That said, I have now reached my maximum load of watermelons.* There is room for no more in the cart labeled 2007. Next year, I am already committed to the following:
Starting 13-week confirmation class right after New Year's;
Starting 6-week leadership seminar right after New Year's;
Move into rehabbed parsonage end of January;
Doing God & Me for 1-3 Grade kids some time in March or so;
Teaching the District Lay Speakers course two weekends in March;
Doing all the conditioning and shakedown stuff to prepare for Yellowstone;
Go hiking in the Adirondacks in May;
Attend the Annual Meeting of NAUMS June 1 in Atlanta;
Annual Conference in June;
Youth Mission trip in June;
Yellowstone trip in July;
Take some extended time in August to work on my cabin and holler.
That's it. That's the year's work. The answer to everything else is No.
*Years ago, I was buying watermelons for a church camp, and piled them way high on my shopping cart. As I came out of the store and started down a sloped parking lot, the melon on top began to wobble and I sprang up to stabilize it with my hand. I wound up splayed across a mound of watermelons on a moving cart, gathering speed toward a line of parked cars. It was an anxious moment. Ever since then, "too many watermelons" is our family code for having too many things going on.