Saturday

I was home most of the day today, and it felt great!

I woke up a little later than normal, and I headed to the gym for a chest, shoulders, and triceps workout.  I’ve been tracking my workouts in a handwritten journal, and it has been encouraging to see the progress over the past five weeks.  I am lifting more, and there might actually be some muscle tone developing – maybe.  The workouts have definitely contributed to helping me feel more fit and a little more flexible.

When I arrived home from the gym, our whole family enjoyed brunch – homemade, baked french toast with turkey sausage and a cup of decaf coffee.  I can’t remember the last time all four of us ate breakfast together in our house (but I know it’s been at least two months).

Next, Leanne and I spent some time going over our finances – balancing the checkbook and talking about our spending for the next week or two.  We’ve missed this weekly “meeting” for the past few weeks due to our busy weekend (and weekday) schedules with visits to Messiah College, Grove City College, and DeSales University (for one of Hannah’s cross-country meets).  These weekly financial check-ins are important for our financial beings, but I think they’re also important for our marriage as well.  It’s healthy to talk about our spending, our saving, and our plans for the future.

After our financial “meeting”, we loaded everyone in the car and headed out for a few errands which included picking up items for our Operation Christmas Child boxes, a trip to the pumpkin patch, and a trip to Ott’s to get a family picture in front of the “mountain” of mums.  The trip also included a trip to the bank, so Isaac could deposit his first paychecks.  He started working at Chick-Fil-A a few weeks ago, and this is the first time he’s had a job like this.  Talking to him about savings, spending, and giving is not new to him as we’ve tried to instill this pattern in our kids life ever since they started handling money, but it was cool to talk about it again as he was figuring out what to do with his first ever paychecks.

I took a nap this afternoon.  I’ve grown to like napping on Saturday and/or Sunday afternoon.  There’s something about taking a break that helps me thrive during the rest of the week.

Tonight, Leanne and I went to our church for a special meeting with the staff and a few other people in the church.  We talked about the church’s vision for the future.  We talked about the importance of touching the lives of kids and their families in our area and around the world.  People asked great questions, and I left encouraged by the direction of our church and its leadership.  I’m convinced that our pastors have a heart for connecting broken people to God in a way that impacts them for the rest of their lives and for eternity, and it’s exciting to be part of it.  I’m praying God will continue to grant wisdom and energy to our leaders and will provide the resources for our continued impact.

And now, I’m home again.

Time for bed.  I’m looking forward to what adventures await me tomorrow.