1 mega concussion, 1 broken shoulder, 1 bruised lung, 2 fractured vertebrae, 6 cracked ribs....1 happy camper. not only happy but humbled and extremely thankful camper.

As so many of you are aware - I had the pleasure of being a casualty in a huge windstorm a couple weeks ago. It seems our neighbours back decking blew off, went over the top of their house and came through our front door and windows. It also seems that I was in the process of getting my daughter and nieces down stairs into safety. I was hit in the stairway and knocked out. I say "it seems" because I haven't even the foggiest recollection of these events. I do know that my family is safe and I'm alive - all the rest is just not that important.

God gave us many miracles that day. People were home when they weren't supposed to be, others arrived just when they needed to and our medical system ran like the dream Tommy Douglas always thought it would be.

I have many things in my heart to share and go through. But I'm still on mega drugs and my time here at computer-land is limited. The most important things I need to share today are these....
-Go hug the people you care about. Just because.
-I have to say thank you. Which is very inadequate. I am undone by the wave of flowers, cards, phone calls and visits. I am completely and in every way thankful to each and every one of you who has brought meals and treats and who has thought of my parents, my sister's family, and Reid and my girls.

So thanks. a million thanks. and much more.

I'm well into the throws of my list of things to accomplish. Some are simple (well, relatively speaking) like changing our bedroom around or laying down the carpet we've had in the basement for hmmmm.... 2 years!?! So I guess maybe I've got it divided into categories. House, Personal (subdivided into physical, spiritual, intellectual), Family and Community. In all these areas I have things I'd like to accomplish. And some of them are very simple - for instance under 'community' I've written things like bring some cookies to my elderly neighbors (simple) as well as have a film festival for the community, held at our Church, and focusing on Social Justice causes (not so simple).

One thing Reid & I are going to do throughout this year is see every movie that won a 'Best Picture' Oscar. Some may be hard to find (the early years) but we've got a long way to go before we get to them! We've probably seen a little less than half of them already and there are many that just one of us has seen. Our rule is that we both have to see it although Reid's already said that he's pretty sure I can't handle movies like Schindler's List or Silence of the Lambs. We'll have to see. It may just be that I don't sleep for a few days afterwards!

Another is to expand my reading. I noticed that this past year was the 'year of reading tritely'. So I'm going to change that. If you have any suggestions for me please let me know. I'm open to anything - just let it feed me something healthy instead of junk food.

p.s. Lisa, you'll be happy to know that I'm kicking this off with the classic "Anna Karenina".

Know what I love? (besides chocolate, coffee, my family...& no, they aren't in order!)

Beginnings. I love the fresh clean paper of a new notebook. I love brand new pens and pencils. I love opening a book I've never read before. I love Spring and blossoms and new green grass.

January is of course the perfect time to think of beginning. Starting new & fresh in a brand new year. I was over at a friends blog reading about her 'list' for the new year. I'm going to get to work on my own list of to do's. I'm a list maker anyway and now is a good time to set out a fresh "master list". The stuff bigger than "get out of bed and brush my teeth"!

We have friends who are going to have their first baby any time. Talk about new beginnings! Such an exciting time. What an adventure they are about to embark on. It seems like we were in that place just a breath ago. Somewhere along the way I seem to have hit warp speed.

Ah well, I'm going to go find some clean paper, a pencil and start writing.