How?

How do you pack for seven weeks?

Today

Lots to do today:

• Brendon's last day of school and School Family picnic
• Exchange the camping grill & pick up storage bins
• Food & Supply shopping for the trip
• Pack Clothes
  
• Celebrate my Mom's Birthday at Leatherby's (It's a tough job)
• Think of all the little stuff to pack that we haven't thought about yet
• Get the house clean and ready (never understood why we clean the house before we go and then clean it right away when we get home - why not do it once?!)
  

Last Day at the Office

It was kind of surreal walking out of my office for the last time for 7 weeks yesterday afternoon. I turned around and looked around for several minutes before closing the door. It wasn't so much out of sentimentality as it was thinking, "Now what the heck is here that I'm forgetting and am not going to have when I need it in two weeks?!"

Quick run down of my day yesterday:

• Took Brendon to school (if you can call it that, they watched movies all day) and gave his teacher her present.
• Had Breakfast with Jeff Norris and his wife
• Cleaned up some paperwork and answered questions about, "How do I...?" for the last time.
• Showed my dad and Gregg where all the lawnmowing stuff is at the house.
• Had "coffee" with Gregg at Java City (some kind of fru-fru drink for me)
• Deleted my office e-mail account off of my phone (this almost sent me into seizures)
• Went to a late lunch with Jim - wonder if that'd kind of be like a "last supper" - we ate way too much.
• Deleted the office e-mail off of my computer and removed any files that might be tempting for me to work on while I was gone. They're safely saved on multiple hard drives for when I return.
• Watched Ryan re-decorate his office. (TWO desks? - does he have multiple personality disorder?)
• Went to the orthodontist one last time for 7 weeks - I swear he put his knee in the center of my chest for leverage as he was pushing stuff in and out of my mouth. Bunch of pain...
• Packed the pick-up with stuff for Kiley's family. Packed tools for "just in case".
• Helped Kiley install the new curtains in the camper.
• Played with a GPS that a friend is loaning us - are these things cool or what?!
  
• Got the camper ready -- all we need is food and clothes! (I suggested Kiley we take a sabbatical from the latter of the two -- I got the eye roll).

It's getting real

Well, we went and picked up the truck and trailer tonight. They're both sitting out in front of the house (much to the chagrin of our HOA, I'm sure).

I backed the trailer up perfectly with no problem. I'm getting better. In fact, it's so perfect that the back bed opens up into the garage with just about an inch to spare on the one side.

Now packing begins in earnest...

Ready to go

Well, the trailer is ready to go. We've done a bunch of work on it. I've put new flooring in it. Kiley recovered the cushions. We did some sewing on (yes, I did sew!) the canvas holder for the awning and installed hooks to hold it in place. We put new slides on the ice box and sealed the drain. It has new tires and several other things. Kiley is finishing up some of the upholstery and hanging new curtains.

It's almost a new trailer!

Dad and I washed it down on Saturday and got the truck ready to go (that was a $2,000 project).

In a week, we'll move it over to our house and begin to load it.

Plans Change

With two weeks to go, we're still looking at our plans and trying to figure out what to do. Over the last two weeks we've had to put a ton of money into one of our cars and my parents truck (which we're using for the trip). So it's drained a lot of resources we were planning on using for the trip. Plus, you add the rising gas prices in (they've gone up $.25 in three days!), it's causing our plans to change almost daily.

We sat down this week and mapped out several options:

1. Yellowstone Park, Rapid City, Cobb Ranch and make our way home
2. Yellowstone Park, Rapid City, Cobb Ranch and then take I-90 across Montana to Washington and come down the coast
3. Stay around Northern California and enjoy the region
4. A combination of the above

Our original plan was: Yellowstone Park, Rapid City, Cobb Ranch, West Michigan, Oklahoma, Grand Canyon, Southern California and home, but that's probably out of the question with gas prices.

I'm still voting for just flying to Orlando and doing Disneyworld!

Bottom line, we'll be in and out of home all summer. We have a friend staying at our house, so it will be cared for in our absence.

So Much

Just 3 weekends to go before we take off. So much to do.

Have to sit down tonight with Kiley and make a list of what needs to get done.

Now it's crunch time.

Ever notice how you can get more done when it's crunch time?

Getting Ready

Been traveling over the last week on stuff for the church. Now, I've got a ton of stuff to do in the next 30+ days to get ready for this.

• Get the trailer ready
• Get Dad's truck ready
• figure out where everything is going to fit
• Watch gas prices and figure out if we can actually afford to go out of Sacramento County
• Get the staff and team ready at TRC for me not being around.
  

Countdown

60 Days and counting...

On Silence and Solitude

I've been reading on the life of the Apostle Paul lately. This morning's study was on the time just after his conversion. He had been a man who was driven by the approval of others. He had been a man who was relentless in the pursuit of his career and what he felt was right.

