It's Tuesday of vacation, and a lovely, sun drenched chilly morning. . . I am ensconced in "Silas's chair" by the window, and am just feeling like documenting a little! Ten updates over the seven months since I last posted:
1. Lyle is ecstatically settled at Skidmore--he got straight A's in his first semester, plus a dose of mono and a great time on the swim team. He has found a niche that challenges him and supports him at once. We are delighted.
2. Andy is 1/2way through his sabbatical, working away on "instructional technologies," with most of his coursework being on line. He fills his time with odd jobs, working out, and picking up a lot of the house hold work. Yay!
3. I am knitting more than ever before, really. . . have just started the Honey Cowl of Madelinetosh Yarns fame, and made Zinnia mittens for Julie for Christmas, only about a month late! Having a bit more money to invest in really nice yarn makes a difference in the pleasure level, for sure.
4. Just got back from a weekend in Portland (3rd Annual!) with Julie: this was maybe the best one yet, since we planned a trip to Reid State Park in the middle so that we had a great outing. The weather was spectacular, and the food was great. Nice to be home again, with the week lying out before me.
5. Feel like I am growing up in my leadership: the "this sounds fun" Library Trustee position has suddenly become more of a task, as . . . well, in the interest of being professional I'll just say that we're tackling more difficult questions, and keeping us focused and moving forward has become more difficult and more important at the same time. Department headship at school is also time-consuming but valuable, so I am flexing muscles that I haven't: dealing with conflict, attending meetings, etc. Whew.
6. Have ordered the DVDs of both seasons I and II of "Downtown Abbey". Too many raves to avoid this one, esp when they turned up for sale in the Daedalus catalog. If I never want to watch them again, I'll give them to the Library. Otherwise: knitting fodder, and we keep discovering how much fun it is to watch stuff as a family! On the big screen! Instead of separately, plugged in. . . can you tell that's a hobby horse of mine?
7. Tonight is Shrove Tuesday, the pancake dinner at church (after which I will go to the Trustee meeting . . . full of sisterly love and ready to go!), which means that Lent begins on Wednesday. Haven't decided what I will give up or take up for this Lent. I had thought about trying to do 2 minute meditations in the morning. . . but I tend to do better with a written meditation. Hmmm.
8. Nate, Nate, Nate. . . What fun to get to see that boy blossom. He is busy, he is talented, he is a goofball. I'm so glad we've had this extra time with just him at home.
9. Running! I've been able to do it about 2x/week for the last six months or so with no major issues! Not sure if this is the result of a year on glucosamine/chron. about 4x week, the knee exercises that I've been doing fairly regularly, or what, but I am loving it! Lori and I are planning to run the Flattop 5 K, but I'd be happy if I could just keep doing my bi-weekly 3 miles!
10. Things just seem settled and good. I had a probably hormonally-inspired rocky stretch around Christmas, distinguished by my first-ever round of really bad itchy skin/hives/skin bumps/weirdness, but once I got my head wrapped around the fact that it would probably flare up then die back down, I treated the symptoms and dealt. Again, I find that lack of light, stress (even good stress), and hormones (which seem to do something spectacularly different about once every 4 months or so) usually results in a measurable blip on my radar. But. Things seem to have settled right now.
Off to read and to do pattern row #2 on my honey cowl in Madelinetosh's "tart"!
1 comment:
Nice to have you back! Even nicer to hear that things are going so well for all of you.
Congratulations on the ark for Heifer International, by the way! That's a major achievement.
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