Vacation Down Time (A Blogging Intermission)

This is a picture of my sister's living room, a place where I'll be hanging out a lot in the coming week. I got an unexpected invitation when my sister called letting me know they are going to be out of town for the next week. She had this great idea that we come down on a mini-vacation and spend time at their place, a few hours away, while they're gone. After a little finagling, I am now starting to pack and prepare for a wonderful low-key vacation. We will all drive down together this weekend with my husband staying overnight, then he'll head back home for the work week and J and I will stay on at my sister's. The great thing is that my other two sisters and their kids live close by so we'll be able to get together during the week.

L will come back to join us the following weekend and we'll have some couple-only time. We've arranged for J to stay over with a sister so we can do our year-in-review. We haven't taken a time of annual reflection together since before J was born. Before that, we would enjoy a New Year get-away to have time to go through our journals and reflect on what the Lord was at work at in our lives that year. Then we would write down what things were working well, what the Lord may want to change and finally we would pray for the coming year together. I'm so excited that we'll be restarting this tradition in our life.

A Bit Unplugged
I'll be taking a break from Facebook, blogging and will only allow myself computer time to check my email. I am preparing to do a lot of reading with the extra time, fun time with J while also getting some time with my sisters too. Since I'm a list maker, I put together a list of books and movies I'm bringing along. I have already dabbled with reading 5 of the books as I'm a nut who loves to have several books going at once. It'll be fun to see which ones will grab my attention during this down time.


Books to bring along:
(Finish) In My Hands, Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer by Irene Gut Opdyke
(Continue) The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai
Rabbit Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington
(Finish) As We Forgive by Catherine Claire Larson
The Shack by William Paul Young
Washed by Blood by Brian "Head" Welch

Books for spiritual enrichment:
Crazy Love by Francis Chan
The Gospel of Mark study by Max Lucado
These Strange Ashes by Elisabeth Elliot
Creative Correction by Lisa Whelchel

Other:
The Everything Guide to Potty Training by Kim Bookout, DNP, RN, CPNP

Movies:
Living Proof
Penelope
The Pianist
John & Abigail Adams

So I'll be signing off for now .... and hope to return ready to share during the week of January 17th. I'll miss this place!