That's a Wrap

The college kids are home for the Christmas break and they wrapped up our year and yard for us. LoL. I can't wait to hear their side of the story because we happened to walk out of the house while a car was parked at the end of our driveway! And then we stood in the driveway talking with our guests (who is an older one of the crew!) for quite awhile and there was far more traffic on our road than usual.

They did a great job, of course. They've had a lot of practice. Here's our internet dish. Since we were still up and online when they wrapped us, we would've known they were here if we were actually still using that dish for our internet, but lucky for them (and us because that service stunk!) it's simply a yard ornament at this time.

We have a large front yard, so they concentrated their work out there and wrapped the trunks of several trees and one of our light posts. Pretty cool, huh? Jim went out last night and said the mailbox was great, but it's been so windy that it was all gone before sunrise so I didn't get to see it.

I just think it's so fitting how they wrapped up the year for us: in a surprising way. This year has been very surprising for me.

Earlier this week I sat and did my yearly looking back and journaling and then setting some goals for next year and last year caught me totally by surprise. A year ago this time I had one thing in mind: writing. I did list as a goal to speak or teach if the opportunity presented itself, but I never-ever dreamed I'd do so much of it this year, let alone that it would take over my year.

In 2010...
**wrote my Clearing the Blog Fog class.
**taught Clearing the Blog Fog class several times online, and LOVED it!
**taught a session at the Faithwriters conference on blogging.
**spoke at A Woman Inspired's One Marriage online webinar in May.
**started teaching a small ladies Bible study.
**co-wrote and published a short marriage ebook.
**helped start and contribute to The Barn Door, a fun midwestern blog.
**moved the author spotlights to their own site: The Book Loft and now run 3 spotlights (and book giveaways a week!!).

That wraps up 2010 for me. Complete with a pretty bow on my mailbox and front door. Nothing like I expected, but so much more. That's God for you. He's so much more than our expectations and dreams.

I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see what 2011 brings! I'll tell you about one of things planned...in a day or two. =] Until then,

Happy New Year!
May God wrap you in abundant blessings--even if they're completely different than you expect. ;-)

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Not by Might

Each fall we have hummingbirds galore as they stop to refuel on their way south. Those tiny creatures fascinate me and the only way I can understand all they do is to accept it's how God created them. It's not that they're so strong and powerful, it's that God enabled them to travel the miles He has for them.

God has enabled us to travel the miles He has for us--through and by His Spirit.

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Savoring and Looking Forward

I love this week between Christmas and New Years! It's become one of my favorite times of the year—a time of lingering and savoring and then facing forward, something I'm blogging about today at the Cafe. But here at Patterings is more about the lingering and savoring. It's kinda like when the whole family is at a meal together and long after everyone is done eating we sit there chatting.

Usually sometime on Christmas afternoon I start thinking of pulling out my journal. See, I think best with my fingers, so if I'm not at my keyboard, I need to have a pen in hand with my journal open, and this week between Christmas and New Year's is a time I reserve for my journal.

Through the years I've settled into a pattern—I start with paging back through my journal to see what I've written about through the year. These days my journal captures only the important or confusing times, but before I started blogging, my journal was bursting at the seams. Now I also have to scroll back through my blog to see what went on in my year. This always has surprises for me because I have the memory of a goldfish so I rediscover things I've forgotten. (That makes it fun... in a scarey sort of way. LoL)

Flipping through the year always brings me back to the goals I set a year ago, and sometimes that's not a highlight for me because some years I don't accomplish much on the list. So one time, out of desperation, I listed the things I did accomplish. I was amazed! I hadn't even come close to my writing goals for the year, but I did so much more. It helped me see that just because I didn't accomplish things on that list didn't mean I had failed—I had been redirected.

That's not to say that's always the case! Some years I chicken out and find a hundred other things to keep me busy so I “can't” reach a goal. Lemme tell ya, that's not good! Not at all. But looking back through the year helps me see that. It also helps me savor the things that happened through the year.

But once the savoring is done it's time to look forward and press on! Lingering over the past year is good. Camping out there isn't.

Now it's time to face forward and dream. And dream big! Yes, be realistic, but don't be so realistic there's no dream there. The key here is to spend time talking with God about your upcoming year. You've got a week for this, not just a few hours.

