Getting It Together For 2009

Hello from the Kansas Flint Hills!
CHRISTMAS 2008 has come and gone, so has ringing in the New Year. Though I didn't get everything I had planned to get done before Christmas arrived, we survived and didn't starve. During my planning and preparation time for Christmas I was ill...which altered what got done. Priorities can quickly change. Health issues have been familiar most of my earthly life. I don't have all the energy I would like to have, so I have to pace myself.

PRAY
PLAN
PACE

This past year has been very challenging to me. In January 2008, Mondays thru Fridays I started baby sitting one of my grandchildren in our old stone house that's full of projects needing done. While dealing with the side effects that come from being peri-menopausal, I've been setting a different routine by getting use to taking care of a very (and I do mean very) active one year old in our 123 year old house. The things I've learned on this mission have been life changing.

In 2007, The Lord gave us an opportunity to go from 7 years of empty nesting to opening our home to a broken hearted daughter whose husband abandoned her and their 9 month old daughter. While still unpacking and getting settled from a move into an historic house in a small community nestled in the gorgeous Kansas Flint Hills, we quickly made way for sharing our haven with family. There was a water leak in the basement that would need fixing, so I have had to use the Laundry Mat until the leak was fixed and utility room remodeled. Before we had been in the house a year, our property taxes doubled...there went our cushion. God had given us this opportunity to decorate this old house on a shoestring budget while enlarging the household number. Praise the Lord! We rode the storm out and now 2009 is here.

Have you caught yourself saying or thinking, "WHERE'D THE YEAR GO?" or "I can't believe a year has already gone by and it's that time of year again to do what we have to do?"

Remember hearing that the older you get, the faster time goes? Our bodies are continually changing and we continue to get older. Our bodies movement may slow down, but time sure doesn't. At 53 years of age, my internal soul feels youthful, but then when I glance at the mirror...hey what happened? I don't recognize that woman looking back at me. How on earth did I get sooooooooo heavy?

Don't be fooled by the saying that 40 is the new 20s. It isn't true. 40 is 40 and 20 is 20. As I've aged and thought alot about what should have been done differently in life, I have come to the conclusion that it is always best to do things right the first time verses having to labor at cleaning up a mess when working at getting on the right track. It seems like there are times during the clean up that the resistance one faces is like trying to raise one's head up while riding a roller coaster and the force makes it very difficult to do that as the chin is now somehow stuck to the chest.

With God's help, guidance and grace...difficult things can become doable. I know in my heart that doing things God's way is the best way. The way to get Blessed is by doing things God way.

If you wake up one morning and see that your destructive habits and actions have ruined your life by having done so much wrong, being remorseful and turning to God for forgiveness and guidance on how to fix this thing will be a strong place to begin the clean-up.

May God grant you all you need to receive HIS Blessing you hunger for.
May your Home be a Haven full of God's love.
Don't forget to pray.

Til next time,
this here is Deanna writing to you from the Kansas Flint Hills