So thankful to have more moderate weather this week! Last week, we pretty much hibernated as
temperatures dropped down in the teens and highs didn’t get above
freezing. We did manage to get the
sheetrock up for the dining room ceiling and the north wall of the living room
before the arctic blast hit! That really
helped with being able to heat the house!
We also got our last deer butchered and in the freezer. Glad that is over for another year! I love our deer meat, but I do not like
butchering!
Bobbie went back to rehab around midweek. She is doing much better and hoping to go
home this week. She was able to make it
to services yesterday, and Daddy said she ate a good lunch afterwards. (She hadn’t been having much of an
appetite.) The facility moved another
bed into her room, so that Daddy could stay there with her. Even though it isn’t too far from the house,
it sure makes it easier if he doesn’t have to make that drive every day…especially
when it was snowing on Friday!
Dennis and I arrived a little early to the church house
yesterday morning to make sure everything was ok after all the sub-freezing
temperatures. Glad we did! The heater had quit working and the water had
frozen again. After the last time the
water froze, we decided to buy a hair dryer to keep at the church house and had
it with us. We were quickly able to thaw
the water lines, but Dennis couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the
heater. So we brought in extra blankets
from the car and everyone bundled up for services. The guys decided to have fewer songs and
Layne kept the length of his lesson shorter than he normally would, so people
wouldn’t suffer too much from the cold.
By the time we left, the temperature had risen to all of 49 degrees
inside. After lunch, Dennis took a
couple of electric space heaters and a couple of propane heaters and set them
up to try to warm it up for the afternoon assembly. It was a balmy 57 when we returned that
afternoon! In spite of the frigid temperatures,
we still enjoyed a wonderful Lord’s day!
Layne’s lesson of the morning was about how we have been
created for a purpose, and he used a hand trowel as a visual aide. Like the simple hand tool, we have each been
created with different abilities and opportunities to be used in the service of
God. We need to fulfil our function as a
tool in the kingdom, using our individual talents for the glory of God. It was a really good study for any time, but
particularly as we are beginning a new year.
I like to spend the first week or so of the year, going back over the
previous year, evaluating what I’ve done…whether I’ve grown and achieved what I
set out to, and see where I need to improve.
Rather than “resolutions”, I set goals and make plans for each area of
my life. I’ve learned, through many
years’ experience, that I need to constantly keep those goals in front of me,
so that I don’t forget and neglect them. So I regularly evaluate my life and try to
make improvements. It is too easy for me
to fall back into old habits or forget to focus on what I need to be
doing! I need constant reminders and
encouragement!
As I reviewed last year, I reread my “thanksgiving journal”. If I just think back on 2016, I can remember
a LOT of hard times. However, reading my
entries that focused on what I was thankful for, made me realize that it was a
great year! Sure, I had Achilles’ tendon
surgery, which has taken a LONG time to recover from. But I am now (almost) pain free and can do
whatever I want…much better off than I was before the surgery! Shepherd joined our family, and we have had a
wonderful time getting to know him and enjoy him and Jesse. Sheila decided to adopt and we are just
waiting on official notification from Vietnam that Josiah will truly be her
son. We are all very excited to bring
him home and integrate him into our lives…and watch the 3 grandsons grow up
together! I now have a new kitchen that
is SO much more efficient and roomy than what it has been for the past 11 years…not
to mention prettier! Even though we didn’t
take a big vacation last year, we were able to make numerous small trips. We finally were able to attend the “Ole Time
Camp Meeting” for the first time, plus we were able to spend several days at
the Summer Meeting in Clarksville. We’ve
faced some physical and emotional challenges, but we are all doing pretty well
right now! I’ve watched 2 of my CASA
babies achieve permanency with their forever families. All in all, it has been a pretty great year!
As we move further into 2017, I am excited about all of the possibilities
that await me and my family. Lord
willing, I will journey to a foreign country for the first time ever, helping
Sheila bring Josiah home; have a grandson to care for on a daily basis (Dennis
and I are constantly thinking about how much fun we are going to have with
that!); finish remodeling the dining room, kitchen and entry (and hopefully get
a good start on more of the house); have an adventure exploring the
southwestern national parks, with the Grand Canyon being the main attraction; see
4 or 5 more of my CASA kiddos achieve permanency; and hopefully continue to
improve my physical health, my spiritual health, my relationships with others,
and most of all, my relationship with my God and my Savior. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?
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