Little of this and that ....

Thinking back over 2011 I have to say it has been a good year.  I do not look back with any regrets.  Do you?

I have watched my grandbabies who I love so much grow and learn and become 'little people'.  They bring the sunshine when it's cloudy outside.  Besides my own two girls, they are the greatest things in my world.  I love watching these babies as they journey through their little lives.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer which threw me for a loop at the time but as I've walked the journey, it has taught me more than anything in my life.  There is no amount of schooling that could have ever taught me more.  Cancer has brought me closer to my Father in Heaven.  Without Him I would not be where I am today.  I realized that I have wonderful friends and appreciate them more and more every day.  My family ... they are the BEST ever.

I found out that I will be having another grandbaby in May 2012.  We grow more excited everyday as we wait on this new little one.  Here's a recent baby bump picture of my sweet daughter, Bonnie.  In this picture she is 17 weeks.  She is still teaching Math in Irving ISD.

My oldest daughter, Alicia, graduated Dallas Baptist University with her teaching degree in August.  She pretty much immediately got hired in Keller ISD as a 7th grade Texas History teacher.

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We are about to ring in a new year.  At midnight tonight we will be granted another gift of 525,600 minutes. What will you do with the gift of those minutes?  Will you look at yesterday and have regrets?  Will you allow worry to take up a single minute of your gifted minutes?  I will continue to love like there is no tomorrow and accept love as well.  Cancer cannot defeat me, it cannot steal my love. Of all the things, love is the greatest.

I know I am blessed.  I have been surrounded by the greatest family and friends a girl could have.  And speaking of being surrounded, God put just the right medical team in my life to help me fight the cancer. And I will never forget the people who are journeying through cancer treatments just like me who have shared their stories with me.  They all have a special place in my heart.  

My 525,600 minutes will not be wasted.  Anxiety, stress, worry, regret, what if or why me will not steal one minute of my time.  I live every minute in the minute, just ask anyone who is around me daily.  Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift, that's why they call it the present.

I wish for you and your family a wonderful blessed year in 2012.  You hold the key as to how you will spend your gifted 525,600.  Make it worthwhile.

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I am glad it's the weekend with three days off.  My nephews are still in town so we will be enjoying a few more good meals together.  Tomorrow I will be cooking black eye peas with ham, fresh greens cooked with bacon, of course fried cabbage and cornbread.  I will rely on others to check the seasonings since my taste buds are kinda non-existent for now.

After all the musings of this post, I will close.  Like the title says ... Little of this and that ... reflections of a wonderful 2011 gone by and hope and love looking me in the face as 2012 begins.

1 Corinthians 13: 1-2, 13

 ¹ If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 

 ¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.