Category Archives: home.life

Family is important to me. From wife to mom to widow, through remarriage and step-parenting, here is a little about family life as seen from my perspective.

Merry Christmas!

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100_0839Today is a great day. It’s Christmas eve, we all stopped working early – I went for some more turns in this epic snow we’re having, I’m looking forward to Christmas Eve service at Lynn Valley Full Gospel Church tonight and birthday cake tomorrow… oh yeah, and I’m going to Cancun!!!

My morning started out with some Christmas baking… I like it when I get fudge for breakfast. What can I say? I’m perhaps a bit of a glutton, but really trying to keep to just a taste this year. I am going to make a very concerted effort to get my body back to pre-mini-man shape now that he is coming up on 3 years *blush*.

Then my boss says to go home… at, like 10:30am SWEET! I ended up grabbing my board and checking out the hill. With over 150cm of snow now when it just started snowing about 2 weeks ago, the conditions are fantastic. The snow is so deep that it’s a bit hairy and requires quite a bit of concentration (unless you get first tracks, of course, which I did not at noon) and the blowing snow and fog made it a wee bit hard to see, but all in all the snow is just fantastic.

I was saying this morning that I used to be that person who would only ski when it was sunny out. Not only did I not know what I was missing, but I really didn’t care. If I had known then that the snow is infinately better when it’s snowing than it is when the sun is beating down on it, I would have changed my tune years ago. Plus, there are usually no bodies on the hill. I didn’t have to wait more than about 4 chairs to get on the Screaming Eagle today.

dscn0105Being Christmas Eve, we’re going to church tonight at 6:30pm. There are 3 services to choose from – 5pm, 6:30pm and 8pm. The Christmas Eve program is always fun – full of music and stories for people of all ages.

This year we’ve decided to go ahead with an idea that I heard on Praise 106.5 FM: someone called in one day and said they do birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas day. What a great idea!! So we’re going to turn it in to a tradition and bake a cake in the morning after opening presents, ice it in the afternoon during that usual downtime (my brother and I used to go to the only arcade in Vancouver that was open that day – Lesters) and then have birthday cake for dessert after a traditional turkey dinner (well, it will be more like a ceremonial taste at that point, but we’ll try).

We’re also going to spend the night as a family at my mother in law’s house. We didn’t set up a tree at home this year, and we’re going to do our celebrating there anyway, so we figured we’d all spend the night and get up and do Christmas in our jammies like we used to when we were all little.

dscn0134Sadly, with the snow this year, my parents aren’t going to make it over to the North Shore for Christmas dinner with us, but they have been invited to their next door neighbours’ house so I’m grateful they have someone nearby to celebrate with. We also all got together for dinner just a couple of days ago and now I’m glad we did. I got some great photos of my son with my mom… good for keepsakes.

And lastly, this morning big-man and I decided to book another holiday. We’re going back to Cancun to stay at the Crown Paradise Club for a week in January. We stayed there last year and had a fantastic time, but this year we’re bringing our son to enjoy it as a family. Crown Paradise Club has a kids club for children as young as 18 months whereas most resorts’ kids clubs only take kids 4+.

We’re already planning a day of wind surfing and one day trip to Cozumel… preferably via catamaran from Cancun. I’ll see what I can find. I can’t WAIT! Big-man will be starting work in northern Alberta in late January, so we figure now is a good time to get away as a family because we don’t know when we’ll be able to do it again.

Anyway, I am praying for health and prosperity for all my family, friends and readers now and in the new year. May every day of the year ahead be filled with joy and laughter and many, many blessings.

Merry Christmas everyone!

The Fun of Christmas

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Toronja Azul on Flickr

Photo: Toronja Azul on Flickr

There are so many things about Christmas that sort of take away from the holiday: the angry shoppers, road rage and rudeness. There are the guys who threw a planter through my church’s glass front door yesterday or the car insurance claims caused by slick roads. There are family arguments over who will make the turkey or who will get Christmas Day vs. Christmas Eve, or whether or not the inlaws will get to see their grandchildren at all this year.

Whatever challenges you face this year, try and think about all the reasons why Christmas is fun.

