More Snow!

These are some of Emily's pictures from our last snow. Evidentaly we are in for another big one today! The last dog with the coat is Amy's...he lives with us now and he has such a short coat he needs a coat or he shivers!!

Blessings

Several years ago, I was given a small photo album for Christmas. It has room for lots of journaling and holds one picture per page. Right away I knew what I wanted to do with this album. Blessings. It's based on the song from White Christmas, "Counting My Blessings." At first I was going to make a 4x6 scrapbook layout for each picture but have since decided to make 4x6 digital layouts. This has been a work in progress. The first thing I had to do was determine what my blessings are...I know that sounds kind of silly but I had to figure out how & what I was going to feature. Categories like My Family have to be broken down into my parents, my siblings, my grandparents, my husband, and my kids. After that, I divided the book with post-its on how I want it to lay out and now I'm working on digital layouts. One here and one there...whenever I feel inspired to work on one. Its gonna take a while. These are a few that I've completed:

One of My Best Friends

A nice picture of a really good Cat!! Pebbles is her name.

My Boys

Both of my sons celebrate birthdays the week between Christmas & New Years. Jacob on December 28 & Joshua on December 31.

Both boys have turned into some incredible young men and both of these young men will graduate this May. Jacob will graduate from high school and Joshua will graduate with a double major. To say that we are so proud of these young men is to put it mildly. We are blessed!!!!!!!

Jacob turned 18.

Joshua turned 25.

Goals?

Those of you who know anything about me, know that I love to be organized. I'm not saying that every area of my life or my house is actually organized but I'm always looking to achieve a certain amount of organization...I function best there.

So, knowing my nerdy, organizational ways, I was THRILLED to come across a free, downloadable "Goals & Priorities" diary/planner (did I also mention I LOVE paperwork & office supplies?) on Facebook here. (There is a tab for the free diary and the promotion ends Jan. 10)

So, the other night I sat & wrote out 20 goals for myself and our home this year. Most of them I'd already been thinking about. Some of them are simple and some are quite a large undertaking. I love, though, how the diary takes these yearly goals and breaks them down into months, weeks, and then days.

REALITY CHECK: It's week #1. To be honest, I probably won't achieve all the goals on my list....in fact I would be very surprised if I did. Frankly, I may not keep up the diary/planner for the entire year. I may but then again I may forget about it or loose interest. There's only so much we have control over. I found that out a long time ago. God has a way of taking me through turns in roads I never knew existed. But the things that I can control...like taking better care of myself and trying to celebrate moments in my kid's lives I want to do my best at them.

My dad always used to have a saying about goals that I think my grandpa passed on to him:

"Goals are like stars...we may not always reach them but they keep us looking up."

So for today, I'm finally feeling better from that crazy stomach bug, I'm already facing the first "hurdle" of the new year, and I've got a plan for the things I can control because time slips away far too easily as it is. As for the things I can't? well, I gave up control of that to ONE who is far greater than I, and frankly, He's far better at controlling my life than I am!

2010 - Reflection

When we celebrated the New Year last January, I was full of goals, hopes and optimism for the New Year as I usually am at this time of year.

It didn't take long before we faced some uncertainty in our home. Cliff found out on January 29 that he lost his job. Being unemployed on the heels of several layoffs made our days extremely uncertain through the early winter months of 2010. One thing that continued with certainty, though, was God's continued provision and care. Through several different means, God provided for our needs again and again And as Spring approached, so did a new job opportunity. The loss of the job was a blessing in disguise as Cliff's current job is far, far better...in every way. Amy began work in the billing dept. a few months later. It was a blessing for her too as she was now able to afford to move into her own place.

It was our pleasure to be surrounded by all our kids this summer as Josh chose to spend his summer break with us. We were so glad to have him home for an extended period of time and thankful for all the hard work he put into the yard and painting the house. Emily was his constant side-kick and assistant. There is still a bit of trim work that has to be done but that can wait until Spring.

Fall saw three of the kids return to school. Emily started High School as a freshman. Jacob is a senior and Josh is a 5-year college senior. We also had the pleasure of watching the two boys perform in musicals in their respective schools. Cliff & I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary this past November.

December brought Josh's senior recital. The memories still take my breath away. It was quite the surreal experience. Christmas was good. It's always good to have all my kids together.

And, here I sit, looking forward to a new year...with all new goals, hopes, and optimism. And I know that whatever this new year holds, I know Who holds it and I know Who holds me!