2018 A New Year

Well it's 2018!  How is that even possible??  Time speeds up faster and faster as we get older.  That's gotta be some sort of scientific rule or something.

Anyway,  2017 has come and gone.  I usually do a year in review.  So just a quick recap:

It was a fabulous year!  

We got to go on a marvelous trip to the Baltics!  

My sweet daughter had my first granddaughter!  

My sweet son got married to a sweetie pie!
Got to see my handsome Marine son twice! He came home for Thanksgiving & Christmas!

We moved into our new condo on the canal!  It is beautiful!
We got to see the most amazing thing--the total Eclipse!! 

So many positives, so much good that happened.

Then the calendar turns and it seems like everything changes so quickly.  The new year started off with a bunch of yuck.  Larry and I both got sick.  We are actually still battling it 2 weeks later!  Then my mom passed away.  It's bittersweet really as we had a rocky relationship-especially the last 10 years. Trying to just come to grips with my feelings in all of this.  In a way it's a sense of relief.  We don't have to be at odds anymore.  I'm sad for my sister because they were very close.  I'm happy that I feel like I can see my dad more.  A lot of mixed feelings.  Still trying to sort through them.

My daughter came up for the funeral and wrote me the most heartfelt note.  She described perfectly the things I was feeling.  She has such a sweet spirit.  In my contemplation of mother-daughter relationships, I am thankful for my relationship with my daughter.  I have made a conscious effort to do things differently than my mom did with me.  We have had our ups and downs for sure over the years but I think we are on the upswing now.  I still have to work on old habits and old ways.  I have to make an effort to not fall into the ways I learned from my mom.

She wasn't a bad person.  She was kind to most.  But somehow we always seemed to butt heads.  We had our differences and couldn't ever seem to reconcile them.  I got to see her in the hospital and I am grateful for that.

So as we start this new year with all kinds of changes, I pray our relationships grow deeper, our relationship with the Lord grows deeper too, and we continue to grow and change in whatever ways we need to (it's never too late to change!) and that we would be humble enough to know and accept how we need to change.

 Have a wonderful 2018!