Almost to the half-way point...

I realized as I was driving the kids to school today that in a week we'll be at the mid-point of the sabbatical. Time sure flies when you are having fun. I'm learning a lot and having time to slow down and reflect on things that usually don't get much time to rattle around in my head. I've not been blogging much. I could blame it on the fear of what Mike Davis might put in the comments, but I think that's not the case. Sometimes blogging just becomes another thing to do. I'm trying to focus on minimizing those kinds of things during the sabbatical.

Our usual routine is to get up early and head off to school. After I drop the kids at school (8:00 am), I head over to Samford. I split time there between my office and the library. Last week was amazing because of the time I spent with Dr. Calvin Miller. His most recent book has been awarded the honor of being "Preaching Magazine's Preaching Book of the Year" for 2007. He's an amazing guy who has opened his office and his life to me. (We're going to church with he and his wife Barbara this week, then to their house for lunch afterward.) It's been a great opportunity to talk with this man who has been both pastor and professor throughout the past 45 years. I have found it both very affirming and challenging to talk with him about this crazy thing called preaching.

Usually by lunch time I head home and pick up Ang. We spend the afternoon together hanging out, visiting the gym (Candi keeps dreaming up new physical forms of torture for us), or toodling around Birmingham. It's been nice to actually just sit with my wife and talk about things that don't have to do with my job. We're coming up on 15 years married next week and I am more convinced than ever that this was the best decision I ever made. I pick the kids up at 3:00. We come home from school and just hang out together. Believe it or not we still kinda like each other. Sometimes we head out to the library (Huge public library here...bigger than anything I've ever seen. (They have a movie theater in the library!) Or we stay home and work on their homework, watch a movie, or American Idol.

The kids go to bed pretty early (they have to get up @ 6:45 am for school). Then we all get up and do it again. From a family standpoint everything is a highlight. It's so nice to be able to just be.

The week-ends are fun because we have to plan them. I haven't had to plan a week-end since we moved to Hope. Where will we go to church? What will I do on Saturday since here are no weddings or funerals, and best of all, no yardwork. We've found an awesome church, Shades Mountain Independent Church. We always plug in there for Sunday School and then usually head out to other churches for the worship service. Best of both worlds...the kids are making good friends and we are trying out some different styles and types of churches.

So life is good. I still kind of shake my head and am amazed that we get to do this. Yes, we miss home and the people there. And we're excited to come back to Hope...just not yet.