Check out these funny and innovative New Year's Resolutions! Enjoy these and make some for yourself...enjoy!!

• Just for today, I will not sit in my living room all day in my nightdress. Instead, I will move my computer into the bedroom.I will no longer waste my time relieving the past, instead I will spend it worrying about the future.
• I will not bore my boss by with the same excuse for taking leaves. I will think of some more excuses.
• I will do less laundry and use more deodorant.
• I will avoid taking a bath whenever possible and conserve more water.
• Assure my lawyer that I will never again show up drunk at a custody hearing.
• I will give up chocolates totally. 100%. Completely. Honestly....
• I will try to figure out why I *really* need nine e-mail addresses.
• I will stop sending e-mails to my wife (husband).
• I resolve to work with neglected children -- my own.
• I will stop sending e-mail, ICQ, Instant Messages and be on the phone at the same time with the same person.
• I will spend less than one hour a day on the Internet. This, of course, will be hard to estimate since I'm not a clock watcher.
• I will read the manual... just as soon as I can find it.
• I will think of a password other than "password."
• I will not tell the same story at every get together.
• I won't worry so much.
• I will cut my hair.
• I will grow my hair.
• I will stop considering other people's feelings when they so obviously don't consider mine - if that unwashed fellow sits next to me again, I'll tell him he stinks!
• I will be more imaginative.
• I will not hang around girls - they think you love them and that sucks.
• I will not ring the stewardess button on airplanes just to get her phone number.

1 Peter 1:3
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

A Story to Live By



My brother-in-law opened the bottom drawer of my sister's bureau and lifted out a tissue-wrapped package. "This," he said, "is not a slip. This is lingerie." He discarded the tissue and handed me the slip. It was exquisite; silk, handmade and trimmed with a cobweb of lace. The price tag with an astronomical figure on it was still attached. "  Jan bought this the first time we went to New York, at least 8 or 9 years ago. She never wore it. She was saving it for a special occasion.

Well, I guess this is the occasion." He took the slip from me and put it on the bed with the other clothes we were taking to the mortician. His hands lingered on the soft material for a moment, then he slammed the drawer shut and turned to me. "Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Every day you're alive is a special occasion."

I remembered those words through the funeral and the days that followed when I helped him and my niece attend to all the sad chores that follow an unexpected death. I thought about them on the plane returning to California from the Midwestern town where my sister's family lives. I thought about all the things that she hadn't seen or heard or done. I thought about the things that she had done without realizing that they were special. I'm still thinking about his words, and they've changed my life. I'm reading more and dusting less. I'm sitting on the deck and admiring the view without fussing about the weeds in the garden. I'm spending more time with my family and friends and less time in committee meetings.

Whenever possible, life should be a pattern of experience to savour, not endure. I'm trying to recognize these moments now and cherish them. I'm not "saving" anything; we use our good china and crystal for every special event such as losing a pound, getting the sink unstopped, the first camellia blossom. I wear my good blazer to the market if I like it. My theory is if I look prosperous, I can shell out $28.49 for one small bag of groceries without wincing. I'm not saving my good perfume for special parties; clerks in hardware stores and tellers in banks have noses that function as well as my partygoing friends. "Someday" and "one of these days" are losing their grip on my vocabulary. If it's worth seeing or hearing or doing, I want to see and hear and do it now.

I'm not sure what my sister would've done had she known that she wouldn't be here for the tomorrow we all take for granted. I think she would have called family members and a few close friends. She might have called a few former friends to apologize and mend fences or past squabbles. I like to think she would have gone out for a Chinese dinner, her favorite food. I'm guessing - I'll never know. It's those little things left undone that would make me angry if I knew that my hours were limited. Angry because I put off seeing good friends whom I was going to get in touch with - someday. Angry because I hadn't written certain letters that I intended to write - one of these days. Angry and sorry that I didn't tell my husband and daughter often enough how much I truly love them. I'm trying very hard not to put off, hold back, or save anything that would add laughter and luster to our lives. And every morning when I open my eyes, I tell myself that it is special. Every day, every minute, every breath truly is... a gift from God.

By Ann Wells (Los Angeles Times)

          

Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.
Ecclesiastes 5:18



Oh, So Many Changes

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. ~Anatole France

 



 

As I read this quotation this morning, I had to stop and wonder about all the 'lives' I have had.  I jokingly talk quite frequently about doing things 'in a former life' and people tend to find that humorous. 

