Has it been almost a month???

It doesn't seem possible, that most of the month of January, 2009, has gone by without so much as a word from me. Most of the month has brought us cold, snow, wind...all of the hallmarks of winter in middle America. One warm bright spots was January 22, my 55th birthday. We almost made it to fifty degrees that day!

You may have noticed the picture on my profile. It was taken, let's see, roughly six years ago. I'd have to check some other things to be more accurate than that. With me in the background, on the deck in front of Mom's house in Orient, Iowa, are my sister, Coyla and Mom. Since Mom passed away in 2005, a little over a year after moving out of the house she'd lived in since 1955. Coyla lived in the house briefly, until she moved, first to an apartment in Creston, twelve miles from Orient, and then to a care center in Afton, Iowa. She is six years my senior, and has had some health issues to deal with these days, but seems to enjoy her environment and the people she interacts with there.

Since it's a new year for me and the Western World, and Chinese New Year was this week, it's another chance to evaluate and move forward, fixing those things I can, figuring out what direction I feel I'm being led, and, hopefully, make a positive contribution. Though it sometimes feels like one step forward, three back, knowing that God is there supporting in good and bad times, I move on. This is what I''m sure I must do.