turning of the page

This marquee never fails to amuse.

As do the Austin yard decorations.

While I know there's no magical reboot of life at midnight tonight, I am quite glad to close the book of 2015. I already know that 2016 will be better, as it's the Year of the Monkey!

New Years' greetings to all y'all, wherever and however you're welcoming a new calendar.

reflection

Although I firmly maintain the beginning of a new year is whenever the school year kicks off in the autumn, there is something about the down time and cold/grey weather (finally!) that yields to introspection.  This is aided by reorganizing and sorting through closets.  

This poem arrived as the daily Writer's Almanac selection~enjoy.

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

"Lost" by David Wagoner from Traveling Light: Collected and New Poems. © University of Illinois Press, 1999.

whether the weather

Seriously.  We just went from 82 to 38 in one day.  And all my phone had to say was 'light drizzle'.  We've had downpours, violent lightening and pea-sized hail pelting us.  

the weather, outside, it is frightful

I won't sing the other line about delightful fires, as a neighbour recently had a fire in her house (some idiot thought putting the stove warranty in the broiler pan was a grand idea) and had to move out.   We've enjoyed hot and muggy weather all weekend, but this morning a storm brought much more seasonal temperatures.

Now I'm ready to bake Christmas cookies!  

"Don't let your tinsel get tangled"

was the wisdom I saw on a billboard...as I walked around the lake in the EXACT same outfit I wore in July.  Yes.  It's hot.

But we're still getting ready for Santa.  Did a test run of the cookies last night, and what do you know?  I think the reindeer came by and ate them.

Thanks be for friends who understand exactly what kind of white board is needed for my fridge and for the past year~fun gift to receive today.

Santa & SPF

Are not usually words I connect, but after feeling like I got a sunburn while out walking errands today, I may reconsider.  A balmy 80 degrees today.  Christmas may have to be a bbq event this year.

A beautifully crafted pot-holder arrived today from Lancaster, PA.  I may have to run the a/c to delve into any baking project right now.  

delicious evil

Finally used some of my bday monies to replace some flats that were shredding off my feet.  With all the miles I walk, am curious as to how many happen with specific shoes.

And, as per usual, since my body succumbed to whatever plagues were going around campus~decided to just delve into all the sugar I've been avoiding.  We'll return to greens and garlic another day, because...

After 24 days of disconnectedness~I HAVE INTERNET AT HOME!!!!  Woo-hoo.   Now I have movies and music to go along with the stacks of library books that I have piled around.  Vacation is commencing now! 

magic

Our lovely LS art teacher Meg, offered a painting class the afternoon between school and the evening Lessons & Carols.  Despite all of us thinking we couldn't actually paint anything recognizable (we were to bring in photos of our pets), her method worked!!

 

Voila!  My first real painting.

Lessons & Carols

Some images from what has occupied my heart/mind for the past several weeks....

I LOVE that this child showed up in a tux (with the tags still on the sleeves.)

Bell choir.

Action shot.

The sweet 5th graders.

Drummer drumming on our cool processional Gaudete.

This 6th grade class is one of my all-time favourite classes in the 15 years I've been teaching~they're eager, curious, funny, and smart.  And they say thank at the end of every single class or rehearsal.  Classy.

 

A  moment of warm ups.

These little guys belt out with gusto.  Can't wait for tomorrow's Trail of Lights with this group.

Master of the Flat

Am going to be doing a painting project tomorrow with one of our fabulous art teachers and I needed a pet photo, so I made Bogart pose this morning.

He's still a little cross that he was penned up in the bedroom yesterday as they supposedly came to fix my hot water pressure.

Faculty Appreciation Holiday Luncheon!  Yes, it included a baked potato bar, soups and breads and salads, but the desserts were the prettiest thing there!

Two Lessons & Carols performances tomorrow~70 singers, 12 string players, 9 bell ringers, a small ensemble, 7 tech kids.....my brain's spinning, but we're ready.

odds (lovely) and ends (of the building)

A very fun belated bday gift arrived this week~look forward to break and using my oven.

A gorgeous wooden angel appeared as another belated b-day gift.

The sketchy laundry at the back of my building.  How this is safe~on any level (rain/electricity~hello?).  I will only be doing laundry during daylight hours this winter.

.06 miles of bad road

This will be a random mish-mash of catching up from the past week or so.  This is Livvy~sweet dog that I at times housesit.  She was my host for Thanksgiving dinner.

One of the worst moves of my life~warm and pouring all morning.  Fired the inept movers (after they moved my bed, which is the only object that I cannot lift on my own).  And finished moving by myself (as everyone I know was either pregnant/bad spines/out-of-town) in the pouring cold rain.

Settling in.

Gorgeous trees outside my classroom.