It has been a year that I would not like to repeat but it has been good anyway.
In January, I was just starting to feel like a human being again after having an abdominal hysterectomy. It wasn’t the pain as much as the pain medication that made life difficult. I’m allergic to pain but I’m just as allergic to throwing up. But by January 1st, I was feeling quite a bit better.
In late 2005, we got a beautiful black German Shepherd, Judah. He was long and lanky and about a year and a half old, or so I was told, and, in the beginning, his ear tips were like ground meat from all of the fly bites he endured “out on the farm”.
He was sort of a pest but sweet. He was hyper, which makes me wonder how old he really was, or if black sheps are normally spastic. It was a sad day when we had to have him put down in February of 2006. I hate that. We had already lost my buddy the spring prior to that.
Late last spring or early summer, Mr. Nicklebee brought home the sister of a family member’s neighbor’s puppy. Heidi has been treading on thin ice for about 6 months. lol Poor little thing. She’s so sweet when she’s not digging through the trash, tracking in mud or having an accident. We’re all glad we have her.
All of the kids played their favorite sport, baseball, again this past spring. Two of them made All Stars. That was interesting. I did discover that some things never change. The kids enjoyed themselves and were thoroughly worn out by the time the extra season was over.
We had what seemed like no end to vehicle trouble. That finally ended, thank the LORD, about two weeks before Christmas.
I agreed to help out in Olympians at church again. That has been interesting. I think that’s not where my gifts lie. I have a hard time in herds. I’m more of a one on one or small group person. All of those girls are so sweet and … individual. It’s hard for me not to get distracted into talking to each of them one at a time. Good thing I’m not the main leader. I’m going to be praying about where my place is in that church or that God would change my heart towards helping in Olympians because I feel like I need to be doing something else.
Homer has been enjoying youth group more this year. He liked it okay last year but one of his younger friends is in there this year so he’s more at ease, I think. I’m pretty glad about that. He’s not Mister Socialite and bulk socialization is not his bag. The leaders are great and that helps a lot.
My mom had major surgery almost three months ago. She had a rough haul and I am thankful she’s still alive. Usually it’s my Dad giving us a run for our money.
Our church family has blessed us tremendously over the last several months with their prayer support and encouragement. I love those people! People who hardly know me have come up and asked how things are going and how Mr. N is doing. It was surprising to hear one gentleman say, “Hi, Mrs. Nicklebee.” because I didn’t think he even knew who I was. Our church isn’t a mega-church but it’s big enough that most people don’t know who everyone is. We started going there for the preaching and then were invited to Sunday school. I was a bit apprehensive about going to a strange Sunday school. I wanted to cry the first few weeks because I was a bit homesick for our old church family. I got over it, though, and here we are five years later.
Much to my surprise and delight, someone gave us Christmas gifts and someone sent a gift card! We don’t know who except that they are from our church (not positive about the gift card being from someone from church but that’s most likely). It was so special to be on the receiving end of someone’s thoughtfulness like that! I’m trying to figure out how to compose a thank you. “Very carefully” comes to mind because people who don’t know me well often don’t know how to take me.
We were also blessed by some old family friends. It was so sweet and unexpected when the husband came to the door and handed me a Christmas card and said, “I thought I’d save a stamp.” I was very surprised when I opened the card after he left!
2006 ended on a note of thankfulness and the need to purchase more thank you notes!
Goals for this year:
- Reestablish order. This has so many subheadings that I won’t bother to list them all!
- Rekindle the kids’ desire to learn. What can I say except that this semester has been a trial.
- Schedule a weekly or every-other-weekly date night IN STONE with Mr. Nicklebee.
- Get back into the habit of Bible reading and prayer time as soon as I wake up in the morning.
- Speak only that which builds up and doesn’t tear down, especially where my family is concerned; that’ll include changing my thought processes – out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks and “what goes down in the well comes up in the bucket.” (Betty Huizinga, Apples of Gold) This’ll be the toughest one, I think.
I think that’s enough to work on for the next two years. I hope this year is less challenging domestically. Heh heh. One can hope.
Good bye, 2006!
