2024- Year End Review

What a year- many great memories were made and not so great ones that we look forward to forgetting (or at least for the impact of those memories to recede as time passes)- that's life! It was chock full of some big milestones as well making it a big ol year for the Rineers.

January- Abby finally got to go to France! The third time was a charm for her as far as planned school trips went. She studied in Paris during her college's January term.  We enjoyed receiving pictures from her up and talking occasionally as well while she was gone. We were most glad that she returned safely, that she is still a Francophile, but one who has no desire to live in France. Oui, Oui

Having Abby being gone overseas was a little mind blowing for a couple of reasons- as mentioned before, two earlier planned trips fell through (covid, etc) and I think a part of her thought she was destined to not go. It's also just kinda weird to have a child being so far from home (though I know it's not uncommon- it is uncommon to us).

And then the ultimate mind blow at the end of the month- the baby of the family, just teeny tiny not that long ago, turned eighteen. This childhood era ended too soon!!

And January is the "not crowded" time of year in France!! I guess Ms. Lisa & company always draws crowds??

Alyssa and her great Uncle Doug at her family birthday party.

February- That's Amore, right? Lots of lovely moments in this month

Went prom dress shopping for the first time (of the season).

Towards the end of the month, Alyssa, Avery (Alyssa's bestie since birth and future college roommate) and I went on a college tour at Coastal Carolina University. The girls both received good scholarship offers to this school putting it into contention. We stayed in Myrtle Beach and Alyssa was in beach heaven. The college tour went all right. Neither girl cared for the vibe of the town in terms of its coolness as a college town (they did not think it was a cool college town- (#priorities!)) The drive was so long and we hoped that the girls would choose somewhere in landlocked, close to home Ohio.

Decisions, decisions... from the small things like which prom dress

to slightly bigger things like which college...

(Neither decision was made in February, but that's Ok- there was a bit of time for both decisions!)

March- Spring sprang

Alyssa and I went on a college tour to Ohio State. It was a cold, icky day out and I couldn't decide if my preference was for Alyssa to go to school 12 to 13 hours away or 1 1/2 hours if the closer location meant she'd be going to Ohio State...

Towards the end of the month, Alyssa and I went to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for spring break. Oh man, that trip was not for faint of heart. We saw... drunk people!! (And this was at like 6:00 pm when we were out at the restaurants for dinner- I can't imagine what it was like later in the evening!). We did stay at a place with a private beach- the only place I would recommend if traveling on a non-college break trip to Fort Lauderdale in weeks in the spring when any college could be on spring break. We had terrible weather one day but in between rain showers, I was able to get some senior pictures of Alyssa on the beach- something she had been wanting to get. So it all worked out(ish). No, it did. I loved spending time with my best senior girl. 

Abby's spring break was the following week- she went to Missouri with her boyfriend and family. The day Abby was set to return, I sort of kind of had a bad accident while running. Me being me, I didn't seek medical attention for this right away (I didn't want to spend the evening that Abby was coming home at an urgent care. What I didn't know was that if I'd gone to urgent care I would have wound up in the hospital. Ignorance was bliss for a couple of days!).

March 30- just your average drive from one hospital's ER to the other (the first hospital we went to did not have an orthopedic surgeon, so we had to go to a larger hospital. The larger hospital's ER was manned by POLICE when we first walked in.)

April- Oddest April ever! On April 1, which happened to be Easter, I had Achilles heel surgery. I was discharged the same day (the squeaky wheel got the grease on that one!) and thus began my 3 1/2 weeks of staying completely off my leg. I had to use crutches to walk, a walker, or one of those knee scooters. Not fun! There is no way to put a positive spin on the impact this had on our lives! Though, thankfully, the pain was only figuratively not literally. My foot/leg/ankle never caused me physical pain for which I am grateful.

My people, proverbially, showed up for me but none more so than my in home care givers, Alyssa and Donnie! We muddled/ hobbled our way through the month and by the end of it, I was in a walking boot.

I lived my best hermit life for the 3 1/2 weeks I was in a cast- moving was so cumbersome and I didn't want to risk falling so I stayed at home the entirety of the 3 1/2 weeks except on my birthday when Alyssa and I grabbed take out for lunch and ate at a park. 

My aunt came to watch the solar eclipse with us.

May- Prom and big end of an era but whatareyougonnnado?

Alyssa finished high school! Abby finished her third year of college and came home for the summer. We went to many grad parties and loved celebrating with those who finished high school. Abby started her internship with our city.

June- We had Alyssa's grad party- so much fun to celebrate her! I was in my boot the entire month and couldn't drive at all. 

July- lots of fun with family and friends-

We celebrated the 4th with friends and then in the evening we celebrated it with neighbor friends whose young adults sons bought a ton of firework that they lit in the cul-de sac. 

