100. Old Pictures

Events, Family 0

Lately, on my Sonderjourneys blog, I’ve been posting Project 52 — 52 weeks of posts covering the 52 years of my life.

I had run out of pictures — and this weekend, my Dad scanned in pictures for me of when I was 4 to 6 years old.

And they are so much fun to look at!  So many things I’d forgotten came flooding back — down to details of clothes I wore and toys I loved to play with.  Many of the memories I had no idea went back that far — because when you’re 4 years old you don’t think about the date a lot.  But my Mom carefully noted the month on each picture, so now I know, for example, that we found our cat Zenie when I was 3 years old.

And I’d forgotten all about that toy camera I found so very fascinating!  I was ready to take an abundance of pictures even then.

98. Booktalking

Events, Libraries 0

It’s booktalking season!

My co-worker and I are talking to all the kids in 6 elementary schools close to our library.  Today we talked to 700 children, Kindergarten through 6th grade.  We tell them about the summer reading program — how to win the coupon book and about all the programs and performances we have going on at the library this summer.

Then we tell them about books we think they will enjoy.

Neither of us felt prepared at the start of the week.  But it’s turning out we don’t even have to repeat books between different grades, we have so many good books to choose from.

Booktalking is exhausting.  But it’s exciting, too, to get to reach that many kids.

It’s so wonderful when they come up to us in the library and say, “You came to my school!” and they ask for a book we told them about.

96. Oregon Trip

Events 0

I got back last week from a wonderful, soul-feeding trip to Oregon.  There’s so much to be thankful for about the trip, I haven’t even tried to post here.  I can’t express it all, so it’s hard to even begin.

So I’ll just say here that the trip, however it turns out (I had a job interview.) — was a wonderful blessing.

91. Prayer on the Church Property

Events, Friends, Spiritual Blessings 0

Our church is building a building, a community resource center.

Some obstacles have come up, and this afternoon my small group met on the church property to pray, along with the pastor and his wife and another friend.

And it was beautiful.  In so many ways.

The weather was beautiful.  The sun was shining through spring-green new leaves.  A breeze was blowing.  We were in the woods, with little flowers blooming on the forest floor.

But it was also so beautiful to pray in harmony with others.  Jesus promised that when two or three of you gather together, He’ll be there with you, and we could feel His presence.

“We will shout for joy when you are victorious

and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.”

— Psalm 20:5

90. Story Time at Old Town Square

Books, Events, Libraries 0

The first two weeks we tried, the weather didn’t cooperate, but on Tuesday this week the weather was lovely and we had a huge crowd of parents, grandparents, and kids at Old Town Square in Fairfax for Storytime.

I haven’t done a storytime in more than a month.  This is going to change in coming weeks, since one of my staff just retired.  But having a little time off from it reminds me just how much fun it is to read books to small children.

And I get to do this on my job!

 

88. Dominion with my Son

Activities, Events, Family 0

Lately, I’ve been busy, and my son and I haven’t played too many games together.

Then, on Easter, we taught my friend’s family how to play Dominion.

And today Dominion Adventures arrived!

It’s an expansion set (We have all 9 other sets.), and Tim ordered it for me as an early birthday present.  He’s hoping to get a job before my birthday and move out, and wants to have plenty of time to play it with me.

And it’s awesome!

And it was tremendously fun to set my to-do list aside and play a couple games with my son.

84. Ground Breaking!

Events 0

My church is building a building!  We’ve been planning this for years — have had the property for years — but one thing and another happened, and we weren’t able to build — until now!

Today we held the ground breaking ceremony, and construction is going to start soon.  It’s very exciting to see what God is going to do!

82. Seussathon!

Books, Events, Libraries 0

Today’s Dr. Seuss’s Birthday!  I’m proud of our annual Seussathon at the City of Fairfax Regional Library.  And I just love carrying it out!

The idea was mine — spend the whole day reading Dr. Seuss books in the children’s area — and ask customers and staff members to sign up to do so.

Then my co-worker added to the idea by putting on Seussian activities in the meeting room in the afternoon — including Hopping on “Pop” — bubble wrap — and playing with Oobleck (cornstarch solution) and making Daisyhead Maisie headbands and things like that.  She also ordered Seuss bookmarks and temporary tattoos and bags, as well as Cat in the Hat hats for readers and Thing One and Thing Two headbands for kids.

One of the fun things is how great the readers are!  We had kids participating, staff members and patrons — all of whom were wonderful readers.

I personally took a turn when I noticed we didn’t have anyone available.  Let’s see, today I read <em>Fox in Socks</em>, <em>The Sneetches and Other Stories</em>, <em>Horton Hatches the Egg</em>, <em>The Foot Book</em>, <em>The Butter Battle Book</em>, <em>One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish</em>, <em>Green Eggs and Ham</em>, and <em>The Cat in the Hat</em>.  (And I didn’t think I’d been out there very much!)

Oh, and some of the children I got to read to were completely adorable!  They weren’t necessarily the usual story time crowd.  And unfailingly a joy to read to.

And don’t tell, but before the library opened, I sang a few songs from <em>The Cat in the Hat Songbook</em>.

It’s the sort of day that, looking back, definitely makes me smile.

I do have the best job.

81. Feeling Healed

Events, Health 0

When I moved to Virginia, almost 10 years ago now, I was hurting.

My marriage had fallen apart.  My husband whom I loved was on the other side of the world and was being as rejecting toward me as he could possibly be.  I was desperately praying, hoping somehow to pray him back.

On Valentine’s Day this year, I was thinking about how church was my lifeline.  My heart was raw.  Almost every week, something would make me cry.  People were so helpful.  They’d hug me, pray with me, listen to me as I worked through things.

I felt so drained.  I felt like I had nothing to give and was always taking from others.  (Though many were nice enough to say that being transparent about my struggles was helpful.)

Five years ago, we were officially divorced.  I still tried to pray him back for awhile.

And then, somehow, God showed me that the Path of Trust was not to tell God what to do.

And God has been healing my heart.

And it dawned on me, on Valentine’s Day — I am happy!  Life is good!  God has blessed me abundantly!  Even my headaches (which I had since 4th grade) are almost completely gone!

Makes me want to look for opportunities to give, opportunities to love.

I am so thankful to feel healed.

80. What’s New in Children’s Books?

Books, Events, Libraries 0

This afternoon I gave a talk at the library for a group of teachers on “What’s New in Children’s Books?”  It was so much fun to have an interested audience!  I went over the latest award winners and told about some new books I’m excited about and let them take Advance Reader Copies away with them.

It feels so good to share something I’m passionate and knowledgeable about with a group of interested people!