  • Decorating the tree
  • finding the perfect gift for that someone special
  • sledding and snowmen
  • laughing at bad wrapping jobs
  • horrendous Christmas sweaters
  • Bailey’s in your morning coffee
  • kisses under the mistletoe
  • playing Santa & Mrs. Claus *wink wink*
  • listening to some really outdated Christmas music on the radio
  • watching the yule log on TV
  • spending time with friends and family…

There are so many reasons why Christmas is fun and not all work… take the time to enjoy those fun moments and let the stressful ones roll off. What do you find most fun about Christmas?

Here’s my favourite fun moment of the season so far: My mini-man’s pride at his work of art.

gingerbread-house

gingerbread-house-pride

Things Are Definitely Not in Balance

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david.bunting on Flickr

Photo: david.bunting on Flickr

So, you may have already guessed. This photo is not of me. I know there is a resemblance and all, but no… I’m a little more… um, what’s the word… brunette.

I am in desperate need of a workout. When I say desperate, I mean I feel like I’m melting. I think I can feel the muscles turning into fat and the fat cells growing in size.

Big-man has been gone two weeks now and because of that, coupled with a few weeks of illness, work events etc. beforehand, I haven’t managed to work out once in about a month now. I’ve had to quit kickboxing for the time being and have not managed to fit in another activity.

The problem is complex but is really taxing my ability to feel like my life is in balance. Mostly because it’s not. I need to be more active than I am, and I absolutely need to find a way to make that happen.

I’m completely open to suggestions, but only ones that don’t include leaving my kid with a babysitter during his waking hours. See, he’s already in daycare 9 hours a day, 5 days a week. He sleeps 11 hours at night and, thus, is only awake 13… so subtract the 9… you can see where I’m going with this one.

I get up between 5 and 5:30 every day and have a cup of coffee and go online – check email, twitter and my feeds. At 6am mini-man is up and demanding my attention. I get him something to eat and let him watch TV while I get showered etc. Then I make lunches, get ready and leave for work by 8am.

At 5pm I leave work and pick up mini-man from daycare, get home by 5:30, give him dinner, play a little put him in the bath and put him in bed at 7pm. My after-7pm activities are dictated by the day of the week… Mondays is band, and Wednesdays is my church home group and those are the only two nights of the week I get free babysitting services from my amazing mother in law. If I want to leave the house after 7:30pm any other night of the week, I’ll need to pay a sitter to be home in my place for an hour or two… that would make each workout cost $10-$15 in babysitting alone. I suppose this isn’t a terrible option for maybe once a week – I could go for a run which wouldn’t add any other cost.

I’ve tried getting out with mini-man in the stroller after dinner, but there really isn’t time with only an hour and a half of awake time between daycare and bed. Besides, this weather means everything takes that much longer because we have that much more clothing to deal with. I’m also super afraid of trying to run while pushing 50 lbs. I run slow enough on my own thank you very much.

I may have to resort to the unthinkable: doing some kind of stupid-looking step-like workout video in my livingroom. Ick. I hate sweating where I live. Furthermore, being in a 2nd floor apartment means it has to include no jumping and I have to be able to do it in very little space; I have about 7′ x 7′ to work with. That doesn’t sound like much of a workout, but I guess anything would be better than nothing.

I can’t keep doing this. I need some exercise. I guess I’m off to find a DVD and a local babysitter.

Wish me luck! Maybe one day I’ll be hurling myself in the air for the spike and allowing someone to capture it forever.

Two Jehovah’s Witnesses, a Catholic and an Anglican walk into a concert hall…

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blmurch on Flickr

Photo: blmurch on Flickr

Every now and again I spend time sitting around singing… I know, it probably sounds nerdy. Just about everything I do probably is. I download new songs from iTunes, search YouTube to pre-listen before buying, go through songs I already have etc. Tonight I spent the evening rejuvenating my spirit doing just that. I’m so incredibly moved by music and moved by creating music, that it really is a part of who I am and I couldn’t live without it.

My band is playing a concert on December 1st at the Kay Meek Centre in West Vancouver and I’m going to sing this year. It’s been a long time since I sang anywhere out side of church and I’m struggling with song choice… hey, isn’t that what they always say on American Idol? It’s all about song choice… Anyway, back to the concert. See, it’s a “Winter Concert” and not a “Christmas Concert”. Because there are a number of different religions and many non-religious people in the band, it wouldn’t be fair to have a Christmas concert. So we’ll be playing a few Christmas tunes with other random stuff – show tunes and the like – thrown in.

