It's 2009!

Time for tax & weight loss commercials!

Last night we rang in the new year with friends... & we actually made it to midnight, can you believe it? Party animals indeed! So naturally this morning we slept in till about 10:45. Had some coffee & breakfast, then we watched a movie, then Sage & I went for a jog while Josh watched football. Sage is a good running buddy, she keeps up with me (even goes faster than me if slow down), & looks up & smiles every couple minutes.

I have a question I ponder today. What do most people do on New Years day? My family always had a late breakfast then for dinner had ham & black eyed peas. Does not everyone do this? I asked a couple people what they were having for New Years dinner & they just looked at me. Hmm. Well, this is our New Years tradition.. be lazy, eat ham & black eyed peas.

I personally think 2009 is going to be a good year. Not necessarily for the whole world (as in, all this economic & political stuff), but for us. 2008 was a good growing year. We had a lot to learn in terms of our marriage, & we grew a lot. I don't think that will stop, but I don't think it will be as extreme or even noticeable in 2009, if that makes sense.

We have decided a few things regarding 2009. I wouldn't call them "resolutions" because that word has a stigma attached. Here are our decisions.

-Take advantage of opportunities. Take weekend trips to see out of town friends, spend time with people we are close with, serve in a couple of the ministries our church does outside of Sunday morning.

-HOWEVER: don't be busy every weekend. Start saying "no" to things if we don't really want to do it. Enjoy doing things around the house on Saturdays.

-Have fun. We are planning on going on a cruise in a few months, we are going to Italy with my family this summer, then planning on going to DC again in the fall. We have worked really hard to save as much money as possible, & we are going to use some of it to travel this year (altho our plane tickets to DC are free, so really, we won't spend much money at all, mainly just on the cruise... we are cheap!).

Okay so maybe not quite as many decisions as I thought. But, I am excited about this year. My prayer right now is that the Lord will prepare us for whatever He has for us. As new opportunities & relationships arise, we want to be prepared & have our hearts in the right place so God can move through us.

I pray that God will prepare you for what He has for you this year!