When Life Gives You Lemons, Plant Hope

Welcome to 2026! As we begin this year in earnest, I’ve thought a lot about how this past year has been – things we’ve done, places we’ve been – and about this upcoming year and the hope it brings with it.

I wish I could say that 2025 was a banner year, but 2025 will forever be known as the year I lost my Dad. That’s not to say that there weren’t great things to be said about it, or that there weren’t some amazing experiences, but unfortunately, it was also the year that I lost the first man I ever loved, and the only one who never broke my heart.

This past holiday season has been pretty hard for me. I’ve been in the feels missing Dad, and although we certainly spent many holidays apart after I left to join the Navy, I always knew that I would hear his voice on the day, no matter how far away I was. Now, although he is with me all the time, it feels much further away. In some ways, I miss him more than I miss Grubby, but I’ve said before that I knew how to do life without Grubby. Dad had been there through it all, and now, I am charting a course without his guidance and presence for the first time in my life. I remain grateful beyond words for the time I had with him, even for those last few months when I helped care for him in the rehab center and again in July when Mom went on her retreat weekend. I treasure the moments when he told me things about his past, when I helped feed him, when I tucked him in with Puppy at night, when I slept on an air mattress across the room from him because it made him more comfortable to know I was there, and I miss him… every day.

2025 was also a year in which I explored and spent time in some amazing and wondrous places: London, the Cotswolds, Scotland, Iceland, and Greenland, as well as the Dominican Republic and the Virgin Islands. I had bucket list travels and adventures with my closest friends. We had paint parties, and I even sold a couple of my paintings. I rode a horse barefooted through jungles and into the ocean. I saw the northern lights from a ship in the North Atlantic as we crossed The Pond (IYKYK!).

As I begin to settle into 2026, I have high hopes for the upcoming year. Abby is now halfway through her senior year, and while she still isn’t certain what she wants to do after graduation, she is starting to think more seriously about the future. I am thinking about mine too. My goal is to move out of Virginia and hopefully down to Florida, to the Daytona Beach area. I am so tired of the cold weather and being isolated in a rural community. I need to be back amongst the living, preferably in a climate that has palm trees, plumeria, hibiscus, and the sea. Oh, and I want a lemon tree because when life gives you lemons, well… plant those things!!!

I am continuing to sub in the schools and will keep doing that as long as I am in Virginia, because it gets me out of the house and the kids are great for the most part. I will decide whether or not to keep on doing it in Florida once I am there, but I could see myself continuing as long as I can.

I am also hopeful that 2026 is the year that I can get my shit together and actually publish a book or two. There are so many little pieces and writings that I’ve written over the years, and it’s time to branch out from the blog. Of course, I still hope for increased readership here and will definitely keep up with this, but maybe – just maybe – I will see my name on Amazon in the next year!

Until next time… Happy New Year! Stay safe, do something nice for someone, and tell those closest to you that you love them… you never know when it might be the last time you get to…