random reflections after a busy summer

Here I am, sitting down to write, and how strange it feels! The kids are back at school, but the year hasn't yet settled into shape.

We've had a bustling summer. Dusty trips to the zoo and damp trips home from the pool.

School books and shoes and pencils and calculators bought and - mostly - labelled.

Jogging along the beach with my daughter, a 10-year-old discovering he loves boogie boarding, my three sons inventing endless games.

The school holidays have left me feeling like I do at the end of a jog: sweaty and hot and tired, but also, somehow, satisfied and rested.

I did have one chance to draw breath. For two precious days, I went away with close friends and we did what women do: took our lives apart, examined them, and put them back together.

It seemed to me that my life is like a tree with too many branches. Some need to be cut out so others can grow more strongly. Two branches in particular need pruning:

• ministry in church and uni - over the next year or so, I'd like to narrow my focus to one area, not several
• writing - I might need to do less of some kinds, so I have time for others ...

... and that's where you come in. I know you love my online meanderings, because you've told me so. But, for the moment, I think they'll have to go.

Last year my son was very sick. He didn't have great holidays, and I'll be caring for him this year. There are few hours in the day when I'm just me, with time to make a home and see people and do my own stuff.

One of the things I want to do over the next 5 or 10 years - God willing - is write. Blog posts, articles, seminars. Maybe even a book or two. But to do that, you need to make time to get your backside on a chair and write, regularly and often.

I think 2014 might be a year for laying foundations to build on. Here are some of the oddly-shaped stones I'd like to put in place:

• declutter our house
• set up a writing space
• learn New Testament Greek
• keep jogging
• read lots of books
• start a new training day for women at our church
• re-design this blog (with the help of a friend).

We do what we can with the time God gives us. I love caring for our family. I want to keep pouring time and energy into other people too. But I've also discovered that I love to write - and people tell me to keep at it - so here we are.

It's good to be back writing again, even if it's just this post.