Personally, I like to think of this concert as a Christmas concert, and clearly Christmas songs are not forbidden, but my family is a whole blend of various religions and I don’t want to offend. My mom is an atheist and my dad a lapsed Anglican turned mason; my mother in law is Roman Catholic and my brother and sister in law are Jehovah’s Witnesses. And I’m a born again Christian – the crazy Jesus-freak kind. Yeah, I said it.

Christmas to me means the real deal – the birth of Christ – but my biggest fear is that I’ll sing my heart out to an audience only to find stunned silence at the end, or worse, a mediocre smattering of claps.

Anyway, I’ve short listed 3 songs:

I guess I feel like I’m selling out by considering Grown Up Christmas List… I mean, it’s a nice song, but one that speaks to the Santa crowd. It is heartfelt and touches the part of each human that wants world peace but still never seems to reach a passionate climax. It’s not that I think there’s anything really wrong with Santa (and world peace is, of course great), but there’s no Jesus in it… which is, in my humble opinion, what Christmas is all about. Not that this is a Christmas concert.

So I’m still undecided at this point. If you’ve read this far and know any of these songs (or had a chance to click the links and listen to them), please feel free to give me your opinion. I’m open to any and all suggestions at this point. In fact, I may just get cold feet and call the whole thing off haha… I’ve been known to do that *blush*.

Anyway, on an unrelated note… I came across an old favourite that had me bawling my eyes out by the end of it: Martina McBride’s Concrete Angel. It’s not a Christmas song, and it’s not appropriate for this concert (or any other if it will make me bawl and my nose run while singing it haha!) but it’s beautiful and always reminds me of the sadness that is interspersed throughout the faces of this world… I’ve known many who have been touched. Hope it moves you as much as it does me:

It’s like wearing someone else’s underwear

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I love where I live. I love everything about it. It’s where I grew up, where I went to school, where I got my first job and my first boyfriend. It’s where I first got my heart broken and where I got my career started. It’s where I met my husband and where we bought our home… it’s where we had our son and continue to enjoy him. Sure, I’ve lived some other places, but North Vancouver is where I want to raise my family and grow old.

I don’t want to leave.

North Vancouver is arguably one of the nicest places to live anywhere. Canada already ranks relatively high for world livability standards, but the temperate climate of the West Coast makes the Vancouver area an absolutely wonderful place to live and work. However, North Vancouver – this little piece of heaven right on the North edge of the Burrard Inlet – is not only beautiful but almost magical.

It’s so perfectly situated between the North Shore Mountains and the ocean with streams running through and parks interspursed all throughout. I don’t know if it’s the combination of the temperature, humidity, precipitation or what-have-you, but the winters almost always bring loads of snow on the local mountains without ever dropping a flake on the roads beneath them. In spring we can ski in the morning, golf in the afternoon and cruise for dinner.

I love it so much I’m making it my long-term goal to build a community around it.

The only thing that challenges me on my will to stay here is the price of real estate. Our small 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom (~800 sq ft) apartment is worth roughly $300K right now (and that’s after the recent drops, I hope). The smallest and oldest of detached houses go for well over half a million dollars. A modest, though decent, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house (if you can find one – most are bigger than that) can be found for $750-800K.

I don’t mind my apartment, but it’s a bit small for three of us and I don’t think an apartment without any yard or play space is really ideal for raising a child. We spend a good deal of time at my mother in law’s house nearby because she has a nice yard where our son can play.  It’s hard thinking about leaving to find more space for our money. I’m torn every day between staying where I love and moving somewhere I could have an extra bedroom, an extra bathroom and in-suite laundry for what we pay here, plus a yard. A boy needs a yard, I think.

At the same time, I think a family needs its members in close proximity.

Moving farther away would take away from our quality time together by adding in a commute. I can’t see time together in the car being all that quality. As a full time working mom, I already feel I have very little time with my son while he’s in daycare 9 hours a day, I can’t cope with the thought of spending another 2 hours a day commuting. I mean, he’s only awake for 13 hours… that would leave me with only 2 waking hours a day with him, and those two hours would have to include breakfast, dinner, bath etc. No time for any fun whatsoever.

Moving farther away would also mean a lesser relationship between my son and my mother in law, and they love each other to death. I didn’t have a relationship with my grandparents; 3 of 4 had passed before I was born and the other was in England and died when I was 5 or so. I want desperately for my son to have that relationship that I missed out on.

