Vacation is over

Well now; my one week of vacation is now over and it is back to normal; if you can call it normal. 
I left off with the Saturday and Sunday of the vacation week, and now let's take a look at Monday and Tuesday.


Normally on a Monday I assume the duty in taking care of the laundry chores; however; being on vacation on the day before (Sunday) I completed the laundry chores so that I would not have to get up so early, which was very nice I might add. Monday, I have made plans to meet with another Minister from Haverhill, Ma. for breakfast, so we met at the Owl Diner in Lowell. We had been there before so a return trip was warranted. We had a good time and the food was very pleasing. After breakfast and chatting was over, I returned home for the rest of the day.

All the kids in the Massachusetts School's were off the same week I was on vacation, so that meant that I could do something with two of my grandsons, which we did. I explained that in an earlier vacation posting.

This week, my grandchildren who live in NH were off, so I took them out for breakfast on Tuesday and then spent some time with them at their house and returned home about 11:00 AM for the rest of the day.

In the general description of my Blog; I mention that it is a look into not only my family, but being a Pastor.

So now we make the switch back to the daily routine of being a pastor, but routine it's NOT.

I have been asked before if a pastor only works one day a week (Sunday) the standard answer that we give them is "follow us for a week" 

This past Wednesday was my first day back to the ministry (We do not call it a job) in nine days (7 days vacation; 2 days off). I had already scheduled one hospital visit, and a visit to see someone at a rehab center. Including these two visits, let me share what else transpired.

• Multiple phone calls; including one about someone being diagnosed with cancer and one being diagnosed with a brain tumor that was inoperable
• Went to visit the hospital and rehab center which took up about two and a half hours
• Someone came by the church to pickup some food for someone from our food pantry
• Someone else came by to have me order some books needed for a class starting in two weeks
• Someone came by to pick up a couple of applications for kids camp this year and ended up talking to them for about half an hour 
• Handled more phone calls, e-mails, and text's and of course talking to my peeps on Face Book answering some questions for them
• At 5:00 PM, I had an appointment to meet with a couple to go over their wedding plans that will be taking place next month. 

At 6:00 PM Bible Study started and ended at 7:30 PM; left the church about 7:45 PM to go home. So basically arrive at the office at 7:15 AM and left at 7:45 PM

Don't know where the time went, but the day flew by.

Today; being Thursday; leaving directly from my house at 8:45 AM, my first stop was a hospital visit in Concord, Ma. at Emerson Hospital to visit one of our dear Senior Saint who has been diagnose with cancer. Did not arrive back to the office until 11:15 AM. Spent the rest of the day (until about 3 PM) on the phone, e-mail and texting taking care of business. I wanted to leave the office and return home before the rush hour started, which I did and continued to work at home doing the following...

• Answering the e-mail of two individuals regarding questions on the Bible
• Generating a short Blog for our church web site ("www.lowellag.org") 
• Started to put a sermon together for a week from Sunday
• Writing this blog entry which I am done with
• A non routine day in the life of a pastor

Until next time; Blessings

Vacation Days: Saturday and Sunday

I last left off on Saturday staying home for the remainder of the day;that is until my wife came home. She then informed me that she wanted to go to the Village Inn for dinner. Did I object, no way, as the food there is great. We had a great meal; I had Steak Tips (one pound), and they were huge. Lynne had a Sea Food Dish. After dinner, we returned home to spend a quite evening.

On Sunday, we went to a Spanish Church in Lowell, Ma. Where we know the Pastor. After the service, we went to dinner, and returned home for the remainder of the day.

Saturday; Vacation Day

Well; I guess that you can say that this is my last vacation day; however; I have Monday and Tuesday's off, so I will not be returning back to the office until next Wednesday, April 25th.

Went to breakfast this morning with the Senior Pastor and one other gentleman from our church, then went to fix some problems with a laptop computer belonging to the Pastor's wife, with success, I might add (for a change). Now I am hopefully home for the rest of the day working on the computer (what else).

If anything changes; I will post an update.

Blessings:

My Friday Vacation Day:

Today was the day that I decided to sleep in, which resulted in getting up at 7:50 AM this morning. But; that is great compared to getting up at the normal time of 4:30 AM. I figured that I would spend the day just relaxing and doing some light reading.

