Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's already 2009. A year seems to fly by awfully fast these days.

This is my husband and I on our anniversary trip this year. We stayed on the Long Beach penninsula in Washington. Our trip was planned smack in the middle of one of the largest amounts of snowfall that Oregon has seen in a long time. Sooo...we had to take the long route over the coast range and up along the coast to get to Long Beach. It was pretty crazy because they actually had snow too, and they hardly ever even get a little skiff of snow. We went for a walk on the snowy beach one morning. So beautiful! We saw a bald eagle flying over, and lots of little water birds of various kinds shared the beach with us. There were alot of heron on the beach too. It's a very pretty place, I think if we went again we would go in the summer though because it was COLD.

Well, I started this blog one year ago, and it was fun for me to look back over the entries that I've made in the last year. I find it interesting that at the beginning of the year I chose to put my focus on the word prioritize. I wasn't sure how I would actually see that focus play out in my life over the year. But I've spent significant time praying about this, especially in the middle of the night when I was laying awake and everyone else was peacefully sleeping. Now looking back, I do see that my priorities have actually changed gradually throughout the year. I've become more and more aware of how very quickly my children are growing up. I don't want to miss it, I want to just take it in and enjoy this special time in the life of our family. If you've been following my blog, you may have noticed that the amount of blog entries dropped significantly over the course of the year. Now, I could blame that all on priorities, but truthfully, some of it is just a lack of knowing what is interesting for you to read. Some of it is priorities too. My goal through this next year is to post an entry on my blog at least once a week.

As for 2009...I believe that my focus for the year is this, live intentionally. The things I do in my life do have meaning and purpose, even in the daily grind, and I want to be intentional about using my resources, time, and talent to intentionally bless my family and others, and to grow as a person. How that will look at the end of this year remains to be seen...

So happy 2009! What will it hold for you?