So this week Janet has been away visiting her sister in the sun – the Bible says I should covet, so I will not 😂. I always miss Janet when she is away, but when I get a week on my own, while Caleb is at school, I like to use the extra alone time to get a few projects done that I haven’t been able to give my full attention to. My plan for this past week was to put a big dent in the book that I am writing, as well as the other blogs, podcasts, and meetings that I had scheduled for this week. Needless to say, as the blog title suggests, it didn’t quite go the way I had hoped. In all honesty 25% of this was my fault and the other 75% was due to circumstances out of my control. Here’s my week rundown;

Monday – was an all-day drive to Dublin airport and back. None of my work was done, but I’d been a good husband 😂.

Tuesday – I got an early morning call from someone asking me to help with a car emergency. I had to rearrange a meeting to help, and put off any writing work, which I was happy to do, but the whole project took about 5 hours. I got a little bit of time to write some of the talk for Youth this week while I was waiting for the mechanic to fix the car, but I didn’t get to do anything close to what I had planned for the day.

Wednesday – I met a friend for brekkie (my call, but it was a great time), got some writing done in between, and had the rearranged meeting from yesterday with a youth leader in the afternoon. I was in the middle of the week and was way behind on where I wanted to be.

Thursday – had to complete some family errands first thing 😬, recorded a podcast, and then drove to Belfast where I was meeting a church planter who is moving there. It was great to hear what they are seeking to do, and I loved the chance to hear more. Thursday was definitely my most productive day, but I didn’t get near the book 😂

Friday – Caleb had a half day at school, and I spent the morning helping my mum with a bunch of stuff that needed to be sorted after Dad’s passing. That meant that nothing other than those things got any of my attention.

Saturday we always take off, and Sundays are filled with church, youth activities, and we also have a church BBQ in the afternoon.

So, I’m now sitting at lunchtime on Monday, one week in, trying to get as much done as I can. I have only written maybe 100 words more of my book, recorded only one podcast, and have written just one blog post before this – this is not what I had intended, people!!!!

I’m realizing it’s part of the joy and challenge of doing what we are doing right now. The flexibility we have is great, and it means when a crisis or opportunity comes up we can be quick to react and/or help. However, that same flexibility also leaves us open to that time being hijacked, and it’s hard to learn the tension of protecting that time and being stingy with that time toward others. I guess I’m going to have to learn how to do that better moving forward. So few of the ‘jobs’ that we have to do now have a fixed deadline, which means unless we protect them, they will be altered depending on what the week holds. Help me Jesus!

Anyway, that’s my mildly frustrated but very grateful musings on this past week! Now, I’m off to make a dent in that book! 😂 Here’s some pics of the week that was………