will this ever stop? Hubby and I are both miserable with this cold we have 'caught'. I spent spent nearly $200 on various Musinex, Robitussin, and various cough packages. I'm exhausted and when we went to bed last night at around 8:30PM - yep, did not stay up to watch the ball fall - we slept in separate rooms. Let me back up. Hubby felt bad enough he curled up in his 'blanket' in his recliner and didn't move from it around 11AM. I had to work, but shut down about 2:30PM as I just couldn't sit there any more. I laid on the couch, covered up in afghans, and slept most of the evening. Got up and we came to bed - and I was awake off and on during the night, but didn't get my butt out of bed until 6AM this morning - I just didn't want to get up.
I am fixing ribs, but don't need to cook until 10 or so - we aren't going anywhere anyway. I'll take some over to my daughter's since she can't cook. But other than that, we are staying home. I figure the more rest I get, the better and sooner I will feel. I hope so, anyway. I can't remember when I've laid around as much as I have already. I just want to get better.
January 1, 2026. For some reason this day doesn't hold as much excitement as it has in the past. Could it be that we've dealt with so much sickness in our family this year that it's just another day? Could it be that I just don't feel energetic due to this cold, that it is just another day? Grateful I have the day off work; grateful I could stay in bed until 6AM just because I didn't want to get up. But up I am. Have my coffee, taken my Musinex day pills. Those things are horse pills, but if they will work, I'll take them. Ugh. Every time I cough, my throat goes raw.
I can remember back to New Years Days of years past, and the fun of family gathering together, me fixing tons (literally, it seemed!) of ribs. Fixing coleslaw. Heating up black-eyed peas. I bought a small head of cabbage, but don't know that it will make itself into anything. I'm just not 'feeling' creative today. At least with the ribs I can just sear and then roll in BBQ sauce and put in the oven.
Reminds me, my little sister called me yesterday to ask how I made my ribs. I don't know about her. She has called me frequently the past few months, wanting to know how to cook things. She says she tells her hubby that he should have married me, because I'm the cook int he family. But I enjoy cooking, and obviously, she does not. But I supply her with recipes and cookbooks as she asks. It's not hard to follow a recipe - which is how I learn to make things. Ribs, though, that was me. :-) Mama always fixed a ham on New Years Day.
The 'poor man's lunch' it is called. In Tennessee, for those who know the tradition, it is pork (pork chops, ham, pork ribs, etc - anything pork), cabbage (mama sometimes would fix cooked cabbage and pork chops together) (don't know how to cook cabbage and it just doesn't appeal to me), and black-eyed peas. I buy the cans; I'm lazy. But I remember a few years back I had run into an old friend at Sprouts and she was planning a traditional New Years Dinner - and was buying a huge bag of black-eyed peas to cook 'from scratch'. Naw, I'll do the can. I'm about the only one who will eat it anyway. But, if you will eat pork, cabbage, and black-eyed peas on New Years Day (the traditional poor man's lunch), it is supposed to bring you good luck in the coming year. No, I don't believe in 'luck'; I do this to carry on my mama's tradition. I hope my children will do the same. And can't forget the coin in the coleslaw - it is to bring good luck as well.
Traditions - some are good, some are silly, and some make no sense at all. But for me, it is trying to carry on the memory of things my mama did. I miss her so much. So many times I have wished to call her and just cry, and she always understood. Didn't need words. After I finished my crying or 'belly-aching', she would just say, "well, just pray for them, they need it."
I miss that relationship with my children, and yet, I know why. Nothing I can do about that .... but pray.
Speaking of, I am trying to think of how I can change up my quiet time in the mornings. My time is limited, as you know, but I do have time to do some things. I may eliminate writing in here every day - you don't need to hear my daily whining anyway, do you?
My fast will begin on Sunday. I want to do the Daniel Fast - just fruit and vegetables and water. For 21 days. I want to cleanse my body of all the processed food I've put in it - that is making me sick. You didn't know that processed food can do that? Sure it can! It is always better to eat fresh fruit and vegetables (or frozen, it is almost like fresh). I try to think how Daniel would have eaten the fruit and vegetables in his day. It troubles my heart when I read the books on the 'Daniel Fast' and they have created these wonderful dishes of how to cook fruits and vegetables and adding all this 'stuff' to it... that is NOT a true Daniel Fast. And I believe that God will honor whatever I choose to do. I want to put Him first in 2026. Not food. Not me. Not the things that bring me joy or the things that trouble my heart. Jesus only.
1 Corinthians 5:16 (NIV): Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Think about it. Many times we put off starting a new diet until the 'new year' (or month, or week, etc.) because we want to start with a 'home base'. Why not give your life up to Jesus and start today - January 1, 2026 with living for Him.
It isn't hard. Yes, most of us (me definitely included) struggle at times, but Jesus always offers us grace. He is our best friend; the One who is always with us, always ready to pick us up and help us. He heals us; He restores us. He takes the pain that we carry so deep within us that it has become a part of our life and we don't even recognize it anymore - but He knows it is there, and He will bring healing and wholeness to us.
And all we have to do is ask Him for it. We may not get healing of the body as we ask, but He gives us so much more! He gives us healing of the soul. And, in many cases, the Lord knows much better what it is that we need.
Today, I surrender all my family members to Him and ask Him to protect them, heal them, walk with them, and draw them near to Him. I pray this is the year they will surrender their lives to the only One who can save them. A mother's greatest joy is knowing her children walk with the Lord. Not by the world's standards, but by His.
I wish you a blessed New Years Day. I pray that 2026 will be a year of blessings for you. Never turn away those who want to help you. And always be ready to give a hand to those who need you to help. Jesus says to 'give, and it will be given to you as well'. I have seen His hand work time and again. You want to know why I follow Jesus? Because He is the only One who can save me from myself; the only One who loves me when I feel I am unloved. The only One who forgives with grace, and sets me free from my past, from my present, and from my future. Jesus is my life. I pray you will make Him yours.
He isn't there to just help you out of a jam you got yourself in to. But He will walk with you to find your way out. How bad do you want His help? Just ask Him. He's waiting.
Blessings!
