Leap Day 2020: Coda

Hello and welcome to the first Saturday in March here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is March 2nd. 

Lucky WannaskaWriter got to post on Leap Day this year. I was the lucky WA writer in 2020 and here's my Leap Day 2020 post. It was fun to reread because I had given small snapshot hops of where I had been in my life in each leap year.

This year, 2024, I'm in a spot I could have never imagined. And, yes, that includes living in Wannaskaland. This year marks our 18th anniversary of Wannaskan residence. The incredulity has melted into surprise and softened to affection. I am happy. I love where I live. I love my life.

In 2020, I was doing my best to cheerlead our family through the Covid quarantine and five children's distance learning the best I could in a small house. Four years later, the Oldest graduates from college in May. College Kid 2.0 is a sophomore and the WAKWIR* also graduates (from high school) in May. The Sixth Grader stands on the precipice of junior high and the Third Grader is still so whipsmart and vibrant it boggles the mind. I am hanging on to this childhood as tightly as I can, in contrast to the readily handing over of the reins to my older children and their respective lives.

For myself personally, in the span of 4 years, I've become a book coach, moonlighted as a college & career readiness counselor, and am now a cheerleader for advanced technology education at the Advanced Resource Center in Warroad. I've edited and/or contributed to three nonfiction anthologies and hosted four writing retreats. Travels include two college road trips (one to each coast), family camping trips on the North Shore and North Dakota, two World Robotics trips to Houston, a couple short jaunts to Massachusetts to visit the Oldest, Winnipeg spa day, museums, and lunches with the best Toastmaster peeps ever. A few fun-filled getaways with friends who love my family as if we were their own. One trek to the Czech Republic. With a few Wannaskan excursions sprinkled on these delicious muffins of adventure, really, what more could a person ask for?

I'm blessed with good health, warm hearth, and hearty friendships. I am grounded in goodness and gratitude.

I gush like this today - a coda of Leap Year 2020 - because the next Leap Year to land on a Saturday will be in 2048. Who knows where I'll be in 2028, let alone 2048. Who knows where the Wannaskan Almanac and its merry band of writers will be. It's sobering to think about how much change can - and inevitably will - happen in four years.

If this blog is a time capsule, here are my predictions. 

In 2028...

I will be celebrating 22 years in Wannaska
 And going on 28 years of marriage.
I'll still be writing (but in what form, I don't know.)
I'll still be cheerleading in all the spaces in which I show up.
I will be even more health-conscious than I am today.
I'll be wearing prescription glasses instead of cheaters.
I will own a new Subaru.
I will be a mother-in-law
And possibly a grandmother (but no pressure, if my kids are reading this!)
Gray hairs will finally show up amidst my thick brown of today.
I will have a new couch (already coming in May 2024!)
I will experience loss that rocks me to my core
And personal gain that will bring boundless joy.
I will gain wisdom that transcends my current cosmic understanding
Through all the rollercoastering thrills and nausea life brings a body, I will still find space in my heart and faith for gratitude.

I will still be loving my life.

*Wannaskan Almanac Kid Writer-in-Residence