Afterthoughts...

So, I'm home now, I've been home for three full days, I've been back to church, and more or less back to normal (although I still haven't had a full day back at work - soon). It was strange how long it seemed to take to reacclimate myself to normal life this time - I have done my fair share of wilderness and camping trips, although this one could perhaps win the prize for most rustic for the longest amount of time. Is it having lived a very simple life with so few people for a full week, or is it having been gone the bulk of the month of July on vacation and trips? I'm still not really sure about that one.

Life at home seems more or less on a regular track...I have spent most of the last three days holed up in my apartment though...partly out of laziness, partly out of wanting to read (and finish...YAY!) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I think I spent 5 hours today finishing it...give or take...at least 4 hours. Now I wait for others to finish so I can actually talk about it to them. Bah.

Tomorrow (well, today I suppose as it is 12:30am) is my first full day back to work...should be a quiet week. I will be tying up loose ends from the canoe trip, answering e-mails, and getting reorganized so I can start thinking about the upcoming school year a bit more. I head off - again - the end of this week for a couple days, as there are kids at Good Earth Village Camp this week, and I want to make an appearance there. Then I think the last big thing I should have for the summer is a personal trip to the Twin Cities for a weekend for a music festival with some friends.

I have a sermon to get ready for this weekend, which I am excited for despite the fact that I really haven't put a ton of thought into it up to this point. I know that the text is on the Lord's Prayer, and also contains the ask-seek-knock passage that is so familiar (and is one of my favorites). I'm excited to start reading through the commentaries, as I already have some vague ideas in my head about where I want to go with it, again, strange, as I haven't read the text in close to a month. So we'll see.

As far as thoughts on the trip now that my brain has had time to process...I think I have to call it largely a success. Wilderness trips are not without their struggles and difficulties, and I think we handled ourselves pretty well. Talk about the trip seems positive, and I think the kids came back with the feeling that each of them did things they wouldn't have considered themselves capable of doing. In my book, that's positive. I think very few trips occur where there is no drama, so all in all...yeah. It was good.

Build me up, Buttercup.