family party; and Christmas day with our two daughters.  We are wrapping up 2023 (Dave and I) on a romantic getaway to the Boston area where this afternoon and evening, we will be attending various First Night events. 

I wish all of you a very happy new year!! 

May the peace of God permeate your heart as we  welcome in  2024.