Welcome 2014.

I’m a little slow with this post, but HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I hope everyone had a great holiday season, and is looking forward to a HEALTHY and happy 2014!

My New Year’s Eve was a blast!  My husband and I hosted a party and had a wonderful evening filled with great friends and lots of laughs.  I even got to decorate my new chalkboard bargain that I found on our trip to Chicago last weekend.  (OK, I didn’t decorate it, my daughter Mikah did but you get the point. 🙂  ) It was a wonderful evening that took our minds off of things — even if only for an evening.

2013 was a very difficult year for my family, because of my daughter’s sudden decline in health.  Instead of dwelling on it being a rough year, and rejoicing that we were kicking it to the curb, I prefer to be optomistic about it and focus on all of the great lessons I learned, or was reminded of, along the way.

With that, I bring you . . .

13 things I learned in 2013:

1. Don’t take your good health for granted. In less than a year, I have watched my daughter go from being a record holding athlete within her school district to missing 39 days …of school in the first semester.

2. Never give up –especially if your gut is telling you something isn’t right. If we had given up searching for answers for Lukah, we would not know what was wrong with her, as she was misdiagnosed THREE times in seven months. What if I had given up and went with the first doctor’s thoughts?

3. Someone always has it worse than you do — be empathetic and kind.

4. Things can always get worse. But, you learn the most from the hard lessons to take it all in and move on a stronger person because of them.

5.  Crying is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of being human.

6. There are a lot of extremely generous people in this world. I have had so many people help my family this year when they did not have to. They did it out of the goodness of their hearts, and I appreciate it more than they will ever know.

7.  When someone does something nice for you, remember to pay it forward.

8.  Petting an adorable dog can take away your problems, even if only for a few moments.

9. Pick your battles. In the grand scheme of things, does it really matter that she left the cheese wrapper on the counter? No. What matters is that she was here to eat the cheese.

10. God will not give you more than you can handle. I’ve questioned this a time or two but I must believe He knows what he is doing.

11.  Always, always, always look for the good in the bad situations. My daughter is chronically ill and it sucks, but I can see good things within it. For example, I believe she and I have become closer because of it, and I have DEFINITELY become a more empathetic person.

12. Don’t judge others. My daughter may not look sick, but is dealing with pain every day. Just because her illness is not visible doesn’t mean she is not suffering.

13. Choose the brightest path. Don’t waller in your misery. A favorite lyric of mine is by the Beatles, “But tomorrow may rain, so I’ll follow the sun.” – John Lennon. No matter how hard things get, I will always choose to follow the sun.

Happy New Year everyone!

(And take time to listen to this wonderfully happy and inspiring song by The Beatles:  http://youtu.be/_Uk_6WWy0RA)

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