I love January 1 and clean slates and new beginnings. I love the prospect of new mercies every morning! I love fresh starts and lists of goals. So what better time to re-start writing in my blog? I have lists and goals and ideas I want to put into words so here goes!
Christmas this year was busy and crazy and as our family continues to grow my house seems to continue to grow smaller. I am working hard at being content with what I have but I must admit, a bigger house would be a wonderful thing. Not a very probable thing as we are not that far away from retirement - but a wonderful thing none the less. It is good for life to get back into a routine but I have been busy planning out the goals I hope to achieve this year. I am not a fan of the "resolution" however, several years ago my good blogging friend, The Butler's Wife (how I miss her blog), challenged me to find a Word for each year. What a journey it has been! Last year my word was Anticipate. I thought of all kinds of good things that I could be anticipating. What happened was that I needed to relearn what the word meant. I learned to anticipate Jesus in every situation, good or bad. I began the year looking for an answer to a very deep and hard question in my life. Today, I still don't have any clarity, but I do trust that Jesus knows and I anticipate that at just the right time the right answer will come.
My 2015 Word is Abide. I re-read the book Shepherd's Abiding by Jan Karon as my Christmas book this year and the word stuck in my mind. I began hearing it everywhere. Old hymns containing the word started singing themselves in my mind. It's not a very common word so I began to realize that God was speaking. In many ways Abide seems like a continuation of the word Anticipate. As I abide in Him I can anticipate so much. I am going to find every hymn I can with abide in it and use them in my devotions. Abide. It is a lovely word.
I have set some fun goals for this year as well. Being an avid knitter, my sewing has gone a bit by the wayside. But for Christmas this year I made three of my grandsons Quiet Books for gifts. Whew! What a fun and exhausting project. Trying to work in my disaster of a sewing room was challenging and in the midst of sewing I started organizing my room which contains materials for every single craft I have ever done. I began realizing just how much "stuff" I have and I came up with an idea. For 2015 every single thing I sew or knit has to come from my "stash". I will have to buy buttons and zippers and maybe some thread to complete projects but I am not going to buy anything new to sew or knit. What a fun challenge. Already I made a new table runner for my dining room table using fabric and things I already had. I didn't have to buy anything! Gray is my new favorite color and I especially love it with the reds!
Another fun goal I have set this year is a reading challenge. My husband told me the other day he loves to see me reading. I used to read much more than I do these days and I miss it. So when I found this fun reading challenge the other day on facebook I decided to take it on. It should get me out of my box I think. One of the suggestions that bothered me was "read a graphic novel". I don't read graphic stuff. But then I remembered I want to read the book Unbroken and after seeing the movie I realized it is very graphic - but in a way that is historical and truthful and necessary to the story. So I will be okay.
I have always wanted to learn how to do calligraphy. The other day I was in a Hastings Bookstore and I saw a calligraphy kit on sale. It ended up in my hands so fast I didn't know what happened! I decided then and there that 2015 was the year to learn calligraphy. I haven't started yet - it seems a bit intimidating - but it will happen!
I have totally become a fan of the show Fixer Upper. I love, love, love Chip and Jo Jo Gaines. I became acquainted with her from reading the blog Mundane Faithfulness. When Kara told of how JoJo flew to her home in Colorado Springs to decorate her home for Christmas it touched my heart and I knew she was a Christian who walked her talk. I had never heard of the show before but I set my dvr to record all the episodes and my goodness - both my husband and I are hooked! And now we are inspired to work on our house. Our home is 15 years old and it is time to do some updates. So we have made a list of renovations and have already begun! The first thing was to complete a cupalo and weather vane for our barn. I love it!
2015 looms on the horizon as being an exciting and fulfilling year. I am excited to learn new ways I can Abide with Him. I am looking forward to working down my fabric and yarn stash and turning it all into beautiful things. I look forward to learning new things and reading new books. And it feels so good to be back in this familiar place. Oh how I have missed it!
