New Year Wishes

Grace, Wyatt, and Garett helped me put our new year wishes for each of you on my homemade chalkboard. This hangs on the end of the kitchen cupboards and is visible from the living and dining rooms. Wyatt was pretty excited to learn that 2010 would be gone and replaced by 2011.

This new year promises some wonderful changes for my family: 

Jess and Scott and Bradley have rented a house in a small town about 15 miles from us, and they’ll move in January. While they’ll be missed, I’m so excited for Jessica to have her own home and family to care for. Plus, I’ll still get to see Bradley almost every day.

Greg and I will celebrate 30 years of married bliss. Okay, so it hasn’t all been “bliss”, but it’s been pretty great.

In July I will celebrate my 50th birthday. Yes, I will celebrate. Growing older is a privilege, one that I’m grateful for despite the gray hairs, wrinkles and what seems to be daily new aches and pains.

We will find a church home. Changing churches is hard. We went to services in York on Christmas Eve, and it was nice, but it wasn’t “home”. I cannot feature my daughter’s wedding in another place than Zion, or my future grandchildren being baptized somewhere else. I’m sad that Bradley won’t be in Sunday School or VBS here. Things always happen for a reason, so I’m just trying to be faithful and trust that we’ll find what we need and a place that needs us.

I’ll be doing something new with a job. I don’t know for sure what, but I do know that my tolerance for getting up at 4 a.m. every morning is running low.

It’s exciting to ponder the possibilities inherent in the beginning of the new year. These changes I’ve told you about are some that I know are happening. What about those I’m not aware of yet? How will I take full advantage of them? What new opportunities will I have to  learn? What painful lessons will be taught?

How will I come away from 2011? I’m hoping I’ll be stronger in my faith, healthier, better rested, and ready to take on the next 50 years.

A Little Touch of Christmas

Here we are, almost halfway through December and the Holiday Season is in full swing. I can’t say I’ve been feeling it much, but I have done some crafty things here and there.

The one I’m showing you tonight is this: 

It’s a decorated glass block. I have several of these blocks out in the garage, gathered a few years ago when lighting and decorating them was the “in” craft on the internet. I finally got around to doing something with one, but I love it so much, I will do more.

First I used a 1/2” ceramic drill bit to put a hole in the back of the block. Now they do sell blocks at the craft store with holes already in them, but this one is heavy and durable and it was in the garage… It took a few days for the inside of the block to dry out after I rinsed the debris from drilling. This is not a quick project.

I used clear silicone caulk to adhere the flat marbles and a few pieces of red stained glass. The pattern just sort of happened as I played around with the marbles and glass. I think it sort of looks like a poinsettia. The caulk needs a few hours to dry, then just pop in some Christmas lights and there you have it.

Hopefully during this week I’ll be able to share a few more Christmas touches around the house (there are only a few). In the meantime, I wish you a wonderful rest-of-the-holiday-season!