Some years it takes me two sittings with my journal to look back and savor and then look forward, but often it takes working on this for several days. But it's a relaxing time for me and one that I've found makes a big difference in the upcoming year. See, even though I have the memory of a goldfish, I often have at least some of those goals before me throughout the year so they keep me working toward the big picture. Without that I'd be swimming like a goldfish too. Round and round in circles. Know what I mean?

Grab your journal, or some paper, and join me in this week of savoring and goal setting! The more the merrier! Don't forget to join me at the Cafe where I'm blogging about Facing Forward.

So tell me,
what's something you'd like to accomplish this coming year?

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Merry Christmas!

Last night I tied up loose ends in my cyber world so I could officially go on Christmas break today. =]

Merry Christmas!

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Christmas...

My friend Lynda of On the Write Track has a Christmas Meme going on and I thought it'd be fun to jump in before I make one last mad dash to town for a couple of gifts that just came in...

1. What is your favorite Christmas song? Joy to the World

2. When do you start your Christmas shopping? I try to pick things up through out the year because it's not an easy job to do with kids always with me. LoL


3. Favorite holiday treat to indulge in? Pumpkin muffins! Yummm! And sweet rolls! Sigh.

4. Do you deck the halls or keep it simple? Keep it simple.

5. Real tree or fake? Fake. Scents get my hubs so we go with the scentless fake.

6. Most memorable Christmas present you've ever received: Dad gave me Jim one year for Christmas and we were married before the next Christmas! (Don'cha know it's not good manners to return a gift?! LoL) You can read about that Christmas here.

7. Favorite Christmas movie or television special: ummmm. I'm culturally deprived so I dunno.

8. A family holiday tradition: Reading Luke 2 before opening gifts. My dad starting doing this and when we're not together, Jim reads for us.

9. Do you open gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Christmas morning. We start with opening stockings then do a nice breakfast. After breakfast we read Luke 2 and then open gifts. It's a carry over from my family.

10. A gift you'd like to offer to Jesus this year: Obedience. Without any more procrastination or running away.

Merry Christmas!

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Check the Guages

In the recent cold snap we had our furnace worked hard. It ran constantly but it only got colder in our house and the heat unit that sits outside became ice encrusted. My hubs called our repairman friend and a few days later he was able to stop by with his gauges. Once the ice was off (it took the torpedo heater for that!), he put the gauges on and checked the freon level in the heater. There was so little it didn't even register on the gauge. No wonder we were cold!

It's made me think of my life recently. I've been feeling down in the dumps and it's just no fun. I feel like the furnace of my life has been running constantly but it's not putting out. It's left me exhausted and cold. So I tried the repairman's trick and put some gauges on my life—yanno, those little check and balances that we think to look at when things get out of whack.

You know what I found? There's no freon in my pipes—the Scripture level is too low. In the midst of some changes I've been implementing, I've neglected my Bible reading and Bible study and it's left my pipes running low. There's not enough to regulate my internal temperature because I've not been constantly replenishing it like I need to. Sure, I've been in the Word, but it's been hit-or-miss with more misses as time passes. No wonder I've been dreary and cold!

Let the Word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ~Colossians 3:16 NAS

It's time to put the freon of God's Word in my pipes so it can work through my heart and life and regulate me.

How about you? How's the Scripture level in your life right now?

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Shining

When I looked out the window awhile ago, this is what I saw.

The trees where shining. The sun had peeked through the heavy clouds and was making all the ice encrusted trees glisten. It was beautiful, especially with all the dark, stormy weather we've been having.

But yanno, the sun often peeks out and shines on the trees like it did. What made it so noticeable and beautiful was the coating of ice on each and every branch and twig. The ice that was a big part of the storm. The ice that was weighing down the tree limbs and rattling with every hint of a breeze. Without the ice there would have been little beauty—just winter trees in a patch of sunshine.

So often when storms overtake our lives we cry out because of the ice that seems to coat us and weigh us down. When a breeze goes past we rattle, thinking only of uncomfortable and heavy the ice is. Yet when others look at us they may see the radiance of the Son shining off us and through us. Sometimes we need the ice to reflect the Son.

Heavenly Father, help us keep our eyes so fixed on You that when the ice comes into our lives we wait eagerly for the Sonshine so we can sparkle and dance for you. Help us to accept the ice and shine for You so that beauty can come from the storms. In Your Son's Name, amen.

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