Jim has Flown The Coop

Thursday night we drove Jim to the airport. Not easy to drive away without him, of course. But it's not time to feel sorry for Jim yet - he is having a great time in Dublin with Kate! So we are glad for him. This is such a blessing for him to finally go to Ireland AND see his baby girl. We are looking forward to a skype session at some point here this morning. The girls and I have an errand or two to run, then we'll be back listening for the computer to ring.

As to how we feel here with Jim gone, it's still uncertain. He frequently spent a day or two away for business. This may as well be that sort of absence. The flurry of the past several days getting him packed up and ready to go left behind a mess of a house for us to clean up. No pressure or rush, it'll get done soon enough. I am now aware of the breaker box and the water shut-off valves in the basement. One of the headlights on the Pacifica looks like it's out, so I'll run by an auto-parts store to get a replacement. Those are the sort of things that only Jim took care of, but are now falling to me. No problem- I should have known before anyway.

On the bright side, since Jim is taking my camera in order to shot photos of everywhere he goes and share them with us, he bought me a new camera last week. No mere replacement, it is the camera of my dreams. A Nikon D60 with two lenses and lots of little gadgets. There will be a learning curve to be sure, but I'm loving this camera already. Two DVDs came along with it to teach me the basics, so I'll have those to keep me occupied.

Finally, this weekend is the second annual Greater Reading Gathering of Reformed Evangelicals. A conference involving four like-minded churches in our area; the topic this year is John Calvin's life and work, about which I am thrilled. Last night was the opening session and in discussing the focus of John Calvin's ideas most of the points went straight to the heart of the study of God's Attributes that I lead each week. Not sure how many people in a conference on Reformed Theology feel like jumping up and down in the pew - but I was just about ready to! Last year the conference lectures were all posted on our church's website, so if you're interested just check here for them in the next couple of weeks.