Alyssa and Avery decided they were #buckeyebound so we went to orientation for that in July.

My boot came off and I was able to drive, thankfully. My walk was (and is sometimes still 😡) very stiff and limpy. But staying positive, I was happy to be able to drive and drive I did to western Illinois to visit my brother.

Florida, MO

Nice get together with family from PA and VA visiting 

Fun concert with friends!

August- Big month in the household!!

(And no, the garden produce was not big in any way shape or form but I was pleased as punch to get a modest harvest while having planted and weeded for the most part while in my boot!)

Four of the five of us went to Florida for one last beach hurrah. Abby went to a friend's lake house in Tennessee (or southern KY?) instead of to Florida with us. 

We dropped off Alyssa in Columbus and were officially empty nesters

The following two weekends we had plans which was so nice! We went to Indiana for Mary Gracia's first birthday and the following weekend, we celebrated Donnie's BIG birthday with friends. We went to Indiana to see Sammy Hagar. 80's music is one of Donnie's favorite things and Sammy is one of his favorite musicians, so it was fairly serendipitous that the concert was as close to us as it was near Donnie's birthday.

September- Judging by my camera roll (in what other way would I judge the month??), September was a pretty uneventful month save a quick trip I made to Canada to see my sister.

This is the month that I started subbing again after not having done it since March, before my fall.

October- We got to see Abby on her birthday! The outdoor covered patio commenced (complete with a porta potty being delivered on our front yard where it would sit until a Christmas miracle (/project completion) the day after Christmas!

By the end of the month the patio project was well under way and we went to an Oktoberfest.

Also, we celebrated Halloween in sweet style (how else is there to celebrate it??).

November- A very special month for thankfulness and gratitude

All three kids voted- Alyssa was home to vote, Jacob came home to vote and Abby voted by mail in ballot.

 We got our first snowfall of the season, I got our Christmas decorations up and we celebrated Thanksgiving at our house and then going to Indiana the following day to see family.

December- festive, family, friends, fun

Just the usual December busyness- the girls finished their fall semesters and came home. Alyssa finished her first fall semester and Abby finished her last fall semester! We weren't terribly busy leading into Christmas though we celebrated a special friend's birthday as well as Jacob's shortly before Christmas. Christmas was all good, thankfully, and we got to enjoy extended family visit with the newly completed covered patio.

To conclude, I thought I'd do a little recap of the final day of 2024. What prompted me to do this was remembering that in 1999, I wrote a little synopsis of the last day of the year since it seemed historic. I don't know where the paper is that I wrote it on but I know that I have it somewhere-  I come across it from time to time and am always glad I wrote about the day. I would have forgotten so many details. It doesn't really matter what I did; however, I find it interesting. It's been twenty-five years since I wrote about the last day of 1999. Obviously my life has changed a ton in twenty-five years (it would be really odd if nothing or just a few things had!) and I won't list them all here...

Anyway, here is the last day of 2024:

I woke up (didn't note the time and I've long since forgotten) to the sound of pouring rain. If it had been raining lightly, I may have run outside. But it was raining heavy so instead of running right away, I started reading. I finished my Bible reading plan of two years! For the past two years, I have followed a plan wherein over the course of two years, I read the Bible through. The pages with each day's reading on them bear testament to it being a stack of papers that was referred to everyday or most days. 

I read some of my favorite blogs and published a post of my own.

Then it was time to make cookies to take to our friends' house for a NYE party later. I will share the recipe soon as making these cookies is easy and tasting the cookies is a delightful treat. Cleaned up the kitchen and then got ready to run an errand.

Alyssa was still in bed (Donnie was at work and Abby was out of town for the NYE holiday) so I went by myself to Bath and Body Works. They were having a good sale and I wanted to stock up.

Arrived home and Alyssa was awake and getting ready. We had plans to visit a family member who was in the hospital. We visited with the family member and then went home. Donnie was home from work by then (he'd worked about half a day). We finalized plans with Jacob to have a late lunch/ early dinner before everyone's NYE plans occurred.

We drove to Kenwood to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. Eating at CF on NYE is officially a tradition at this  point- it's also generally the only time of year we eat there. 

We came straight home after dinner and had an hour or two before we were going to our friends' house. I worked on my blog post for Wednesday and then it was time to go.

We had a great time on NYE with friends- friends Clint and Kristine are the best hosts! I took hardly any pictures but we were at their house until past 1:30. 

I can't say that the year was an overall good one or bad one! Good and not so good things happened for sure along with mostly mundane as well as a few huge things. It was a year! We saw evidence of God's provision, love, and steadfastness throughout it. 

Linking up with Joanne for Talking about it Tuesday.