 

It's interesting that I find myself writing my own words today instead of sharing someone else's whom I find challenging or inspiring.  The past few days several friends and I have carried on an ever-evolving conversation about this very topic.  They are amazed when I talk about my life as the christian education director at a church far away and then my next life as a preschool teacher and new mother, then my life as the founder and creator of an organization for children who were abused or neglected, and then my life as the director of a family resource center providing all levels and types of services to families in rural middle-America.  Then there was my life as an unemployed middle-ager with a teen aged son. And now my life as the program director at another church.  That's just the last twenty-two years.  There were many other lives before these.

 

These friends have lived in the same community their entire lives, doing the same jobs, living in the same house, with the same friends.  They are amazed at the "adventure" my life has been.  I am amazed at theirs.

 

I don't know that I would call my life an adventure.  The dictionary describes adventure as: an exciting experience, a bold undertaking, or financial speculation.  Well, I guess my life up to this age of fifty-five years, has been an adventure. 

 

Certainly, it has had its excitement.  No, I haven't had glamorous trips around the world.  I don't party with the movers and shakers at any level.  I work hard at keeping in the background as much as I possibly can so that what I do doesn't become about me, but about the cause to which I've given my time, my money, and my talents.  Certainly, the majority of the folks reading this will think there was little excitement in what I did, but for me the challenge of taking on that position, that cause, was and is excitement.  Making a difference and leaving that place a little better because I was there is the excitement. 

 

I am sure that many would not think what I have done was bold, but if you had known me as a child you would be amazed at some of the things I have done.  I was very shy as a child, afraid to speak to anyone who wasn't well-known to me.  I have sat with senators and law enforcement officers and leaders at the local, state and national levels about the issues that I hold dear to my heart.  I have called those meetings, and those people have come to talk to me.  Pretty bold for a little girl who used to hope that no one noticed her.

 

And about that financial speculation, well, anyone who knows me knows that I have tried never to make money the issue.  I am not a wealthy woman by any stretch of the imagination.  In fact, the last few years have been a challenge for me financially, but I am a survivor and I will continue to do the work that I believe is important and know that it always works out in the end.  Don't get me wrong, I am doing alright but I will NEVER make what I do about the money.  Some will say that this philosophy is foolish.  For those folks, I simply say, "You will never understand, and that's OK." 

 

This life--all of it, the BIG one--is about growing, stretching yourself, and continually learning...about the world, about those around you, and mostly about yourself.  Each life held its lessons and at the end of all of them, its about what you did to make the world and the people around you better, because of some little thing you may have done, or not done as the case may be.

 

Each life will have its challenges, its bold steps, and its financial speculations, but it will also hold all the riches that come with meeting those challenges, bold steps, and financial speculations head-on, accepting them, and surpassing them.  Then you can rise to the next level...

 

And begin the next life. 

 

"Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins.
If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.
No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."Matthew 9:17

 



God's Coffee

 

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.

What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us.

God brews the coffee, not the cups.......... Enjoy your coffee!

"The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything." 

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.

Author Unknown

Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.      

1 Timothy 6:6-8      ESV    

I Shall Not Live In Vain

A dear friend, a second father through my high school years and beyond, passed away on Sunday.  I will miss that grin he always had for me.  I love you, Roy!

If I can stop one Heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one Life the Aching
Or cool one Pain
Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again
I shall not live in Vain.

Emily Dickinson

His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

Matthew 25:23

What Life Is All About



Life isn't about keeping score. It's not about how many friends you have. Or how many people call you. Or how accepted or unaccepted you are. Not about if you have plans this weekend. Or if you're alone. It isn't about who you're dating, who you use to date, how many people you've dated, or if you haven't been with anyone at all. It isn't about who you have kissed. It's not about sex. It isn't about who your family is or how much money they have. Or what kind of car you drive. Or where you're sent to school.

It's not about how beautiful or ugly you are. Or what clothes you wear, what shoes you have on, or what kind of music you listen to. It's not about if your hair is blonde, red, black, brown, or green. Or if your skin is too light or too dark.

It's not about what grades you get, how smart you are, how smart everyone else thinks you are, or how smart standardized tests say you are. Or if this teacher likes you, or if this guy/girl likes you. Or what clubs you're in, or how good you are at "your" sport. It's not about representing your whole being on a piece of paper and seeing who will "accept the written you".

