Well, here we are on the cusp of a brand new year. And what can I say about the old one? 2025 wasn’t a bad year…. but it wasn’t a great year. It was just a year.

We lost Relic, but gained Furby. Everyone in our circle is in pretty good health. Careers are doing their thing. We had some small adventures – trips to Toronto, our favourite petting zoo, a museum. I spent lots of time doing what I love – gardening and crafting. Life just continued on.

Looking back at what I hoped from last January’s post…

As noted, we didn’t do any house projects, as the furnace/heat pump/water heater we installed ate up all our house fixing budget for the year. That said, I am very happy with the purchase. My utility bills have dropped significantly, and as predicted, it was so nice not having to install “window shaker” a/c units, nor to listen to them all summer. The heat pump has been great for keeping the house cool in the summer. And in the winter it still does most of the work – the gas furnace doesn’t kick in until the temps hit -10C. Other than the siding, we’ve done all the “big” jobs in the house. The rest is just making the rooms pretty (ie updating walls and floors)

We didn’t put as big a dent in our debt as I’d hoped, but we managed some. We are certainly no worse off than we were at the start of the year.

Last January, I said I hoped to expand the fence borders in the garden. I didn’t do that. Instead I expanded the front gardens. It certainly wasn’t my best gardening year, but it wasn’t a bad one. I planted lots of seeds, but of course, I bought many new plants, even though I said I’d try not to. (Not going to lie, I didn’t try very hard)

I did manage to knit exclusively from the stash as I’d planned. Quilting… not quite, though it wasn’t terrible. I mostly used stash, only buying new fabric for some backs for Christmas quilts. The rest of the fabric purchases were just thrift finds I couldn’t pass up, so I don’t think they should really count.

Tune in tomorrow to see my hopes for 2026.