I’m getting ready for my January Revolution Resolutions. January is the month of “Abundance” at my church and to honor that I am going to be giving abundantly to different charitable organizations – both of my time and my money. Every day in January I’ll be either physically volunteering, donating money, or donating items to at least one charitable organization. I’ve been doing some online research and have a list of organizations I want to help that are both local, national, and international.

I also have started volunteering weekly at Cridlin Food and Clothing Pantry and will start volunteering at Tri-State AIDS Task Force next week. Many, many years ago I supported the Chicken Soup Brigade, a Seattle charity that helped people living with HIV/AIDS, and am happy to be helping out even more in that arena again. I’ll be (wo)manning the TSATF office once a week.

I thought about doing a “Year in Review” List and it just seemed too hard – my mind is not what it used to be and I can barely remember last week!

So I decided to break it down by month

January – Absolutely nothing! January is the Tri-State is a bit of a downer. Hibernating is key!

February – led a Bible Study group at my church entitled “Just Eating”

- participated in a local art show – and won an award!

March - found that someone had painted  horrible racist graffiti all over a local business right around the corner from me – and put out a Facebook call to gather people to cover it up – and we did!

-Chris was in a car accident that put him out of work for 2 months – tough times

-started a vegetable garden and discovered I love digging in the dirt! My dad, the farmer, is so proud. And the kids really love it as well.

April – took a lovely roadtrip to Lexington – so close and yet so far

May – watched two of the best people I know get married – and got to photograph it for them

June – spearheaded our church’s participation in the Pride activities in Charleston,WV

-watched the amazing William Kittinger in his acting debut

July – was a lunch lady at our church’s vacation bible school

-started a journey into minimalism – still on that journey

August – my babygirl started kindergarten – she really isn’t a baby anymore – sniff!

- did a 10-day juice fast with Chris – who knew vegetable juice could be so yummy?

September – headed to New Orleans and helped rebuild a Hurricane Katrina-damaged church – lifechanging!

October – went on the best family vacation ever – at Deep Creek Lake, MD

- Chris lost his job and I starting working again after more than a year as a stay-at-home mom – major life adjustment

- began participation in Project 333 – choosing just 33 items of clothing to wear for 3 months. A major change for this former fashionista – and the funny thing I think I’ve gotten more fashion compliments recently than in the past 10 years – simplification is good

November – led a food drive at my church that raised over 6,000 items of food that were donated to two food local food pantries and Tri-State AIDS Task Force

December – started volunteering at Cridlin Food and Clothing Pantry

- preached the Christmas Eve sermon at my church