Christmas 2025/New Year's 2026

January 2026

<You know how you can read, and re-read, and edit, and peter around with something till it starts to become a giant blob of something you don’t even recognize??? Me, too! So I decided to upload this New Year’s letter before it gets to that point…TOO LATE!>

What up, everyone?! What’s in your tabs these days? What’s your vibe today? Want to take 3 deep breaths together? (I Googled different ways to ask “How are you?” I’m kind of liking the “What’s in your tabs these days?”…very ‘of the moment’…) I cannot believe that Christmas is over, Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, and Easter is just around the corner! Our Dollar Tree has Valentine’s, Easter, and summer items out already, and that was 2 days BEFORE New Year’s!!! And I’m JUST now getting this out (or up)…I’m behind! We’ve had another roller coaster of a year here in the Florida Speelman household.  I’m totally ready for a laid-back-bored-outta-my-mind-kinda year (yeah, like THAT’S gonna happen)!

It’s been over a year since my mom passed, and I still think about her daily: wanting to call her to make plans (we always planned the holidays together), to catch up weekly – or several times a week or even daily, or ask her advice about something.  I’m about halfway done going through all her boxes from her house after taking off a good 8 or so months.  I’m finding that my mom was a meticulous planner.  She kept receipts for important purchases, warranties for EVERYTHING (seriously, I found a warranty for an over-the-door mirror), instructions for things, not to mention all the letters, cards, programs, pictures, articles, poems (things that “sparked joy”, Marie Kondo would be so proud)…and to my delight she even made many scrapbooks of memories of the latter, or things that made her happy, or things that reminded her of someone, etc. She kept all the cards she got from the past I-don’t-know-how-long, and I’ve had a wonderful time (and good cries) going through them all and seeing all the sweet things people wrote to my Mom.  And being reminded, again and again, what a heart for God she had while here with us.

In May Scott traveled unexpectedly to Virginia when his dad had a stroke.  Even after a stay in a rehab facility, his dad passed suddenly a few weeks later in June.  In November our family traveled to Virginia to attend his funeral at Arlington National Cemetery.  He had retired from the Air Force as a full bird colonel and had always wanted to be buried at Arlington. (There’s a waiting list for burials there; he passed in May and his funeral was scheduled for mid-November.)  It was an impactful service with the flag folding, 21-gun salute, Taps, band, color guard, and bag pipes.  I learned things about Scott’s father I never knew, and my kids learned so many things…it was a hard day in many ways.

That’s 3 parents we’ve buried in 4 years…it’s been a tough 4 years.

In other Scott news: He is now the president of ISC2 and sometimes wishing he hadn’t taken on the roll.  During the last 4 months he’s been busier than a one-armed-paper-hanger-with-an-itch-runny-nose-and-hives (Miss you, Dave and Ellen!).  He’s been extremely busy with not only his role but filling in for 2-3 other board members and their responsibilities.  He flew to Nashville in October for the 2025 ISC2 conference where his chapter won an award – North American Region Chapter of the Year – one day, did a presentation another day, and led an educational workshop on yet another day.  Disney continues to keep him “busy” (the word I choose to use instead of aggravated).  He is still working in Identity Management Security and attempting to do some classes in Snowflake (yeah…I don’t know what that has to do with IT security; I mean, it’s frozen ice…Frozen?...Olaf?...Disney?...).

Scott has also been busy supervising all the renovations we’ve been making to our house.  2025 has been a year of renovations, and in 2026 they’re still ongoing! So far we’ve had the roof done, new gutters installed, reno on our pool (“IIIIII….love to go swimmin’ with bow-legged women and…) and cage (new cage was just completed, so we’re in the homestretch…maybe by the end of January?), and got some new appliances (if you’re looking for a new fridge, dish washer, or dryer hit me up; I have some rave reviews).  In 2026 we’ll probably get the windows done, some plumbing work, painting and flooring, and (hopefully) landscaping.  Then we’ll call it a day – unless something is discovered in the renos that needs fixing – for now.

