the weekend that was: reasonably busy, but fun. friday night, jeannie and i went on a date to a nice restaurant, which we haven’t done in way too long. i’d received a gift cert to fleming’s (an amazing chain of steak joints, like ruth’s chris, or morton’s) as a thank you gift from one of the families of a guy in the middle school small group i lead for the last three years (the exec chef for the chain is the uncle of the kid in my group). and the cert was about to expire, so we headed off to a wonderful dinner of portabello steak fries, filet mignon, fleming’s potatoes, and chocolate lava cake. mmmmmm. saturday was busy with all kinds of stuff — errands, a little UofM football, getting ready for the evening. then, at 7, the guys from my small group from the last three years (who are now freshmen in high school) came over for a sleepover at my house. it was awesome to hang with them. we walked into la mesa village for pizza, and went around the table sharing updates on life (at the suggestion of one of the guys, we all shared four things: 1. what’s going on? 2. how are you going? 3. what do you miss about our small group? and 4. what do you like about the high school group at church?). i got very little sleep, of course, as we played wii, uno (a weird little tradition for our group), ate, and various other goofiness. they totally cracked me up most of the time.
sunday morning, i got them shuttled off to church, then cleaned up the house as my friend mark scandrette and his family were coming over for brunch. we had this amazing breakfast souffle thing with peaches and berries and caramely goodness. and it was great to be with them. we’d vacationed together a couple times years ago, and our kids quickly got caught up, while the adults sat for hours chatting. in the afternoon, some friends came over to watch the sad chargers/saints game (which was at wembly stadium in london!). then, after cleaning up, i went to bed early!
where i am at the moment: i’m in the office for my one day this week. a little off-site writing this morning, then a day of prep and meetings.
on my to-do list this week: the main thing is the pittsburgh national youth workers convention! but i have a 2 1/2 day DCLA meeting in pittsburgh also, and i’m speaking at the pittsburgh youth ministry network lunch, and i have to re-write my closing general session talk (i felt like it was ok in sac, but not great — any input from people who were there would be more than welcome). yeah!
procrastinating about: i have to get back to the middle school ministry book on a regular basis. i made good progress a week ago, but can’t let the busy-ness of convention season keep me from making progress.
book i’m in the midst of: finished up two books last week, the year of living biblically, and donorboy. i grabbed an old christopher moore book off the shelf (one i hadn’t read yet) to read this week, called island of the sequined love nun.
music that seemed to catch my attention this past week: really diggin’ on some ben taylor this week. sounds like a great cross between james taylor, jack johnson, ben harper, and a few others. really, really listenable.
next trip: tomorrow — to pittsburgh!
how i’m feeling about this week: pretty good, actually! so many people i’m looking forward to seeing.
