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You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. ~ John C. Maxwell in The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth

We are nearing the end of the first month of 2013.  I am excited about the progress I’m making in certain areas, though I’m still being challenged in others. 

Beginning my daily devotional time with ten minutes of prayer has been a blessing.  I feel like I’m able to focus more clearly on my Bible reading and other morning activities.

Challenged by Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts, I also began writing a daily list of blessings for which I’m thankful.  What a perspective it gives me for starting the day!

However, there are other areas in which I need to heed the advice above.  If I want to rid myself of these few pounds that keep hanging around, there are some changes I need to make and follow them daily. There are other long-term goals that I need to break down into daily activities if I want to see them accomplished.

I also want to teach our daughters to have good daily habits.  Whether they have a long-term assignment to work on or want to save money for a large purchase, I can show them how to do a little at a time towards meeting that objective.  I think they can see the importance of this demonstrated in their piano lessons.  As they practice daily, they become more and more accomplished in their ability to play.

What would you like to change?  Is there something you can do daily that will help you make that change?  I know some of the tasks I want to accomplish may not come to fruition for a long time, but if I do something towards it each day, I can reach my goal.

Friday marked our 2nd Annual Christmas Craft and Baking Day.

This was the year for garlands; our daughters made an ornament garland and a circle garland.

We baked our Chocolate Holiday Bears and some Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies.

The girls also did some crafts from their homeschool Art books, and we delivered one of those, along with some of the cookies, to a neighbor.

Our Christmas traditions continue today as we eat an early supper, then head downtown to have dessert at a local restaurant.  If it’s not raining, we’ll spend some time walking around and admiring the Christmas decorations.  Then it’s back home to read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas and the Christmas story from Luke 2 before tucking the girls into bed.

Wishing each of you, my readers and friends, a very merry Christmas!  May you make many memories this season and delight in the love of family and friends as we celebrate the birth of our Saviour.

Each Christmas, as we unpack our ornaments for the tree, I get sentimental.  So many of them recall a special person or place from the past.

This beautiful ornament was a gift from a lady in the church where I grew up.  The year after I received it, she died from cancer.

A puppy peeking from a stocking, this one is difficult to photograph because it reflects the light. It has my name and the year inscribed on it, and was given to me by my best friend in high school our senior year.

Since we’re in the high school era, this little doll was given to me by the teacher I had for German I and II.

A former boss gave me a set of three of these ornaments, JOY, HOPE, and PEACE….

….and a former coworker hand painted this Santa face on a light bulb!

It might be easy to guess that this came from our daughters’ piano teacher.

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Somewhere there is a fairyland inhabited by spoons.

There they retire to dance around together like the scene from “Be Our Guest” in Beauty and the Beast.  There are all sizes, types, and substances – from large to small, teaspoons to soup spoons, real silver to stainless steel.

Whenever one of my family digs through the drawer looking for a spoon for their cereal or bowl of ice cream, I wonder if those lost spoons are enjoying themselves.  I think they plot their escape when they’re nestled in the dishwasher basket together, since that’s where ours spend most of their time.  Yet no matter how desperate we are for a spoon, no one – including me – is ever willing to dig in the basket and actually take the time to hand wash one.

The spoons must be very exclusive about their club since we usually have knives and forks in abundance.  Perhaps objects with tines or points are not welcome there.

So in that far off land, I hope all our spoons are happy – and I bet they frolic in the shade from the mountain of our missing socks!

Sometimes life steps in and reminds you of its fleeting nature.

The rest of our week is a strange mixture of sadness and celebration.  We’ll be spending time with one side of the family remembering my father-in-law who passed away yesterday.  Just a day later, we’ll be sharing memories with the other side of the family as we mark my parents fiftieth wedding anniversary.

God uses His timing to teach us lessons….about trusting, about His mercy, grace, and peace.  I pray that we will all honor Him as we handle these divinely appointed “interruptions.”

Here are a few highlights from our trip to New York City last week.

View of the city from Top of the Rock

American Museum of Natural History

On a double-decker bus tour of the city 

With the Balto Statue in Central Park

In the Minskoff Theatre lobby overlooking Times Square before seeing The Lion King 

At Belvedere Castle in Central Park

Statue of Liberty 

9/11 Memorial

The new Freedom Tower/One World Trade Center, under construction

My favorite moments included….

• riding the Ferris Wheel located inside the Times Square Toys “R” Us 
• following the girls around as they shopped in the American Girl store 
• walking into St. Patrick’s Cathedral
• lunch (twice!!) at the Shake Shack (quite possibly the best burger I’ve ever put in my mouth) 
• spending a beautiful morning in Central Park
• standing at the 9/11 Memorial, trying to comprehend all that happened that day, while marveling at the indomitable spirit that is spurring on all the re-building
• taking a taxicab back to the hotel on Thursday night when we were too exhausted to take another step!

Other unforgettable moments were walking the Brooklyn Bridge in the pouring rain and eating in the back of a tiny Mexican grocery store which, according to our daughters, didn’t even qualify as a hole-in-the-wall (but the people were so very friendly!)

Today it’s back to work and school, but I’m thankful for the wonderful memories we made!

The cousins watching a movie together before bedtime

It always passes too quickly, the days we spend with my family in a two-story white house in the mountains of Tennessee.

It’s a place where the kids muddy their feet in a tiny stream by day and catch fireflies by night.  As they chase each other under the old trees in the yard, a bunny hops off into the woods and a turkey waddles away up the hill, perhaps frightened away by the shouts and laughter.

The swings that anchor each end of the long porch are where my girls will most often find Grandmama.  It’s the perfect spot for reading books together, or just for talking the moments away.

After three years, the rooms that overflow with family members are familiar territory. The house welcomed a new guest this year, one making his first visit at ten-months-old.  Two more wait in the wings, so next summer we’ll be rearranging a few more pieces of bedroom furniture to make room for those extra pack ‘n’ plays.

Over the next eleven months, other families will sleep in those beds, gather in the family room, and sit in the wooden rocking chairs on the porch.  But we know that our week will come around, that “our” house will greet us once again.

But it’s not the house – nice as it is – that causes us to anticipate those days months in advance.  It’s the people we spend time with, those known to my kids as Granddaddy and Grandmama, uncles and aunts and cousins, making memories together.  It’s the annual traditions – like “grown-up kids” and actual kids riding go-carts and bumper boats – and new ones, like my brother and his wife cooking a big breakfast for us all, that cause us to look forward to next year.

Now we’re home, the suitcases unpacked and the laundry put away.  But our hearts have grown a little larger as we’ve felt the love of family, living and playing under the same roof for five days. It’s those memories that will keep us close until the next time rolls around.

It’s the season of birthdays….tomorrow I’ll celebrate another year of life, thankful for the past and looking forward to what’s ahead.

It’s the season of date nights with my husband….something we are beginning to enjoy as our daughters have gotten older and we have a reliable babysitter.

It’s the the season of farmer’s markets….I’ll be there for opening day tomorrow.

It’s the season of homeschooling….my excitement grows each day as we draw closer to finishing this first year and I can look back at what’s been accomplished.

It’s the season of babies….not mine (!), but the pregnancies of my sister and sister-in-law, both due later this year.

It’s the season of Easter dresses, chocolate bunnies, and egg hunts….our daughters recently informed me that they’ll never be too old for Easter baskets!

It’s the season of the Resurrection….from which sprang hope and life eternal in the form of a risen Saviour.

Whatever this season holds for you, may it bring you peace and joy!