“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. ”  Jeremiah 29:11

I can hardly believe that 2011 is now history.  It is 2012.  How does the time fly by so quickly?

2011 was an interesting year for our family.  Thankfully, the poor health that I suffered in 2010 was improved, so I was able to be more active.  My oldest son finished his Eagle Scout requirements by his 18th birthday, and we enjoyed a very special Eagle Scout Court of Honor for him in May.  The week before his Court of Honor, our family enjoyed a week’s vacation with my parents in a historical location.  The week *after* the Court of Honor, I started a very busy season of selling as a HomeWorks by Precept consultant, working our state convention and holding several hotel displays of BJU Press Curriculum, Rosetta Stone, and Logos Science kits.

Two of my boys went to summer camp in the middle of my busyness, and came home having been exposed to whooping cough!  Of course, we didn’t know that, and just thought that the kids were coming down with normal colds.  On the day of my last hotel meeting, I was feeling very sorry that I was away from home when I had 8 sick children at home, and then I came down with the bug a few days later.  However, when the children who had gotten sick first were showing no sign of improvement after 3 weeks of being sick, I went online for answers.  Imagine my shock when I discovered that we all had whooping cough!  Although some of us had been fully vaccinated, including boosters, all 8 children and I came down with it.  Needless to say, our busyness evaporated, as we voluntarily quarantined ourselves!

By November, we were long past any contagion factor, although most of us still have residual coughing.  (A friend of mine who had also gone through whooping cough with her children told me that it was 6 YEARS before she no longer had residual coughing!)  My 87-year-old mother-in-law was remarrying after almost 3 years of widowhood, so our whole family got to make the trip to the west coast for her wedding!  (That was one special wedding!  2 87-year-olds, both of whom had been married to their first spouses for 64 years and then lost those spouses to death within 3 months of each other.  They had a combined 128 years of marriage between them!)  We had a wonderful time, spending Thanksgiving with my side of the family, attending the wedding, seeing old friends, and spending time with family on both sides.

So now we look forward to a brand new year.  Lord willing, we will have 2 more sons make Eagle Scout.  I look forward to an even busier selling season than last year, and we have lots of goals for all of us.  However, while we can make all kinds of goals and have all sorts of visions for the year, we cannot know what the future will hold.  Only the Lord knows what is in His plan for us, and I am thankful that I can trust Him completely to work things out for the best.  I am excited about seeing what the Lord has for our family this year!

How was your 2011?  What are you looking forward to in 2012?

It hasn’t been very many posts since I was glorying in the arrival of spring, and here we are deep into autumn.  In a few more days, October will be over, and we will lose an hour of light in the evening as we cause our clocks to “fall back”.  Where, oh where does the time go?

It is at this time of year that I feel myself going into hibernation mode.  While I love the beauty of the fall colors, I know that soon the leaves will all be fallen and the trees will be bare, seemingly devoid of life.  The weather is getting colder, and it won’t be long before I’m worrying about snow and ice as I run those errands that can’t be put off.   We had an exceptionally cool summer, so now an exceptionally cold winter is predicted.  (Global WARMING?  Not here!)  I don’t do real well with the cold.

I feel as if it is time to start gathering my children close around the fire until the world comes back to life.  ;-)  I know that is rather silly, but maybe there is some good in that idea.  Maybe it is time to turn my focus inward toward my children and my house.  I have had to be gone from home so much over the last few months, that it will be good to slow down.  My pregnancy required 3-4 doctors appointments per week for the last  couple of months.  I thought that things would slow down once the baby was born, but running errands with a newborn takes 3 times as long as running errands by myself!  There is still plenty of training that my children need, and I’m afraid that there is a fair amount of retraining that is needed in all of the children after all of the time I’ve had to be out.  Now that Baby Girl is almost 3 months old, I am able to do more errands in less time, and I’m working to cut down on the time I’m away from home.  Some things are seasonal and are winding down, so that is a help, too.

Yes, I think it is time to turn the focus inward.  By spring, I want to have done a lot of retraining, and I want to finish going through and decluttering.  Perhaps we can make inside feel more alive, even if things are barren and dead outside!