2022 by the numbers

At the conclusion of 2018, 2020, and 2021, I posted a synopsis of the year using the alphabet. This year I thought I'd do a numerical one instead. 

1 - We went skiing once this year at Elk Mountain in January, and Oliver had sutures once this year. We spent one day in Pittsburgh during which we spent time at the Carnegie Science Center and saw a Stars on Ice show for the first time. We swam with manatees in Florida one morning in May. We replaced our front door thanks to a birthday gift from my dad and Margie and replaced one toilet using credit card points. I won the annual family Boggle game in Virginia earlier this week by one point. We got one picture that included all five of us. The last time we got good one was 2019. We didn't take any photos that included all five of us in 2020, and we did get one last year in front of the Grand Canyon with me wearing a boot. I'm hoping we can get at least one good one in 2023, and we also need to take one that includes Milo as we've never gotten one with him before. As of May, it has been one year since Paul's mom passed away. Holidays and the celebration of birthdays have been very different following my mom passing away (2016), my dad moving to Virginia (2017), and my mother-in-law passing away (2021). I used to talk on the phone on an almost daily basis with my mom and Ellie, but now I often go weeks without talking to anyone on the phone. I know Ellie is in a better place, but Paul, the kids, and I really miss her.

2 - The kids and I participated in two homeschool classes at Rickets Glen State Park. The five of us also spent two days in New York City, two days at Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos, and two days in Philadelphia. Oliver, Ian, and I went to Knoebels twice. Paul and Nadia joined us one of those times.  Milo turned two years old on September 30, and as of December 12 he has been in our family for two years! I got him a Christmas gift this year, and I count it a success because *so far* he hasn't succeeded in destroying it despite having chewed it for many hours. The kids and I spent two days at Camp Susque for a homeschool retreat. I had two mammograms in December because they thought they saw something suspicious in the first one. Thankfully, the second one was all clear. The national statistics are that 10% of the time women are called back for a second mammogram. This was the first time it happened to me. In my forties I had one almost every year but didn't pay a dime for them. I am not planning to continue doing that considering this one cost us $476 and the fact that screening mammograms only detect cancer in fewer than 5 women for every 1,000 women who have one in the US. 

3 - Nadia, Ian, and I assisted with Compassion at three concerts this year - two For King and Country Concerts and one Casting Crowns concert. Paul and Oliver also participated in two of those concerts. Nadia and Ian sang in three concerts with the Susquehanna Valley Youth Chorale. The kids each had 2-3 dates with a parent this year, and Paul and I also went on three dates, which was a drastic improvement after going several years without any dates. Our dates were to see a touring Broadway performance of Fiddler on the Roof in Hershey, ballroom dancing at a Methodist Church, and seeing the movie Lifemark at a theater. We learned about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow three times this year - toured his home in Portland, toured his home in Cambridge, and saw the movie "I Heard the Bells" in the theatre, which was the first movie ever created by Sight and Sound. Three of us got a new pair of eyeglasses this year - Oliver, Ian, and me. Nadia is the only member of our family who doesn't need glasses. I got three new pairs of boots this month! I received snow boots and hiking boots for Christmas and then got myself a new pair of rain boots at Walmart. I have never owned hiking boots before, but I believe it will be safer for me to hike in those. I will be VERY grateful for the snow boots the next time it snows as I've been without any snow boots for a few years. 

4 - We visited four different beaches this year - Tybee Island, Daytona Beach, Canaveral National Seashore, and Cape Henlopen State Park (Delaware). At least some of us saw four different movies in the theatre, Paul and Ian saw Sonic 2, the kids and I saw the new Minions movie, Paul and I saw Lifemark, and all five of us saw I Heard the Bells. Nadia was involved in a theatrical performance four times this year - Forgotten (twice), Beauty and the Beast, and You're Not Alone. Ian was in the stage crew for Forgotten and also performed in the other three. Oliver only participated in You're Not Alone. I walk Milo at least four miles almost every day; I've had other years when I walked or ran regularly when the weather was nice, but this is the first time in my life I've continued to exercise regularly outdoors when it's cold. We went to four amusement parks that some (or all) of us had never been to before - Busch Gardens Tampa, Carowinds, Islands of Adventure, and Universal Studios Orlando. Four times this year we attended something related to Harry Potter - two days at Universal Studios, seeing the Broadway show Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and visiting the Harry Potter Exhibition at the Franklin Science Institute. It's now been four years since I last saw my brother in person, and in about three months it will also be four years since he passed away. 

5 - The kids (and in some cases Paul) visited five states for the first time this year - Georgia, Delaware, New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont. The kids all participated in five ninety-minute homeschool gym classes at our church. Nadia and Ian participated in five three-hour Outdoor Adventure Skills classes at Camp Susque. Oliver and I helped pack shoeboxes at a packing party at our church, and our family personally packed five shoeboxes that were sent to kids in South Africa and Columbia. I bought five half-gallons of homemade Peanut Butter Oreo ice cream at Old Mill Creamery this year even though it costs more than double what I am usually willing to pay for ice cream. The kids and I love it! 

Milo loved his Christmas present!

6 - The kids roller skated at Trout Pond Park six times this year. As of this year, Paul has been back at Kennedy Concrete for six years following his seven years in graduate school and three years as a college professor. Oliver, Paul, and I went to six different amusement parks this year. Ian and Nadia joined us for five of those. The boys spent six nights at overnight Camp Good News. As of this year I've lived over six years without my mom. In general, I have adjusted to her absence, but there are still moments every once in a while, where I miss her so much that I shed a few tears. The two most recent times this happened were when I was thinking about how much she would have enjoyed attending the Candlelight Christmas concert that Ian and Nadia sang in with the chorale and then when we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus with a white cake in Virginia earlier this week as that's a tradition that I strongly associate with her. 

