Here are the top 9 indications that my summer was a good one:<\/p>\n
Goal #1: Travelling out of town.<\/strong><\/span> I am one of those people who can\u2019t really relax (or even stop working) unless my physical body is actually out-of-town. Goal #2: \u00a0Spending quality time with family outside of the routine.<\/strong><\/span> This one is related to the first, but not entirely. The summer is way outside the regular school year routine for our family (and I suspect for most families). Engaging in uninterrupted, meaningful time with members of our family is priceless. Goal #3: Supporting our kids in the next phase of their life<\/strong>:<\/span> full time employment over the summer, a lot of free evenings to be social with friends, a lot of free time to play video games (or fight with their parents after their \u201cscreen time is up\u201d). Goal #4:\u00a0 Watching an entire Toronto Blue Jays game<\/strong><\/span>\u2014not just the highlights of Blue Jays in 30! I love baseball; it’s such a fun sport to watch. However, it\u2019s become clear that the pace of baseball bores many North Americans and they prefer to catch the highlights. Not me. I love the nuances of the game: so much strategy and athleticism wound together\u2014amazing. Goal # 5: Caring for the plants in our yard.<\/strong> <\/span>Education is the type of job that doesn\u2019t provide a lot of tangible and immediate feedback, so when I can cut the grass or work on the flowers or trim the trees, I find joy and seeing and experiencing the work of \u201ctending to the gardens\u201d etc. Goal#6: Reading a book or two that provides new meaning in my life<\/strong>. Goal #7: Finding it inspiring and invigorating to come back to work on a full-time basis.<\/strong><\/span> I often love learning a bunch of things that I want to implement right away at school (often through reading, through blogs, through powerful TED Talks or podcasts and even through connections with friends and\/or family who work in similar settings). I get so excited about coming back to school to put these thoughts and ideas into practice. Goal #8: Laughing out loud\u2014a lot.<\/strong> <\/span>I\u2019m often told that in the midst of the busyness of life, I sometimes forget to laugh out loud. Summertime helps with this. Goal #9: Wine Tasting with Heidi.<\/strong><\/span> In terms of my relationship with my wife, this one might be a little selfish because of my affinity for fine wine, but it\u2019s a tradition that truly connects us. So\u2014I think it\u2019s safe to say that my summer \u201cSabbath\u201d was a good one. How was your summer?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m an educator, and yes that means (generally speaking) summer is indeed a break from the regular rhythm of the school year\u2026and yes, we educators are blessed to enjoy time off that most other industries don\u2019t have the luxury of. I like to refer to summer holidays as a teachers\u2019 Sabbath. It\u2019s an intentional break […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":4070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-4064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4064"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=4064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAccomplished? Check!<\/strong> Our family travelled to Ontario for a family reunion (my parents celebrated their 50th<\/sup> wedding anniversary), to central California to visit Heidi\u2019s parents and spend a long weekend with my son, Eliot, for a new tradition called, \u201cgrad trip with dad.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/insideout.abbotsfordchristian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2c698aa3-001.jpg\")
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\nAccomplished? Check!<\/strong> A new phase of our lives this summer was having all three of teenagers working during the day. Heidi and I found ourselves starting to practice for what it\u2019s like to be \u201cempty nesters.\u201d Uninterrupted time at our home together? What a gift!<\/p>\n
\nAccomplished? Check!<\/strong> Even after putting in a lot of hours at places of employment, Heidi and I spent a lot of time taxiing the kids around to support their social lives.<\/p>\n
\nAccomplished? Check!<\/strong> I watched a lot of Blue Jays games and even attended a few MLB games live with Eliot, who is becoming an even bigger fan than I am.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/insideout.abbotsfordchristian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/IMG_5294.jpg\")
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\nAccomplished? Check!<\/strong> I spent many an hour working on our yard and at my in-laws in California helping with their beautiful yard.<\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Accomplished? Check!<\/strong> \u00a0I actually read a couple books, but one of them had a much more profound effect than the other. The book, \u201cThe Second Mountain\u201d by David Brooks is an incredible, non-fiction description about where we can find pure joy (versus the pursuit of happiness that the world leads us to believe). Turns out that pure joy is mostly found in serving others\u2014who would have thunk!<\/p>\n
\nAccomplished? Check!<\/strong> \u00a0My father has been a Christian school administrator for the better part of his life and I spent significant time with him this summer, enough to learn a few new nuggets. My brother, in Ontario, is also a Christian school leader and he never fails to provide me with at least one exciting new thought or leadership tip to consider. I also really appreciated and learned from some new TED talks and podcasts.<\/p>\n
\nAccomplished? Check!<\/strong> Spending time with my siblings always provides a lot of time for laughing, as well as reconnecting with old friends in both Ontario and California.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/insideout.abbotsfordchristian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Siblings-300x225.jpg\")
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\nAccomplished? Check!<\/strong> Heidi and I made it to some new places (for us) in West Kelowna and Peachland. We did a tour with my family in Ontario (Beamsville Bench) as part of the anniversary celebration, and then Heidi and I took her parents up to Sonoma county (our favourite \u201cnew world\u201d place) for a wonderful day. I\u2019m convinced that the creation of vineyard terroir, grapes growing in vines, the harvest crush, wine-making abilities and aging the juice to perfection is one the Lord\u2019s greatest creations. I\u2019m pretty sure this is what He meant when He said, \u201cAnd it was very<\/u> good\u201d in the creation account of Genesis.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/insideout.abbotsfordchristian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/IMG_5167.jpg\")
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