My Favorite New Year's Eve Quote

100 things 2014

100 things from 2014

1. Started "directing" Children's Choir with 10 sweet kiddos. (Graci Lou, Izzy, Kendall, Nate, Katie, Emma, Addy, Kirsten, Tristan, & Chase)
2. Started teaching Preschool Sunday School with 4 sweet kiddos (Jonah, Kenzie, Myles, and Jaylen).
3. Shellie came back to Brandon and works beside me.
4. Children's Choir put on an "Unplugged Christmas" and did an AMAZING JOB!!!!!!
5. Got to go to Heaven in Heaven's Gates / Hell's Flames.
6. Izzy got baptized.
7. Brian got his Learner's permit.
8. Got my gallbladder out.
9. Was hospitalized for 8 days due to a bile leakage after I got my gallbladder out.
10. Brian got his first truck (1997 Dodge Ram).
11. Got my sister back.
12. David moved up from the Coast and was added to the list of people I assist.
13. I learned to crochet
14. I crossed FIVE things off my bucket list
15. Started my first Red Journal
16. LOVE my Christmas tree this year! not sure why...all the same decorations and the same tree as last year...but it is sooooo pretty!
17. Mrs. Pauline had cancer...and beat it.
18. Mr. Mickey had cancer and didn't
19. Mr. Denom died
20. Mr. Jack died
21. Mr. Lloyd died
22. Jason Guess died, leaving behind a wife, 2 daughters, and an unborn son.
23. I'm 3 years cancer free!
24. I cleaned out the front flowerbed (after 5 years of neglect)
25. Si no longer chews on my house
26. Ebola
27. http://www.newsweek.com/2015/01/02/thats-not-what-bible-says-294018.html?piano_t=1 is an article from the front page of the 12.23.2014 Newsweek claiming that the Bible is not accurate
28. discovered Pentatonix and Home Free Vocal Band and FELL IN LOVE with acapela music!!
29. had my 42nd birthday
30. Met Christie Moore and encouraged her as she battled cancer
31. Learned how to use a jigsaw
32. Bought my own drill
33. had our 17th anniversary
34. did the Ice Water Challenge
35. Went to New Orleans for Mission work with Suburban Baptist Church
36. Taught a ladies Bible Study in New Orleans
37. Met a homeless child
38. izzy went to camp at Central Hills
39. led the music rotation in VBS
40. Co-directed VBS
41. Brian had his first job - at the Pearl Pool
42. Brian was certified as a lifeguard
43. Calvin took Izzy to the Daddy/Daughter dance at Pearl High School
44. Had a "glow in the dark" party for Izzy's 9th birthday - she said it was the best ever!
45. Brian went to Super Summer Leadership Camp at Mississippi College
46. Went to see Skillet and Third Day in concert
47. 20 people were baptized after Heavens Gates/ Hells Flames
48. Jennifer Mcinnis had a baby!
49. Robin Williams committed suicide
50. ISIS
51. Malaysia Airline flight MH370 disappeared
52. Ferguson - Michael Brown
53. Obamacare
54. Legal Marijuana
55. Gas Prices back down to 1.99
56. Discovered Fly Lady
57. Shirley Temple died
58. Joan Rivers Died
59. Flappy Birds
60. My Singing Monsters
61. Words With Friends
62. iPhone 6
63. Landed on a comet
64. Do you want to Build a Snowman? - Frozen
65. Favorite TV shows - Criminal Minds and NCIS
66. Favorite Food - Deep Dish Pizza from Little Cesar's
67. The last LOTR movie was released - The Hobbit Battle of the Five Armies - went to see it with Brian and Izzy
68. Brian killed his first deer
69. Same sex marriage legalized in some states
70. fast food workers strike in hopes of receiving $15 minimum wage
71. Bill Cosby accused of raping multiple women in the 80s and 90s
72. "Enhanced interrogation techniques"
73. Scotland tries to separate from England. Scottish voters vote to stay with England.
74. ISIS released several videos of hostages being beheaded
75. Polar Vortex - Burrrrrr!
76. Favorite song - Lord I'm Ready Now- Plumb
77. Favorite Movie - The Hobbit - Battle of 5 Armies
78. Read the Divergent Series - LOVED IT
79. Read The Hunger Games Series - LOVED IT!
80. Something in the Water - Carrie Underwood
81. Oceans - Hillsong United
82. Ricky and Amy and the kids moved into Great Nan's house
83. Mom and Rick moved in with Grandma Jackie
84. Jesus Loves Me - Chris Tomlin
85. Happy - Pharrell Williams
86. Ray Rice - Domestic Violence
87. Wore a swimsuit for the first time in 9 years
88. God has given me new amazing Christian girlfriends!
89. Got really nice Christmas presents from my friends at work and realize that I need to plan better for them at Christmas!
90. Kept one of my New Year's Resolutions
91. Watched Elf for the first time
92. Izzy and Brian BOTH told me that their favorite Christmas song is Little Drummer Boy
93. Watched Miracle on 34th Street for the first time.
94. Izzy was a zookeeper on Halloween and went trick or treating with Chase Copeland, who was a gorilla!
95. Brian learned to play the drums
96. Realized that I am tired of just getting by, that I want to live intentionally
97. Realized that I have a pretty boring little life
98. Made my resolutions for 2015
99. Mr. Ken Bailey had surgery for a brain aneurism.
100. Completed my first "List of 100 things"

