Word of the Year, 2019 & 10 Things About Me

Sweet friends,

It seems that along with making resolutions and setting goals for the year, many are also picking a word of year.  I have been a resolution maker and goal setter for years but 2018 was the first I had heard of practice of selecting a word.  My friend Sue at Sizzling Towards 60 & Beyond, chose ‘thrive’ for her word of 2018.  And the entire year, her blog buzzed with ways she was thriving and with tips her readers could follow in order to thrive themselves.

My Word for the Year:  PEACE (again)

Last year my word was PEACE.  Ha!  It eluded me in so many big ways that I kind of tossed it into the rubbish midyear.  Now I am thinking I should have concentrated on finding peace among the chaos.  So, I am recycling that word again this year.  Thinking I should give it another go.  That or adopt the word chaos for 2019?

Have you selected a word and begun living with it yet? I am excited to try to find and live in peace again.  But this year, I’ll have the advantage of having learned a thing or two about peace from the turmoil that was my 2018.

Synchronicity

Interestingly enough, my friend and fellow blogger Mary at Hope Filled Living, and whose Bible study workbooks I have so enjoyed doing for years, wrote a post this week that resonated with me.

Mary wrote:

A late start to my writing week, but it was spent in prayer for many people today. I was awakened from my sleep this morning by a phone call of a family crisis.

I chose these images for this post to remind you and myself that we must train our spiritual muscles to continually revert back to the blessings of God. A life filled with peace and joy isn’t always perfect. There will be bumps in the road, but the God in us reminds us that we are blessed and that joy is available to us, even in the midst of hardship.

As women of faith, we know that He will never leave us. We know that we can find strength in Him, and we are VICTORIOUS in Him.

Mary Continues

So, as you begin a new week, remember that we need to train ourselves to look past adversity and see the blessing. There is always a blessing in the storm.

The last hours of my afternoon were spent praying for my daughter, listening and letting her grieve as she feels hopeless with constant pain, dislocations, fainting, and loss of hope as a wheelchair is a reality that is closing in on her.

We must train ourselves to find the blessing in the storm. Life isn’t easy. We all get tossed around like rocks on the seashore. But sooner or later, the sharp edges are made smooth from the tossing and turning.

Life is not always good, but God is and this is our golden nugget.

Work on training your mind this week by remembering your blessings.

I am blessed.

I am blessed.

I am blessed.

~Mary Clewley

Hope-Filled Living

Not only do I want to work on training my mind to remember and be grateful for my many blessings, but I also want to seek peace in the chaos.  Find the good, the silver lining in difficult situations.  And to make my own peace with and within the storms that are inherent to life.

Good Advice

Yesterday, I sent out the link-up code to the bloggers who participate in the bucket list posts with me.  We will be sharing an update on progress we’ve made on our winter bucket list activities.  Come back on Monday to read my update.  In my link-up code email, I mentioned that I was going back to Kentucky this weekend.  One of my friends and a blogger Jo Tracy, wrote back suggesting I just breathe and hunker down.  Such good advice.  I am nervous about being with my mom and attempting to care for her … but one day at a time.

10 on the 10th (or the 19th)

Last year, I participated with Erin at Simple Purposeful Living for her 10 on the 10th series.  You can check out of some my 2018 posts, here.  This year, Erin has handed off the 10 on the 10th torch to Jen at The Bolin Bunch.  The first prompt of the year was 10 random facts about me.  I didn’t realize that Jen was continuing the series until I began seeing posts by others.  So here are 10 random facts about me.

For those of you who have been hanging out over here for a while, none of these facts will be news to you.  But I am, thankfully, not quite as dingy as I once was.  This has translated into fewer car wrecks, a happily ever after husband, etc.

Ten Things About Me

• Wore a blue faux fur winter coat inside and outside, day in and day out, everywhere I went for approximately 6 months when I was in seventh grade.  My mom has surmised that I did so because my breasts were developing (and pretty enthusiastically, I might add) and she thinks I was embarrassed; trying to cover them up under a layer of thick blue fur.
• Have had probably somewhere between 10 and 15 car wrecks, most of them my fault.  Beginning with the day I got my driver’s license.  Totaled at least 3 cars.  One car twice.
• Began kindergarten shortly after I turned 4 years old.  I was so small that the bus driver and/or my mother had to lift me onto the first step on the school bus.
• Gave birth to both of my daughters on military installations where it was the policy to use natural childbirth – no anesthesia what-so-ever.  With my first baby, Brennyn, I wasn’t even given local anesthesia for the episiotomy, there wasn’t time so the doctor just cut me because I was tearing.  With the first baby, I starred or focused at a bull’s eye on the wall until I was in a kind of trance.  With the second baby, Lauren, I starred at a photograph of my first baby, Brennyn, until I was in that same trance again.
• Was anorexic before anorexia was a thing.  Before Karen Carpenter and Tracy Gold.  Probably right along side Jane Fonda and Sally Field.  But because no one knew about anorexia nervosa, I was just ‘dieting’.
• Have contracted Lyme disease not once but twice.  Sometime during a visit to Colorado and again during a visit to Memphis.  The first time went undiagnosed until I was infected the second time in the late 1990s.
• Hosted a televised reading program, “Come Read With Me” for 10 years in El Paso.  If you have been hanging around with me for a bit, this one you will already know about.
• Been married too many times but finally found my Prince Charming/Paul Clingan and have lived happily ever after.
• Lived in the Republic of Panama twice when the girls’ father was stationed there with the U.S. Army.  The first time from 1981-1984, on the Atlantic side of the canal.  The second time from 1985-1988 on the Pacific side of the canal.  Yo hablo español tambien, pero muy feo.  Cared for a number of Panamanian children as paperwork was prepared for them to move to the U.S.
• Was the El Paso Independent School District’s Elementary Teacher of the Year in 1997.  First librarian to ever be a district teacher of the year.  Graduated with my Master’s degree in 08.2008, paid off my loans in 11.2013 and retired in 12.2013.  Can you spell D-U-M-B for getting a Masters?

This series will return on 02.10.2019 and hopefully, I will be on time with my post.  Here are the prompts for the whole year so you and I can both be prepared.