Sabbatical Recap Part 1 (and what is a sabbatical?)

It’s good to be back home! My family and I took our first ministerial sabbatical this year and we’re just getting back into the swing of real life. So what is a sabbatical exactly? Here’s Webster’s Dictionary’s definition:

sabbatical

noun

We spent 30 whole glorious days in the beautiful state of Arkansas. (I didn’t advertise that on the blog of course since nothing says “rob me” like telling the world that you’re gone for a whole month! 😉 ) This year marks 15 years in the ministry for my husband, and 14 for myself.

Although he wasn’t yet convinced that was what he needed such a break, he proceeded to talk to the elders of our church about taking a longer-than-usual vacation. They readily agreed and a little over a month was the time frame agreed upon. We had talked to other pastors who had done a sabbatical and most of them gave us the same advice: take a month off if you can, leave your city for sure, and don’t do a lot of moving around. (Packing up 6 people several times and moving locations didn’t seem very restful to me, anyway!)

So we began looking for places we could afford to stay for a month, and landed on Hot Springs, AR. This happens to be the town where my dad was born and spent his first 12 years of life. It is also the town where Ben and I found out we were expecting our first child Landon, and where my sister Lindsey got engaged. All in all, a  pretty special place for our family!

As we got closer and closer to our departure date (April 27), Ben began to see and feel for himself that he needed spiritual refreshment and rest. My daughter Allison made a count-down calendar and we began preparing for the trip of a lifetime!

While we obviously still had the work of taking care of 4 kids (amazingly, they still wanted 3 meals a day!) it was truly a relaxing time. We took turns getting up with the first child awake (always Canaan, by the way. Up by 6 or 6:30 everyday!) and took naps during the day sometimes. We also both did LOTS of reading. (Click here to see some of the books I read .)

We did lots of hiking/fishing/biking/swimming- the state of Arkansas is really stunningly beautiful. We did very little “touristy” stuff- almost everything we did was “outdoorsy” instead. (And I’ve got a smidgen of a tan to prove it!)

I’ll definitely do more posts about our trip in the future (like how to pack for 6 people for a month- ha!), but just wanted to get the first one written while everything was still fresh in my mind.

Even though a trip like this was lots of time planning, lots of money, and lots of work preparing for it, I’m SO glad we were able to take it! It really is one of my favorite memories of married/parenting/church life so far, and one that hopefully won’t take 15 years to repeat! 🙂

Do you have a vacation planned this summer? I’d love to hear where you’re going!

{Pssst… looking for a worthwhile activity for your children this summer? Join me in the Summer Scripture Memory Series!}