I woke up singing "Put on Happy Face" this morning so I thought I'd just post a quick little paragraph or two on some of the my year's highlights here. Sometimes I drive my family crazy with my mindless singing...Anyhoo. This has been a wonderful year for me personally, thus the song, and also for my family. The biggest event of the year was my daughter's [Allie] wedding. She married a fine Christian man [Josh] whom we love as if he were our biological son.
We had a wonderful time at their wedding, which took us 6 months to organize and execute. I did lots of the grunt work myself which made it frugal and which I loved doing. Some of the things I remember from that day are: Allie and Hutch's dance- I cried *sniff, sniff*, The whole crowd dancing, the dinner and its aftermath where we chatted with all our friends and relatives, & how absolutely beautiful and happy Allie was- the photos tell the tale. You can go over to the icon of Allie and Josh here and see them.
Speaking of my dear daughter Allie, she and I have really gotten so much closer over the course of this year. I didn't think it was possible to deepen out relationship- but we have. Thanks in the most part to her willingness to let me mentor her in her new role as wife. Allie is an amazing young woman who has a fierce and relentless desire to be a woman of God. Her willingness to hear the hard truths and tackle the tough tasks of obedience to His will are an inspiration to me.
Another great thing that happened this year is that I got back into running. If you read here much you know that I have been plagued for several years with back and shoulder problems. Biting the bullet and getting back on track with my running not only solved that problem it has made me feel so much better in all areas. This year I'm looking at bumping up my running...but more on that tomorrow.
I got to spend an extended length of time with my mother this year. I've been asking God to show me ways to get closer to her and this was His answer. I learned so much about myself by having her come to live with us temporarily. It was a a very rich time for me, spiritually speaking.
Jon [our son] became self sufficient financially this year. I can not tell you how great this turned out to be for him and for us to witness as parents. We'd always admired him as a man, but this last step towards becoming an adult really made Hutch and I realize just how blessed we are. Jon had his personal 'Divine Appointment' with God this year and it has made his walk all the deeper and more real to him. He's been our spark plug in home church.
That leads me to another huge blessing this year....God allowed us to begin meeting as a house church with our family. Oh my, I could write an entire post just on this topic alone. God has met us so wonderfully in this act of obedience. In terms of actually living in God's community and loving each other & the Lord this has been one of my richest spiritual experiences. BTW this week's topic is Praise and Worship- I can't wait to see what insights everyone brings to the meeting. Praise and Worship are so near to our collective musicians' heart.
On the practical home-front this year we started out multi year plan to become better stewards of the home God has given us. This year's task was to get new carpet in the upstairs portions of our home. I have really enjoyed that new carpet! In the Spring we are having some professional yard work done [things we can't manage ourselves like 'close to the house' tree removal and laying new sod] & we are having some siding and deck work done.
Wow, this is getting long....so I'll close before you nod off . Anyhoo, it has been a wonderful year and I'm so so thankful for all that God has gifted us with and done in our lives. Hope you can look back on your year too and see good things.
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