Well, I'm Beat

Every now and again I just have one of "those weeks" where a perfect storm of past, present, and future catch up with me and end up running me over. It's no fun, but I tend to manage my time well enough that they don't come that often (I know some pastors that thing being constantly run-over is part of the job description, I think that's just plain sick). This particular convergence was a mixture of many good things going on at one time. Which is nice because I wasn't running around putting out a bunch of fires, but didn't make it any less tiring.

Let me run down the content of the steam-roller:

1. I'm working on a web-page for a friend's church. I needed to get some work done on that to feel like I was fulfilling the trust he put in me. That meant some late evenings hacking php and css. The good news is that my html editor runs great on mac os.
2. Designed in Met this past Saturday, Todd and JR were good conversation partners - but I had a lot to prep for their arrival. Though Bruce brings the donuts like clock-work - I forgot to ask, he brought them anyway. He's a good guy.
3. My sermon prep was getting behind. I normally like to be working on sermons a few weeks in advance so I can "chew" over stuff. I was riding that weeks sermon at the crest for a bit and it was causing me some stress. Keynote made the presentations easier, however, so it wasn't as much as it would have been pre-Mac.
4. The Chaplains came last Sunday and Monday for their winter retreat. I love this time - it's the type of ministry I'm passionate about - but it's a ton of work (booklets with the schedule, skit-synopsis, session outlines, worship slides, sign-up sheets, food order - etc). I'm actually hoping this last retreat will be usable by other groups so those materials don't hide in an unopened folder on my hard-drive forever. I forgot my still-camera this past weekend, so I'm waiting on some of the chaplains to get me images. I do have their skits on you tube, however, I'll put them up here shortly.
5. Hospital visits came in abundance. Two folks went down with issues that were serious enough to get them admitted. The visits were nice (one hospital has a touch-screen TV, how cool is that?) - but they take a lot out of you.

So, right now I'm catching up on sleep. Yesterday I had a massive migraine which laid me out for a couple of hours (I'm thinking that was my body's way of saying, "Doofus, slow down!"). After a nap I was able to finish my goals for the day, and today I actually got caught up to where I want to be with sermon prep. Now I can start looking at the materials for the Amazing Grace Sunday School class I want to teach in February.

And one of these days I'll get a full day-off.