Those First Few Notes

"And what does January hold? Clean account books, bare diaries. Three hundred and sixty five new days neatly parcled into weeks, months, seasons. A chunk of time, of life. . . those first few notes like an orchestra tuning up before the play begins."

~ Phyllis Nicholson, Country Bouquet

Happy New Year, my friends! I pray that these first few days have been blessed and bright!

My end of the year, new year is not starting out exactly as I had planned. You may recall that back in April and May of last year I pinched my sciactic nerve and it laid me out for about six weeks, three of those on the couch unable to do much of anything.  It had taken months of physical therapy and a few visits to the chiropractor to get me to a better place and it had only been in recent weeks that I was able to get around without pain.

Perhaps because of that I was overly confident, but honestly, all I did was bend down to get a load of laundry out of the dryer when I felt that familiar pull and immediately and hobbled straight to the couch. Of course this was on Friday, the last day before the holiday weekend! But thankfully I was able to get a call into my primary care doctor who sent in a prescription for pain meds to get me through the weekend. With those and my husband generously giving up his recliner as it is the only place I can sit comfortably, I made it through.  Yesterday I actually got to see the doctor, who gave me a steroid shot and a refill on the pain meds.  I can already feel some improvement, but likely will be continue to take it easy for the rest of the week.

My word for the year is T R U S T (if you see that familiar blanket in the background of my pictures in the near future, you'll know I haven't left my reclining post.)

I prayed about my word back in October, and after coming across several verses that spoke of the wonder of God and seeing that same word in a few other random places, I felt certain that wonder was my word and I was excited for it!

Then my daughter sent me a link to Dayspring, where through answering a series of questions they generate a word of the year for you. So just for giggles I decided to play along and the word I received was T R U S T.

As soon as I read it I knew immediately that my greater need for 2024 was trust, and if I'm being honest, I wasn't all that happy about it. T R U S T was my word once before, back in 2016, and boy was that a year I had to learn to trust.  But apprently there is a deeper work the Lord wants to do and my spirit resonantes with this, even though my flesh is still mourning that year of wonder I was so looking forward to!

I had so many plans for celebrating the New Year and for this week, but I'm learning to be content with the process. I bought these cute little head bands at Hobby Lobby right before Christmas and had hoped to take a cute family picture in front of the tree on New Years Eve. I had white balloons I had planned to fill with red, green and silver confetti and red and green streamers tied to the ends. I did manage to feel well enough to sport the green head band and my daughter chose the silver. We wore them New Year's Eve, had some chips and dip (a far cry from the menu I had planned) and watched the ball drop.  My daughter blessed us on New Year's Day by making black eyed peas from scratch. She used my recipe, and they turned out so good! So thankfully we got a serving of good luck for the New Year,  but the pork roast and cabbage are still waiting. In all of this, I am T R U S T I N G that things will improve, and on the bright side, as far as the head bands, balloons, and confetti, lets just say I'm way ahead of the game and already set for New Year's Eve 2025! 

As I've had a lot of time on my hands I've been doing a lot of reading. My first two books for 2024 are Placemaker by Christie Purifoy (AFFILIATE LINK), which I am enjoying so much! And I'm also reading In Search fo Guidance by Dallas Willard, but thankfully I was able to find it on the Interner Archives, because the prices they are asking are outrageous! I think I'll start keeping an eye out at the thrift stores!

So that's the update on my life! How about you? Is your new year off to a good start, are you reading or have you read any good books lately? I've got a longing to read the complete Betsy Tacy series again this year. Have you ever read them, and if you haven't (or even if you have), would you be interested in a read along here at the blog?  Leave a comment and let me know!

And now I'm, well not off, just on the next thing I am able to do from the comfort of this chair!

Have a blessed day, my friends!

- Kim

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