It did not turn out that way; I spend most of the remainder of the morning on church business. Making calls, e-mailing; texting and doing some planning; but; that is the life of a pastor, it all goes with the turf.

At least, up until now, I have been home all day, but am waiting for the wife to call to figure out what we are doing for dinner; we will see.

More tomorrow:

Thursday; Vacation Day

Woke up at 6:00 AM, to get ready to take my 4 year old grandson to breakfast; after coming out of the shower, he met me and stated that he had a good night sleep. I guess he did, as my wife stated that he was snoring so loud, that she had to leave the living room early and go to her room.

The wife also joined us for breakfast, and then it was off to Andover, Ma. to the "Ballardvale Station" where we arrive about 9:00 AM and stayed until 11:00 AM. Upon arrival, I opened the sun roof, and my grandson commented "Papa; you have an awesome car" because his mom's van does not have a sun roof. he stood in the front seat and watched for the trains to come, and come they did. If I have the count correct they were as follows....
2 Commuter Trains
2 Amtrak Trains
1 Very long Freight Train.
then we headed to his house for lunch.....Here are some pictures from today. Enjoy:

Today's (Wednesday) Vacation Day

Almost forgot to post today's activity while on vacation today.
Got up at 4:30 AM to meet some of the folks from the radio club that I belong to, for breakfast at 6:00 AM. After which I went to Walmart to pick up some things and returned home.

Attended a luncheon at a nursing home to thank the volunteers that come in to help. We go to this one nursing home every week and also on a monthly basis to hold a Service for the residents. The lunch was great and got to meet some of the other volunteers whom I have never met before.

Returned home to chill out until my 4 year old grandson arrived and we had chicken nuggets and fries for dinner, Watched a movie called Mr Popper and his Penguins.

Tomorrow, we go to breakfast then over to watch some trains in Andover, Ma. and then to his house for lunch.
See you tomorrow.

My First Week's Vacation in 2012

Hello Everyone:

I know that it has been way too long since my last posting, but it seems I never have the time or cannot figure what to post about. I really need to work on that or what is the point of having a personal blog.

Seeing that this is only Tuesday, April 17, 2012, and my vacation started yesterday, I will post the events that took place on this my first week's vacation for this year.

It started like any other Monday; doing the laundry chores, which means getting up at 4:30 AM to make sure I am at the laundromat at 6:00 AM when they open; (side note; they will change their hours of operation in two weeks and not open till 7:00 AM; thanks for the extra hour of sleep) I only get up that early, so that I am back home by 8:00 AM and still have the entire day to do whatever.

Monday; (yesterday) I had made plans to meet up with my 17 year old grandson (Oldest Grandson) to go to Andover, Ma. to watch trains; that's right Choo, Choo's. I have loved them since I was a kid. There is just something about taking time out of our busy lives and just sit and relax and wait. This is a great way to learn to have patients. Anyway; we got to the station just after 9:00 AM and we left about 11:00 AM. I found out that sitting there between 9-11 AM, you can see several trains. We saw the following trains in that time frame.
3 Commuter Trains (Running between Boston and Haverhill, Ma.)
2 Amtrak Trains (Running between Boston and Portland, Me.)
1 Freight Train (about 100 cars, 5 engines; Running between Selkerk, NY and Waterville, Me.)

After we left Ballardvale Station, we went to lunch and had a great roast beef sandwich. The grandson headed to the beach, and I headed home.

Later in the afternoon, I met my wife at our youngest daughter's home to see their new puppy, and have dinner, which was pizza and subs. Very Healthy Stuff. LOL.

The pup is very cute and here are some pictures of him.

Today; Tuesday, April 17, 2012, I took my wife to the area of Weymouth and Hull, Ma. where she grew up. We had lunch at Nantasket Beach, drove around a little looking at the ocean. The kids in Mass. have no school this week, so there were a lot of young people on the beach. We returned home, driving right through Boston, (Whew) and are spending a quite night home. The wife goes back to work tomorrow (she only took two days) and I will have the rest of the week. Loving It.

More to come tomorrow.