Hi. Happy New Year! I just realized I haven't posted a blog in almost a month. I did little posts here and there, but not a blog post. Life has been busy.
As my smaller posts showed, I had a good Christmas. My daughter and family who live across town were over for Christmas Eve, and New Years Day my son who lives in Atlanta came to visit. I didn't see my younger son, from Houston, but I did have a phone conversation with him and his wife on Christmas Day.
I never take my Christmas tree and decor down until at least Epiphany, January 6. Here we are at January 9. When I woke up this morning, I knew; it's time. *sigh*
So, today the "de-Christmasing: started. It is a grueling process; not fun like putting Christmas up, joyfully, with Christmas music or a Christmas move playing.
No. It's torture. And since I have decorations in every room, it Takes. a Long. Time. I will persevere, though, and probably finish tomorrow. I was tired and sad and hungry and had to call it a day.
Enough of that.
It's a new year! A fresh new year (well, only 9 days old). I wrote down some things I would like to accomplish in 2026. I'm keeping it simple at 3 things.
#1-I'm reading the Bible through with the Bible Recap again. I did it last year and really enjoyed it. This year, I'm making notes of my thoughts and questions about the reading each day. I learned so much last year, and I know this year will be even better.
#2-I want to work on my family photo album more. I've been decluttering duplicates and putting little journaling captions about who's in the pictures and what the event was. I didn't work on it much last year. This year, I plan to work on it once a week.
#3-I started walking for my health last March, and I want to continue it this year and walk farther. I feel so much better, and my stamina and energy level is up. I have been walking 1.5 mile most days and 1.75 one or two times a week. I have been pretty consistently walking about 6 days out of 7. This year I hope to walk 2 miles at least twice a week, 1.75 miles twice a week, and 1.5 miles twice a week.
I do a different path on the 1.75 mile walk; that path is a little more hilly and makes a big circle. On the other one, it's a long mostly level path that goes under the bypass and ends up at a small lake. I think it would be 2.25 miles or so if I walked this whole path, all the way to the end and back. Someday I will do that, but so far I have been turning around when I get too tired or I've reached half my goal for the day.
In other news, I took some pictures on the walking trail. Wednesday, I walked late in the day (again!) and got a sunset picture AND a picture of an owl. It's not a great picture; you can't really see that he was looking right at me because it was quickly getting dark, but he was.
Today I walked 2 miles! I have been close to it a few times but came a little short of that goal. I usually turn around at around .75 of a mile or so, but today I turned around at 1 mile! I wanted to take a picture to commemorate my milestone but there was just a brush pile there. LOL! When I got back to the car my watch showed I had walked 2.01 miles. Yay!
I have included the pictures at the end, as usual.
I hope you are well, friends, and you all have a happy new year!
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe." Ephesians 1:18-19 NIV
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| Jeremy and Jennifer, Matt, Zoe, Rhett, and me (not in that order) |
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| Jeremy and me Jan 2 |
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| Sunset January 7 2026 |
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| Owl, at home in tree, Jan 7 |
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| Art at the end of the trail |
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| My one mile (one way) mark. |
