On with the new year

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great New Years Eve. We had a great time with friends that came over. And we ate and laughed, and popped fireworks and ate some more.

I have been doing some thinking about the past year recently. While 2011 wasn't the best year, it certainly wasn't the worst. But I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say I was glad to be moving on.

2011 always starts off with me missing Pam-Maw as she will have been gone for three years on January 4th. But then something wonderful happens as we celebrate the birth of R2 who will be turning 7 towards the end of the month.

Oh baseball season is just around the corner too.

R1 graduated from elementary school and moved on to Jr. High where he has been doing great. All that worrying done for nothing. R2 graduated from Kindergarten. We also found out he was dyslexic, but we also got and early start on the help he needed and he is making such wonderful strides in First grade. I am so thankful for the Kindergarten teach he had and the teacher he has now.

I also made it through the summer with 127 degree heat along with no rain and lived to tell about it. We are still in a drought even though we have had some rain, but it hasn't been nearly enough to catch us up.

One of the big highlights of 2011 happened just recently. Hubs graduated with his Masters degree in Educational Technology Leadership. The boys and I couldn't be more proud of him.

Another amazing thing that happened in 2011, is I began in earnest to pray everyday. I wanted to develop a closer prayer life with the Lord. So I asked him everyday to lead me to prayer time with Him.

I can honestly say God does answer prayers. Each day if I got distracted or to busy, the Lord gently nudged me and reminded me to pray. I thanked Him each day for bringing me closer to Him and for leading me to that time.

While I won't go into all of the specifics of what I prayed for, there were things I prayed every day and things I thanked Him for too. Such as the blessings of my husband, my children, family, friends, health, the ability to worship Him openly. I also prayed for the future wives of boys.

But here is the part where I know our God listens and answers prayers. Hubs and I had an issue that arose around October. I prayed everyday about this situation. He says to ask for specific things, so I did. And last week the issue resolved itself. That was almost three months of prayer everyday. I prayed the same specific prayer each time. There were also other trying moments of 2011 that I went to Him and just simply asked His will to be done. And no matter what the out come, I would do whatever it was He wanted me to.

I am so glad the Lord placed on my heart to have a deeper relationship with Him. I have been blessed over and over by this time with Him.

As we begin 2012 I pray each of you has a wonderful year filled with blessings.