A Fire in the Fireplace

Betsy and I have moved either every year or every-other year since we both college. Thus, we are pretty good at assessing potential places to live. When we found the place we live in now (and extracted a promise that we wouldn't have to move out in two years) we were especially impressed with the fireplace in the living room. While Francis and Ally were in town last week we made good use of it. Since then, too, we have found a nice fire to be a soothing place to read, grade papers, and even blog.

On my mind--the insanely busy day I'm going to have tomorrow. Tradcom in the morning, sure, plus staff meeting. We have two unusual services next Sunday which will mean a lot of energy devoted to getting them right. And then there are all the writing projects I need to do ASAP. First, I need to write up a first draft of the Organizational Narrative aka Case-for-Support that is part of the church's fundraising. We need to raise a bunch of money, and it seems to be falling mostly on me to articulate why. Second, I need to write a draft of the Christmas Pageant play. Third, I need to write an article about Bishop Ackah's visit. The guy asked me for help getting support for his Diocese in Africa, and writing a little article to raise awareness is a good move. Fourth, I need to write a couple of articles for the Episcopal Cafe blog. It's probably the most popular blog for Episcopalians in the use, with a daily readership in the thousands, so the honor of being asked to submit some articles is HUGE. But they asked me for unpublished content, so I can't just repurpose my best stuff from the last year! Fifth, I need to write for a Baker Grant to see if I can get some Diocesan money to finish the Children's chapel. The last time I applied for a grant was pretty discouraging, but I think since the Bishop upgraded our parish status (in terms of the official view of our future prospects) I might have better luck.

Now those are just writing projects. Not to mention the Prayer of the Week (which I didn't get around to last week) or my Sunday sermon or the communion visits that I MUST make. This is just crazy....

-t