Good riddance 2012

Two thousand twelve was not a good year for me/us. I am glad to see it go. And it ended so fittingly. We had plans to spend New Year's Eve with another couple, but Jane got sick. I feel so bad that she feels bad. She was a trooper and we did manage to at least go out for supper. It was our first time going to Chappell's. It was good, but way too expensive for my tastes. And the place is kind of small. But we had a good time with friends. We then just came home and vegged in the basement. We were both probably snoozing by 10 pm. I didn't even want to see the year out.

2012 did have some good points. The highlight was definitely the birth of our grandson (Bennett). He was born on 10-11-12. You can already tell that he is going to be quite the character. He has a really great smile. And our granddaughter (Anna) continues to be such a joy.

Equally good news for 2012 was the engagement of Isaac and Ricci. They are still in San Fransisco - having just got engaged on their way there via train. We are pretty excited about their upcoming wedding this year.

I suppose running my first half marathon (13 miles) was pretty exciting too. I really enjoyed it, and it's one of the few goals I have set for myself in awhile and actually accomplished. Unfortunately I haven't been able to run since then because of my knees, so that's kind of a downer.

Otherwise, I can't really think of too much to be happy about for 2012 (at least off the top of my head). My cousin died, my knees hurt, and I had one of the worst birthday's ever. I was actually looking forward to turning 50 this year, but it turned out to be so disappointing that I don't know if I will ever recognize another one. Not because of my age - that didn't even bother me this year - but just because of the letdown and unmet expectations I had for it. On top of that, after thinking 2011 was one of the worst years we'd had, 2012 was even worse still as far as the church goes. Probably a fourth of our people left this year. And some of them didn't just leave, but tried to do as much damage as they could in the process. And it's still not over. It is all very frustrating and heartbreaking.

Interestingly enough, even though my wife doesn't write anything on her blog anymore, her last blog post was from the beginning of last year. It says:

Well, here it is the 3rd day of a new year. Wish I could say it was starting off on a positive note, but not so much. What is a person to do?

Sometimes trying to understand people can zap one of every ounce of energy. Why is it that what can seem to make perfect sense to some makes no sense to someone else? Maybe it is me (us) - maybe it is them, either way, it is exhausting.

That is still pretty much where we are. I looked back through my daily journal yesterday and realized that we are still dealing with some of the exact same issues. Some of the names have changed, but the spirit remains the same.

Of course I say all that and realize that not all is bad. We do have some great friends - both inside and outside the church. And even at church, there HAVE been some really good things happen this year. They just seem to get overshadowed by the bad things. We are also still very proud of our kids and grandkids - they are all pretty amazing. And we've still got one another. Also, even though Jane's bank went through a merger this year, she seems to have survived it so far and she has a good job. We also still like our house and neighborhood. I guess we really do have a lot to be thankful for.

Sometimes I am tempted to say maybe we should just ditch all the bad in 2013 and get on with the good, but I'm not sure that's how Jesus really wants us to live. Sometimes life is just hard and relationships messy, and you have to work through things. So... we will just continue on. One day at a time; step by step; a long obedience in the same direction. I do catch little glimmers of hope every now and then. You just never know... God has been known to turn things around in some pretty amazing ways before. Anything really is possible.

That's about all I've got for live blogging on this first day of the new year. The wife is on the couch sick as a dog, I'm still in my pajamas, and it's cold outside. There ya go. Happy New Year to ya!