July 6, 2023

Taking Inventory - June 2023

Wow - it’s been awhile since I “took inventory” or posted at all. To review, when I left off in December I wrote this:

Personally, I didn’t do as much for myself as I planned or wanted to, so that remains a priority for 2023. I’m looking forward to more exploration and new experiences.

More on that later…

I survived my 25th tax season (1999-2023), though this one was much more stressful than the past few. I worked A LOT more than usual - billing almost 45% more than the previous year. Holy cow. Some of that was an increase in pricing, but most was just working more. Not great.

Soccer season is now over, with A’s team barely missing (by one goal) a trip to the final 4 of the State Cup after a rough league season. The Dolphins had a rough league season as well, but had a good showing in the playoffs, which we didn’t even expect to play in (finished 5th in the league). We had a fun League America festival in June after the season was over - though it was all SCCYSA teams that participated.

School is out, with A finishing 9th grade and S finishing 7th successfully. Summer has been pretty chill so far, no vacations yet - unless you count soccer trips to Champaign, IL and Indianapolis, IN. Both fun, and nice to get away for the weekends.

Stef and I have been enjoying my 4 day workweeks (Mon-Thurs) by taking a tour of breakfast spots on Friday mornings. So far we’ve been to Frontier Perk, Upshot Coffee, Crooked Tree, and Picasso’s. We also tried the new Lefty’s Bagels one weekend - which was very good.

…back to where I left off in December at the end of 2022.

I have made it a priority this summer to take time for myself. Whether it is a walk, or several bike rides, or just taking a few extra minutes to read, etc. I am happy with how things are going. I am also looking at doing a KT Trail tour this fall and possible another guided bike ride next year. I need something for ME, and I think in biking I have found it.

Of course now that I am riding more I have the itch to upgrade my bike from the 20+ year old mountain bike I bought from a big box sporting goods store. I am thinking maybe as a reward for doing Pedal the Cause, but we’ll see. As long as it’s holding up no reason to rush.

We have also knocked out a few house projects so far this summer: powerwashed the house and deck stained the deck and painted the railings rebuilt my raised garden - the wood I originally used was too weak and started to fall apart installed new kitchen faucet installed new fan in kids’ bathroom (pain in the butt) got a couple bids for replacing the sidewalk with concrete (currently brick overrun with weeds) *got a bid for adding recessed lighting in the kitchen (waiting on another one)