But life is about who you love and who you hurt. It's about who you make happy or unhappy purposefully. It's about keeping or betraying trust. It's about friendship, used as sanctity, or as a weapon. It's about what you say and mean, maybe hurtful, maybe heartening. About starting rumors and contributing to petty gossip. It's about what judgments you pass and why. And who your judgments are spread to.

It's about who you've ignored with full control and intention. It's about jealousy, fear, pain, ignorance, and revenge. It's about carrying inner hate and love, letting it grow and spreading it.

But most of all, it's about using your life to touch or poison other people's hearts in such a way that could never occurred alone. Only you choose the way these hearts are affected and those choices are what life is all about.

Author Unknown

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely…

When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place.

But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” 

He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.  But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Luke 14:1, 7-14



My Wage

I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store;

For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial's hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have gladly paid!

Jessie Rittenhouse 

At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, "Ask! What shall I give you?"

1 Kings 3:5

This Life I Have But Once To Live

This life I have but once to live
These days and years are my great Treasure
I'll give to Life all that I am
And ask from her in equal measure.

I'll fill each hour to the brim
I'll give my very heart and soul
To Life, because I know for me
To truly live must be my goal.

The cautious ones would shake their heads
And say perfection cannot be,
This Dream I have is but a dream
Unknown to Life's reality.

But thou perhaps, dost also dream
Perhaps thou thinkst the same as I
That those will never know the best
who have no faith and dare not try.

If this be so, then be my Friend
Come, dance Life's Dance with me
Hold me strong that I thee hold
Living now, What Might Be.

Dr. Sami Sunchild 

Life Is Love

Is anyone sad in the world, I wonder?
Does anyone weep on a day like this,
With the sun above and the green earth under?
Why, what is life but a dream of bliss?

With the sun and the skies and the birds above me,
Birds that sing as they wheel and fly -
With the winds to follow and say they loved me -
Who could be lonely? O no, not I!

Somebody said in the street this morning,
As I opened my window to let in the light,
That the darkest day of the world was dawning;
But I looked, and the East was a gorgeous sight

One who claims that he knows about it
Tells me the Earth is a vale of sin;
But I and the bees and the birds - we doubt it,
And think it a world worth living in.

Someone says that hearts are fickle,
That love is sorrow, that life is care,
And the reaper Death, with his shining sickle,
Gathers whatever is bright and fair.

I told the thrush, and we laughed together -
Laughed till the woods were all a-ring;
And he said to me, as he plumed each feather,
"Well, people must croak, if they cannot sing!"

Up he flew, but his song, remaining,
Rang like a bell in my heart all day,
And silenced the voices of weak complaining
That pipe like insects along the way.

O world of light, and O world of beauty!
Where are there pleasures so sweet as thine?
Yes, life is love, and love is duty;
And what heart sorrows? O no, not mine!


Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself”

Jeremiah 31:3

What Life Is All About



Life isn't about keeping score. It's not about how many friends you have. Or how many people call you. Or how accepted or unaccepted you are. Not about if you have plans this weekend. Or if you're alone. It isn't about who you're dating, who you use to date, how many people you've dated, or if you haven't been with anyone at all. It isn't about who you have kissed. It's not about sex. It isn't about who your family is or how much money they have. Or what kind of car you drive. Or where you're sent to school.

It's not about how beautiful or ugly you are. Or what clothes you wear, what shoes you have on, or what kind of music you listen to. It's not about if your hair is blonde, red, black, brown, or green. Or if your skin is too light or too dark.

It's not about what grades you get, how smart you are, how smart everyone else thinks you are, or how smart standardized tests say you are. Or if this teacher likes you, or if this guy/girl likes you. Or what clubs you're in, or how good you are at "your" sport. It's not about representing your whole being on a piece of paper and seeing who will "accept the written you".

But life is about who you love and who you hurt. It's about who you make happy or unhappy purposefully. It's about keeping or betraying trust. It's about friendship, used as sanctity, or as a weapon. It's about what you say and mean, maybe hurtful, maybe heartening. About starting rumors and contributing to petty gossip. It's about what judgments you pass and why. And who your judgments are spread to.

It's about who you've ignored with full control and intention. It's about jealousy, fear, pain, ignorance, and revenge. It's about carrying inner hate and love, letting it grow and spreading it.

But most of all, it's about using your life to touch or poison other people's hearts in such a way that could never occurred alone. Only you choose the way these hearts are affected and those choices are what life is all about.
Author Unknown

 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

  Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:36-40

Lightning



Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.

