The Year by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1850 – 1919

What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That's not been said a thousand times?

The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.

We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.

We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.

We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our brides, we sheet our dead.

We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that's the burden of the year.

Year end summary of Trump’s record

Jobs are plentiful. The White House says seven million jobs have been created since Donald Trump’s election. Record numbers of Americans are employed, and wages are rising as employers compete for workers. The headline unemployment rate is at its lowest in 50 years, with minorities in particular enjoying the fruits of this labor.

The stock market has continued to break records, yielding benefits for the investment and retirement accounts of more than half of all Americans. The Dow Jones average rose 22% in 2019, while the S&P was up 29% and the NASDAQ climbed 35%. When Trump was elected, the market was pretty volatile, and New York Times economist Paul Krugman predicted, “If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never.” Boy was he ever wrong.

Consumer optimism is reflected in year-end retail sales. Gary Bauer notes, “Retail sales surged 3.4% over last year, led by record online spending. The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a critical time for the economy. According to Reuters, sales during these few weeks can account for up to 40% of all annual sales for many retailers.”

Regulations reduced. Economic growth comes when government gets out of the way, contrary to the “stimulus” philosophy of the last administration. The White House says, “Since taking office, President Trump has rolled back nearly 8 regulations for every new one, saving American taxpayers more than $50 billion in the process — with bigger savings still to come.” That includes rolling back a lot of his predecessor’s environmental controls. The Daily Caller reports that Trump “nixed nearly 100 environmental regulations during his first three years in office.”

Not only has Trump cut red tape, he’s been slow to add new regulations. According to The Washington Times, “The Trump administration issued the fewest new regulations during 2019 than in any year since the government began keeping track more than four decades ago.” All three of the lowest regulation totals belong to President Trump.

Judicial appointments. Not all of Trump’s success has been economic. An astounding 20% of the federal judiciary is now composed of Trump appointments after the Republican-controlled Senate has confirmed 187 of his nominees. For the pace of that success, Republicans at least owe a wink and nod to former Democrat Senate Leader Harry Reid, who nuked the filibuster for judges in 2013. Judges were a big reason for millions of conservative votes in 2016, and Trump has delivered.

Defeating terrorists. After Barack Obama fomented the rise of the Islamic State, Trump has spent three years fighting back. It hasn’t been free of controversy, but it’s hard to argue with success like the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.

Other gains include military funding and rebuilding, immigration policy, and — we hope — trade.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/67646  Nate Jackson

A good start to the New Year

What a fabulous way to end the old and start the new.  UALC had its 12th New Year's Eve Jazz Worship service, and as I looked around, the sanctuary at Mill Run appeared nearly full (seats about 700).  We enjoyed some TV theme song favorites with audience participation, then some great jazzed up hymns, a sermon from Pastor TJ, a moving communion service with all our pastors and their wives serving, and final closing. Then we went out to eat with Bill and Joyce, got turned away at Houlihan's so we migrated to our old stand-by Rusty Bucket on Lane and had a lovely meal and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Beginning the New Year with God and friends--you can't beat that.

Greetings for the new year

"Then sing, young  hearts that are full of cheer, with never a thought of sorrow; the old goes out, but the glad young year comes merrily in tomorrow."-Emily Miller

    My friend Lynne writes to her high school classmates, “ found this in 1960 when the 50's slipped off the radar scene and thought, ‘My goodness -1960-that sounds strange,’-now it’s 2015 – friends, we have come a long way-hasn't it been fun and isn't it good to be alive... enjoy the coming  year and may all good things come your way... Lynne

More New Year’s Resolutions possibilities

           

I was thinking maybe a good New Year’s resolution could be to clean one shelf a day, but I counted just my office and there were 32.  Some are behind cabinet doors, some on top of my desk, some are removable shelves on top of immovable shelves. Need to rethink this.  Perhaps my target was set too low. Three a day, perhaps. The last time there was a complete cleaning was when the office was repainted—maybe five years ago.  It had green and cream stripe wallpaper.  There was a partial cleaning in autumn 2012 when the carpeting was replaced and the desk and photo albums bookshelf had to be moved.

I think my 5 minutes a day on my Power Spin 210 will be about right. I’ve already completed and exceeded that resolution, at least for January 1.

                   

My New Year’s Resolution 2013

I did this.  Only put 4 slips of paper in it.  But I looked at it today.  I had forgotten all 4, so it’s still a nice plan, if you can keep up with it. I guess this is what blogs are for: web logs, a log you keep on the world wide web.

Here’s my plan

"Lang may yer lum reek!"

We Bruces don't have any Scottish customs (but I do have a genealogy from Cousin Jim Bruce going back to Scotland), but I thought this one might be nice. A traditional Scottish New Year toast is: "Lang may yer lum reek!" It's not as racy as it sounds. It means "Long may your chimney smoke"--a reference to coal and keeping warm and prosperous. We've come a long way since enough coal for the fireplace was a good luck toast. We are very blessed indeed!

I'm going to try the "drop a note about the good things that happen" in a jar idea and then read them next New Year's Eve--an idea which I found on Facebook. I have a nice glass jar with a blue lid that had candy in it--from a client, I think. So I dropped in a note this evening about the wonderful church service last night and dinner with friends to bring in the New Year (technically not 2013, but a nice memory), and I asked my husband for a good thing, and he said, "Northwestern won its first bowl game in 64 years."

From Day 1 of the page a day calendar we got from sister Debbie.

"God uses marriage to help us eliminate loneliness, multiply our effectiveness, establish families, raise children, enjoy life, and bless us with relational intimacy. But beyond this, marriage also shows us our need to grow and deal with our own issues and self-centeredness through the help of a lifelong partner."

Waterford's Times Square Ball

When we were in Ireland in 2007, we visited the Waterford factory and watched the incredibly skilled glass blowers, visited the museum (of duplicates) and the gift shop.



In January of this year, it declared bankruptcy. This year, the company made a Celtic knot pattern dedicated to the theme “Let There be Courage” for the traditional Times Square Ball. They'll need it.



From Nick Obourn here’s a little bit more information on the Times Square Ball itself: The 2010 version of the New Year’s Eve ball for Times Square is a twelve foot geodesic sphere, which weighs 11,875 pounds. The ball itself is covered in 2,668 Waterford Crystals and is powered by 32,256 Philips LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes). And believe it or not, the ball is capable of creating a palette of “more than 16 million colors” and “billions of patterns,” according to the Times Square Alliance website

'Twas the day before Christmas
and all through our house
all of us were bustling
even my spouse.

Our children are adults now,
happy and busy
with final shopping, all
in a tizzy.

With potatoes and cole slaw,
cranberries, pork roast,
apple bacon stuffing,
dinner we'll host.

Silent Night, Joy to the World
the carols we'll sing
9 p.m. service to
Jesus our king.

I ponder all my blessings,
read each Christmas card,
and thank the good Lord as
I pray so hard

for all my loved ones who will
gather around our tree,
in two thousand and eight
happy will be.