Hello dear reader. I know. It’s been a while.

I do my best to keep my little world on a tight leash because it’s more manageable for a control freak like me.

But have you ever met Life?

Life sometimes likes to grab a hold of the leash and next thing you know, a game of tug-of-war is on!

Life usually wins.

I am learning that when I have too many distractions, I have a harder time reaching for my writing paper and pen.

I’m not making excuses. I just want to be better about reaching for my pen and paper when life comes calling.

I can’t believe we’re already in February!

January flew by for me and don’t get me started about December 2024…

In order for one’s day to be successful, one must have a plan of attack.

I use the month of December for a steppingstone into the new coming year.

A new coming year inspires me to get some projects done.

One project that I actually look forward to doing is, taking inventory of my closet and getting rid of anything that I don’t use or want anymore.

Doing this around Christmas time, makes room for any new clothes that I might be getting for Christmas.

I hate overstuffed closets.

I will find a nice box, or a large gift bag and I put it in my husband’s spare bedroom. (Don’t worry, I have a spare bedroom too!)

I have him go through his closets too.

Everything is always in good condition and neatly folded. Pretty sure Goodwill likes us.

Anyways, two unexpected things happened in December 2024 that threw me off of my steppingstone.

The first thing was, we got a new dog that we renamed, Memphis. He was 11 months old.

Now Shawn and I have had dogs throughout our 29 years of marriage, so getting another dog was not a big deal.

If I remember correctly, in the post looking for a new home for Memphis, one of the things that was mentioned was that he needed a lot of attention.

I knew that was a nicer way of saying to expect some difficulty, and I was okay with that.

But truthfully, he’s more difficult than I expected.

I had to put away Christmas decorations that sat on the floor because he kept bumping into them, moving them etc.

He also kept grabbing my peppermint garland, messing it up.

Having Memphis around Christmas time, made me keep decorations very minimum which I didn’t like.

But to be fair, when it came time to putting the little bit that I had out away, it was nice because it didn’t take long. My heart secretly thanked him for this blessing in disguise, ha!

We love Memphis. He’s a cutie until he lets the devil into his heart. Then he’s like trying to break a wild horse, sometimes worse.

But he’s a keeper.

The other thing that happened in December that got me a little discombobulated was that Shawn and I got so sick.

It was late Christmas day when I started feeling it.

On Thursday, I felt worse.

On Friday, Shawn and I walked around the house like zombies. We didn’t eat for 24 hours. He stayed mostly downstairs on the couch, and I stayed upstairs in our bedroom.

I had chills, nausea, felt weak. Shawn felt the same way but had a bad cough too.

During this time, Memphis really let the devil into his heart, so yeah, it was mayhem.

It took more than a week to get over whatever it was that hit us.

Instead of starting the new year with a bang, it was more like a whimper.

But I crossed the 2024 line and with the Lord on my side, will make it through 2025.

~missy salcido wead