January 2023

Megan had her school holiday concert a little late this year. The original date was a little icy so they pushed it back into January. 

She did very well. 

I started another year with resolutions. This year I will learn to read music, do the Camino, learn to dance and have sugar only when I’m out of the country or on holidays and birthdays. 

I got so much out of my year of bread last year. I’m going to try to continue baking some. I’m also going to keep up the Spanish as I’m hoping to go to Spain this year. 

Megan is outgrowing all her stuff so we did some post Christmas shopping. She’s such a fashion person. She loves clothes and shopping and all these things that barely blip on my radar. She is a marvel. 

We did a spa day for her. 

We cleared out the Christmas stuff. 

Made banana and zucchini breads to help my poor sweet tooth adjust to no sugar. 

Kiernan and I started a crafting project in which we will turn gourds into water bottles. 

Getting the seeds out is a while loud process with lots of gravel and a fairly small hole. 

There are so many seeds!

If anyone wants to plant birdhouse gourds let me know. I’m flush with seeds. 

I hit a year straight of Spanish. 

Our Camino hiking group got a new young member. Kiernan asked if he could join us in Spain. He said he would keep his grades up (his grades are never a worry). I think it could be such an enriching experience for him. 

He will miss the last week of school but that’s not a particularly academic rich week and he’s already been placed into advanced classes for high school (he’s actually already taking high school math this year). 

I’m glad he wants to come. Cross your fingers. 

Megan got her hair don’t at a salon. This happens once every few years. Usually we just do it at home because otherwise it gets expensive fast. This time she walked in with Megan swagger and told the woman what she wanted and in what order. The woman was a little dubious but went ahead. 

By the time she was done a whole collection of stylists was gathered around admiring it. 

This girl has style. 

I went to the podiatrist again. The steroids from last time wore off and my feet were killing me. I got orthotic flipflops. Look at that arch support. 

I also got a surprise shot in the foot. 

Oh gracious. 

She’s talking to me about treatment options and about surgery and about shots and we were just sitting there having a conversation. I told her how I was concerned about all the walking I wanted to do in Spain. Then I look up from counting out timelines on my fingers and she’s got this giant needle in her hand!!!

That was a surprise. 

I’m thinking of printing out a giant horse skull for next years holiday season. 

There is a Welsh tradition called Mari Lwyd that I might like to try to recreate. It involves a bracing amount of rhyming and quick thinking plus a horse skull on a stick. 

I printed out this small scale version as a test. It’s a great file. 

We went for a post shot hike. 

It was cold and beautiful and my foot still hurt so much from the injection that I’m not sure if it was better or not. 

I took a combat archery class at the Haven. 

It was a blast. During a lot of SCA events they have battles with blunted medieval style weapons. They hit full force though and I’m not big on getting it for fun. Archery though is right up my alley and it was fun to try out the equipment and hear about the strategy. 

The guy who gave the talk is called Master Morien. In his regular life he’s an English teacher. He’s the one I heard the Haven Camino talk from. 

I love his poetry and his great history anecdotes and might join his group for a target archery practice to see how it goes. 

We did an escape room for Kiernan’s birthday. 

The kids did so well. They did as well as adults I have done escape rooms with in the past. I was so impressed. 

They loved it and we got a gift card to do another in future. 

We have started getting High School prepping stuff for Kiernan. 

We went to Linganore High School for an orientation night. It was like a giant job fair. Loud and crowded and full of options I never knew existed for students at his level. 

We shall see. 

Finally Megan and I went to the airport to pick up the Mori’s. 

They had a list of things they wanted to do on this visit. These things had a lot of working out at the gym and a fair bit of piano practice on a real piano. 

So we got gym passes and went a good bit. 

I also registered for my first piano class so we could use the real pianos at the school and so that I could begin my resolution work.