Zachary is now gainfully employed by UCF in their Direct Connect office on the West Valencia campus.  His job is helping students transferring from smaller state colleges (formerly community colleges) to UCF.  He started his job on Valentine’s Day 2025 and his first day on the job was helping at a conference at the Orlando Convention Center (Top 10 Anime Betrayals).  He was first allowed to work from home on Fridays but has since been made to go into the office 5 days a week, but was told to close the office and go home early on Fridays (and yes; he loved the irony).  He’s also got to enjoy over 2 weeks of paid time off as the schools basically closed during the holidays, returning to work on 1/5.  Other than work, he is getting ready to start looking for his first car and has plans to move out of the house by the end of 2026.  He flew to Portland this past summer to be in a friend’s wedding, so he and a few of his friends from around here made a whole trip of it and got to explore the area and stay at a nice Airbnb while there. And after being forced to attend a Kpop concert with Anna many moons ago, Zach returned the favor and dragged Anna along to an ARTMS concert in Tampa (and fun was had by all).  He’s still busy with lots of things online, from games to creative endeavors, and hanging out with friends and family – both online and in person  He is still my go-to guy for technology fixits when Scott isn’t available (as well as my tall/long-armed guy when his short mom can’t quite reach/stretch, and my all-things-Pokémon-Go mentor - #truestory).

Anna has been busier than a one-eyed cat watching 2 rat holes.  She spent many months getting ready for her MRI certification which she passed back in October.  She also recently won an award for the month of December at her work, called the “Great Catch” award (gasps in Spanish), and was given a trophy (with a catcher’s mitt at the top holding a baseball) to keep in the MRI department for the month and had a picture taken with all the managers.  She gets to keep the baseball signed by all the managers, but she would rather have the trophy…😊 She is currently still sharing an apartment with Sophia here in Clermont, working at Orlando Health Central hospital in west Orlando, and her schedule consists of four 10.5 hour days.  She went to 2 Kpop concerts this past year – both for the group Stray Kids.  One was in Atlanta (I drove with her and stayed at the hotel – it was nice and bougie – while she Stay-ed it up at the concert with a local friend) and the other in Orlando (with a different friend).  She continues to be a “gamer girl” online when she has some free time and is keeping in touch with her different friend groups as best she can – both online and off.  We had started the year (’25) off with Friday Night Dinners (Oy with the poodles already!), but now we just go with the flow, seeing her 4 times one week and none the next 2.  It truly is odd at times not seeing her every day…

I have been working on getting my first children’s book published and am currently in a pause as I wait for the copyright to come through.  (Shout out Andrea for the amazing illustrations, and to Diana, Peggy, and Cary for proofreading the book for me!!!) I have 1 other children’s book almost ready and then I’ll need to find an illustrator but that’s future Ruth’s task (present Ruth is just continuing to write and edit other things).  I will definitely let you know when and where my book is finally out! 😊I have also been kind of practicing Swedish Death cleaning, because Marie Kondo’s “Does this spark joy?” doesn’t cut it for me; I have realized that a LOT of things spark joy in me.  My house is an eclectic modge-podge (my nickname in high school) of memories, vintage, Disney, funky, light-up…and I’m happy about ALL of it! But thinking from the perspective of NOT leaving my treasures behind for my kids – who view most of my stuff as NOT treasure – to clean out – has kind of helped me in the past few months.  It’s hard, and I definitely haven’t perfected it, but it seems so worth it.  It’s basically a more intense version of “It has poop on it; throw/give it away” (The Andrea Paperclip Theory way of cleaning).  I also had a short stay in the hospital back in July for 2 days for a case of cellulitis on my lower leg that could not be explained and would not respond to 2 different antibiotics before admitted for IV antibiotics…actually, the word “hospital” is not quite right; it was what I called the “purgatory” area (they call it the Clinical Decision Unit or CDU), the new area in hospitals that are a step up from an ER room and a step down from an actual hospital room.  I had 2 doors to 2 different hallways in my room, no bathroom, and had an unwelcome shock early the second morning when someone tried to come into my room from the hallway accessible by anyone – the one no one was supposed to use (I was startled from dozing – because who can sleep in a hospital? Am I right? – shouting “NO!” and they shut the door).  While in the hospital I had a midline IV put in and after my release was sent to an infectious disease doctor where Scott was taught how to administer 2 strong antibiotics into my IV port once a day for 10 days (yeah, THAT happened), followed by another week of oral antibiotics.  I’m all good now but wear compression hose most days as they said it could help prevent it from returning.  Never a dull moment…

