New Beginnings

Happy New Year!

I don't know what it is about new beginnings, but they fill me with hope and joy!  While this year was a tough one, there were many good things about 2012.

1. My kids have been healthy and God's been good to us.
2. I started taking karate and I love it.
3. I stuck to eating healthy for most of the year and lost over 20 pounds.
4. I continued to pray through the hard times and I know God is bringing good out of them.
5. I knit some pretty cool things and saved a lot of them for Christmas gifts.
6. I met some wonderful people on Ravelry and have become long-distance friends with many of them.
7. I traveled a wee bit.  Okay, it was only to Ocean City, but I left my house and it was wonderful!

There were other good things, of course, but that's a sampling of my reflections at the moment!

So...a theme for this year?  My theme for 2012 was "Hope and Be Not Afraid."  Very appropriate, too!  I believe that I am more hopeful than I was a year ago and I definitely do not fear suffering.  It will come, and we'll be okay with the grace of God.  Better than okay!
I've been contemplating themes for this year and I have two ideas.

1. Pope Benedict XVI has declared this a Year of Faith.  So, it would be fitting to have faith as a theme.
2. Joy!  Taking the song, "Joyful, Joyful!" by Casting Crowns as my theme song.
We'll see how the Spirit leads!

Here's the Knitting Segment of the Blog:

In the Christmas Knitting Group on Ravelry, we had a Christmas Ornament Swap.  It was great fun and here's a picture of the Wee Mittens that I sent to my friend, Pat.  The second photo is the package I received from my friend, Paula.

Christmas Ornament Swap December 2012