The passage you provided is mostly understandable, but there are a few grammatical issues and some phrasing that could be improved for clarity. Here’s a breakdown:
### Issues:
1. **Punctuation**: The semicolon before "by this time" should be a comma. A semicolon is used to connect two independent clauses, which is not the case here.
2. **Repetitive phrasing**: The phrase "this year" is repeated unnecessarily in the sentence about the mom's