Thanks so much to a reader for this!  Happy New Year and God's blessings to you also!

Since we'd like to kick off the new year with a tribute to faith, family, and friendship, I'd like to send to you the words that are printed on a plaque that I gave to my husband:

"I have seen God's acceptance of me in your smile...
Felt His care for me in your helping hand...
Known His love for me in your precious gift of friendship...
I have been blessed because
God gave me you...

All in a time of gratitude---all in a time to think of our blessings and know
Who is the Source of all...

Happy New Year,

Praying for all bloggers and readers that 2009 will bring them peace, health and happiness!!

Thank you to all who have prayed for me this year and my family, especially my little boy, Jonathan, who was diagnosed with leukemia last January, and my mother, who was diagnosed with a devastating recurrence of breast cancer (after 12 years cancer free) last August.  

At this point, our little boy is doing great and my mom is stable, and we are all looking forward to a new start in the new Year of Our Lord 2009.

God bless all who read and blog here!!

New research:

Vitamin D deficiency is common in pregnant women, and it may lead to an increased risk for cesarean delivery, early research suggests.

Vitamin D researcher Michael Holick, MD, PhD, and colleagues from the Boston Medical Center report that women in their study who were severely vitamin D deficient during childbirth were about four times more likely to deliver by cesarean section as women with higher vitamin D levels.

More...

Made any resolutions this year??  Broken any??  I know I have - to both.

I took some unnecessary pride in the fact that for the first time in almost 20 years I am not putting 'lose some weight' on my list.  I was able - with some grace and perseverance - to lose that during 2008.  I always put on 'pray more' but rarely say how.  I always put on 'be more patient' but rarely reflect on how that is going to happen.  Here it is only 2 days into a a new year and I feel like a failure.

Then I heard - stop it!  Stop trying to be anything other than my child.  Just be  - just be - for a moment and reflect on what that means, what does it mean to know that God, the creator of all, loves you?

So, I stopped the introspection and went to my e-mail.  I opened my inbox and read the following from a friend - hope it brings you some perspective as it did me -

Time passes and does not return.  God has assigned to each of us a definite time in which to fulfill His divine plan for our soul; we have only this time and shall have no more.  Time ill spent is lost forever.  Our life is made up of this uninterrupted, continual flow of time, which never returns.  In eternity, on the contrary, time will be no more; we shall be established forever in the degree of love which we have reached now, in time.  If we have attained a high degree of love, we shall be fixed forever in that degree of love and glory; if we possess only a slight degree that is all we shall have throughout eternity.  No further progress will be possible when time has ended.  "Therefore , while we have time, let us work good to all men" Gal 6:10,  "We must give every moment its full amount of love, and make each passing moment eternal, by giving it value for eternity" (St. Carmela of the Holy Spirit).  This is the best way to use the time give us by God.  Charity allows us to adhere to God's will with submission and love and thus at the close of life we shall have realized God's plan for our soul; we shall have reached the degree of love which God expects from each one of us and with which we shall love and glorify Him for all eternity.  (from the book, Divine Intimacy)

My resolution list for the year has made it into the trash and I will spend some time this weekend - just 3 or 4 days into the new year - not too late to think on how I can love more.