Happy New Year 2016!

It's New Year's Eve and I am cheering for the Crimson Tide with my better half whilst I get ready to go ring in the New Year with my patients.

And, of course, it's also time for a little look back and some goal setting too.

When I looked up my Best Nine (my most liked pictures on Instagram) from last year, this is what I found:

And, in a strange way, these pictures do cover a lot: 

-  My nursing career (which I love).

-  Tattoo outings with my better half for my life verse symbol (always awesome).

- The fall goals I wasn't healthy enough to meet that finally prompted a major job change.

- My country.

- My faith.

- Meeting Jewel (gahhhh!).

- Sweet surprises from even sweeter friends (Thanks, Al!).

- Our wild unruly adorable furbabies.

- My commitment to beating RA.

This year brought plenty of stress (that's life), but, in the end, I found a great new night shift nursing job that is only a few miles from home, found an amazing church home, lost 30 prednisone pounds, read lots of good books, and had a great time with family, friends and fur babies.

Overall, a great one I say.

And, of course, no New Year's post is complete without some goals for the new year:

2016 - It's Gonna Be A Good One

1. Faith and family first. Schedules tend to get so crazy at times and last year we missed a lot of church when I was sick and starting Methotrexate and working a stressful job. This year, getting us all to church together each week is my goal. I love that our church has online church for the times when it is just not possible but I want to physically be there more often than not.

2. As I said in my previous post, I'll be doing lots of reading and working on my little blog. So excited!

3. I am restarting my Tone It Up eating and exercise plan. My running days are over (my RA insisted) but walking and yoga are perfect for me. I do hope to finish my weight loss goal but I'm not even putting a number on it this year. As long as I'm feeling good and healthy, I'm happy with my results.

That's All, Folks! ;)

I'm keeping it simple this year so I don't need a personal secretary to keep up with my New Year's goals.

Wishing you all peace, love, good books, good food, fun, and a Happy New Year!

I'll be doing some real blogging in 2016

As is pretty obvious here, I have been terribly neglectful of my little blog this past year.

At my previous job, I would get home just exhausted and never seemed to have the time or energy to get anything really started with it even though I wanted to.

Fortunately though, my new job (and the major schedule change that came with it) has been such a blessing and I have decided that one of my goals for 2016 (I'm not using the R word) will be to blog often during the week.

I will be changing it up a bit though.

I was looking around today at my current reading situation.

This is my bedside table:

And this is the small "To Read Next" stack in my window sill:

And there is a much larger "To Read Next" shelf in my library.

And a long Amazon book wish list. . .

You get the point.

So, this year, my blog will be mostly about the books I'm reading and ideas I find in my devotionals and that sort of thing.

My inner bookworm is very excited about this change.

So here is my current Word Nerd status:

I just finished reading through the New Testament and rereading one of my favorite books by Bob Goff called Love Does.

This book is so high on my Favorite Books Ever List that our friend Rebekah painted this lovely sign for our home:

And, while I'm sure there will be a post (or six) about it to come in the future, for now, I will just offer this quote:

“Living a life fully engaged and full of whimsy and the kind of things that love does is something most people plan to do, but along the way they just kind of forget… [We need to] just land the plane on our plans to make a difference by getting to the “do” part of faith. That’s because love is never stationary. In the end, love doesn’t just keep thinking about it or keep planning for it. Simply put: love does.” - Bob Goff


If you haven't read it, drop what you are reading and get it.

You'll be glad you did.

As for my very near future books:

Right now, I'm reading Simply Jesus, which is just essentially a harmony of all of the Gospels, in chronological order. I thought it would be a nice way to start the new year.

After I finish it, I'm starting a study of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), which I'm actually pretty excited about it (weird, I know).

See, a few weeks ago, a blogger I really like, Hannah Brencher, posted about studying the Torah and said this:

"This week, I begin studying the Torah and creating lines between the Jewish roots my faith was built upon and New Testament that became my roof. The Hebrew text screams and offers me a million roads to walk upon to better understand this love story. To disregard the Torah in studying is to miss half of the story. . .How did I ever go this long thinking roots were not the foundation of everything?"

That thought stuck with me.

Then, as I was studying a prayer guide I picked up at church a few months ago, I came across this wonderful model of a Tabernacle Prayer based on the Temple.

And then several references to the Torah and studying the Old Testament kept appearing in different devotionals that I am working through.

So I got the message.

And I ordered a book to study the Torah. 

I think it will be great.

I'll be posting about it here.

As well as the new Jen Hatmaker book my sweet Sara Marie gave me for Christmas I'll be reading also. And I feel a Harry Potter reread coming soon as well as a trip to Narnia. And Jefferson Bethke has a new book out that is supposed to be wonderful. And I will be reading all those "To Be Read" books I have stacked up. And I am waiting on a book of Mary Oliver poems to arrive any day. . .

Be well and have a great week!

Love, peace, and good books to you all.