The Old is Gone....or at least going....

     It is the last day of the year and I am sitting here realizing what a year filled with firsts it was. I am grateful to be sitting and not flat on my back coughing, sneezing, and worse...

     It was a nasty bug that attacked me for 5 days, but I have awoken today feeling almost normal! This is wonderful since my son Matthias and his wife Karissa, who makes the very air smile, will be here for the weekend. I am not filled with energy yet so the plans are simple and the meals will be made on the grill, which means not my domain, but the hubby's. My sisters pulled a fast one on me, though. They scheduled a visit to see my folks when I was sick so I was unable to go. And I would so want to see all of them. The world is never perfect.

    But it is the last day of 2011 and we seem to have survived. There was great upheaval in our home and as I mentioned, many firsts-  first year homeschooling high school with Asherel, first child getting married, first time ever learning Kreb's cycle so I understood it (sort of), first time ever Arvo was laid off from a job and a few painful months in a horrid economy without work, first book I have ever published, first time our little rescue dog ever double "Q'ed" at an agility trial, first time I made homemade cream of mushroom soup, and first time I followed a recipe from start to finish (except for one minor substitution not even worth mentioning, unless if by some quirky rule of cooking, you are not supposed to substitute sweet potatoes for onions....).

     There are others. For example, I joined my first "writer's club" only to find out it was developed for Indian writers. I am sure my strongly Christian book is being well received....The moderater kindly told me it was fine for me to join, nonetheless, and I have come to have a strong affinity to India so have enjoyed reading the group posts.

     The old is crawling out and the  new tumbling in. I won't be making any resolutions. I never do. I started recognizing many years ago that any change that comes over me permanently is not from me. It is the transformative wonder of God in me, the miraculous stripping away of what I have been to what I can be, and one day, will be.

     Happy New Year!

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!