As I have just completed week 8 of mostly working home, I’m trying to figure out what things that I need to continue to do that I started doing, and what things I need to stop doing.  For example, I have been trying to do a better job walking either at lunch time, after work or both. Just for the fact that working at home has dropped my daily step count tremendously. Another thing that I actually started to do was read more.i would start to read a book, then it would be a few months later when I would actually finish it. Now, I have read two books so far, and currently going through 3 others (with a 4th fun one that is about different apps that you can use for different things ). Thanks to free Kindle Unlimited for a few months!  One thing I have stopped doing was watching too much media. I would get home from work, watch the local news at 5, then National at 5:30, then more local news  at 6. Now it’s either the 5’o clock news or the 6, not both, and definitely no national news right now.

Another thing this week was having different HVAC companies bid out a new A/C. Currently the one we have (from 2002), is still working, but with Freon prices rising and our recent stimulus check, we decided to go ahead and buy a new one. Did our due diligence and got several quotes earlier this week from companies who stopped by and looked at the A/C, and furnace area ((which is actually in our crawl space). Will probably pick one this next week.

It‘s  graduation season. This morning we thought it would be fun to go to a small town outside Quincy to see if we could see a graduate that was going to participate in a parade of graduates around that town. Not only did we see her, but she was surprised to see us, and her mom was even surprised to see us as they drove by.

Finally, we are loving this new season of  curbside pickup, especially grocery pickup. Buy online, and when it’s ready, go pick it up curbside.

Earlier this spring, Kate and I decided to combine our anniversary trip with Kate’s work trip to MN. I like to plan and get things booked for our anniversary trip well in advance. So since we were going to combine trips into one, we were looking at places close enough to the Twin Cities so Kate could be there after Memorial Day.

So I booked an Airbnb in WI for Memorial Day weekend. It was a nice little place almost in the middle of nowhere. However, with the uncertain times we are currently in, God knew that we weren’t going anywhere for our anniversary at the beginning of May. So that could be why we had the thought to combine trips to the end of May.

plus with recent events that WI extended S@H until May 26th, we talked, and talked sone more and made the decision today to cancel the trip. Kate has also worked on getting it setup to do her work stuff remotely instead of being in MN that week.

However at some point, book the place and go, just not now or in the distant future.

But in  good news, we will be attending the first-ever virtual Rise Conferenc, hosted by the Hollis Company, May 2nd. it will be something fun to do since we will not be going anywhere. #RISEXLIVE

Things  will work out. I watched a Zoom call recently, and my two takeaways were

1. What are some new things I am doing now because of this, and what things do I either need to quit or reevaluate doing.

2. things wont be the same, and neither should we once this passes.

As in past year in review that i have done, i have went through a semi-detailed overview on the past year. This year i have decided not to do that, but to say that 2016 was a year that will stick with me for years to come. The first thing that comes to my mind when i look back throughout this year are seven words: the good, the bad, and the ugly. There were some several good things that had happened like getting several updates done on the house, time with family and friends, taking a Sunday every month at work (a church rents our facility) so a co-worker could spend time with his family and recently surprising  Kate with a Ninja Nutri Bowl Duo for Christmas. Some challenging things were taking more responsibilities at work for a couple of months while we search and filled, not one, but two positions in IT. It was also during this time, i was working every Sunday. Even though it was time away from my own church, i have got to know the church leadership team better and i tried to be a blessing to them as they were a blessing to me. It was also i realized i was doing a lot of things during the week, and needed to take a step back and look at a bigger picture. So i decided to take time off from Young Life, as well as just recently did not rejoin the deacon board at church (a term is 3 years, and mine was going to be up at year end). Finally, there were a couple of ugly things that took place, but it was a learning process for all involved.

Looking forward to 2017 and to see what all God has planned.

PS

Since tomorrow is the first Sunday of the month, while the majority of you will be still in bed, i will be up at 6:30 to go to work. Here’s a picture i came across that explains what i will be doing shortly this evening: