Summer Sabbatical Scoop 5

05 Jul Summer Sabbatical Scoop 5

It’s Sunday night and Colleen and the boys took off for home a while ago. Colleen works in the morning and the boys have their own different football activities they have to be back for. I am taking advantage of the time for some solitude, as well as cleaning the RV and packing things up to get ready to go in the morning.

The weekend was a hoot! On Thursday, we took the boys to Nojoqui Falls. A good hike and some good exercise and certainly beautiful surroundings, but the Falls were not much this year. Most likely due to drought.

On Thursday night, Colleen and Joshua arrived around 10 pm. My friend’s wife and his girls showed up I guess around the same time.

Friday morning, we slept in and rested a lot. Quite wonderful. In the afternoon, the boys hooked up for more crawdad fishing and thoroughly enjoyed it. The evening was our families together at the campsite while I BBQ’d two whole chickens and a tri-tip….yum!!!

Dessert was Smore’s at the campfire. This week, we discovered Smore’s made with a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup instead of a plain piece of chocolate. If you’re a peanut butter lover, you gotta try it.

I’ve pretty much stayed away from a lot of sweets (some have been irresistible, I must say….) this week. I’ve started back at the gym the week before we left for camping. An application on my iPhone has been greatly aididng me in tracking my calories and exercise. I have set a goal to get to a certain weight by next Summer. We’ll see how it goes, but the first two weeks has been getting my body used to exercising again.

On Saturday, we had the surprise of some friends from church who came to visit for the day. Among them was Ceci Haedt, our Foursquare Ignite student who just returned from a missions trip to Japan and Korea. It was great to hear some about her time there and hang with good friends through the day.

We considered fireworks in Santa Barbara (30 minute drive) or Solvang (10 minute drive), but opted for neither of them. The boys weren’t all that interested, so we ordered pizza and watched a movie together until our friends who’ve been here all week returned from Santa Barbara.

Today, we again rested in the morning. We spent a few moments together as a family in Scripture and praying together before launching out for the afternoon. I want my boys to know that it isn’t church just when we go to church. We are the Church, so church ahppens anywhere God’s people gather. We were gathered here today, so we had church!

Spent the afternoon walking through Solvang, picking up souvenirs for the boys (a somewhat tradition) and then saying our good-byes.

Since Josh was only here a couple of days, he was bemoaning not having spent much time camping. So we’re hoping for another stint in a few weeks once he has his three week break from practice before his two-a-days begin. We’ll see.

Blessings to all of you reading this. For those at NewHeart, I sure miss you, and look forward to our future together! I pray for you regularly and think of you daily!

Until next time …