17/100

I. Homecoming
I finished my Rowan Williams book, and am now inspired to go acquire and read more Rowan Williams books. With J gone (with the kids) in Pennsylvania for the past several days I've had an immediate and practical reflection on one of his points about the soul/self. The use of language presupposes connections, and a self is not fully realized until it's in connection with other selves. In recognizing and naming the "other" it also locates its own existence and history and importance. The philosophical, theological, and linguistic implications of this idea are much more fully spelled out by Dr. Williams, and they're very big and important. The point came home much more locally and personally for me with her gone.

Without her around, I'm less interesting, less defined, and certainly less myself. I enjoyed puttering through the empty house in my workout clothes, picking up messes that stayed picked up, practicing lip-slurs somewhere other than the basement, and reading books at the dinner table with my feet up on her chair. But two souls living together are more than the sum total of their capacities. This is the flip side of all the horrible and graceless advice that people give in trying to "fix up" their single friends. You really are almost always more yourself, for better or for worse, with someone else.

II. Lessons Learned
Another tax year is in the books! I've started, just a very little bit, to enjoy the process of preparing the taxes. For one thing, I'm no longer surprised (pleasantly) when I start entering W2s and see our "expected refund" number in the multiple thousands of dollars, nor am I quite so shockingly dismayed when I see the "expected amount owed" number creep higher and higher as I enter in our self-employment income, or to see it usually just about balance out as I finish putting in the various deductions and expenses.

Because I have a better handle on what to expect, I'm slowly keeping better and more useful records from year to year. I actually kept all of my business receipts in a single folder this year, and knew exactly where to look to find our property taxes and student loan interest paid.

Next year--and it's really already too late to start next year, but maybe for the 2018 taxes?--I should do a better job of tallying exact mileage numbers. Also, an additional dependent would be fine. Maybe we'll add one in July or thereabouts.

III. New Phone Resolutions
1. Take more/better pictures of the kids. I have (and this is the worst parental cliche) waaayyy more pictures of James at Owen's age than I do of Owen...
2. Text for pleasure more. I think J does this a lot already, but I usually don't strike up texting conversations just for the fun of it. It's not going to come as naturally to me as it does to her, but now that my Dad AND my Mom have iMessage, there's no excuse not to be more in contact. (Especially since I also don't ever make voice calls just for catching up...)
3. Actually use Twitter/Instagram
4. Record more video of myself practicing
5. Actually attempt to use some of the features of the Fitness app
6. Put it away at the end of the night before going to bed. Was doing better about this, then got out of the habit. I sleep better and longer if it stays downstairs when I go up.