Ian wearing his new glasses

7 - We visited seven zoos or aquariums this year. Not counting his siblings, seven kids came to Oliver's tenth birthday party which we held at a bowling alley. We saw the license plates of seven Canadian provinces from May through September. 

8 - The boys had eight one-hour sessions of Ninjastics. 

9 - The kids had nine weeks of ice-skating lessons in the winter.

10 - Oliver turned ten on August 7.

12 - Not counting relatives, we had families over to our home for dinner twelve times this year. Most of the time when we had company this year (including relatives), we played the game Code Names. 

13 - I helped with a service project (packing food or other humanitarian aid) thirteen times this year. Oliver participated twelve times, and Nadia and Ian joined us eleven of those times. Ian and Nadia participated in thirteen rehearsals with the Susquehanna Valley Youth Chorale.  Ian turned thirteen on December 12. For the last 13 years his bedroom walls have been painted light green with a wallpaper border that featured various kinds of vehicles. The last two days I removed the border and painted the walls dark grey, which was Ian's choice. A few years ago, I had started changing his room to a Mario theme. I've ordered a second Mario comforter for the bottom bunk, a Mario light switch cover, and a Mario waste basket for his room. The only transportation themed item left in his room is a small bookshelf. We also reorganized his closet to accommodate his Legos. 

14 - Nadia turned fourteen on June 24. 

15 - Nadia and Ian had a half-day theatre camp on fifteen days in the summer. Oliver joined them for five of those.

16 - Nadia spent sixteen nights at overnight camp this year - six as a counselor at Camp Good News and ten as a camper at Camp Susque (seven in the summer and three at Freeze Camp in December). As of this month, I have been blogging for sixteen years. I wrote the fewest posts this year (78) compared to a high of 332 in both 2009 and 2010. I contemplated ending the blog in 2016 after my mom passed away, and I contemplated quitting again last year after my mother-in-law passed away. I started the blog in part as my way of updating my mom, whom I used to email every day. In the beginning, I received a LOT of comments on my blog plus some friends and family would email me in response to something I said on the blog, so it felt like more of a two-way form of communication than it has the last six years. This year I received a grand total of six comments (five from one woman). In the early years of blogging, I had many individual posts that received more comments than that as I've received over 1,800 comments altogether over the years. The lack of comments or any other form of interaction in response to the posts is part of the reason I have contemplated quitting the blog over the last few years, but for now I'm at peace with writing fewer posts but not quitting altogether in part because it gives me an outlet for sharing pictures that I have taken as I very rarely post on Facebook. 

18 - Nadia had drama rehearsals at the co-op on eighteen different days. For most of the weeks they only met for 75 minutes, but the week of the performance they put in long hours (sometimes more than 10 hours in a day) for five days. 

20 - I lost twenty pounds this summer and have kept them off thus far. As of this month, it has been twenty years since I became Dr. Kennedy. 

21 - Paul and I have been married for twenty-one years as of August 11. Oliver read 21 chapter books this year.

26 - As of this year, I've been sponsoring kids through Compassion for 26 years. I've sponsored nine different kids over the years. Five of those we currently sponsor. Two kids aged out of the program, one lived in India (and the government of India no longer allows child sponsorship to take place), and one child moved out of the reach of a Compassion center. 

27 - Number of books Ian read this year

30 - As of this spring, it has been thirty years since I graduated from college. 

36 - The kids each earned at least thirty-six Junior Ranger badges this year. Almost all of those were earned when we visited a National Park site in person. 

41 - As of September, all five of us have spent time in least forty-one states. Milo had only been in Pennsylvania for the first 27 months of his life, but we took him with us to Virginia earlier this week. He acted like a very fidgety, fussy toddler the whole way down there (which was exhausting!), but thankfully on the way home he slept in my arms or on my lap for most of the six-hour drive. Prior to that trip the longest he had been in a vehicle was 40 minutes (the length of time it takes to get to Knoebels and Camp Susque). 

48 - From May through September we spotted the license plates for 47 states (plus DC), and then I spotted one from Alaska on our way down to Virginia earlier this week. We didn't see North Dakota or Hawaii.

50 - I turned fifty on April 21.

51 - We went on fifty-one field trips this year. Our first was to see a performance of Secret Garden on February 20, and our last was a day in NYC on December 15 during which we visited three national park sites, the National September 11 Memorial, and saw the Christmas show at the Radio City Music Hall. 

52 - Paul turned fifty-two on January 3. 

67 - Number of books Nadia read this year

69 - Number of books that I read or listened to this year

96 - As of December 15, we have visited ninety-five National Park sites to date.

Oliver loves his new Nerf gun

113 - Number of audiobooks the kids and I (and in some cases Paul) listened to together (a small minority were books I read aloud to them)

365 - Number of days I completed at least one lesson the Duolingo app as I currently have a 590-day streak. I am on pace to finish the entire Spanish program within the next 18 months. 

30,786 - The number of dollars we spent on medical bills this year. Yikes! Hopefully we'll never come anywhere close to that number again in the future!! As a point of comparison, the least we've spent on medical expenses over the last nineteen years was $305 (in 2019) and previously the highest amount was $14,104 (in 2011). The only years our medical expenses exceeded $5K in a year were the four years we paid for IVF (2007, 2009, 2011, and 2012) plus the last two years. We started paying for my ankle surgery last year, and we paid $2,655 last year and $2,655 again this year for Ian and Oliver's orthodontics. 

Building a new Lego set with Pop Pop