This being New Year’s Eve, it’s time to look back and look forward.
Looking back at 2015, here is what I learned:
- We are getting too old to do intensive work that promises big pay but leaves us for months without work. Two years in a row we took jobs that ended around Christmas or New Years and left us with four or five months before the summer jobs began. While on the intensives, we worked long hours, sometimes without weekends, and burned ourselves out. We have sworn not to do that to ourselves again.
- God is good! Both before we reached our summer job and then before we reached our winter job, we prayed for a good experience. We have had more than our share of bad experiences in the last few years and were beginning to wonder if they were all going to be like that. But our summer job was so good we decided to return next year, and it’s looking like our winter job will be another good job to return to.
- We are rich in friends and family. We knew we had good friends and family that we left behind in the west, but we made some good friends in Door County, and then on our trip to Florida we visited with friends and family, most of whom we’d never met before.
- Traveling is fun…in moderation! We saw many interesting things on our way to Florida. We’ve nearly reached our goal of spending at least one night in every state in the country. However, there were places where we discovered we really needed longer to explore everything we wanted to see or visit with everyone we wanted to spend time with. It was also exhausting to be setting up and tearing down nearly every day.
- This has been more than just a physical journey. I have been making a spiritual journey too. I have been reading through the Bible in a year, and I’ve been asking questions about things I always thought I understood before. I have been seeing the Bible with new eyes. We also went to see War Room, and I am working on learning how to pray. I’ve been a Christian all my life, but I feel like I’m starting over from scratch since God brought Denise Fuller (my new twin!) into my life.
Looking forward to 2016:
- I am looking forward to 2016 with much less fear than in previous years. Life is good! We know where we’re going, God willing, and we have a pretty good idea we’re going to like it. There are enough unknowns to keep it interesting.
- I am finding all sorts of encouragement for creativity. Not only am I around sewers and quilters both in Wisconsin and Florida, but I am also part of a photography club here and I’m learning things about my camera that I never knew before. Many of you have said you like my pictures. Hopefully there will be some improvement. Here are a couple of recent examples from my assignments:
Just at this moment, all sorts of fireworks are going off. It’s 12:01 AM, 2016. God bless you now and in the New Year!
Happy New Year to my special kids!