2016 - What a year!!

As the new year approaches, everyone always likes to take a look at the year that was.  And what an eventful year it was.

It begun with my sailor finally coming home!!

And we got to spend every holiday and birthday together without him having to leave to go back to base the next day!!

It was a year where an invited guest moved in . . .

a  5 foot back snake moved in under my front porch.  That is him/her peeking out to make sure the "coast" is clear!!  The snake is literally a few feet from my front door!!!  My husband sealed up the "hole" making sure Mr/Ms Snake was not "in residence."  We are assuming Mr/Ms Snake moved elsewhere.

We decided it was time to move on from the Farmer's Market.   That was a very hard decision to make.  I love my customers and the vendors, but I'm tired.  And my insurance kept increasing by $100 each year and my license to sell eggs increased up to $268 a year.  It was getting to the point that it was hard to make a profit.  My last year's sales at the market was down, so it felt like a good time to call it quits.  I thought for sure that I had just killed my business, but God had other plans . . . because here I am a year later and my business is still going strong!  AND, we were just accredited by the Greater Cincinnati Better Business Bureau!!!

For the first time in a long time, my garden was WONDERFUL!!!  I had the most beautiful tomatoes!!  And we are now enjoying those tomatoes this winter!  I spend a lot of the summer canning up my produce.  I had so much fun!!  Without doing the farmer's market, I had more free time to do things like canning and working in my garden, so I thoroughly enjoyed the summer!!

It was a  year of surprises with my health.  I have always prided myself on how healthy I was for a 63 year old.  Well, I think it finally caught up with me.  Two years ago I was diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease Stage 2, which sounds worst than it is.  So this past August, a blood test (A1C) revealed that I was "pre-diabetic."  Hmmm, hadn't planned on that!!  Was told by the doctor that I needed to lose some weight, about 10 pounds.

My very first thought was, who is the expert on losing weight . . . WEIGHT WATCHERS!!  So off to Amazon I went and bought several of the Weight Watcher cookbooks.   I lost 15 pounds!!   Had another blood test done, this time my A1C rose to 5.9!! One more.1 and I would be diabetic.  Thank God for husbands!  He said this is not a death sentence.  We can deal with this.  The Doctor told me not to worry, sometimes it takes 6 months for these things to turn around.

I did lost a bunch of weight that I have been trying to lose for a long time.  And I think we are eating healthier than we have.  The Weight Watcher recipes are really good much to my surprise and my family (two males) are thoroughly enjoying the meals.  At least, there hasn't been any complaints (well, they weren't too thrilled with the turkey burgers!!!)

I will admit here!! I am a deplorable!!!

I was one from the start!  I voted for him in the primaries and I voted for him on November  8!  I am so thrilled about President-Elect Trump.  I am so tried of politicians and dealing with the government!!  I have had to fight with the City Health Dept, the County Health Dept, and the Ohio State Dept of Agriculture.  I am hoping that now we have a real businessman leading the country, he will turn this country around.  My two Democratic sisters won't have anything to do with me now.

To 2016, thank you!!  You have been interesting!  And to 2017,  I am putting you into God's Hands and I know He will lead me in the way He wants me to go.  God Bless you all!