We should all be grateful for the gift of a new year. 2016 is here! Plus, it’s a new year for me, personally—today is my birthday. 🙂 And I keep thinking I need to nail down some of the ideas that have been running through my head, so this seems like as good a time as any. I want to make flexible plans though, because we have a really crazy year coming up.  I am thankful that I can simply start down the path and see where God takes me and my family. This blog is often the place where I connect the dots through writing, so this year I will be sharing about:

• Military life and retirement: I am loving a book sweet Amy gave to me that she wrote about life changes, Looming Transitions.  Talk about perfect timing! When I get finished with it, I will give you the scoop.
• Hope Notes: Hope is my One Word for the new year. And I am collecting scraps of ideas and scriptures to help me focus my heart on hope. I am putting them together in this new category.
• The Christian Year: On the blog here, and in my house, we’ve been observing the Christian Year/Christian Calendar/Liturgical Calendar. This practice is helping me see new connections between the gospel story and our everyday lives. I love it—more on that later this week.
• The Family Workshop: My husband and I want to be intentional about building our house upon the Rock, God’s Word. We have been down this road before, and we are rebooting this project. I am really excited this! I’ll be sharing about tis next week.
• Something fun for us to share: if you get a chance, check out my new website. You can join me on a Lenten Curation Project at MeetMeintheMiddleProject.com. We are making Before & After collages to show how our life experiences can remind us of the change Jesus brings. I really love how the website turned out. I hope this will be a fun and connectional annual event. I covet your prayers for a good first year, whatever that looks like.

So, Happy New Year!  And in keeping with my new one word, Hope, I will be meditating on this Word, this week:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,
so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Romans 15:13, ESV

P.S. Did you download the Bible reading plan we are using? It starts today!

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