Each year that passes makes me appreciate a little more just how blessed I am. I have a wonderful family that loves me unconditionally (believe me, I give them plenty of reasons not to), a kind and supportive husband, great parents who continue to pass on daily lessons of faith and life (whether I'm asking or not) both verbally and by example and a challenging job with fun co-workers and great customers. I know it sounds hokey but I can sound however I want on my birthday. Yes, and today, my family is taking me to the St. Patrick's Irish Picnic in McEwen, TN. One of the priests in the Diocese used to work with us at St. Mary's and has been assigned to St. Patrick's and so we are venturing down Hwy 70 for about an hour and spending the day playing games and eating BBQ and checking out Fr. Michael's new home.

In the past several weeks, as I've pondered my life as I always do close to a birthday, I've noticed my biggest fault in life is that I'm not focused. Not to mention that I have a bad habit of jumping on band wagons but that confession will have to wait for a different time. I've pondered and I've deceided to spend this next year trying to rein in my life and stay focused on one "thing" at a time. And I mean in a spiritual sense. The most difficult part is that I love everything I do. I love spending time with my family and I love working and I love my friends and I love to write and I love to read and to learn and to send those mini biographies of the Saints to Italy and I love to work in the yard and I have to cook and to shop and I have to do the laundry and pick up and I'm all over the place. So today I hand down a little piece of my personal self and admit that for one year I'm going to work on improving my focus on how all these "things" I do can get me closer to Jesus and I'll let you know little by little how it goes. But for today, I'm spending the day with family and friends in McEwen, TN focused just on them (after I work a little on a few more Saint's bios). God please give us good weather.