I guess winter must finally be here! Yesterday we had a combination of sleet, snow, and rain that lasted all day. And in the middle of it all, a medical emergency that required me to have to drive in it (more on that below). But we rejoice in having completed another year and seeing all that God had planned for us. Now we look forward to the start of 2023 in just a few weeks.
FAMILY
In January, Chris and family came up from Florida to help us
move into the house across the street that we are now sharing with Kim and the
boys. In preparation we’d gotten the basement level prepped so that we could
move their bunkbeds down there. Pam organized the painting of one of the
upstairs rooms so that we could move our platform bed set into it. I handled
the taking things apart and putting back together, but Chris, Aryon, and
Tiernan did all the “heavy lifting” of moving it. It’s been interesting –
getting used to living in just two rooms instead of a whole house. We are very
slowly tackling the elimination of all our accumulations in the old house, but
various medical issues (more below on that too) have limited the amount of work
that we’ve gotten accomplished.
Besides our typical week together at Pinebrook, we expanded
the practice of having Kim’s boys getting to spend a month in Florida with
Chris and family. Two years ago it was just Ethan, last year Ethan and Isaiah,
and this year adding Caleb to the mix. Donna and I went down at the end of
April for Aryon’s court of honor as he received his Eagle Scout badge. We took
Caleb with us, then at the end of the week, left him there for the rest of the
month of May. In July, following our week at Pinebrook, Ethan went back to FL
with Chris and family, then in mid-August we did a swap – with Ethan coming
home and Isaiah going there until mid-September. This schedule meant that Caleb
had to finish the prior school year remotely from FL and Isaiah had to start
this year from there – but we made it all work. For 2023 – we’ll have to see
what works, especially since Aryon will be going off to college in the fall and
Tiernan has applied to be an exchange student for a year. All the grandkids are
growing up far too fast!
One thing that living together in one house has helped with
is Donna and I helping with the schooling of Kim’s four boys. This year they
are in grades 7, 5, 5, and 3. Ethan has a computer setup in his room downstairs
but spends most of the day in Kim’s room where she is working from home and she
can help him if/when he needs it. He’s pretty independent and is now taking
Spanish as well as the typical Bible/Literacy/History/Math/Science. Isaiah and
Caleb have workstations in the living room but bring their laptops into my
“den” for me to check their work and for the submission of any assignments.
Asher has a workstation in the kitchen/dining room and Donna works with him
there. School hours are about 2.5 hours in the morning and another 1.5-2 in the
afternoon each day. So we’re all kept pretty busy. Last year they all finished
with overall averages of 97-99 and this year they’re maintaining their grades
in the same range. But they each have their areas of strength and weakness as
well as occasional attitude problems (“I have to write THREE paragraphs!?”). So
Donna and I have our challenges.
Our FL grands have been involved in some sort of youth
activity for several years – Aryon in Boy Scouts, Tiernan in Trail Life, and
Ilyanna in American Heritage Girls. This fall our PA grands all began attending
Trail Life as well. The closest troop is 30 minutes away and it’s quite small,
but they all enjoy it. Matthew’s current job at a Home Depot warehouse has him
working Sat/Sun/Mon/Wed (5am to 3pm), so he’s been taking them to the twice-a-month
Thursday night meetings. But they also go camping one Saturday a month, so I
take them on Fri evening and pick them up on Sun morning and take them to
church.
MEDICAL/HEALTH
Getting older is not without its challenges. Donna was
having more and more issues with her one leg, and after extensive checking and
x-rays she had a hip replacement in March. When we finally got to see the
x-rays ourselves, it was pretty obvious why she was having problems. The
healing process was fairly quick, and she now has full use of that leg again.
Makes us wonder why we didn’t do it sooner.
