Reemerging: Counting Blessings, Setting Goals

After two days huddled in my "cave" (see Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus) as I healed my wounds from a week as a house husband, I am reemerging (I hope) into the light of the sabbatical.

Last week was filled with blessings:

• Receiving the award at the Dodgers for my work with people with disabilities
• Walking with Or Ami at the lead of the Walk for Darfur, because we had the largest team (162 people) and raised the most tzedakah (overe $10K)
• Watching my daughter speak so eloquently at the post-Walk rally
• Playing mucho baseball with my boys
• Watching my youngest make some incredible catches as his Knapp Ranch Red Sox team won another game on the way to the championship
• Loving time with Michelle
• Kvelling silently as my two oldest took great strides in taking on responsibility for their finals study
• A little Hebrew study, a little Kol Simcha study, a little Hebrew book reading

Now it is time to again focus on the blessings of this sabbatical. Time to set some goals for the cross country trip:

1. Walk in some national parks
2. Witness the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, volunteer to help
3. Listen to jazz in New Orleans
4. Take my boys to 2-3 baseball games (including at least one minor league game), visit other parks too
5. Do some non-Kipnes things: canoeing, horseback riding
6. Visit 2-3 factories where they make things
7. Quality time with Michelle
   
8. Spend time on the water: along the Mississippi and down below New Orleans
9. Visit Jacobs Camp in Utica, MS and see the Museum of Southern Jewry
10. Keep a blog of the trip
11. Continue to lose weight
12. Drink interesting wine
13. Read a few good books, a few junk books

Next post, I need to set some goals for the Camp Newman/Swig portion of the sabbatical.