I guess I just have to hope that somehow we’ll manage one day to swing a larger place or that I’ll one day be at peace with the thought that I’ve cheated my son out of a better childhood for my own wants. I just can’t really consider moving away unless it’s a last resort.

Living somewhere else would be like wearing someone else’s underwear.

Halloween in the life of a Christian mom

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YAXZONE on Flickr

Photo: YAXZONE on Flickr

Halloween is one of those things I’ve been thinking about disproportionately since even before my son was born. It’s one of those holidays/days/celebrations – not even really sure what to call it – that kids love and that the world seems to truly embrace. Honestly, when I was a kid I didn’t care about the history of it, the dangers of it, the distaste of it, the future of it, or the results from it. All I wanted was to go out with my friends (and before that, with my parents) and get a bag of candy.

Here’s a little detail on Halloween from Wikipedia:

The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the alive and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, into which bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them.

Now, I know there is a little Christian history thrown in there, but it’s really convoluted and comes, I believe, from the catholic leaders failure to hold fast to their beliefs and to the Word of God (but, pardon, that’s fodder for a whole other post).

Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints’ Day from May 13 (…) to November 1. (…) Although All Saints’ Day is now considered to occur one day after Halloween, the two holidays were, at that time, celebrated on the same day. Liturgically, the Church traditionally celebrated that day as the Vigil of All Saints, and, until 1970, a day of fasting as well. Like other vigils, it was celebrated on the previous day if it fell on a Sunday, although secular celebrations of the holiday remained on the 31st. The Vigil was suppressed in 1955, but was later restored in the post-Vatican II calendar.

As a Christian mom I fight with this entire principle and really don’t know how to proceed. With a small child, I’m setting the foundation now for years to come, so I don’t really want to get this wrong. But the truth is, I don’t like Halloween. I don’t want to participate. I don’t want my son participating. I don’t feel that Halloween has a single positive aspect or outcome. Not only that but as kids get older, Halloween is used more and more for mischief, occult practices and, quite frankly, an excuse to dress like a whore. It never ceases to amaze me that girls feel the need to make Halloween an occasion to bring that cat suit or naughty nurse costume out to the world. What is with that?! Just have a look at all the Flickr photos tagged halloween; I really don’t see a whole lot there I could even remotely consider glorifying to God.

However, I also know the feeling of being ostracized as a child and feeling the burden of being the outsider – it’s a very lonely place to be. I don’t want that for my son. Even last year, when he was precisely 19 months old, his daycare was having all the kids show up in costumes and handing out treats. REALLY?!

So here I am again, faced with the same challenge and I finally succumbed to the decision to buy him a costume. We went to the store yesterday and as soon as we got to the Halloween aisle he stopped and shuddered and said, “Scary!” But to my surprise and relief there was a little size 3 frog costume that is basically just a green jumpsuit with a frog face on the hood. Just 5 minutes earlier he had been pretending to be a frog in the store anyway, so that seemed just right. I also bought a little treat bucket and a bag of peanut-free coffee crisp bars for the daycare kids. At least now he can join in with the kids at daycare.

Some of my friends take a much stronger stance on this issue. I know quite a few families at my church refuse to have anything to do with it; they may even pull their children from school that day. I hear they also throw a family pool party or some other gathering to ensure their kids have something else to do that is fun and much more wholesome. I think that is a great alternative to participation in regular halloween activities and I hope we’ll be invited to participate.

But anyway, as for the daycare halloween party, I’ve made my decision. Now if only I can figure out how to handle the trick-or-treating issue…

A new adventure. Well, er… sort of

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akarmy on Flickr

Photo: akarmy on Flickr

Well, my life is about to change. To be honest, I haven’t even formed an opinion about it. I can see so many challenges and benefits to come from what’s happening that I’m almost excited about the personal growth that is, no doubt, about to take place.

Big-man has been laid off since October 3rd. He’s been doing high rise layout for a couple of different forming companies for the last few years now; it was a great change for him from carpentry, which is much harder on the body. He’s also had his fair share of falls as a carpenter – two decent falls at work and a fall from our balcony three years ago. The balcony fall is actually what prompted the work change. So the change was really pretty necessary.

