Snail Spirals

I have done so many new things over the past month or so, things I have never EVER done before:

• I purchased my very own house. It is my house and I own it and it is mine (and the bank's). 
• I made my first solo mortgage payment. One down, 359 to go. 
• I used a post hole digger and installed a mailbox. 
• I installed a clothes rod in a closet. 
• I used a high-pressure hose attachment to clean out a slow-draining laundry sink.
• I hung pictures from a picture rail. 
• I changed the water filter in a refrigerator. 
• I reversed the direction on a light switch so that up is on and down is off. 
• I read up on how to prune grape vines. 
• I purchased a wheelbarrow.
• I purchased a ladder.
• I purchased a clothes dryer.
• I reversed the door on a clothes dryer, so it opens the right way in relation to the adjacent washing machine.
• I purchased a new mattress for Emma, to fit her full-size-bed alcove. 
• I purchased a new mattress for myself, to replace the lumpy, cheap, 19-year-old one that my ex-husband bought when he was a grad student. Slept better than I have in YEARS.
• I finished purchasing a high quality musical instrument, by making a lump-sum payment for the outstanding balance so as to avoid the interest and so it wouldn't drag out over the next two years.
• I listened in wonder as Emma joyfully and confidently progressed from squeaky first notes to learning to play actual songs on her paid-off flute.
• I read up on how to strip paint off woodwork.
• I raked leaves in my own front yard. 
• I sat on my front porch and watched it snow.
• I felt like I truly have my own space, a refuge, a place that I belong.

I'm not going to kid you, it was a breathtakingly expensive month.  My bank account is leaner, but my heart is very full.