Friday, December 16, 2022

Christmas 2022

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)]

 


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