Day off coming up...whoo hoo!

I haven't posted for a while because I haven't had a lot of time. With this new job my schedule has really filled up...it is kind of crazy. When I look at my calendar it has something on almost every day for October. Granted, some are meetings for work, but a lot of the things are post work engagements!

Part of it I signed on for - I'm taking a board credit course with the School district. It helps me get paid more...so that is good. The class is about racism and it has been interesting, to the say the least, so far. But that happens every Tuesday night for the next MANY weeks. Then there are the commitments that I've signed on for with Church - those are pretty minimal really, but they are adding to the mass if items I have to do. So far all I've agreed to do is be part of the worship team once or twice a month and making cookies about that often for church. Not a huge deal. I'm also helping my friend Jenny plan things for the upcoming women's retreat somewhere out west of Springfield in two weekends.

I think the thing that is the greatest shock to me is not having had the last few weekends to do what I want, but I've had school-type events to attend. September 22 I hosted an event at my office for the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Chicago. It was an all day affair. Then September 30th I attended a day-long workshop with the American History Teachers Collaborative out of Urbana. Both things were great, and I got paid stipends to attend both things, but when you give up most of your Saturday - for school...it just doesn't seem right anymore.

Then as I look to the next couple of months - I am looking to go to a bunch of different events related to my job. I will be going to ISU to hear Ken Burns speak on November 1st and then heading from there to Oak Brook, IL to attend another CRFC conference @ Hamburger University on November 2nd. Then I've got a few conferences to go to in Springfield, IL, and I'm hoping to go to the National Council of Social Studies annual convention in San Diego, CA at the end of November.

Now, rereading things I'm afraid someone will think I'm whining, and I'm not...I'm just sort of in awe of how much is going on. Teaching was busy - but in a different way. This may be part of the biggest adjustment to this new job - such a radical change in when I do my work & what work I actually do.

Oh, in other news...Ld & I flew up to Lansing last week to see my Grandma VdW. She had an "episode" about 3 weeks ago (she has a slight stroke) and she has been hospitalized while they help her get back to "normal". We've all dreaded this day - after all she is 92 (soon to be 93) and she was still driving her 2000 Impala all over the place and living on her own in the house she and Grandpa built when they were 1st married in the late 1930's. She has always amazed me! Well, now her leg & foot are not quite right and she most likely won't be able to drive any more. She also will have a pretty hard time at home alone - she has too many stairs to make us comfortable about her being there alone. So, we'll see what happens. We have all done a pretty good job (Gert included) in trusting God to work this all out in His time. She is ok with having to be somewhere other than her house for the time being or long-term. She may not love it, but she'd be ok with it (or so she says!) Anyway, if you are so inclined - please pray for her & my folks as they have to figure out what the next steps are with her.

I also think part of my BUSY feeling stems from not being able to just hop up north to help out with the Gert situation. I've always been pretty close to Grandma - heck - she lived 1/2 mile from ICHS - so I often ended up at her house after school to say HI or have tea or take out her trash or whatever.

Ok - enough rambling. I've got some laundry to fold. Ld is out visiting with Panno who is in town for a bit and I'm going to try to recharge my "batteries" so to speak by getting to bed kind of early tonight.