Whew!

I want to have abundant life

 

Here we are at the end of 2014 and I realize that I have let another year go by without "living".

I'm not even sure what exactly I mean by that, only to say that it seems like this year has just sorta "happened".  Get up, go to work, go home, go to bed, get up and do it all over again. Pay bills... Go to church...one foot in front of the other.

There was a time not so long ago when life was so overwhelming that the very best I could do was to put one foot in front of the other...just survive....don't give up...just get thru one more day. It seems that this mindset has lingered far too long. I am well. I am whole. It is time to start living again.

"Living" got lost somewhere between marriage and babies and cancer and work and laundry. I  doubt that I am the only one who feels like this.

I so admire those women who seem to squeeze as much as possible out of each day, but I am not one of them... and I want to be one of those women.

I have "put one foot in front of the other" for so long that I honestly don't even know what "living" will look like for me. Honestly, I don't even know where to start. I suppose this train of thought started when I remembered that one of my 2014 resolutions was to mark 5 things off my bucket list. I broke out the ol bucket list and looked over it for things that I'd done this year. I did mark 4 off and will be able to mark another off before New Year's Eve. (That will be the ONLY resolution I kept!) Still, there were LOTS of things on the list that I could have marked off, had I only been striving to get as much out of this year as possible. If I'd been focused on making memories instead of just getting through each day, more things would be crossed off. If I'd looked for opportunities to make a difference, opportunities to do something big, opportunities to "live" instead of just getting by...

(sigh)

I'm really tired of just getting by.

 

After I looking over my bucket list and lamenting over how many things are not marked off and how time is starting to run out on some of them (like rock climbing or rafting the Colorado River thru the Grand Canyon), a friend told me about a friend of hers who makes a list of "100 things" each December. 100 things she did and things that happened that year, good and not so good. I'm not sure I can even think of 100 things I did this year. I'm not sure that I did 100 things worth remembering.

(sigh)

I want the rest of my years to be note-worthy.

I want to live big for God.

I want to see lives radically changed, including mine.

I want to have breath taking moments.

I want to start in 2015.

 

Some think that you cannot live 100% sold out for Jesus Christ and  live life to the fullest, push the envelope, expand one's boundaries, and explore new things...

 

In John 10:10, Jesus says "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

 

I do not believe for one minute that Jesus' idea of abundant life is simply putting one foot in front of the other, barely getting by, or just surviving. I don't think that any of Jesus' followers in the New Testament could say that their lives were boring. I want to live life to the fullest. I want to drink it all in, both good and bad.

 

So, as the New Year approaches, I am going to spend time over the next few days working on my Resolutions for 2015. I'm also going to make a list of 100 things that happened in 2014. I may even post all of it here.