A New Year

So here we are. 2012. I remember when I was in the 6th grade, one of our math problems was to figure out how old we would be in the year 2000. We worked diligently figuring out the mathematical equation and when most of us realized we would be 40-ish, none of us believed we would ever really be that old. Ahem. How wrong we were.

Christmas is over and I am left with storing the decorations and the memories for another year. We had a good family Christmas. We spent time with my husband's family in the little Idaho mountain town of McCall. However, for the first time in my memory there was no snow. Really weird. All my girls were home and I love, love, love having my girls all around me. We got to spend a lot of time together. We went out to dinner one night without the grandbabies - a first for us. It was lovely to just sit around a big, round table and visit the night away. We went on a sleigh ride that ended up being a wagon ride because of the afore mentioned no snow issue. But it was fun and the dinner they served was awesome.



Here we are at the "sleigh" ride.






















Here are my two oldest grand monkeys - Ava and Tyler sporting the sock monkey hats I made them.






















No matter how many pictures I take, and I take a lot, I NEVER get all four of them looking at the camera.















My sweetie and I.




















This was some of us at the lake in McCall. Typically those mountains would be covered in snow and the lake would be iced over.

I am looking forward to 2012. I am thinking and praying about my word for the year - IMPROVE. There are so many ways this word could make a difference in my life. Last night I downloaded on my Kindle, Debbie Macomber's new book, One Perfect Word, which is a non-fiction book that tells the story of how she has prayed for a specific word every year to live by. I read the first chapter and I can tell it is going to be captivating.

My husband and I began reading the Bible in a year again, only this time we are reading the New Living Chronological version. I love the idea of reading scripture in the order it was written. I think I will also enjoy not jumping from the Old to the New Testament every day in the same sitting. That always gave me spiritual whiplash!

I have chosen my memory verse for this month: "Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind." 1 Peter 2:1. This dovetails with the whole IMPROVE concept.

I love that I have finished up all my sewing and knitting projects and I have a clean slate in front of me. There is nothing better than starting a new project and so right now for my first 2012 project I am gathering all my supplies to knit myself a sweater - something I have never done before. Knitting garments to wear intimidates me like nothing else and I need to conquer this fear. I am going to be knitting the Rocky Coast Cardigan from the Coastal Knits pattern book. I love these two designers and there are several patterns in this book I plan to knit someday.

I have reading to do too. I am re-reading the Zion Chronicles and I am on book #4. I am going to read Beth Moore's book on Insecurity and I definitely plan to read Francine Rivers two newest books, Her Mother's Hope and Her Daughter's Dream. I have had them both for months and just haven't put aside the time to read them. They are on my 2012 goal list.

And 2012 is an election year. I am a news junkie and election years are awesome years for watching news. I love the whole process and look forward to watching all the caucuses, debates and state elections. I know - I'm weird. As I type I am watching the Iowa Caucuses. Fascinating stuff.

Pinterest has taken over a portion of my time as well. I was slow in getting to the table but I am going full force now to make up for lost time! I have found so many great ideas and have already used many of them. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Pinterest!

So there you are. Just a little bit of what I 'm looking forward to this coming year. How about you?