Kick 2020 out the door!

 Thanks to Joyce at From This Side of the Pond for the questions. Copy the questions and answer and link up!

1. Tell us about your favorite moment or share one of the bright spots from the year we're leaving behind. There are probably many good moments and bright spots from this crazy year but one of my favorites is the fact that I know many more neighbors by name! I'm taking a few days off this week and when I was out walking today (it was 62 degrees with sunshine!), I spoke to numerous people and called them by name! I didn't know them before the pandemic. When I worked from home (mid March through the end of May), I walked for 10 minutes every day after I ate my lunch. I had a short little route around our circle and down a few blocks and back. I met so many people! I've expanded that walk to a larger area in our neighborhood and it feels good to be known and to know others.

2. What do you wish you'd known at the start of 2020? Elaborate. I hope I'm always learning and growing and 2020 has certainly required learning and growing. I wish I had known that I needed to spend every moment I could with friends because we miss our friends! I'm going to be honest. If you had told me that we couldn't hang out and have supper club or have friends over, I wouldn't have believed you. Even in mid-March, I truly thought it was going to be over in a couple of weeks.

3. Best book you read this year? If you did not read any books this year, what's the best thing you ate all year? We've all eaten, right? I have read SOOO many books this year! I enjoyed Fannie Flagg's newest book - The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop (I live in Alabama!). Some of my favorites were All The Light We Cannot See and The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. How about The Girl with the Louding Voice?? I liked The Giver of Stars, too. I read some more books by James Patterson and some by John Grisham. Oh my goodness -- have you read Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral. Ok - I should be embarrassed. I did it again. You asked for one book and I told you about a WHOLE bunch of books. I also read some wonderful and silly cozy mysteries - they are my secret reading pleasure. I've read over 100 books this year for pleasure. I'm not counting the Bible, commentaries and books I've read in order to facilitate on Tuesday nights and Sunday mornings. 

What is the best thing I ate this year? I can't answer that with one thing either! I had falafel straight out of the grease in the Old City of Jerusalem and it was DELICIOUS.

 I had lots of wonderful hummus and pita bread, too, and an orange at a home in Palestine that was divine! 

We've been ordering meat from Evan's Meats - a local company in town that usually sells to restaurants. Due to the pandemic, they have opened up to the public. You can go online and order and pay and then drive through and they will load the meat in the back of your car - contactless pick up! We've had some amazing filets and I've eaten my weight in Alabama shrimp since March.

4. The Pantone Colors of the year for 2021 are ultimate gray and illuminating yellow (a bright shade)...are you a fan? Would we find either of these colors in your home or wardrobe? When we purchased our home, the decorator wanted to show me all of the gray paint chips. I think it looks lovely in someone else's home but I think I would begin to feel "gray" if I lived in it all of the time. Illuminating yellow sounds fun and to be honest, it probably looks great with the gray. I have a small yellow sofa in our loft area upstairs and some yellow pillows and a yellow throw. I don't think they are "illuminating yellow" though.

5. If you were/are making a list of 21 things to do/accomplish in 2021 what is one thing that would be on it? Dadgum - I am not doing well with these "one thing" questions. I want to travel. I want to be with friends. I want to sit around our dining room table with friends and family and laugh until I hurt! I want to be back in fellowship with our church family. I want to kneel at the altar rail and take communion the real way - not from a disposable "peel the lid" cup. I want to eat at Hot and Hot Fish Club (wonderful local restaurant with an award winning chef). I want to hug people (and I'm not a hugger!).

6. Insert your own random thought here. Many years ago, I felt like God was calling me to the foreign mission field. I applied through the denomination where I had grown up and I was rejected because I was divorced. "Man" might not have thought me worthy to spread the gospel but God had other plans. Today I was reminded of the fact that we are all called to the priesthood of believers - we are all called to be ministers in different ways. I love when you finish something and you realize that God was right smack in the middle!

You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood . . .but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter Chapter 2)