Long Time, No Post

So, I haven't posted in a very long time. The strange thing about my brain (OK, ONE of the of the strange things about my brain) is that I tend to think in illustrations: sermon illustrations, blog posts, newsletter articles, etc., but I almost never use them. Which probably makes me a big dork, but whatever. Anyhoo, I've thought about posting many times, but I either put it off or I get side-tracked, or I have a little moment of self-pity and I think, "well, no one reads this stupid thing anyway.'' Then the other part of my brain tells the first part to shut up and get over it, and then the first part sulks. It's always a good time in my brain... Again, I say whatever. Point being, I haven't written in almost a month. Here are a few things I might have written about if I weren't a big slacker:

• Vacation! I took 2 weeks off in June. I spent the first week at home with the fam, and the 2nd week hanging out with a friend in the Seattle area. Ahhh....good stuff.
• Part of vacation was doing the Holidays day with the kiddos. It was just the 4 nieces this year as the other family had planned to come but then forgot and scheduled something else. Oldest niece decided after 8 years that she just wanted to be a helper this year, and youngest niece is now 3, so this was her first year of getting to participate.
  
• I came back from vacation to be the only pastor here at Made up Name LC. This wasn't a surprise, I knew it was coming, of course, but it's definitely an adjustment, and I have to say I'm not particularly enjoying the new, longer hours.
• I'm caving to the pressure and reading the Twilight series. I'm only 2 chapters in, so I can't say too much about it. It's strange, because usually I love anything with vampires, but I have had no desire to read this series. But people keep talking about it and I feel like I should have an idea of what they're talking about. I'm also going to read The Shack for the same reason (just not the vampires).
• Speaking of reading, I recently completed my annual re-read of Harry Potter. Then I re-read the Little House series. I read it a bunch of times as a kid, but it's probably been 20 years since the last time, and it was interesting to read it as an adult, with a different perspective.

I know there are other things I thought of, but now they've gone somewhere else. Maybe I'll try to post more so the random things don't disappear. Or maybe it's better that I don't post and the random things go away, never to be seen or heard from again.