Our school system gives its staff and students the week of Thanksgiving off. I love this. By now, as we near the mid-point of the school year (we start school Aug 1), we are tired and ready for a good break. Flu season has begun, as well as sinus season, and kids are dropping like flies. We all need a break from each other and this week we have it.
We can focus on the holiday- our gratitude for the things we have and for our friends and families. Our church is having a meal on Sunday. The church is providing the meat, drinks, and the paper goods, we are bringing the side dishes. From the Google Sheets doc it seems that there will be a good variety of foods from which to select, as we fellowship together in love and gratitude.
Something that visitors and our elders have remarked on is the obvious love and genuine care we have for each other. We have a blessed, God-given unity among us. We are truly thankful for our church, its elders, volunteers, and people, both members and visitors. The dinner should be great.
I see on Twitter that the National Weather Service is advising that a storm is due for northern New England up into Northern Maine, with heavy snow. That is something I do not miss at all. Having moved from southern Maine to northern Georgia, I am thrilled with the weather here. I just went out to check my mailbox and the 64 degree balmy air was so lovely. It's been raining all day but it's a warm rain, the wet leaves glisten as I kick through them, and hear birds still in the trees. Ahhh.
This week I have big plans, but then again, I always do. I don't always reach my goals or have super-duper productivity, but I strive. I want to read the new Grisham book that I got from the library. There are a zillion holds so I won't be able to renew it after 2 weeks. Gotta get it read. I also want to read some of my ongoing books, and at least finish two of them. I want to finish the online course I started, from The Master's Seminary Institute for Church Leadership, on The Reformation. Not much else, just quiet study, reflection, and recoup-ing after the busy school weeks we've had.
Noise bothers me tremendously. School is the only work environment I can really stand, because it's filled with children. It's regulated, too, by a rarely changing schedule, which I enjoy. But the normal noises of the lunch room, the gym, the bells if I'm not expecting them or if I'm near one when it goes off, unexpected slammed doors, the squeak of the chairs, all pierce me to the quick and lodge in my tissues, cells, and marrow until a saturation point is reached I need time to shed that build-up of overload. Hence my hibernation whenever I have a school break.
There's more to my need for solitude but I'm not really ready to delve, just suffice to say that I'm relieved the Lord gave me a work schedule with regular and frequent breaks.
Right now the cat is snoozing on the little blanket I put on the table behind the laptop. The rain and wind have kicked up, I had turmeric-ginger tea poured from my Tetsubin (small, Japanese cast iron pot), and I'm about to watch a movie on Netflix. I've had a good day, the first day of school break. Tomorrow is the church service and supper afterward, and Monday hopefully I'll be making progress on my learning goals. Have a good Sunday everyone.
4 comments:
Happy Thanksgiving, dear sister.
Happy Thanksgiving to you as well!
I so enjoy and can always relate to your tea/teapot/tea cup pictures and comments, as I lived in a small English village for seven years during the '70-80's. The whole "tea thing" became such a huge part of living life over there, not only regarding its social aspect but, more importantly, as a survival component, in helping to combat the [always] horribly bone-chilling damp cold [even indoors - insulation barely existed then]. I'm sure you've spent time there, too, referring to your [very few] traveling comments. Have you written much about your world
travels? I only discovered your blog about a year ago. It "popped up" when I was checking out Beth Moore about something. Boy have my eyes been opened, needless to say. Your study of God's Word is amazing! As always, thanks for sharing your insight.
Hi Joy!
Happy Thanksgiving to you! I appreciate your kind compliments, and in turn I appreciate your readership.
I have indeed traveled both to England and Scotland. In Scotland I was tramping the Machrie Moore on the Isle of Arran, and though it was summer as you well know, when the fog rolls in and the mist starts, by the time I finished tramping to see the standing stones, I was chilled right through. There was a pub at the bottom of the moor and I headed straight in, where a cheerful fire was crackling and I ordered a whisky and drank it! I am not a drinker at all, a teetotaler, but right then I began to see the appeal of the warming malt coursing through my body. It warmed me nicely. My one and only time with the hard drink over, I now drink tea and it warms my bones just as much.
I have not written much about my travels but I might someday!
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