Her operation and time for healing meant that I had to delay
a surgical procedure on my foot until May. I was just not making progress on
the healing of the open wound on the bottom of my right foot, so the podiatrist
had recommended a sesamoidectomy (new word for me – look that one up!) Long
healing process for that meant many, many, many hours of sitting in my recliner
(a present from our kids), two rounds of skin grafts (the first one failed),
and finally getting the hole to seal up just a few weeks ago. I still have to
take it easy while the deep healing takes place, but it’s nice to not have to
rebandage my foot every few days like I have been for the past year.
Our latest adventure was just yesterday. We had planned on
moving one of our cats (age about 14) from one house to the next. She objected
and when Donna was putting her into a cat carrier for the move she got bitten
rather badly on her right thumb. So, in the middle of the snow/sleet, I had to
drive her to an express care location for checkup, cleanup, tetanus shot, and
antibiotic prescription. Now we’ll have to pitch in to do some of her work for
a few days until it gets healed up as well as watch to ensure that it heals
properly without infection. Always a new challenge!
I’ve been accepted into a drug-based study for a new
Alzheimer’s drug (lecanemab – you may have seen news articles about it). I’ve
passed most of the screening, including verification that I have no symptoms
yet. Now just awaiting a PET scan in early January as the final hurdle to see
if I’m eligible. If accepted it will mean four years of monthly/bi-weekly
infusions. But if this will help others in the future I’m willing to do so.
Stay tuned!
GENEALOGY
I’ve continued to keep busy with various aspects of
genealogical research. Earlier this year I checked out the genealogy of all the
teachers I had while growing up. Just remembering all the names was a
challenge, but then tracing them back to see who might be a distant cousin of
mine was equally challenging. But the biggest excitement was my acquisition of
a family coat-of-arms and related genealogy charts for Evelyn Pierrepont, Duke
of Kingston-upon-Hull, that had been prepared and colored back in 1764 – over
250 years ago. I’ve had it archivally framed and it will be the centerpiece for
the 100th family reunion of the New England Pierpont family that
will take place this coming June.
WRITING
Just to show that you can “teach an old dog new tricks,”
this year I found myself writing a series of fictional books about Fred
Forchelli. I had submitted an entry into a “bad writing” contest earlier this
year (where one writes the opening sentence to a fictional book). I didn’t win,
but then one of my cousins said that he wanted to know the rest of the story.
So I took him up on the challenge and that turned into not one, but three books
about Fred and the cases he has as a private investigator. Each of the books is
40-45 pages and they are available on Amazon in both paperback and kindle
format.
It's been fun doing this, as I do it strictly in a
stream-of-consciousness style – writing one chapter at a time and not having
any idea where the next chapter will take things. Each book has taken just a
week to a week-and-a-half to write. I’ll never get rich – but few do in the
self-publishing world – but the enjoyment I get from it makes it worthwhile.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
One never knows where the “road of life” may take you. There
are too many twists and bends that we can’t see beyond. Homeschooling of four
grandsons was not something that Donna and I had ever predicted at this stage
in our lives. It’s certainly not the typical retirement that one experiences. Mentally,
we’re both doing well, but the number of physical challenges and difficulties
are certainly more each year.
Having been married for over 50 years, we are now among the
“seniors” at church. And there are tasks that we feel more comfortable leaving
to others. Thankfully, our growing grandchildren can now take on more
responsibilities. And the older ones have passed Donna in height and are
gaining on me (if shoe size is an indication, I’m going to be facing
challengers in that arena before too long). We love all our kids and grandkids
and enjoy as many hugs as they are willing to give us (they just have to take
it easy sometimes as especially grandma’s bones are not as strong as they used
to be).
But most importantly, God and Christ are still the center
and focus of our lives. (Someone remarked to Kim the other day that it’s nice
to see all her boys actually excited to go to church and meet with their
friends.) So, as long as we keep our eyes on HIM and try as best we can to
follow the path he sets before us, we can’t go wrong.
This is the Christmas season, and Christ is the “reason for
the season”. We pray that all of you are similarly blessed as we are.
Alan and Donna
[Grandchildren]
[Pierrepont Coat of Arms]
[Fred Forchelli book on Amazon (one of three)]
