The holidays have come and gone... Now what?

I really have a love/hate relationship with this time of year. On one hand, I am so sad that the holidays are over. Really, from September to New Years is my favorite time of year so it's not just the holidays... However, it's always such a let down. All that anticipation, the beautiful decorations, the wonderful Christmas music, people all happy... then BAM, it's over... no more music, the house looks empty and it's just another day. :: sigh ::

On the other hand, it's a new year! A time to start over in a sense. New Years is not one of my favorite holidays. As a matter of fact, I have a hard time even considering it a holiday. In any case, it is a new year. You can make plans for all the things you would like to do differently, you can put the old year behind you... I like to start the new year thinking about the previous year. Reflecting on all the good and bad. Thinking about how truly blessed I am and sometimes even feeling a little sad for the things that didn't go as planned.

Then I start over.

I think about the things that didn't go as I had planned and think of how I can change them. I smile thinking about all of the fun and wonderful times our family will have in the coming year. I make plans in my head for all of the things I want to make sure we do. I praise God for being so good to us and for blessing our family with so much.

2005: Overall, it was a pretty good year but I must admit, some things happened that I wish had happened differently. ; ) However, I am someone who TRULY believes that everything happens for a reason. It may not make ANY sense to me, it may not make me happy but I believe that God knows what He's doing. He has a plan. I have to say the "mistakes" that I feel we made over the past year were probably due in a large part to not waiting for God's guidance. We prayed and sometimes waited for an answer, but other times we prayed and just moved forward. :
Take this house for example. I still really like the house. However, the more I think about it, the more I realize this was not the right move for us. : \ It's not that this place is horrible, it definitely isn't. It just isn't the right home for us. Not the right place. Yes, I prayed about it. However, I didn't wait for any type of answer. I prayed one night and we made an offer the next day. Not exactly the way you're supposed to do things. ; ) So, this year, I am going to be more patient. I am going to pray for God to show us where we should be and I have resolved to wait as long as it takes to get a CLEAR answer. As I told Phil, I only hope He has mercy on us and shows us the answer before summer hits. LOL

2006: Wow! So much to look forward to. We have a new baby blessing our lives soon. You really can't get much better than that. Hopefully, this year we will make our FINAL (again, hopefully! lol) move to where God leads us and can finally settle down. Hopefully, Phil will get a new job working for a corporation where the hours, stress and commute are all much lighter. We will have more family time together. Phil has really grown with God this past year and I hope to follow his lead this year. I plan to make a much larger effort to pray more, read more and just be a better Christian. I want to be a better mother and wife as well. Have more patience with the kids, not let the little things get to me as much. I believe this will all come with a closer relationship with the Lord.

So there you have it. 2005 and 2006 in a nutshell. Obviously, there's a lot more I could write about but that's the jest of it.

I'm looking forward to 2006. Lots of promise, lots of hope, lots of love. Now someone please send me easy labor vibes! LOL