A long weekend I don't really want to repeat in a hurry!

This past weekend is what one would refer to as a "long weekend", having combined the normal weekend with a public holiday today (Monday).  But unfortunately it was not one that I particularly enjoyed.

Well, okay - it wasn't ALL bad!  My son James played in his first ever rugby match on Saturday morning (07h30 start!), but unfortunately his team's inexperience showed in that they were absolutely creamed in all four matches.  But he had a lot of fun, and can only learn some valuable lessons for next time.

Then on Sunday I had the privilege of leading the service at the Sunnyside Retirement Home just outside Prestbury.  It was the first time I had preached since Christmas Day 2009, and considering that I used to preach at least twice on a Sunday last year, there were some serious withdrawal symptoms to deal with.  I must say that I enjoy ministry to the elderly - my firm and long-standing belief is that the folks who are now in institutions were there fore the Church during their active lives, so the Church needs to be there for them in their golden years.  Sadly, our modern throwaway society seems to "dump" the elderly once they are perceived to have reached their "sell-by date".

But this weekend has also had some low moments.  James had a morning market at school on Friday morning, coupled with a hobo evening at Scouts that same evening, and I think that all the junk he ate has wreaked havoc with his insides.  Certainly the Waalhaven sewerage system has never before been so well utilised, and as I write this post on Monday night, he is still not 100%.

As for me, the bulk of the weekend has been spent nose-down in the books, either pecking away at my computer doing assignments, or studying for our Hebrew test tomorrow morning.  On the assignment front, one can see that it's the end of the term since we have FOUR assignments due this week.  Thankfully I have three of them under the belt, so hopefully a Herculean effort on the last one tomorrow (which is due on Wednesday) will bring some light to the end of the loooooong tunnel.  The noise levels in the building have been irritating, though - it seems that very few of us actually have work to do!  Either that, or I'm going to have the last laugh later in the week as some of my colleagues try to explain why their assignments are not handed in.  We'll see...

The real downside of this, though, is tht my family has seen virtually nothing of me these past three days.  It's just been work, work, work, and the number of late nights I've had as a result is making me rather grumpy.  Even my normally super-duper-supportive wife was getting a bit fed up of the workload - hopefully it will be a bit more spread out next term.  People think I'm having delusions of grandeur when I say that the PhD I'll be embarking on next year will in fact be easier than ohat I'm doing now, but I must admit that research projects have always been more my forte, and besides, I'll also have greater control over my own time.  I'm certainly not planning to pull too many "all-nighters" once the BTh is under the belt...

Anyway, enough whingeing for now.  Scripture promises that God will never allow us to go through anything beyond that which we are able to endure, so I guess that the fact that I'm still able to sit at my PC and peck out this post after my "weekend from hell" means that, once again, God has come through!