Mark Twain 

As I write this I am sitting at my desk watching a pretty incredible lightning storm.  I know, I'm taking my chances with my computer and I should be smart and not only turn it off, but unplug it as well, but I love to watch the lightning and I wanted to share the storm with you. 

Don't you love thunderstorms?  It's been such a warm and muggy day.  We all knew that the storms would come; we hoped the storms would come, and remove all the humidity from the air.  Actually, with the flooding of the Missouri River right here, all around us, we don't need any more water, but if you've never lived in the Midwest, you can't know the feeling of the air when it becomes so heavy with moisture that you hope and pray it will rain.  Then, if only for a little while, the air becomes lighter again and it's not quite so difficult to move and to breathe. 

You can see it building, watching the clouds grow taller and thicker.  As the storm gets closer you can see them change from puffy white clouds to gray clouds and then to thick dark clouds.  When they turn an ugly green color, it's time to start watching closely.  I prefer to watch the storms in the daytime, not night, simply because I like to watch all this happen.  After dark, all that you are able to see is the lightning.



When my son was little, it was the thunder that scared him.  He always felt better when I reminded him that thunder was just two clouds bumping into each other and then yelling about it.  Once we talked about it, he could just relax and wait for the storm to pass.  He never realized that it was the lightning that could hurt.  We've been fortunate, we've never had a lightning strike too close to us.  Well, we had one hit the light pole outside our house when he was about eleven years old, but we've never had any damage from lightning. 

Like so many things, while it can be dangerous and must be respected, lightning is beautiful.  The power harnessed in a lightning strike can kill instantly.  Lightning is extremely hot—a flash can heat the air around it to temperatures five times hotter than the sun’s surface. About 2,000 people are killed worldwide by lightning each year. Hundreds more survive strikes but suffer from a variety of lasting symptoms, including memory loss, dizziness, weakness, numbness, and other life-altering ailments.

Powerful!  Frightening!  Exhilarating!  Deadly!

Lightning is a release of energy.  It can reach from cloud to cloud, from cloud to ground, or from ground to cloud.  It is impossible to know where lightning will strike.  It reminds me of people and human relationships. 



When you put two people together you never know what will happen;  sometimes really beautiful things happen, sometimes really ugly things happen, but all reactions are powerful leaving everything around them changed forever.  

As I sit here and watch the rainwater run down the street and sidewalk in front of my house, I hear the hail hitting the roof, the flag pole and the sidewalk.  I know that this storm is marking my house and my yard.  Just like those people that pass through my life, it will leave things just a little different than they were a few minutes ago.  It might be better...my yard will not grow dry; it might be worse...it could shatter a tree, like the one down the block that was split in the last storm, but it will be different. 

Isn't that one of life's greatest lessons?  To face the storms or the people, no matter what challenges they bring and move forward, learning lessons in the process.  And enjoy the beauty as it unfolds.



Your Last Day

If you haven't looked today, you need to check out Going Like Sixty.  He has a very funny piece about daylight savings time there, but I'll go ahead and give you the gist of it:  instead of taking an hour from Saturday/Sunday, let's take an hour from Friday afternoon.   I like it!  Everyone's always in such  hurry to get to the weekend away from work and job pressures.  Why not cut the time from that part of the clock instead of the weekend?

And then my next email was from a friend.  This friend learned a couple of weeks ago that she has a brain tumor.  It is malignant and they will take very aggressive steps to stop the growth but, barring a miracle, she will die from it.  And I began to think about the two emails.  We take for granted that daylight savings time comes each spring and, though we hate losing the hour, we know we'll get it back in the fall.  But what if we don't?  How does it feel to know that you are losing an hour of your life to 'save the daylight' when you know your hours are numbered?

It is a fact that all of our hours are numbered.  The difference for my friend is that she now has an estimate of her time while the rest of us assume that we have lots of time left, and you know what they say about assuming.  She has a wonderful attitude and is attacking this thing and all of its issues head-on.  She is finding the positives in everything that she does.  I am certain that she must have moments of being frightened and unsure, but she is making every effort to keep those to a minimum and enjoy each minute of each day. 

I wonder how I would react if I were in her shoes.  I hope that I would find the humor in everything, after all  what is life if you can't laugh?  I would hope that I would reach out to those that I love and tell them all of those things that I hope I've always said, but louder and stronger than I've ever said them.  I know that I would sing.  Singing is how God and I talk to each other.  It's always been that way.  We do it in public sometimes and that is nice, but mostly we do it privately, just Him and me and it's wonderful!  I would want to be outdoors as much as possible.  Watching the squirrels (there are six in my yard this morning) and listening to the birds sing, watching the trees sway in the wind.  It's like God holding you in His hand.

