Happy New Year, etc.

Round about these parts, we jump from Christmas, to New Year's, to a birthday, to undecorating and it's all rather a lot of whirlwind that leaves me breathless. (Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but the point is, it's a lot all one after the other.)

This year was particularly whatever word I'm using to describe this time of year, because eldest turned 18 and has set his toe firmly into adulthood.

Or so one imagines.

In reality, not a lot has changed (because one doesn't instantly mature, for all parents might like that) (and honestly, the young man is not immature for his age - in fact, I'd say he's more mature than many of his peers. I'm not disappointed, is the point.) 

I guess that's not entirely correct: he's flexing his muscles some and asking for things like taking off the parental supervision on his phone (which isn't a big deal because we hadn't really been using any of it for the last year or so - he's a good kid. But I did say I was fine with it provided he considered sharing his location with me. I told him I'd be happy to reciprocate. I don't stalk his location like some helicopter moms, but he's not great about texting when he gets places, and sometimes around here ...you just want to be sure he got where he was headed. He was fine with that.)

Now that that's past, we're staring down younger boy's 14th birthday in a few short weeks and...why must they grow up so quickly? (On the flip side, this one could use a little of that overnight maturation.)

The building project for bringing Dad here is nearly finished. We've hooked up most of the sinks and such - the countertop guy will be out on Monday to do a field measurement and once we get the kitchenette finished we should be good to go with the final inspection. I think (touch wood) that we should be able to get Dad in by the end of January. That gives us a solid month to get all the junk out of his other house and get it prepped to be on the market.

Doable.

Probably.

What is it they say? God willing and the creek don't rise.

And that's our new year kickoff in a nutshell. I can't complain (well, I'm me. I totally can. But it's pretty unfounded in the overall scheme.) And I'm cautiously optimistic about the year ahead. (Check back soon for when depression comes back like a thick blanket full of lead. Although the meds are, I think, finally where they need to be. So that's something. I guess we'll see how the 2 year anniversary of my sister's death goes. Because that's coming up fast as well.)