Another fun thing that happened in 2025 was my besties from high school – shout out to Janet and Sherri! – and I have been trying to do a Zoom-esque call using Google (if Janet were here she’d know what it’s called…) once a month to keep in touch better.  It’s been challenging at times – days or times not working out because of schedules, forgetting altogether (are brains don’t thunk like the used to) – but when we DO manage a call it’s never boring.  Sherri usually joins from her office at work and since Janet is in her home office and I am in mine, we have a fun time trying to get her to crack up when someone pops in with a question! Barking, adding to the conversation we know nothing about, learning about space toilets (Where do the bags go? Inquiring minds want to know!!!)…it’s been great fun.  Hopefully we’ll be able to make all 12 calls in 2026! (Special tip-of-the-tiara to Janet for setting it up every month.)

While up in VA for Dad Speelman’s funeral, we had the Saturday after open for all 4 of us to go out and explore, so we visited a place I wanted to go visit the last time we went to D.C. but our dance cards were full (and no, I STILL haven’t gotten to sit on Einstein’s lap!): The Awakening in MD.  I had been there on my band trip back in ancient times in 1986 (if you know, you know) and wowza, did it look different.  After recreating the band trip pic (Sherri and me with the big toe minus Sherri), we explored the area a bit, went for lunch at an amazing grill on the water, drove through parts of D.C., played Pokémon GO along the way, visited a Kpop store and a boba tea place.  We also stayed at an amazing hotel near Arlington and talked to some nice people (lots of military/Pentagon people).  It was nice family time.  The kids flew home on Sunday as their bereavement time was limited.  Scott and I spent Sunday at the Torpedo Factory and enjoyed some time walking around the place looking at different artists’ work.  Monday we were off to TN through the Smokey Mountains/Gatlinburg, then to Tullahoma.  There we managed to clean out the smaller storage unit of Scott’s mom with the help of his 3 aunts (“But wait, there’s MORE!”) and cousin (Boone for the win!).  Stayed in another nice Airbnb known as the ‘modern farmhouse’ whose only faults was no window coverings on ½ the downstairs windows (we used black garbage bags and painters’ tape for temporary curtains and laughed every time we came back to it at night joking it looked like something sketchy was happening inside) and horrible water pressure in the shower.

We hosted Christmas this year at our House of Renos, which included Mary and her gang as well as ours.  We’ll plan to get together with Mark and his family sometime in the beginning of the new year, as well as catching up with Jean.  We’ve had several meet-ups this past year with the FL fam, choosing to meet halfway between Brevard County and Lake County (usually somewhere over near the Orlando airport).  It’s odd not having Mom’s as the hub for family events anymore; we need a new hub.  Hopefully after our house gets sorted out, we’ll be able to have everyone over here for get-togethers several times a year.

And so we’ve come to the end of yet another yearly (most of the time) Florida Speelman Family newsletter where I give those who are interested (and those that aren’t either throw away the printed letter or don’t bother to come to this website to read it online) the scoop on all the poop! It’s been an amazing and difficult year in many ways…

I don’t know much about most of your daily lives.  So I have no idea what you may be going through or struggling with this past year or even right now.  But I DO know that the one constant in this crazy, hectic, awesomely stunning, mixed up, fallen world is God.  Talk to Him, lean on Him, accept His son Jesus into your heart, and feel the renewal of the Holy Spirit…reach out to churches and Christian organizations around you if you’re in need – of monetary help, counseling, or just prayer – and you will find it.  And if you need someone human to talk to, hit me up; I’m an excellent listener, and might even make you laugh. The point is: you are valued, you are important, and you are loved.  And God is SO good.

Sending crazy love and big squishy hugs to all who have made it this far, and for those that didn’t bother to read…you still get my love but maybe just a finger point and smile.

☚(*´∀｀☚)

Take care and keep in touch! I’m on FB most (taking a break), Instagram some, and Tik Tok not at all. :/ Text or FB message me if ya need me or just want to talk!

Blessings,

Ruth Speelman and the Speelman Clan (Scott, Anna, and Zachary)

<><><><> Fun fact: a group of owls is called a parliament <><><><>

I'm still learning to use this site after pushing it to the back burner. Check back monthly for more content...it's one of my goals for the year.