Dawn

This is a ridiculous time of day to be blogging, but I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep and have never been a believer in lying in the bed sleeplessly for long. Anytime I have trouble sleeping, which is rare, it's much more effective for me to get up and read for a while than to lie in the dark and think about the minutes ticking away. Unfortunately, this morning I'll probably be making a big pot of coffee pretty soon instead of going back to bed.

There is so much I have been wanting to write about but it feels like every time I have a chance to sit at the computer lately there's work waiting for me. The last thing I want to do with any leftover time is look at a screen.

I am loving the slower pace of life this summer. Our days have been mainly unscheduled, and it makes all of us more relaxed. Things are about to be briefly crazy, albeit mainly with fun stuff -- Claire's birthday, the Fourth of July, a visit with our college group, a weekend trip with Mom and Amanda, and a story that's been hanging over my head for weeks -- but in two weeks the calm will return. I might even get my hair cut.

With this bonus time awake (which I will certainly bemoan by mid-morning) I will probably finally finish this month's book-club book, "The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America." And just in time for book club tonight. The book started out strong but I've been bogged down by the details since about the half-way mark.

But first I'm going to spend some time reading Colossians. I've been listening to a lot of John Piper while running lately, and he mentioned having divided this short book into 11 sections and then reading through it in one sitting, pausing to pray for a couple of minutes after each section. For someone like me who has a tendency to rush through Bible reading and prayer, this has been a great strategy for slowing down.

Birds are starting to chirp, so I'll get on that now.