What I Did on My Winter Break...

I can honestly say that in the 17 years of teaching English, I never assigned this pathetically unoriginal theme to my students. Now to blog on this, though, is entirely different.

But as tempting as it is to lay out in minute detail how I bummed around my house for two weeks, I'll refrain. (Although, I did become quite proficient in assembling Josh's Star Wars/ Pirates Lego sets- each one with a minimum of 500+ pieces...ugh!) But instead, - as I just spent the last 15 or 20 minutes looking back at my 2007's posts, it struck me as to how easy it can be to forget all the things that go on in your life in just a year. So here's my top monthly highlights from this past year...

• January: Josh's testing for his gold karate belt- the little dude was ecstatic!


• February: Monster Jam at the Gund with Josh and Marie


• March: Some old geyser turned 40


• April: Tribe snowy home opener


• May: trip to Boston for the Advancement Council seminar


• June: Father's Day at the Jake with the little guy


• July: Boettler Park Sand Volleyball with Sandman, Quick-Serve, and the rest of the gang


• August: Back to school and learning the Admissions gig


• September: The Labor of Love Run with Josh, and the Akron Roadrunner Relay Marathon Race with Maureen, Emily, Jeff, and Glen


• October: Marie's 13th birthday on the Nautica Queen


• November: Kalahari Thanksgiving- nothing like eatin' turkey in your swim trunks


• December: Chapel Christmas Concerts and chillin' with the kids over the break

So what's ahead for 2008? I'm definitely, positively, without any doubt, going to run the 1/2 marathon in Cleveland. We all just joined the new YMCA that opened up in downtown Barberton, and I'll do some running and light cross-training up through the end of February. Then- come March- I've got a program that I intend to follow to build up the stamina that I'll need to complete the 13 mile race. I'm hoping that I can convince a certain piano guy that I know to run the race with me this year...we'll see.

Secondly, I'm going to continue my Bible study with Greg. I started an on-line Bible blog site last year at this time, and God love Greg, he has stuck with me for an entire year. We've gotten almost all the way through the history books (we're currently on Nehemiah), and then the game plan is to tour the gospels throughout the Lenten period. No doubt I would not have persevered with this project had I not had somebody to bounce ideas off of...again, thanks so much for sticking with me on this Greg.

Thirdly, I'm going to make a concerted effort to set aside time each week- more than likely when the kids go to bed- to really hone my guitar skills- or lack thereof. I'm privileged to be able to play with such incredible musicians, and there is so much that I want to be able to do on the acoustic- it just takes that dreaded "p" word...practice, practice, practice.

And then I guess I'll keep blogging away. Hard to believe, but this will be my 242nd post, as I started in December 2005. What began as a unique little hobby has really taken off for me as an opportunity to reflect on the events and people in my life. It's fun and it keeps me out of trouble.