But now, thanks to the state of the economy and the funding falling out from beneath the developers building these high rises all over the city, I am sure we are about to see an influx of unemployed construction workers.

Last week, big-man was at a men’s breakfast at our church and met up with an acquaintance who turned him on to a job out of town. There’s a big mining complex being built near Kamloops and they need guys. So from last Saturday until now – a mere 5 days, all the arrangements have been made and he leaves this Monday. The job may last a year.

Now, the job is carpentry and not layout, but we both really feel this is God’s will for us right now. First, it came from a church connection at a church event. The breakfast, incidentally, was one to promote a men’s retreat that he’s wanted to go to now since last year and finally planned to do this November. Well, as it turns out, his schedule on this new job will be 10 days in and 4 days out, so he’s off Friday through Monday every two weeks; and the great part is that his first 4 day weekend is exactly the weekend on which this retreat is taking place, so he can still go without any schedule alterations. Not only all that but we both just really feel at peace with the situation despite the fact that we know it’s not ideal over the long term.

Truthfully I think this will be good for both of us in many ways. I’m not going to comment on how I think big-man is going to grow from this experience – it’s not really my place to share that with you. But, I can say that I know I will be stretched and challenged through this. Unbelievably so.

My biggest struggle is and always has been selfishness and self-centeredness.

I have become very reliant on big-man being home in the evenings so I can carry on my hobbies and such each night of the week. Honestly, that’s probably what causes a good portion of the challenges we face in our marriage. I’m often out Monday through Thursday evenings and then also want to get out on weekends for coffee with a friend, church functions, shopping or whatever. You know the people who talk about needing a whole whack of “me time”? Yeah, I think I may have gotten a little out-of-control in that area.

I’ve known for a long time I’ve been trying to squeeze in too much stuff: full time job, kickboxing training, band rehearsals and concerts, worship team rehearsals and church services, not to mention blogging here and at urbanshore.ca, all while trying to be a wife and a mother to a toddler. Plus I spend an exorbitant amount of time reading blogs and tweets; when I have more than 3 minutes of downtime I’ve got my Google reader open on my mobile phone. I’m not sure what it is that compels me to be so busy, but I’ve had a sneaking suspicion for a long time that it might be something far deeper than just a variety of interests. It’s probably also not so healthy.

So here’s my challenge: I have to choose what’s important.

My amazing mother in law has agreed to give me two evenings each week and I’ve chosen to use those for band rehearsals and my church home group. Kickboxing is out. Workouts are going to have to take some other form that neither takes away from time with my son nor breaks the bank with babysitting costs; further, mini-man spends 9 hours in daycare 5 days a week, so I will absolutely not leave him with a babysitter who isn’t immediate family unless it’s an absolute emergency.

Socializing is going to have to take the form of friends over to my place either with their kids or during mini-man’s naptime (yes, I’m still blessed enough to have this going for me). Oh yeah, and I’ll have to start cooking again (I’m VERY spoiled and big-man has done all the cooking always). Who knows, my home might even get cleaned more often.

This distance all but guarantees we’ll be more selective with how we spend the weekends we do get to share as a family. I really think it’s going to show me how much I rely on my husband and how much of a blessing he’s been in my life, even when I haven’t appreciated it. By the grace of God I may just become a good wife and a good mother by the end of this. Who knows?

Drinking Water: Do you trust your tap?

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bfurnace on Flickr

Photo: bfurnace on Flickr

I’ve been thinking about this lately: Am I alone in my distrust of my municipal drinking water?

My hesitance in guzzling the seemingly harmless water that flows freely from my tap began when my son was born, two and a half years ago. Until then, I didn’t care one way or the other. I drank almost exclusively tap water except for the bottled water I got for free at work (we had a bottled water sponsor at the time) and the bottled water I’d buy if I was out or going camping. That was about the extent of my bottled water use.

When my son was born, however, I began to question the safety of the water I’d taken for granted all my life.

I attended weekly Mom & Baby Drop-In sessions offered by North Shore Coastal Health each week while I was on maternity leave. I pretty much went every week for the year. Not only was it a great place to meet other new moms, but it was a place to get breastfeeding advice, speak to community health nurses about whatever questions I had, and listen to lectures on scheduled topics each week. One of the topics I discussed with the nurses was the safety of water for my newborn.

