EARLY JANUARY MUSINGS...

Well after doing some visiting this morning I find that many of you are looking ahead to this new year as a wonderful opportunity to accomplish MANY things…from shedding some extra weight and getting serious about exercise, (a fairly common theme this time of year) to setting some goals to begin to accomplish things your hearts have dreamed about for some time. I love reading of all of your hopes and dreams for 2011 as it inspires me to do the same.

My wonderful hubby and I spent ALMOST the entire 3 day week-end taking down “Christmas” and storing it away for another year. Now truthfully this took a little longer than usual for a few reasons. I needed to sort through my MANY boxes and items and eliminate those that I didn’t use this year due to lack of space, and then separate them into a couple of piles. Those I would pass down to some of my kids, and those that I might be able to sell, and some that I will deliver to good will. Most of it I have passed down. There was a little more than I thought; truthfully there were some items in there I haven’t put out in a few years, but just kept storing away every year. We also reorganized the storage shed a little bit (which was a chore we have been putting off since we moved in and had carelessly tossed boxes in there). We also took more breaks than we might have needed, aren’t getting any younger and therefore moved slower, and took turns moaning and groaning over how much we have managed to accumulate in our almost 36 years of marriage. But the job is FINALLY done and as I sit this morning in my freshly vacuumed living room, I am enjoying the neatness and lack of clutter. Unlike other years (where I wanted to push it all out the door on the 26th of December) I wasn’t really in a hurry to take it down. But now that it is, I appreciate it. New Years Eve was really pretty quiet for us. We made a DELICIOUS dinner and enjoyed a movie (it even got to be a romantic comedy ~ my favorite kind) together and decided rather than waiting for midnight we’d simply pray together before we went to bed asking the Lord to bless this new year and crawled in around 10:30. We were both rudely woke from deep slumbers at 12:03 a.m. by fireworks however. It sounded like it was right out our bedroom window coming from the sweet couple who are both in their late 80’s next door! I am sure they were probably both fast asleep too, but it was a VERY unexpected occurrence considering our new surroundings, haha. Yesterday, after morning service, we decided to take in a movie. We had lunch at our favorite restaurant (Market Broiler ~ which our son Joe and his family gave us a gift certificate to for Christmas), first, and then saw True Grit, with gift certificates that we got from my youngest son and his family. This made the whole experience a “free” one which doesn’t get much better, haha. We both THOROUGHLY enjoyed it. It would not have been the movie I would have picked to see, but felt like after New Year’s Eve, it should be his choice. After that we headed down to San Diego to both drop off all of the Christmas decs I am giving to that family, have a DELICIOUS soup that Larissa had prepared, ENJOY our grandkids, and then went to church to hear our son teach. He is going through the book of First Corinthians, and we are both learning some new things, and enjoying it so.

Unlike many of you I don’t have many ACTUAL plans for 2011! I have already set my appointment for Jenny Craig though for this Wed., and I will begin that AGAIN, and do it AGAIN, (with the Lord’s help) as it simply must be done. I refuse to dwell on the fact that I am doing it AGAIN (anyone believe me?) and just move along (as I tell my kids) doing the best I can. I want to dig deeper and deeper into the Word and get closer to Him in 2011 as well. I am hoping this is the year I can fix these knees and therefore become MUCH more active. I am looking forward to enjoying my time with my grandkids and will watch my middle son marry in Sept., and will welcome yet another dil to my life. I hope to spend many days enjoying my mom and watching her regain what she lost with her stroke. I just intend to live my life as best I can in 2011, one day at a time, enjoying all the Lord has blessed me with, and by hopefully using the time wisely and doing everything I can to bring the knowledge of Him to those who don’t know Him, and encouraging those I come in contact with as well.

We had MORE rain this week-end, and I am happy to report that I looked at the 7 day forecast and the rest of the week should be clear and in the mid 60’s! Sounds perfect to me. ENJOY these first few days of this new year