Did you get your 2013 calendar, or better yet your hoodie, to finish out the winter in comfort?

Happy New Year!

I can’t say I’m sorry to see the year go :-), at a time of much reflection I am once again behind the curve. What can I say? While I am mentally thinking through the last year. and seeing lots of cute printables to help you reflect on the year. and while they are good and right. I just can’t go there yet. I’m still processing too much from the last year.

I can quickly say, believe, and mean with my whole heart:

• I am thankful for my salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ. {inspite of me. and all I have done wrong. He forgives and loves me anyway.}
• I am thankful we have a warm house to live in. {yes, it is small – but it is our home and I’m incredibly thankful to have a space to call our own.}
• I am thankful I have a vehicle. {yes, I just cut my vehicle in half. I went from a minivan to a Ford Focus. But I didn’t have to buy a new car to pay less in gas. My dad did it for me.}
• I am thankful for resilient children who have been incredibly gracious. {yes, they are gracious. Some days more so than others. They haven’t complained about eating weird food combos or not being able to buy fun, convenience foods. Eating what is in the pantry is sometimes very strange. I am incredibly thankful for them EVERYday!}

I am still at the point of quickly knowing I am thankful for these things, but I’m not yet seeing the good to come from the hardships & lessons of 2012. I can’t quite talk about all the good yet because I’m still digging for it. Waiting for it to show itself.

I can quickly come up with a long list of hurts and disappointments of 2012 – some preconceived expectations and the resulting seemingly overwhelming disappointment. However, I do not want to magnify those things – I want to remember good. So I won’t say more than what I have already – it was a hard year :-). BUT we had a very blessed Christmas.

I will say I now have a better understanding of how blessed we have been. As I stated in the post about not having a budget for Christmas, money has been a bit elusive of late. Not very fun. A year ago, this wasn’t how I anticipated the year. We’d had an epic 2011 – it took two very long posts (Jan thru mid-June and the rest of the year), with no photos to cover the year. Ya, and I never made it back to plugging photos in to fill in any of the blanks. I had big plans for 2012. Blog plans. Business plans. They didn’t happen. They are part of the nuggets of 2012 I haven’t figured out yet. I’m still working on cleaning the outside dirt off……  So, :-)…. I am really not being as cynical as I’m afraid this is coming off. I am in a good place for starting a new year and I’m eager for it.

Happy New Year!

May you be blessed and experience God’s unending grace and love in the new year.