I wanted to share with you some photos of our past year.  My life isn’t much different from yours.  Quite a bit of time is spent working on the blog and podcast, but I have other interests and responsibilities.

Liberty University Course Work

I returned to full-time course work at Liberty University throughout 2017.  I really enjoy the compressed classes.  A semester’s worth of material is crammed into 8 weeks.  It’s intense but never boring.  I spent an average of 6 hours a day either, reading, writing, or taking tests.  I thought an online program with open-book tests would be a piece of cake.  Wrong.  It was much tougher than I anticipated.  However, I accepted the challenge and managed to maintain a 4.0.  (Yeah, I’m a little proud of that.  My 50ish year old brain still works!)  I need to finish my BS in Psych (Christian Counseling) to go on and earn my masters in marriage and family therapy.

A Visit to Wilmington, NC

I only returned to my beloved city once this past year.  It was hard because the whole time I knew I was going to have to leave again.  But, I tried to live in the moment and be joyous each day I was there.  Not only did I visit with many friends, my two sons (and meeting a new girlfriend for the first time), I helped with a fundraiser for the outreach ministry I served while I lived there, Christian Women’s Job Corps.  Here is a picture of the fundraiser, “The Parade of Tables.”

A Baby Shower to celebrate my great-niece’s arrival

Dave and I returned to our roots in Indiana for the first time in a couple of years to help celebrate the impending  arrival of my sister’s second grandchild, my great-niece.  Smelling the cornfields and cows, and feeling the lush green grass underfoot took me straight back to childhood.  I held warm feelings of a long-ago home and a little bitter yearning, too, for days gone by.  I was so happy to see my sisters over this weekend.  Since our parents are gone, my sisters and I are closer than ever.  We have a group text nearly every morning, now.

Our Grandblessing

While we are in Florida, we live closest to our oldest son and his family.  So, we had lots of opportunities to be with our little granddaughter.  She is very precocious and doesn’t lack personality.  She brightens our life with much love.

Support our community

Rounding into our second year in Florida, we tried to become more involved in our community.  Even though I didn’t have much extra time with school work, we managed to squeeze in a couple of small events.  We walked with the local Lymphoma and Leukemia chapter in honor of Dave’s dear mother who passed several years ago of Leukemia.

And, we were invited to support the Jupiter Lighthouse Historical Society by attending their nighttime gala on the grounds of the lighthouse.  That was a lot of fun, milling around on the grounds right by the waterway to the sounds of live music.

We attended an event that Val Kilmer hosted at the Palm Beach Improv.  Here is a picture of us with Val Kilmer.

We wrapped up the year with a Christmas trip to the Bahamas with our children.  I wrote about it in Merry Christmas, 2017. Here, Dave and I are waiting for our Ferry over to Freeport.  What you can’t see is our very sleepy children standing in line behind us.  It was 5:00 in the morning.

What’s in store for 2018?

Personal Life

If you read my Christmas 2017 post, you’ll know that Dave was laid off without much warning in mid-December.  Just a few weeks later, he secured another job. Praise God!  With this job, he once again is working out of the house.

I immediately realized we didn’t have to stay in Florida with his new job.  Have you ever been on vacation a little too long and are ready to go home?  That’s how I was feeling before the lay-off.

Dave and I prayerfully put our heads together.  I would dearly love to return to Wilmington, but the cost of living there is not that much cheaper than here.  We are looking toward retirement in a few years and need to make some good financial decisions not just emotional ones.  Because we were both inspired separately about the same city, we feel it is where God is leading us, Knoxville, TN.  We will be much closer to family and the cost of living is 30% cheaper than here.  (If anyone is wondering, I’m on hiatus from university work until we get settled in Knoxville.)

At least before we leave, we were able to do this one silly thing we’ve always wanted to do – wrap our front yard palm trees in Christmas lights.

So, I will end this personal review with a prayer request.  Please pray for God to be involved in the sale of our current home.  It’s on the market and we’ve had lots of action, but no one has taken hold, yet.

Blog Life

You are stuck with me. 🙂

I will continue writing thoughts to you on building sexual interest and how to smooth the conflict in marriages with mismatched sex drives.  I will also continue to be involved in our bi-weekly podcast, Sex Chat for Christian Wives.

Will I continue to have the ocean themed blog while living in the mountains of Knoxville?  Yes.  I will always love the ocean whether I live near it or not.

I’d LOVE to hear how I can better help you.  What topics would you like to see me address more fully?  Is there anything you’d like to see me do different?  Drop a comment below or send me a message through the “contact” button up top.  I’ll see what I can do.

Thank you for your loyal friendship.  I appreciate each and every one of you!  I hope someday to meet you in real life and share a meal.  Anybody out there live in Knoxville?

And on another note, how would you feel about retreats with me and maybe a few of my friends that you might know……. would that be of interest?