I wonder what she's trying to tell me.

This is Tiger.
She is a 17 year old Manx cross that we've had since she was a kitten. Yes, an orange female cat is rather rare. Tiger has been a house cat right from the beginning and up until this year she has been quite content with that. This year has seen her fighting to get outside more and more often. Some days she gets ambitious and wanders under the raspberries and other days she just lays in the sun. She does NOT like grass and refuses to walk on it so her walks around the yard can be quite creative.
But it's on days like today when I wonder if she's trying to tell me something.

Wearing Down

Suddenly it is halfway through August. I'm exhausted, yet the To Do list gets longer and longer. I'm trying to carve out a few hours of "me" time every few days just to balance the pressure. Too many demands, not enough me to go around. I need to learn how to turn off my brain so I'm not dreaming of work, or other To Do stuff.
"to sleep, perchance to dream"

It's been a hell of a month.

Sometimes the only thing you can do when life gets overwhelming is keep your head down and push through. That is how this last month has been, a bunch of little things that added up to a load of stress.
I think the hardest part was the departure of one of my coworkers. Living in a tourist town means getting used to people moving on frequently. Occasionally you really connect with someone and it is even harder when they move on. In this case she was not only a coworker, but a friend and parenting mentor. The move was unexpected but necessary and I hope all goes well for her and her family. Unfortunately it leaves a few holes in my life :(
Add some health issues, some problems with our library renovation, the start of the summer reading program, a 10 day 30C+ stretch (read not much sleep) and an eruption of mosquitoes and other biting insects and that is has been my month.
I had plans for this post being much more emotional/philosophical, but apparently my sleep deprived state is not making it possible. In the end all I can do is hope the next month will be better.

It's a Library

I am very luck to have 2 adult helpers for the summer reading programs this year. It will be especially important this year because I had to break the program into smaller programs (I choose to do it according to age but I will be flexible for family groups) due to the small size of our temporary space.
One of my helpers was our STEP person (gov't grant for students) last year. When we broke up for activities and crafts she would take the older kids and they had a book club like discussion of what they were reading, talked about fav authors, etc. Cassidy, who is a communications student, also did writing tips and other creative stuff with them. She doesn't qualify for our STEP position this year (she took a year off to go travelling, luck duck) but she wanted to be involved. So she will be hosting the Teen Book Club that we're having on Thursday nights. I'll be taking what I learned from her last year and applying it to a half hour Teen Book Club Tuesday afternoons, and a book club for ages 10 to 12 also on Tuesdays.
My other helper, Jenna, is a student teacher who will be going into her last year of school. While I have known her for years (she's the same age as my eldest son) I have never worked with her. I wanted to use her skills so I offered her the opportunity to do some of the program planning and a chance to take the lead on running some of the programs. I gave her copies of my planning documents, schedule and resource materials that I use. She is quite excited about the opportunity. For me, the best moment was when she indicated she wanted to see me in action first.
Why is this important? It is important because she recognizes that this is NOT a classroom. My focus for any of my programs is to foster an enjoyment of the library as a place to be, and then to foster reading as a FUN activity. As I tell the kids, and their parents, I don't care if they read cereal boxes as long as they read something.
Too many kids, and their parents, view reading as work. A person's ability to read well improves their quality of life. Like all skills, if you don't use it, you lose it. If you don't enjoy something, you will do as little of it as possible. If that something is reading... I think you can see where I'm going with this.
Don't get me wrong, I think teachers do amazing work and they are often under appreciated. Public libraries, and the staff that do programming, are an unrecognized partner in developing and maintaining EVERYONE's reading ability. I'm hoping that Jenna's time with me will show her that there are partners in the community that can help support what she will be doing in the classroom. And if she becomes aware then hopefully she'll share that insight with her fellow teachers.

Growing Up

Our eldest son just turned 21 and is contemplating changes in his life. He has worked full time for the last 5 years. We didn't push going to college or university because we feel the boys needed more life experience before they could really commit to a program. Now he has reached a place where he'd like to make a change. With hubby at work & his little brother out we were able to have a good conversation about possible things he could pursue. Nothing was decided of course, but just having a chance to find out what he was thinking was wonderful. I don't understand how parents think they don't have a role in their adult children's lives. All relationships require work to stay healthy. I'm glad that our relationship is still strong but we do have to work at it.

Blog June

Man, have I dropped the ball this month. I managed to go 4 days without posting even though I thought about it every day. I have to work on that follow through.

Interesting Stuff

Every month or so I go through the various bookmarks, notes and starred websites, articles etc. that I've come across but haven't had the time to read yet.
I have a tendency to keep links "just in case" they might come in handy for the various reports and newsletters I do. If I think that it might be of interest to someone (coworker, friend, family member) I'll send it off to them.
I started going through the list last night and a few things that I will be keeping:
The 40 Developmental Assets for Adolescents
Support Video Games: Get a Library Card
Summer Reading Flow Chart
Cory Doctorow Vivid Sydney Keynote
(I love Cory's talks. Thought provoking ideas presented in an entertaining style.)

What have you read lately?