So, when he met Christ on the road, everything changed, and, as he describes in Galatians 1, he shifted down. He removed himself from the place of seeking human approval and allowed himself time to unplug...for three years.

Here's some snapshots of what I read this morning that are impacting what I'm thinking and praying for for this summer's sabbatical:

If you're not careful [about your time away with God], you'll quickly fill those days with things to do, places to go, and people to see. Resist that temptation to crowd out the Lord. What a perfect opportunity to carve out time to be alone, just you, the family, and the Lord. Computer off. Fax unplugged. Cell phone tossed in the ocean. So your voicemail fills up. You know what? People will survive. Believe this: They don't need you or me to make it through their day. They don't need you nearly as much as you need the relief. You say, "That's pretty radical stuff." Radical? Perhaps. Unreasonable? Absolutely not. Radical change is essential if we're going to become deeper, more effective servants [bold added is mine].

Three strategies that will help you make some sense of those radical, but essential adjustments:

First, instead of speeding up, slow down and rethink.
Taking time to discovoer what really matters is essential if we're going to lift the curse of superficiality that shadows our lives. Once Saul left Damascus and slipped into Arabia, he began taking inventory. He was alone. He walked slower. He watched sand swirl over stones. He thought deeply about his past. He relived what he had done. He considered each new dawn a gift from the Lord....time spent in solitude prepares us for the inevitable challenges that come at us from the splintered age in which we live.

Second, instead of talking more, be quiet and reflect.
Some of us talk so much we can't even remember what we've said. We've formulated answers to questions nobody asks. We put worlds on parade. [My prayer is that I would talk less this summer and learn again how to hear my Father's voice - it's distant right now and I desperately want to hear it more clearly].

Third, instead of seeking a place of power, be still and release.
What is it going to take for us to give up this idea that we've got to be somebody? Everyone joins the race for the top. Richard Foster addressed this...

"Today we have forgotten the importance of the hidden work of god. As a result (and remember this), we immediately thrust people into notoriety, bestowing on them unbelievable power, and then we wonder why they are corrupted. Unless we are ready for it, power will destroy us. This is not small matter for the Church today. Because of our wholesale ignorance of the importance of hidden preparation, we have thrust untold numbers of workers into the limelight before they were ready."
(Quotes from Chuck Swindoll's book "Paul")

As I review my Bible history, I find that nearly every man or woman whom God used to influence his or her world had their character and their relationship forged in obscure solitude.

May it be so with me.

Countdown

72 Days until Sabbatical Lift off...

Monterey Highlights

Here's some photo highlights from our camping "test run" to Monterey:

Our camping spot! We got it all set up...

Nothing like cooking over a fire...by the way, it was cold!

Games at night...Ian kept winning!

The end of a perfect day.

We camped on the top of a hill looking down the canyon to Monterey. Gorgeous!

Withdrawals?

I'm already finding myself thinking about how having no daily demands from the ministry will shape and affect me this summer. 

Often, when I "let down" after a season of pushing hard, I get sick (case in point: I'm sniffling away this morning). I wonder if I'll be sick for the first several days?

As Kiley and I talked this weekend, we've been taught by those who have done studies that it takes two weeks of totally unplugging for your body to truly relax and get rid of the junk that stress builds up in it. We're thinking that the first two weeks will be mostly unplanned wanderings and hanging out.

I'm planning on only turning on my cell phone when Kiley and I are separated and might need to talk to each other. Otherwise, it stays off. And I'm deleting my office e-mail accounts from my phone and computer before leaving.

Now THAT ought to cause some serious withdrawals!

Sabbatical

I have two goals for this blog:

1. To record our journey as we prepare, experience and return from our seven-week sabbatical
2. To unpack the things that the Holy Spirit is teaching us along the way

Learning

I've set-up and torn down the trailer several times now as we've moved it, cleaned it, and camped in it. I was a little concerned at first that it would be a pain, like setting up a tent, but I've come to enjoy it. It's quick and easy and, honestly, a little therapeutic.

A trial run

March 29th ~ We had a trial run with the camper this weekend. 

We spent Thursday and Friday nights in Salinas, CA (just outside of Monterey). When we arrived on Thursday night, it was cold and windy. It was a perfect test for how warm the trailer would keep us when it gets nasty. We set up, plugged in a little camper-safe space heater and, although it was a little chilly in the main cabin, once we snuggled down into our sleeping bags, we were toasty all night long.

On Friday, we spent the day at Monterey Bay Aquarium. Ian loves his animals. He constantly amazed me with his five-year-old brain as he identified each animal and told us some things about them.

Friday night was wet and drizzly all night long. We were afraid it would be a damp and miserable night like we'd had in tents in the past, but we were as dry and warm as could be all night long. In fact, I got up and turned the heater off because it was too warm.