Welcome, December!

We’re officially ready for whatever the storm brings, or, as ready as we can be. Wood box and wood rack are full, got tons of kindling, put away the outdoor umbrella and wicker chair, packed the house with groceries and bedded down the plants as best we could. We already had candles and full bird feeders, oh and we got some sand for the walkway. We’ve plenty of cocoa and beer. There’s a merry little fire going in the woodstove ahead of even the first flakes. I got a nice fat book from the library and a few movies too.

I love winter. I love the cold and the beautiful snow, I love the dark, and the hush that comes when the snow falls. I love watching the birds at the feeders and the acrobatics of the squirrels. I’m not a fan of icy walkways and all that, I like unbroken bones. I wish we could hole up at home for weeks at a time. We’d read and game and drink cocoa and glogg.

So I’ll be reading Labyrinth of the Spirits; by Carlos Ruiz Zafon while my hubby plays Red, Dead Redemption and my younger 2 kids play some weird mashup of Firefly, Fallout and Skyrim, and my eldest daughter heads to work. (Be safe, Honey!!!) I hope the roads will stay nice until after she gets home. I’m supposed to run a Harry Potter ornament making workshop Monday but I could do with a snow day. We probably won’t get anything like that, the kids will go to school, my hubby and I will go to work. Ah well, it can’t all be skittles and beer.

Physical and Mental can get in Sync Any Time Now….

I’m physically falling apart and mentally starting on an upswing. It’s actually super weird because I feel like I can tackle anything, in my head, but my body does Not agree. Usually my head is the one dragging me down, telling me I can’t do something, and I’ll feel physically confident even though I am a huge klutz with limited skills.

I’ve been quite tired for a bit now and achey. I keep getting minor injuries, bruises and that, from crashing into things, (klutz) or stumbling, or the other day when either my IBS was acting up or I had food poisoning. Yeah, I seem to have lightly pulled a muscle in my back … from puking. LOVELY. I keep turning my ankles stumbling just enough to keep them achey. It’s ridiculous.

Meanwhile, I’m busy cleaning, decluttering, working on fun projects for work and for myself. One project is I’m knitting house scarves (Harry Potter reference) for the teens at the library. When I show Sorcerer’s Stone in December I’m going to have puzzles the teens can complete to enter a drawing for the house scarf of their choice. I really hope I can get all 4 done in time. I’m only halfway through the Griffindor scarf at the moment.

I’ve also been reading more, trying new recipes, getting ahead scheduling events at work, managing my time better and saying NO to things I don’t have time for or don’t want to do. I’ve also been working on enlisting the kids to do more around the house. There’s just so much and they need to develop the skills for when they’re on their own. (whatever they may believe about me exploiting their labor)

Before I pop off, here’s a book recommendation: Hollow Kingdom; by Kira Jane Buxton. It’s insane, funny, touching, heartbreaking, filled with expletives and still reverent. I don’t want to give anything away. It’s Wonderful.

Successful Programs & Future Plans

The Teen Advisory Board is growing. When I started last December there were 4 or 5 members it has grown to 9. They are talking about programs they’d like to run; a Ukulele club, an LGBT support group, etc. It’s very exciting to see them realizing that they have the power to steer Y.A. programming at the library.

I just had 12 kids show up for an Interactive Graphic Novel workshop this past weekend. Not the most I’ve ever had show up to something but a very encouraging number for our small, rural library. I think we had 9 show up for the Sumobots workshop last month which is a good number as well. My Bullet Journal workshop only had 2 teens but they were enthusiastic.

Next month I am having a Breakfast Cereal & Cartoons Saturday Morning slothfest, and December will have a Harry Potter theme featuring an ornament making workshop and a showing of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” with butterbeer, puzzles and prizes. In January 2020 I will be starting a year of monthly fairy tale movies in keeping with next summer’s theme and I will be starting “Book Boot Camp” a book club of monthly shifting genre’ to get readers out of their comfort zones. Laser Tag at the Library is also on the table but we need to check the equipment first to make sure it still works. I am feverishly working on all things fairy tale for next summer and hope to offer some amazing workshops for the local teens & tweens.

I’ve never had a job like this before. It’s so interesting and exciting planning and bringing off programming for this age group. (11-18) I feel so lucky to have this job, to have a supportive and wonderful boss and coworkers who are helpful and encouraging. It is impossible for me to leave work at work, I find myself thinking up ideas for programs and “quickly looking up one thing” for work that turns into me designing posters and brochures for a couple of hours. When I can finally use my studio I’m definitely going to have a space for working on programs and planning events for the library.