Christmas 2017

Silent Night

Hello from Sedona!  2018 is almost here and another fun filled year gone.

   Once again Mike toiled at our landscape. The lawn was thriving until the heat of summer hit and burned it up. He began again, from square one, this time with a different type of grass. LOTS of  hard labor. Next summer will be the test of success….or not. I am keeping my fingers crossed! In the meantime, he has been burning up the hiking trails with his friend Larry.

    I am still enjoying my paper crafting, Bible study, hiking, and part time pharmacy job. Nothing really new in those areas.

   Our solar system, installed last January, is producing 120% of our electrical needs, resulting in an almost non-existent electric bill.  Yea!

    In October, Mike and I went on an amazing two week vacation to Kauai with my nephew Tim and his wife Gena. Since they both enjoy hiking we repeated  many of our favorite hikes around the island. We had a great time and took almost 4000 photos between the four of us. Once back home, I created a Shuttefly photo book using about 200 of the pictures. So many incredible memories made.

    We had numerous visits from family and friends again this year and always look forward to these special times. I made several journeys to Ohio to visit my family. My dad turned 90 this year and is still as ornery as ever, continuing to win most of the card games we play.

     After 160,00 miles, we retired my 2002 Honda CRV and got a brand new 2018 Subaru Forester to take its place. I am getting used to all the high technology features it has….like automatic transmission! Ha! No more clutch pedal and 5 speed shifting for me. Mike and I also graduated to smart-phones from our little “dumb” flip-phones. We can now text and use the maps function to figure out where we need to be, usually on the couch.  We are finally moving into the 21st century!

 Cookie is now 15+ years old and though slower, just as cute as always and still my little shadow.

   Well, those are the 2017  highlights from the Smith family.

                                Wishing you a Blessed Christmas and Peace-filled year.

Cookie at 15+ years!

Seflishness

 

  Somedays the planks that I have had in my own eyes make me more sensitive to those that suffer from the same afflictions.  In the  last months I have encountered people who are incredibly generous as well as those who are enslaved to their money and things-holding on to them for dear life. Irritation sets in (another of my sins) when friends/acquaintances who often make known to me their wealth withhold financial help to their family members who are in need. Words of anger want to escape my lips when I listen to them go on and on about how great their investments are performing while at the same time stating how their is no way they can advance a loved one some of their bounty. I constantly watch for this tendency in myself. I don't want to be a Silas Marner.
   I also am tired of listening and listening to others talk endlessly about their life "stuff"  never ONCE asking about me. A one way monologue. I feel like my outward patient listening skills are taken advantage of. I would like to express things that have gone on in my life, but only if someone is truly interested. I guess they aren't. At times my desire to express myself makes me rude in other situations by interrupting a person to get my two cents in. Pitiful. Another plank.
Maybe I just want someone to know me, to care enough to ask and listen.

 This is when I fall to my knees and remember the Lord who knows me inside and out and NEVER lets me down.

Psalm 139:1–6

1 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.

5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.