A Day In The Life

3:30 a.m. (otherwise known as O Dark 30)
... wha? ... time for what? ... oh, okay: Ainsley is squirming and it might be time for a feeding ... okay, have fun, honey ... oh, you want ME to feed her ... okay ... *yawn* ... all right, all right, I'm up ...

6:00 a.m.
Okay, Ainsley's squirming again: it's up and at 'em for Super Daddy! So we start the day with the usual: 4oz breast milk for baby, 8oz coffee for Dad. And a banana.

7:30 a.m.
I've gotten Ainsley fed, changed, dressed, mopped up from spit-up, dressed again and into the car seat. Beloved is off to teach water aerobics and AJ goes without much struggle. Now it's upstairs with a bowl of Raisin Bran to do a quick blog, check e-mail and other computer stuff.

8:15 a.m.
Oh. My. Stars. That. Hurts. I was going to run this morning, but all of a sudden my neck has decided to lock up on me. I seriously cannot turn my head to the right without shooting pain. I feel like my friend Nate's cat, Kitty Crooked Head. This really is going to put a kink in the day (pun definitely intended).

9:00 a.m.
Thanks to Jan's excellent link to a Washington Post article on knots, I'm now running a titch behind. Quick shower (neck still hurts even after five minutes under the shower massager) and even quicker decision to save a few minutes and go without a shave today. Coffee mug & nalgene bottle filled, mail ready for the post office, I'm out the door by 9:30.

9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
At the office doing pastor stuff. Phone calls, email, worship planning, sorting the mail, scheduling visits, checking stuff on my computer. The quilters are here today, but I skip coffee with them to keep up on the momentum. My neck still hurts, so I decide to go home and apply the heating pad while reading Christian Century. When I mention this to the quilters they remind me what a cushy job I have. Don't I know it - but I'm still going home for lunch and a neck treatment.

12:30 - 1:30
A quick lunch & an hour on the easy chair with a heating pad & Christian Century allow me to move just a little bit better. For now. Started reading the Borg & Crossan article on Jesus' last week but it was just a bit too thick for a day when I'm distracted by my body. Maybe tomorrow afternoon?

1:30-3:00
Upstairs doing sermon prep via my Bible and Textweek.com. Some nice stuff to read, both for the Isaiah passage and the gospel reading from John. I've never preached on this particular Gospel reading before - at least, I don't think I have, since there are neither notes nor manuscript in my file from three years ago. So this will be interesting. Thinking of going with "Dinner on the Devil's Doorstep" as a sermon title.

3:00-4:00
Hymn planning meeting back at the church. Neck hurts again, but it's survivable. We only get Holy Week and the 2nd Sunday of Easter planned before Organist's piano lesson kids show up. But it's a lot to plan in one hour - we can get the rest of April next week.

4:00-5:00
Back home, change into shorts and running shoes for a quick 3 miles on the treadmill. Nice easy workout on account of my aching neck - just a 10:00/mile pace, some grade changes during commercials of last night's "How I Met Your Mother." The last scene of the show is a riot, but not suitable for blogging here, unfortunately.

5:00-6:00
Supper and dishes. I also fold/hang up the basket of clean laundry, wipe down the counters, put away the junk on the coffee table and leave a note for Beloved to watch HIMYM when she gets home. "I can bring home the bacon / fry it up in a pan..."

6:00 - 8:00
Prepare and deliver tonight's Genesis to Revelation class, with Power Point downloaded from Dr. Craig Koester at Luther Seminary. We work through the basics of Ezekiel and do a quick survey of God and Suffering in the Old Testament, leaving Job for next week (and possibly following weeks as well). I'd forgotten what a crazy visionary Ezekiel was; trying to distill it down into a one hour discussion group leaves a lot out. But it's a survey course and hopefully no one felt cheated.

8:00 - 10:00
Come home for the night to find Beloved & Ainsley already home. I get Ainsley into her PJs, give her a bottle, give her ANOTHER when she won't stop squirming, then finally get her sleeping and into the bassinette. Beloved and I watch "24" from last night while I savor a nice Schell Caramel Bock. Hopefully the alcohol will take the edge off of my still-aching neck.

10:00
This has been such a great day that I think I'll blog about it. Now I've done so. Now it's off to bed, where I'll read a chapter or two of The Brothers Karamazov until I fall asleep.

Pax,
Scott