{"id":1070,"date":"2026-01-16T10:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T15:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=1070"},"modified":"2026-01-16T10:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T15:31:16","slug":"2026-bracing-for-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=1070","title":{"rendered":"2026… Bracing for Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The world is a mess, and everyone is just trying to survive. That seemed to be 2025’s theme, but it didn’t start off that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Logging back into this blog, I see 4 draft posts for 2024 that I never finished. They need photos and refinement. Maybe that’ll happen this year, maybe not… Despite that, going into 2025 was good. I did the usual Facebook post, almost like a written vision board.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Some of these things, I actually achieved! We had an amazing Girl Scout trip to Savannah, Georgia over Spring Break, and then my family continued down to Florida. I spent time looking at the sky, watching the birds, taking photos, researching history, and attempting home renovation projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were a lot of obstacles though. Inflation is absolutely breaking the budget. Even with 2 adult children in the house working (one full-time, one part-time), the cost to survive is astounding. Healthcare is expensive, and my body is failing me. I would have never imagined at 41 that I would be given a permanent handicapped plaque for the car because I have limited options for what I can do to try and make my feet less crappy, and none of the options are a guarantee for this chronic problem. Not being able to walk or stand for a decent period of time limits my ability to work full-time, and even do some of the requirements my retail job demands of me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The struggles persist in 2026. I didn’t do a Facebook post, but I had created a vision board; then I thought to myself, why? Unless someone drops me a few $100K, nothing is going to magically change this year. We will still continue to pay down debt and keep a status quo, because there is no room for saving, still continue to work on the house with stuff we already have, still rack up medical debt to try and keep ourselves upright, and still try to have some sense of “normal life” by trying to get out of the house and find free or cheap things to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It may sound negative, or hopeless, or like giving up, but honestly, it’s the reality right now. All we can do is take the year one day at a time as we navigate insurances, medical issues, house fails, work schedules, meal planning, bills, and everything else we call living life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So to everyone out there struggling but still moving forward, even if it’s a snail’s pace, you are not alone!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The world is a mess, and everyone is just trying to survive. That seemed to be 2025’s theme, but it didn’t start off that way. Logging back into this blog, I see 4 draft posts for 2024 that I never finished. They need photos and refinement. Maybe that’ll happen this year, maybe not… Despite that,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,28],"tags":[284,150,17,285,25,286,29],"class_list":["post-1070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ramblings","category-talk-therapy","tag-284","tag-budget","tag-medical-stuff","tag-new-year","tag-ramblings","tag-survival","tag-talk-therapy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catastrophicstardust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/20211229_095421_00008393513576783207482.png?fit=3000%2C1500&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":714,"url":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=714","url_meta":{"origin":1070,"position":0},"title":"Reflections on Life","date":"January 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Things always seem to be busy. I have tons of blog posts I haven't written. We've been doing house renovations, the older two kids started ground school, we've had holidays, gone to see real mummies, went to the hills, had our last visit (unless someone breaks something) with the Orthopedic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Day to Day Happenings"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catastrophicstardust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/20211229_095421_00008393513576783207482.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":716,"url":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=716","url_meta":{"origin":1070,"position":1},"title":"Do What You Love…","date":"February 2, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"It's Groundhog Day! Phil has told us Spring is in the air. No shadow this year (despite us being able to see his shadow, apparently it did not spook him). See that shadow, and his smug look \ud83e\udd23 Have you ever watched this ceremony? All those guys with top hats,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Holidays"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catastrophicstardust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/20211229_095421_00008393513576783207482.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":89,"url":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=89","url_meta":{"origin":1070,"position":2},"title":"Talk Therapy Thursday – Domestic Goddess","date":"January 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Do you ever feel like you are doing it all? I mean EVERYTHING! From work, to scheduling appointments, to house work, to meal planning, to cooking, to cleaning, to organizing... The list goes on, believe me. And then something happens that sets up back a bit. You take time for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ramblings"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catastrophicstardust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/20211229_095421_00008393513576783207482.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11,"url":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=11","url_meta":{"origin":1070,"position":3},"title":"New Year, New Blog… Or something like that.","date":"December 25, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Just a quick note to get this blog up and running. This new domain was my Christmas present. So.... testing, testing.","rel":"","context":"In "Ramblings"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":58,"url":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=58","url_meta":{"origin":1070,"position":4},"title":"Talk Therapy Thursday – Pandemic Thoughts","date":"December 30, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"These types of posts I\u2019m hoping to use as a kind of therapy. A safe space to just unload my thoughts, fears, feelings, and strategies. I had a therapist a few years back, to help manage my anxiety issues, but the cost of visits, time spent, medication adjustments, and ultimately\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ramblings"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catastrophicstardust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/20211229_095421_00008393513576783207482.png?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":319,"url":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/?p=319","url_meta":{"origin":1070,"position":5},"title":"Goodbyes are Hard","date":"April 6, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"We had to say goodbye to one of our dogs this week. We knew the time was near. Apollo had been mentally declining for months. We knew when we went to West Virginia in March that it would be his last trip down. He was finding it more and more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Homesteading"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/catastrophicstardust.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/screenshot_20230404_142704_instagram8215221476265479441.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1073,"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions\/1073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catastrophicstardust.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}