{"id":10248,"date":"2017-01-01T14:32:11","date_gmt":"2017-01-01T19:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=10248"},"modified":"2017-09-13T09:47:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T13:47:00","slug":"the-year-in-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=10248","title":{"rendered":"The year in review"},"content":{"rendered":"

The year really began six weeks before the calendar turned over to 2016. It began on Nov. 15, 2015,<\/a> when an aneurysm ruptured in my brain. That event kicked off a long sequence of events that made 2016 one of the most memorable years of my life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Many days it seemed as though my life was falling apart. Tom’s stroke<\/a>, the house suffering water damage<\/a> and tree damage<\/a>, the relentless drought<\/a>, the inability to focus and think clearly<\/a>, all peppered with\u00a0sniper attacks of anxiety<\/a>. I’m not even going to mention the election<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

No need to belabor in detail how much strain I’ve been under. Let’s move on.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The year\u00a0wasn’t all bad. Our team was awarded a grant for another year’s project in Pakistan<\/a>, and we launched a print magazine<\/a>. I learned more about working in fused glass<\/a> and produced some pieces <\/a>that I’m pleased with (even sold a few).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I hiked my way through the most abundant Appalachian spring<\/a> in my nine years living in North Georgia. I got to see cousins<\/a> on both<\/a> sides of my family, some who I hadn’t seen in decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The very best part of 2016 was finding and learning about Tom’s biological parents<\/a> – and the capper, meeting and getting to know his father<\/a>, sister and aunts. They could have slammed the door in his face – but they opened it, and embraced us both.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Even the “bad” events had positive results. The house will be stronger, safer<\/a>, and in much better condition than it was before. Tom will come through the stroke in better health because he quit smoking<\/a>, takes corrective meds and is changing his diet and exercise habits. I lost 25 pounds<\/a>, am learning new ways<\/a> to reduce stress, and have a deeper appreciation of the depths of my resilience<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

This year also gave me daily opportunities to practice gratitude<\/a>. I’m grateful for the high quality of health care that Tom and I have received – without it, we could both be permanently disabled. I’m grateful for the terrific insurance coverage that restored our house, provided\u00a0income during Tom’s\u00a0disability, and took care of medical expenses – without these, we’d have been bankrupted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m grateful for the support of the incredibly professional and caring team that I work with, who kept our Pakistan projects moving when I could not lead. Most of all, I’m grateful for the kindness of a thousand strangers<\/a> who helped us along the way, the supportive comments from so many of you who read The Weight of My Days<\/em>, and the loyalty and love of family and friends.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I’m grateful to Dad for the inheritance<\/a> – monetary and philosophical – that spurred me to create this blog. And to Mom for the inherited love of beauty<\/a> that pulls me into the Light.<\/span><\/p>\n

Through everything that happened this year, I kept writing<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the clock struck midnight, my blog was up to date: 544 published posts, one for every single day since July 7, 2015. Some of the posts were even pretty good.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

My writing is my biggest accomplishment of 2016, and it was propelled by the need to write about what was happening to me. It kept me sane.<\/span><\/p>\n

2016 is over.<\/span><\/p>\n

We made it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Today’s penny will be a 2016, as soon as I can get my hands on one.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The year really began six weeks before the calendar turned over to 2016. It began on Nov. 15, 2015, when an aneurysm ruptured in my brain. That event kicked off a long sequence of events that made 2016 one of the most memorable years of my life. Many days it seemed as though my life … read more The year in review<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[318],"tags":[1382,1384,1383,82,86,92,494,20,513],"class_list":["post-10248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-refraction","tag-1382","tag-abundance","tag-accomplishment","tag-beauty","tag-family","tag-friends","tag-gratitude","tag-tom","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10248"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10256,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10248\/revisions\/10256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}