Taking A Break

This year has flown by. It’s almost time for the holidays again. It doesn’t seem like that long since I was packing the decorations away, and now it is time to get them out again.

The holidays mean lights, and this year our excellent Lights of the Delta have agreed to accept donations of toys or canned food in lieu of payment to go through the display for Boxes of Love opening night.

How amazing is that? You can go see the outstanding light display, and help a terrific program at the same time. Thanks, LOTD. Ignite appreciates it more than you can imagine. In fact, it embodies what Ignite stands for. The community reaching out to help the community.

The holidays also means being busy, and for me, this year, that means I need to take a break from writing my column. We have a lot going on in our family, and I feel the need to concentrate on just them for a while.

I’m going back to the Mayo Clinic the week of Thanksgiving, so that will have me not feeling my best for a few weeks. Logan will be out of school, so at least he can come with us. If we have to be in Minnesota for Thanksgiving, at least we can be together.

My nephew and his wife are leaving for Tanzania, Africa during the holidays. We’ve known they were going, but now that it is here, saying good-bye is taking a toll on us. We have changed our schedules so that we can spend as much time with Tiffany and Michael as possible before they leave; and so we can be with my sister.

We know God has called them into this ministry, and we know that He will give us the strength to handle whatever we must. They will be gone at least two years; and we aren’t unaware of the dangers that missionaries face in foreign countries. So we say goodbye with both a joyful heart and a heavy one.

There are other things we have going on, responsibilities and activities and trips that will keep us busy and occupied; things that make me feel like I can’t give my full attention to writing like I should.

I love writing, and I love the support of my readers. It brings my joy you can not imagine. So I’m not gone forever, just for a little while, until the holidays are over and things settle down for my family.

I hope each one of you have a blessed and happy holiday season. I’ll see you in January.

Shattered

Have you noticed that my column's haven't been on here in a while? That's partly because of me, and me, and me.

First, my laziness. I meant to get to it, and procrastinated. Then I was gonna do it, and Karma got in the way. In the form of my puppy, Jake. My puppy isn't of the cute and cuddly variety. He is of the ginormous variety, somewhere around 80 pounds.

I write my columns on a laptop on Thursday, and they are published on Sunday. On Monday, or sometime after they are published, I post them on the blog.

Jake, the giant stupid puppy, was chasing my little Pomeranian Chance, the smartest dog in the world. Giant doggy ran by me as I was standing up and putting my laptop down on the table. The laptop landed screen first on our hardwood floor.

The laptop is shattered, along with my columns that were living in there, waiting to get posted. When I get a new laptop, I will do better for now on.

Hopefully. Maybe. And while we are hoping, maybe Jake will grow a brain, too.