My son was not exclusively breast fed; he was supplemented with a little formula. Now formula can be purchased as a ready-made liquid or a powder form. The liquid, however, is rediculously expensive as compared with the powder (which isn’t cheap either – a full time formula-fed baby can go through $40/week in formula alone and that’s if they don’t need a specially formulated one i.e. soy-based or whatever). So for those of us who felt EI Mat Leave benefits were a bit of a hit to the pocketbook, we needed to mix powder with water.

Now, the nurses at the drop-in sessions said that babies shouldn’t have tap water until they’re at least 4 months old and their immune systems can handle it. Now I can’t quote exactly who said that and when, but that’s what I was told at the time. That didn’t really make me feel better about using it beyond 4 months either, to be honest. I mean, my kid’s immune system is nearly the same at 3 1/2 months as it is at 4 1/2 months, surely.

I decided to use bottled water at that point because it just seems cleaner (though the Mayo Clinic says you should also consider boiling bottled water before giving it to a baby) . I mean, my pipes in my building are 35 years old and my municipality’s pipes are probably nearly 100 years old. They can’t be all that clean inside, can they? I’ve caught glimpses of the water mains when you drive by a hole in the middle of the road where the crews are digging and those giant mains have buildup in them… just like mineral deposits in the inside of caves. The problem is I don’t really know what made those deposits. Plus, there are reports of stuff in our water I don’t particularly want there. For instance, in March of this year, CNN reported finding prescription drugs in tap water across the US. That’s kind of scary.

So anyway, I am a bottled water advocate. Does that mean I won’t touch tap water? Of course not. But I buy bottled water for regular use at home and don’t feel quite right about giving the tap water to my kid. What does that say?

What do you think? Do you trust your local tap water? Is it municipal or well? Do you drink bottled water? Am I being crazy about this?

Lost in busy-ness

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extranoise on Flickr

Photo: extranoise on Flickr

This week, being Thanksgiving and a short work week, was super busy. Not only that, but I didn’t even get to doing half of what I’d hoped to do.

Election Tuesday

My cold has still been kicking my behind, particularly at night – I’m still coughing like crazy (it’s all very attractive), and so I didn’t go to my kickboxing class Tuesday evening. Instead, I left work early to cast my vote and then went for a walk around my neighborhood to take photos for Urban Shore. I then after mini-man was in bed, I watched the Canadian election results to find that we have managed to elect pretty much the same government we did last time.

Fellowship Wednesday

Wednesday after work, big-man and I went to a home church group for our Passport – Life in the Kingdom study we’ve been doing. It was really nice to get into a small group again; it’s been a long time since we’ve participated in one. I’m reminded of how important fellowship is to a Christian’s spiritual journey. Just hanging out with other believers is super encouraging and I’m always surprised (though really I shouldn’t be) to find out everyone is just as messed up as we are.

Social Thursday

Thursday after work I attended Ideas On Tap at the Yaletown Brew Pub. It was very loud and crowded. I’ve become quite the home body myself, opting to spend time in more intimate settings whenever possible. It was decent, though. I met a few nice people and had a chance to chat again with some people I’ve come to know over the last few months. It was interesting hearing what everyone is working on, but I’m still shocked at how many technology folks are developing tools because they can and pitching them to business rather than taking a business problem and solving it first. Their way means they first have to convince the business owner/manager that they have a problem and then show them how they can solve it; the latter just means they present a solution to a problem everyone already recognizes… way easier. But anyway, it was pretty fun. I might not go every month, but I could go again.

TGI Friday

Today at work I had a great day. I had a nice meeting with my rep from Canwest about integrating more online advertising into my TV and print mix; spent a bunch of time working with my other team members on a huge presentation regarding the bottled vs. tap water debate; and reviewed a bunch of ideas for mobile marketing and mobile web development that I’m working on. It was, well, a Friday… and fairly relaxed today. I did, however, get to hear all about my boss’ trip to India to participate in Habitat for Humanity. He just got back yesterday and his stories were pretty mind-blowing. He told of a class system very much alive and well and children playing in sewage. I would have had a very hard time with that, I admit.

I’m glad it’s the weekend. I can get on with some more blogging; I am leading worship at my church this weekend (and, thus, a rehearsal Saturday and 6 hours of church on Sunday) and get to spend time with my family. It seems life keeps getting busier and busier. As it does, it’s important to spend time on the people that matter most.