I have begun: some women in my circle group from church have embarked upon a challenge to read the entire New Testament of the Bible throughout the year. There is a weekly schedule that is a chapter per day excluding weekends. To hold ourselves accountable, we are also emailing/having an "online discussion" about what we've read. So, I have read the first two chapters in Matthew's Gospel. I have read parts and pieces many times, but some I haven't read at all. So, this will be good for me and give me a goal every day. Our oldest daughter leaves school in the morning at an earlier hour than our youngest. As I sit in the front room and watch her walk to the bus, I read my daily devotional and now I can also include my chapters. :) It gives me a goal and a good feeling to start the day.
We have begun family meetings, also. We decided to start them and have done one almost every week since December started. Tonight we have one, and I'm in charge of planning (first the husband planned and I was the "recorder", then oldest daughter was the "recorder" while younger daughter planned; we even had one in Chicago). We are making a "time capsule" and the girls, when we spoke of this, decided it should become an annual tradition. Anyway, we bought a cardboard tube of sorts at a craft store, a few strips of paper (for example, one that says baby girl and other pink sentiments, to show we've had two nieces/cousins this past year.) We will cover the container and fill it with items that provide memories of 2006. Then we will do one again next year. I also found a snack (we don't normally do snacks for the meetings; they only last about fifteen minutes...) that is a sugar ice cream cone dipped in melted chocolate and tipped upside down to resemble a new year's party hat. We'll have that and a scoop of ice cream. We'll also look over last year's resolutions and create new ones for next year.
We had a wonderful time visiting my family in my home state, although, as always, it flies by and we never see everyone who wants us to call. I always feel bad for not pleasing everyone, even though I know logically that's not possible. :) My sis in law has wanted to begin scrapbooking, so we sat down together for a bit on New Year's Eve and got her started; sorting pictures, putting them into the book in their chronological order, and starting her first four pages. Now she has an idea of how to tackle it on her own and is excited to do so. I was thinking while we did it, that I'm lucky my husband thinks it is a good hobby. He's supportive of it, compliments it when I'm finished and tells me how much more it will mean in ten years.
I have most of the gifts from this latest trip put away, just a few last things to go. I took the tree down the day after Christmas: we cut a live tree so it was beginning to drop needles and with our trip this past weekend, I didn't want to deal with it when we got back. So, it's been down for a week, and my snowmen collection is out. I love snowmen. Too bad we won't be getting enough snow to play in this year, so the reports go. Unless an unusual snowstorm appears and drops several inches on us.....ahhh, a snowday and reading in front of the fireplace, sledding and hot cocoa, tea or coffee with cookies afterward....a dream. :)
Speaking of cookies, my goals for this year are as usual: eat better, get back into marathon shape because I like the way my body looks and feels after such training, be more patient with kids and husband, back to daily Bible reading, update my resume and take my classes to renew my teaching certificate before they expire this summer.
I think that is all for today's post, and my dryer's buzzing that another load is ready to be folded.
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