These are the things I hope that I would do.  I, of course, have no idea what I would actually do and I hope that I never have to find out.  But we all hope for that and the reality is, as my son reminds me frequently, I'm in the downhill stretch of my life and it is very likely that at some point I will have to deal with health issues.  I like to tell him that I plan on living to be about 110 and, since he's an only child, we have a lot of good quality time left.

I just know that I wish for my friend everything that I would wish for myself.  I know that she probably hasn't even considered one less hour.  She is too focused on enjoying today with her family and friends.  She's loving everything about her life, even the tough stuff, because she is alive, for today.  After all, that's really all we have, isn't it? 

So, as you go about your Saturday, ask yourself:  if this were my last day on this earth, is this really how I would spend it?  Just something to think about.

That Still Small Voice

I've been doing some thinking over the past few days (this is when the girls I used to work with would head for the doors).  A few days ago I wrote about my son's passion for technology.  He knows in his soul this is what he is supposed to do and he's following that dream.  It's not a still voice.  It's not a small voice.  It's a voice that is driving him, motivating him.  He is determined!  Sometimes it makes ME crazy, but it's not my voice, it's his and I will respect it.  Fortunately, for me, I've had people in my life who have shown me that it's important to follow that voice.  It's truly amazing what can happen when you really listen!

I have a friend who called me a few years ago.  She'd just been offered her dream job, but it was two hundred miles away.  Her son was a couple of years away from graduating from high school.  She had made a promise to him that he would not have to move before then.  What to do?  That voice inside her was telling her to take the job.  Her husband told her to take the job.  I told her to take the job.  But she still wasn't sure. 

I have been in the same position over the past eighteen months.  As a single parent, it has been my sole responsibility to provide for my son for the past ten years.  I've always been a teacher, but my heart sings when I use the creative side of my spirit!  Don't get me wrong, I love teaching!  Reaching that student that has fallen through the cracks or helping that young teenage girl find her own voice also makes my heart sing.  My voice is telling me to find a way to do it all!

So my question here is:  why do we 'adults' have so much trouble listening to that voice?  Why is it still and small?  Do we really think that because we're older we shouldn't enjoy life as much?  Does being responsible also mean less joy?  I don't think so!  I think life has a tendency to beat us down, some of us more than others.  It can make us afraid to step outside of what we have become and into what we could be.  I've been pretty fortunate in my life to do pretty much what I wanted to do.  I think this unemployment has been an opportunity for me to take stock of where I am and what I want the second half of my life to look like. 

I am certain that there will be those that will not agree with the choices that I make.  These people are probably the same ones who didn't like my choices before.  That's OK.  I know that my voice is not going to be still and it's not going to be small.  Oh, by the way, my friend took that job and she has spent the last almost three years loving her work.  My son's new business is almost off the ground.  And the second half of my life is off to a great start!

What A Beautiful Morning!

Don't you just love mornings this time of the year?  The sun is rising BEFORE eight o'clock. It was actually light outside at 6:45 this morning.  It's not so frightfully cold, inside or out.  I even heard a few birds this morning.  (My sister will tell you that I have a "thing" for the birds outside).  The snow is melting.  I even see patches of grass outside my window.  Not in my yard, mind you, but the neighbors have some grass showing and it gives me hope!  The weatherman says we will gradually rise into the 50's over the next week!  Thank You, God!!

Maybe the groundhog will be right this year.  Maybe spring will come early.  I love springtime, don't you?  Everything coming back to life.  The grass turning green again.  Buds on the trees.  The birds coming back to my birdfeeders.  More squirrels in my yard (not sure about that one this year).  The pollen in the air (OK, maybe I don't relish that part so much).  It's like everything just stops for the winter and we all go into hibernation here in rural America.  We do the things that must be done and a lot of the extras just get put on hold.  The month of January has always been a hard one for me and I think this must be the reason.  Even with every effort to plan things to do and places to go, January is just a difficult time for me. 

But once we get to the middle of February, it's like someone flipped my switch back on and I can hardly wait to start each new day.  I've rested during the winter, my hibernation is over, and I'm ready for new adventures!  I wonder what new things God will send my way today?  I can hardly wait!