Wow, it's almost 2009!

Can you believe it? With all the Thanksgiving and Christmas hustle the fact that we were almost turning a new year kinda slipped past me. I was just remembering birthdays that fall right around the new year like my sweet little niece Kaitlyn who turns 1 on December 31st, my wonderful mother-in-law Nancy (yes I love my mother-in-law) who is a New Years baby, and my sister (sister-in-law) who celebrates her earthly birth on the 4th, and now I realize I better get busy sending something for those happy occasions. But really when I remembered their birthdays I realized that 2008 is just about gone. I can't even believe that we are about to replace our 2008 calendar with a 2009 version in just a few days.

When I was a kid, I remember that the days moved so slowly. I remember telling my mom how bored I was and her reply that if I didn't find something to do she was going to find something for me, how quickly my boredom was quenched. Anyhow, now it seems like If we get too busy that the years just slip by.

Our dear Nanny passed away in September and afterwards we received 3 photo albums in the mail. They were pictures that Nanny took while she was here with us 8 years ago. We took her around to see the surrounding areas: Venice, Italy; Vienna, Austria; Budapest, Hungary and the beautiful Adriatic coastline. She had already beat cancer twice and wanted to ride in the Gondolas in Venice, so we took her. She took lots of photos and after she died those photos made it all the way back to Croatia.

I absolutely loved looking through those old pictures. My kids were so small, Cody who is 16 was only 8 and Josh and Hannah were 5 and 3. I almost cried as I looked at those pictures, I suddenly wished I could hold those little children again, but it's too late. They are all growing so fast and the boys can almost hold me now. I wished I could go back, spend more time watching them play and listening to their voices. But alas, it's too late, time has sped by and we are fast approaching a new era in our lives. Before too long our kids will begin starting their own lives, marrying and having children of their own. Where has the time gone?

Anyhow, I don't mean to be Debbie Downer but I think we need to slow down, look around and really enjoy each day. 2009 is fast approaching, this is the year that your little toddler grows up enough to throw that paci out, or your son decides that he's too old to get toy trucks for birthdays anymore, maybe even the year that your daughter gets a little too heavy to pick up any more. Sometimes we take the most important things in our lives for granted.

In 2009, I'm going to slow down. Look at my children more. Talk to them about the important stuff. Listen a little more intently when they say Mama. I'm going to hold on to the years we have left, do my best to direct them to a life of service and obedience to Christ. Teach my boys how to sew on buttons and iron a single crease in their pants. I'm going to do my best to help Hannah become the godly young lady God would have her be, chaste, quiet and soul-conscience.
And hug my kids way more than I do now.

Oh yea and not forgetting, I'm going to do my best to make my husband feel like he is the most important man in the world, that he is so secure in my faithfulness and love to him that he need never to question.

Also I want to try to be a better friend, to those whom I already love and to those who need a friend.

And try to come back to my first love. To feel about Jesus the way I did on the day He saved me. To try my best to serve him with every ability He's given me and thank Him often!

Hoping you all have a wonderful end to 2008 and a life changing beginning to 2009!