Merry Christmas!

We're in rainy Florida with Matt's family - Merry Christmas, everyone!

a redneck joke

"You know you work in a redneck library if the alarm goes off because someone opened the emergency exit door to spit!" from my co-worker who just saw the whole incident

Trees on Sky

I love all four seasons. I am fascinated with each of them, probably because of all that time spent in Florida, the land of one season - hot. I have favorite things in the landscape of each season. In spring, I love the blooming of one flower after another. In summer, I love how dusk seems to last forever, and how the fireflies glow against the masses of green things. In fall, I'm obviously fascinated by the leaves. And in winter, it's the bare trees against the sky.
There's something about the constancy and structure of tree branches that contrasts with the ever changing colors and textures of the sky. They show each other off beautifully, don't you think? I'm blessed to drive up and down, there and back in these foresty mountains that offer different sky scenes every day and my trees - stark and showy.

Slice of Life: Pie and Cat

It's so nice to have another free Saturday. I liked it so much, I made my favorite pie - sour cream apple pie - yummy! I also did laundry and ran errands with Matt, but there wasn't a rush. Aaaahhhh.
It's also nice to have a warm, fuzzy cat around. Here's Rainey in his favorite spot on our bed.

Not a people person...

I've been thinking this week about my interactions with others. And I've come to an important conclusion that many who know me have probably already come to. I'm not a people person - or, to be more specific, because I do like people, even some pretty strange ones - I'm not an extrovert. At all. Too much time with others, though I love them, drains me.

On Friday, I spent almost the entire day in working with others. I like working with others, but in small doses, you know? One of my libraries has been renovated and to put it all back together, we have to work as a team. A good portion of my work Friday was instructing the prison work crew in the Dewey Decimal system (and hearing about their, ahem, personal lives - they turned out to be mostly nice guys and pretty good shelvers). And people think working in a library is boring!

So, after the prisoners, I was pretty tired. Then, it was home to change, and head to the sunday school Christmas party. Lots of fun, but also lots of people.

You can imagine how relieved I was to get to spend most of Saturday by myself. I only had to talk to Matt, the bank teller, and the clerk at the $2 store. Nice - I got all recharged for the week ahead.

A beautiful day for a birthday

It's my birthday. I feel like I've been celebrating for days already-I've already received and opened presents from my wonderful family in Virginia while we were there for Thanksgiving. And I was treated to a wonderful Mediterranean meal by my parents.

I'm at work after being out all last week. I'm really enjoying working today. My co-workers are all out of the office, so I'm playing good music and enjoying the sun coming in my office windows while I plan upcoming events and read my e-mail.

So let's say hurray! for low-key birthdays.

Work

I did some this week. More working than usual, actually. I had a very successful teen halloween program and a successful internet program for older elementary and middle school students and their parents. In addition to the usual five preschool storytimes, collection development, planning, etc. I felt useful.

Matt and I continue to struggle with the place of work in our lives. We like our jobs. We like our church. We like our house. Most of the time, we like our cat. But we continue to feel off balance, out of whack, too often spread thin. Matt's job has been demanding long days and weekend time. I feel thankful for the flexibility I enjoy, even when I work weekends or evenings as well. But the very nature of my position requires being spread between too many places and people to serve.

We'd like to be more centered. Invested in one community. We're wondering when it could be right to bring a new life into our family. Matt's talking about a doctoral program again. I'm afraid of packing our life and our memories into boxes AGAIN. I'm looking at the people around us here, people I've only begun to know but that I love, and wondering how I can say goodbye.

"If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You'll get his help, and won't be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who "worry their prayers" are like wind-whipped waves. Don't think you're going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open." James 1:5-8, The Message

Strawberry Swirl

Sounds like a wonderful ice cream flavor to enjoy in early summer, but it also makes for pretty sock yarn.Dyed by me, with Kool-Aid, Monday night.

Jaywalkers!

We had our first frost here yesterday, so it's a good thing I finished a fresh pair of wool socks last week! These are the Jaywalker socks. I'm especially proud of them - they fit well, they are definitely INTERESTING to look at, and I dyed the yarn myself with kool-aid. You can read about that here.

I started these back on September 7 and finished them on October 19th in celebration of Socktoberfest. If I can find the time, I'm going to dye up some more wool in kool-aid colors and make another pair because I like these so much!


P.S. Pictures were taken in my office on Friday. Hence, the picture books. :-)

Quote from Matt

"I looked around and I noticed - the ratio of teeth to people is...not what it should be."