The good thing about not staying up late is that you don’t need to sleep in late. I went to bed around 12:20, thanks to all the fireworks going on outside my window. I woke up at 7:30, my sleep not interrupted with coughing. Yay!

However, when I went to get Bijoux out of her crate, I could smell that there was something wrong. Bijoux had a case of diarrhea in the night. It was my fault for feeding her something I shouldn’t have…. So, after a bit of clean up, she is shut in the laundry room for awhile. Not exactly the way to start a new year, huh?

I guess today we’ll be under the weather….together.

Happy New Year, everyone! I am so grateful for having a roof over my head to keep out the cold…and it IS COLD! I am so grateful that I am comfortable and warm, that I have food to eat and safe water to drink, that I need nothing. I am grateful that I don’t have to drag myself to a job this week. I am thankful that I have a little friend to keep me company.

I am so happy that my friend, Anne, got a good medical report. I am glad that my friend, Sharon, is cancer free. I am grateful that my biopsy came back negative for cancer. I am happy that my friends, Tony and Robin, found each other and remarried, yesterday, 40 years after they first married. I am thankful that our family is taking all of us into 2018. I am grateful that my friends, Patti and Kraig, get to move to the place of their dreams: Florida, and that I have an open invitation to visit them. I am grateful to Kevin and Terri Heid for their help in planning our Disney trip. I am glad that my cold isn’t strep or the flu. I am happy that Matt and family got to visit Georgia. I am glad I got to see Washington D.C. I am grateful that Jeff, Cami and Tim have moved to GA and that I get to see them often (present sickness excluded). I am grateful that I got to host Matthieu who came from France for a month. I am grateful for fun karaoke nights with family and friends. I am grateful for a new grandchild, Evangeline. I am thankful for Facetime. I am grateful for a group of single friends in my neighborhood. We look after each other. I am thankful for my cruise with my friend, Terri, as well as one with my Texas friends and my niece, Shelly. I am thankful for my visit to Bloomington, Illinois, getting to see my son and his family, as well as my friends and getting to stay at Kelley and Troy’s home for a week.

For these things and many more, my heart is filled with gratitude. No one has to read this list, but I want to write it down to remind myself of God’s many rich blessings to me. It’s easy to focus on what I don’t have, or what others have that I lack, and overlook all that God has done in my life.

Don’t you hate when you feel like you’ve done so much for your kids and they only focus on one thing they wanted to do or get and were disappointed? They seem to have selective amnesia. You’ve given up so much for them and it’s as if it doesn’t count. I know how God must feel with ungrateful attitudes.

I want to be looking more at God and less at those around me in 2018…..and I want to look with eyes of faith that see seeds of blessings everywhere. The forecast is calling for DIAMONDS.