Building The Love Shack

When I said I would sit down and write a year in review, I didn’t realize was how much had happened this year.

Let’s start with the blog. We are now followed in 107 countries with followings on Link-In, Facebook, Tumblr WordPress and I’m sure I’m forgetting a few others, adding up to over 10,000 readers. I am still in awe that the little blog encouraged by my writing class a few years back has turned into this wonderful following which has become a part of our lives. For that, we say thank you.

This year brought to our house, like so many, job loss and job changes. Both Husband and our son, lost their jobs this year and both had to start new. There were months off that brought frustration and concerns, but in the end again we say thank you, as they both ended up in a much better work place with a much happier work environment.

And speaking of job changes. Normally I post every year on my birthday how many years to retirement. This has been a running joke since I turned fifty on how long before I would be retired with most people believing I never would.

This year I didn’t post the usual count down because, I started school this year! I have no intention of retiring fully at age sixty-five. Instead I plan to start a new career at age fifty-nine, slowly retiring out of Nursing to do something completely different. Covid put this thought into place and gave me the unplanned time to do it.

I have to say that Covid as strange as it may seem that something so dark, added another area of light in our lives, but it did. That happened at The Love Shack. Let me elaborate on that.

We were very lucky to be able to go to the Love Shack and get out of the city this cottage season. Our co-cottagers felt the same as us. Lucky but, the restriction decreased who could be at the cottage, leaving the cottager on their own this year.

This restrictions actually turned into another blessing. For the first time in the five years that we have been Building the Love Shack, we were out working in the front of the cottage. Being out front and having our co-cottages like us, lacking guest, gave us time to meet each other and talk with each other.

This year we met neighbors from many roads away who were out on their golf carts who stopped by to say hello and see how the construction was going. We met neighbors close by who we have only ever waved hello to and had a chance to get to know and make new friends with cottagers who had just recently bought.

And then there is the new front deck. This year our Lady went from looking like this:

To looking like this:

Does it seem like I’m saying thank you a lot? I am. And have much more to be thankful for.

The fur baby was also in on this years stress list. Romeo’s little bladder infection back in August turned into a very scary experience for us.

Last month when he got another, we rushed him into the emergency hospital. Me being puzzled by why a four year old male dog was getting bladder infections, I requested a blood work-up and abdominal x-rays on him. As it tuned out his liver functions were five times higher than they should be. His cholesterol levels where high and his thyroid was so low, it didn’t show in the blood work.

Thank god for those bladder infections as our guy was in serous health trouble.

We had a few scary weeks with him, not knowing what was wrong while they did test to see if he had Cushing Disease. Luck again was on our side. With liver enzyme meds and thyroids pills, his test came back with low thyroid only. He’s on medications for the rest of his life and his levels are returning to normal. He plans to have a long life with Mommy, Daddy and sister Juliette at the cottage.

This year also brought new friends to our lives. New jobs and working on new units brought new people to our lives. One can never have enough love in their lives or enough people to share their lives with. We are already so blessed with having the Warriors in our live and yet our little family keeps expanding.

2020 brought an extra closeness to my co-workers as we in the medical field really have needed each other more than ever and many times only had each other to talk to and share our feelings with. I am greatful to know better the people I share most of my time with, my co-workers, and I can’t think of anyone else I would have wanted to go through this time with.

Then a hard one hit.

I was sitting here close to the last weeks of the year thinking how lucky we were to not have lost anyone to this Covid 19. That bubble was soon burst when we learned that someone who had been part of the family for thirty-three years, a lovely school teacher in her early fifties had gotten the disease and died suddenly home alone. Yes, Covid hit our family too. This shows how this disease is not selective and can takeaway those we would never expect to loose.

Like everyone else our Christmas was different not being able to be with the family. But it was still a nice Christmas as we enjoyed the time to sit around talking to each other instead of rushing around. It also gave us a lesson on how much we take for granted the things and people we have in our lives.

2020 surprised me when I sat down to write about it. I surely thought it was going to be a year of glume. But it hasn’t been.

It certainly had its good and bad but it’s also been a year of seeing a kindness in people I know and those I don’t. It’s also the year that has made us the most thankful.

2020, you have been challenging, frustrating, and educational. I would say as this year comes to an end and next year is still uncertain, you have taught us, to be thankful. And for that 2020, you have really surprised me.