We had a fabulous New Year’s Eve.  We have some great friends, Dan and Gay Curtis, who have a place at the Emerald Grande.  We spent the evening there enjoying great food and honestly the best view of the greatest small city in Florida.  I’m not even exaggerating.  The fireworks over Destin pass lit up the sky and the beautiful emerald waters at midnight.  Did you get that?  At midnight, there were parts of the pass where you could actually see the bottom - the beautiful white sandy bottom!  It was ridiculous. This was also the first time in awhile I stayed up to ring in the new year. It definitely made it one of the most memorable since we have moved back to the area. Thanks, Dan and Gay, for being such great hosts and thanks, Beth, for the warm conversation.

View from Dan & Gay’s condo.

I love January 2nd.  January 1st really isn’t the first day of the new year.  It’s really the last day of a loooooong Christmas season.  It’s the last day to enjoy your Christmas tree up.  It’s the day of recovery from staying up too late the night before. Because it’s a holiday, you can’t really be on your new year’s diet! That starts January 2nd.  Everything starts January 2nd.  The new diet, the better workout plan, the bible reading plan (oh, I have to do January 1st and January 2nd today!).  All things new - today.

It’s going to be a year of change for Eric and me as another one of our children leaves home to start her adulthood.  More on that later, but it has gotten me thinking about what’s really important as I begin the new year.  I want to be the best wife, mom, manager, minister, steward, and friend I can be without getting caught up in the performance of it all.  I don’t want to lose sight that it is God who works in me to WILL and to DO of His good pleasure.  I could wear myself out trying to be the BEST at everything.  Without God working in me, I’ll burn out quick and get discouraged and have to wait for another January 2nd to start again!  That would seriously suck!  A wasted year! Ugh!  Nope, I will rest in my relationship with Jesus, knowing that as I do that, He will gently speak to me through the Holy Spirit who lives in me to make those corrections and to remind me of how to be a better representation of Him throughout my day.  Ahhh… peace.  I’m longing for it.

Although I enter the blog world daily for my favorite reads, I have not blogged myself for a loooooooong time, so here’s an update…

• Yesterday, my daughter turned 19. She insisted on inviting the whole world over to the house for a “cookout.”  Our grill is the size of a large pizza, so I insisted it needed to be changed to a potluck. Thanks to everyone who came out and brought food to share.  We had a great time and the weather was beautiful.  Skyler grilled hot dogs on the back porch while Eric kept the fire going on the front porch. Michaela received so many nice cards and gifts. She will now be preparing for her next “event.” My Dad will be taking her to Spain, Portugal and Morocco next week for her graduation “historic lesson tour” gift - his gift to each grandchild after high school graduation.  She is making me nervous with all this world traveling and making new friends everywhere.  When she invites the “whole world” to her party next year, I might need a larger house.

• Over this past weekend, we had a wonderful visit from our pastor, Dan Stallbaum from East Coast Christian Center in Merritt Island, Fl.  We had fun catching up and sharing stories about our churches and all the amazing people involved in them and all that God is doing.  We talked about our future and the crazy plans we have to bring  more people closer to God.  Pastor Dan spoke to Shoreline on Sunday morning and there were not many dry eyes in the place. After church we ate at Aj’s where the Destin Rodeo has the fish weigh ins. Dan met both Miss Destin and that crazy pirate guy at AJ’s who likes to squeeze girls as they get a picture with him, and then HE wants a tip - the nerve of that old pirate dude! Later in the day, he spoke to our volunteers at a potluck and spoke about having “IT.” He gave everyone Craig Groeschel’s new book and gave us all a good dose of wisdom - which is his strength. I usually hate potlucks and all the funky food things people bring from home with possible cat or dog hair in them.  This potluck was typical Shoreline style, with beautigul, creative food that was real yummy.
• I have been feverishly working out with my friend and trainer Mary Ann Myers.  I am starting to see results after 6 months of hard work.  Pray for me that I stick with it and get to my glorious goal!

That’s it for today. I’m off for a run on the beach and ready to get to work on some Shoreline Church business. More updates coming…

Today, my husband flew on a plane to California and will be headed to Bali, Indonesia tomorrow evening.  He will be meeting up with our daughter and her friend Lindsay to encourage them on their missionary journey and to make a few exciting ministry connections for Shoreline.  They will be surfing, too! (To find out more about Eric’s travel/surfboard mishaps, take this blog party over to his blog.) He will be gone for 2 weeks, so I am going to try to keep this blog party going since I will have some time on my hands.

I started my 2 week “husband vacation” by having sushi by myself at Harbor Docks.  I really enjoyed chatting with the sushi chefs and watching the Coast Guard board boats for seemingly no good reason in the harbor.  Another cool thing was that Yoshi (THE famous sushi chef) made my sushi tonight.

More tomorrow…

Darlene

P.S. - To keep this blog party going, check out my oldest kid’s blog from today.  It is from an interview he did with a Christian Music website about their new CD being released this fall.  Great interview, Harbor!  You make me proud!