vacation

I haven't blogged in over a week; last week I was really busy tying up loose ends because this week I begin a 3 week vacation.

I'm actually excited about this vacation. I haven't taken 3 weeks off in a row since 1999 when my wife and I visited Italy. This year, I'm not away for 3 weeks, but the extended time (maybe this is not so extended for some people) will be amazing for me and my family. My kids are thrilled that I won't have any evening commitments for 3 whole weeks.

Here's my plan.

Part 1, catch up on house work - I'm renovating part of my garage on my own refinishing a side wall with the frame, insulation, gyproc, etc. My The plans are to reorganize my garage, and this new wall will enable me to hang stuff up and put needed shelves. Day 1 was dirty (cleaning, breaking, sweeping). Today was fun - building using a hilti gun to get into the cement (pretty cool tool). Tomorrow I hope to finish the wall part.

Part 2 - out of town for at least 5-6 consecutive days. With my office being at home and lots of Westside things taking place at my home (which we enjoy), my whole family needs some time away from the house environment. Looking forward to this part - it's the real vacation part.

Part 3 - we hope to do a few days camping, and some day trips, just hanging out as family.

Reading? not sure how much I'll do. I might tackle a few books, but more for me, less for my vocation/work. Here's what I might get to.
Pilgrim Heart: the Way of Jesus in Everyday Life; this one is drawing me to read it, so I'm hoping to read it in very few sittings to take it all in without analyzing.
Some kind of novel - maybe Angels & Demons or The Road.
I picked up You Can't Steal a Gift from my local library (the Jazz Fest is running this week in Montreal, so they had a table set up about Jazz). The book is about the obstacles (mainly racism) 4 African American musicians faced while persevering in their musical careers. Looked interesting, plus I needed something totally out of my norm.
If I actually get to reading that much, I might tackle Jesus (by Marcus Borg). It's not my normal influence on Jesus and will likely get me thinking a little different, which is why I want to read it on vacation - this way I won't be writing stuff down or thinking of how this fits into my message in 3-4 days or is off theologically.
(I have a reading list for the rest summer which I really hope to get to following my vacation, but that will be a different kind of reading)

That last paragraph makes it look like I will focus on books. Kidding? If I don't get through 1/2 of one I'll be fine. The most important thing over the next 20 days is rest, restoration, family, losing my routine - I hope I lose it so much that I forget I had one.

Ciao for now...