Parting the Mental Clouds

After a week of progressively getting sicker, I may have turned the corner. Woohoo! My head is almost clear & my voice is coming back. Best of all I can string 2 thoughts together without tripping over them. Unfortunately I'm coughing more. :-/ So more liquids, and more reading are on the agenda for today.
It also looks like I'll be closing the windows again. There has been a fair amount of smoke coming from BC, which is probably responsible for some of the additional coughing. Hubby says the smoke around Kamloops is BAD. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the source of our smoke (prevailing winds etc.)
Maybe I'll get ambitious and make cookies since I'm stuck indoors.

Irritating

Sitting, enjoying the breeze from your fan, and hearing the scritch, scritich, scritch sound the curtain beside your head makes as the tag drags across the wall in time to the air flow.
Scissors.
And the sounds of silence

The best type of presents

My mother-in-law just returned from visiting family in BC. She brought back fresh cherries, early season peaches, green beans (yum!), & summer squash/zucchini.
Mom always buys enough for not only her and dad, but also the extended family (her 3 sons, 2 daughter-in-laws and 2, soon to be 3, grandchildren). So I now have loads of fresh fruit and veggies sitting in my fridge. I had my first peach this morning for breakfast and it was wonderful. Of course we won't be able to eat it all before it starts to spoil so I'd better start freezing the surplus.
Guess I'd better check to see if you CAN freeze zucchini.

Into the night...

My mother hates to tell my bad/sad news because I'm so far away and can't do anything. I, on the other hand, hate being blindsided when someone else mentions something I SHOULD know! Following the advice of my best friend Allison, I've started periodically checking the notices on my hometown's funeral home website. Yeah, I know it's rather morbid, but... (shrug)

This week it turned out to be a good thing as I learned one of my Dad's oldest friends had passed. My brother and I were discussing how this would affect him. Dad is now in a position where he is in the funeral home almost every week to say good bye to someone he knows. I can only imagine how hard it can be to cope with that sadness. And how easy it would be for it to slide into depression.

I remember when my Grandmother realized she was the only one left in the area of her generation. I really believe that is when she decided it was time. She was gone by the end of the month.

Death is part of Life. We forget that sometimes and learning how to cope is one of the best skills we can have.

Walking to Work...

is the perfect time to mull things over. This seems to be the time I have all these great ideas and thoughts but they rarely make it past the trip. 
Today for whatever reason I was remembering a Summer Reading Program session from a few years ago. One young boy asked me, in all seriousness, "are those the only clothes you own?" ROFL Apparently every time he saw me I was wearing the summer reading program t-shirt and the same pants.

It Snowed !!!!!

In July!!!! Of course it didin't stay but it was a shock none the less. I'll have to see if the boss's pictures turned out.

What would you like to see in our new library?

I asked the Summer Fun kids what they would like to see in our expanded and renovated library. As some of the kids are just starting to write I asked them to draw their ideas, using words if they wanted to. As they handed their sheets in, they all wanted to share their ideas and thought processes. It was quite thrilling to see their excitement in the project.

Some of their ideas were not a surprise:

• more space
• comfy furniture
• more spaces for computers
• more of their favourite book series
• more games and a gaming space (only boys asked for this, I wonder why?)

Others made you think 'why not?' :

• a fish tank
• a more colourful exterior
• an unusual shape for the building (the example used was a frog and her drawing was quite detailed)

One thing I saw over and over that surprised me, was a building with multiple floors with the kids area always on the top floor. The current library has the kids' section on the second floor. I had no idea that the kids were so fond of the setup.

And if anyone thinks kids aren't interested in books, this bunch would have changed their minds. Every single drawing of the interior of the library showed book shelves, lots of them. I made the mistake of thinking they were windows in one person's drawing and he were so upset he immediately labeled them "not windows", so I wouldn't forget :-)

Lets hope I can get at leaset some of these ideas included in the plans.

Nightmares

Some things should not be read one right after the other. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson are two such books. While these books have different settings, each exposes the darkness that exists in the human race. They also deal with the struggle to survive that darkness. The darkness in each linked together in my mind and left me feeling quite low for a while. I would still recommend both books if you like the darker side of life. Just make sure to read something light and cheerful in between.

I Need a Clone

Looking at the calendar, it dawned on me that we have been back from vacation for exactly 1 month.

It actually feels more like 4 months and at least a dozen grey hairs.

Busyness came from work:  the annual book sale, the Canada Day parade float that I didn't have to create (many thanks to Janeen and Cassidy) just find children for & ride in, interviewing/training summer staff, planning the summer reading programs for children, and gettting up to speed with TeenRC. Busyness also came from trying to get everything in place for Al to graduate with the local high school kids in June 2011 after 5 years of homeschooling! Topped with the usually busyness of life and I was going in 6 different directions at the same time.

But the end is in sight. The summer reading program has started and I have 2 fantastic helpers. The Garden Tour is the only event left and I don't do too much for that. Al is organized for school, although he'll do some work this summer to wrap up 2 homeschooling courses and get a jump on next year's stuff.  Now we can settle into the summer routine and hopefully relax.

Okay that might have to wait until after I get the dandelions under control. :-)