Recharging

Over the past six weeks of my sabbatical, I did a lot of reading, reflecting, resting, volunteering, visiting, traveling, and cuddling. The time has flown by. As I wrap up my final week, I feel like I’m back in school counting down the remaining days of summer vacation with both giddy anticipation and the desire to have just one more week. Here’s what I was up to…

We had visitors! Ben and Brianne and the kiddos came to visit for a night on their way from Colorado to Indiana. And Jake’s aunt and uncle stayed with us on their way back from their cross country trip from California and back.

I spent a great deal of time organizing thousands and thousands of my digital photos with the hopes of printing many out to place in albums. Turns out, I haven’t really (beyond a print here and there) printed photos for albums since 2003. I spent hours and hours organizing photos into years and events. And then I marked which photos to print out up through 2010. So far I have sent off for prints just through 2005. I also scanned in almost 500 prints from film between 2011 and 2013. Needless to say, I did not complete the project. But definitely made some progress…here is a random sampling of fun film pics.

We travelled to Illinois (twice) to see family. When we cancelled our family trip for COVID, we decided just to do a smaller staycation this year near home. We bowled, boated, and BBQ’d. It was low key and perfect.

In August, we also went to Illinois for my cousin’s engagement where we got to also meet baby Vivi!

And in the biggest news, we have a new boxer puppy, Lyla! She is snuggly, wants to be next to us always, and right now just a little too nippy for my toes’ liking. We love her to pieces.

And here’s what I read during my sabbatical. The book that has stuck with me most is Girlhood. I had to take breaks to let it sink in. It was hard in the best of ways and a book I hope to revisit again and again.