My Phrase for the Year

Most people don’t come up with a phrase for the year, but after events since my last blog, this one popped into my head. “It could be worse.”

As mentioned last time, our Mexico vacation was in jeopardy, and after a family discussion we decided to postpone the trip until next year, in order to be here for my sister’s surgery. Honestly, it was the right thing to do. Cancelling airline reservations meant paying a fee, but otherwise the process went smoothly. Meanwhile, I started arranging a family vacation in July, but we’ll be staying in British Columbia. My daughter and SIL understandably don’t want to travel on a plane with a one and three-year-old.

As some of you might have heard, BC endured one heck of a cold snap and a major snowfall last week. My daughter was at her office when the snow started to fall around three p.m. She left right away, but it took her over four hours to get home in what should have been a forty-minute trip. My spouse and I rescued the grandkids from daycare, which is a fifteen-minute walk away and got them dinner.

Temperatures reached as low as -13 Celsius in our area, which is unusual for Vancouver. That’s why we found ourselves without hot water in both bathrooms the following day. We called the plumber who advised us to heat up the house as much as we could stand it and keep the taps running. The water returned a day and a half later, and luckily, our pipes didn’t burst, however many others weren’t so lucky.

While all of that was going on, our refrigerator decided to lower its inside temperature permanently. We moved frozen foods to the deep freeze and the refrigerator goods to the freezer side which is still keeping them cool for now. The new fridge should arrive in another week. I’m not sure why, but historically appliances in our house seem to die in January.

This week, we’ve been helping look after the grandkids while my SIL works over time and my poor daughter is sick once again. It’s her second illness this month, and probably the fourth or fifth time since the youngest started daycare and she returned to work in September. As I write this, we got a text saying the kids are sick again today, so my spouse is babysitting while I get some things done here.

Meanwhile, the editing goes on, and I’m making slow but steady progress despite the distractions. And, yes, it could have been worse…so much worse, so I count my blessings.

Here’s a picture of our yard after the snowfall in our front yard last week.