February is here!

Wow I'm pretty sure I lost January in there somewhere. What a crazy time. It's been a little rough but we've made it okay. Christmas was wonderful. We had a great time having everyone over to our new house. I need to put up some new pictures of our fabulous paint job. We had a lot of fun. Work has been going well for me. I'm hoping to complete some cross training I've been working on. Lots of goals for the year.

I had a presentation last week in our department on how attitude affects everything we do. It went great. Everyone knows that life can be challenging but it's not what your given but what you do with it. Like the old saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade! Well I've had a few lemons over the past couple months, along with some very sweet raspberries! So it has it's ups and downs. I truly believe that its when we go through hard times that we really find out who we are. Over the past year I have discovered that I am an amazingly patient person. Mom may not agree :p but when it really comes to the important things, I have been able to suck it up and take it in stride. Between paying off debt, getting the house, moving (we all know how fun that is), Donald losing his job, being a full time worker, full time Mom and full time partner. Man does it wear you out. But despite the challenges of everyday living in this economy I have handled it fairly well. And looking forward to the new opportunities coming my way. One of the things I found when I was working on my presentation was a quote from Dr. Vicktor Frankl a survivor from a Nazi death camp. He lost his parents, his brother and his wife. Suffered years of hunger, cold & brutality. And this is what he said about his experience.

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose on'es own way. ...Even though conditions such as lack of sleep, insufficient food and various mental stresses may suggest that the inmates were bound to react in certain ways, in the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone."

We often forget how great we really have it. Doing my research reminded me how truly blessed I am. I love my family and my friends. I'm greatful for the roof over my head, the food on my table, the truck I drive, the job I have, the freedoms I am blessed with for living in this country. And an everlasting God who despite my failings over the past years has never really let me down or forgotten me, even when I ignored Him.

God bless everyone, big and small, rich and poor, happy and sad for we are all, each and every one of us, children of God.