Unusually so for me, I have been gone the last three weekends from home. The first two I have written about--Jubilee conference in Pittsburgh and our wonderful but all-too-short hours in Central California. The third weekend I went to our women's church retreat in Annapolis, Maryland with about 170 other women from our church.
However, the week leading up to the retreat was also eventful, mainly for the continuing winter weather and the resignation of my part-time clerical assistant at school. The continuation of winter was inconvenient at points but not so bad. Losing my assistant is more difficult, simply because it means taking time to hire and train someone new and in the meantime, to scramble more each day at school to get things done. I have a small host of pretty faithful parent volunteers who come in daily to shelve books. So that helps a great deal. Many of them can also handle circulation for the hour or hour and a half that they are in the library. I'm very grateful for that. I already have two interviews scheduled for this coming week. I would have hired a mom who has kids in the school last week, but in the end she said, "No, I'm not ready yet to leave home even part-time." Of course, I support that decision for moms who can!
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| View from the French Doors at the back of the house |
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| Mary, my assistant, on her last day. I provided refreshments in our office for staff to drop in, say good-bye, and have coffee and snacks. |
Our retreat speaker was the author of these books, Carolyn Custis James. The theme was "When Life and Beliefs Collide." I especially went to be with good friend Judi Deatherage, neighbor and also member of one of our small groups. She's 15 years younger than me, but despite the gap, we have a lot of fun together and can encourage one another. She's in the busiest time of her life with a daughter in college, two teenage boys at home and a daughter on the cusp of adolescence.
I liked Carolyn's presentations. Her thesis was that at times of testing (when beliefs and life collide), whatever we have as a theology (whatever we believe) is all we'll have to deal with the situation. So, she encourages us each to deepen our beliefs (again, encouraging us to realize that's our theology), to know Jesus better. She especially used the story of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in some interesting ways. One insight on the story of Mary pouring expensive perfume on Jesus' feet and body was that she was ministering to him as one of the few people who understood and believed that he would have to die. Jesus tells the others at dinner not to rebuke her because she is the only one who has understood and believed him when he said he must die, and she is preparing his body for burial. I look forward to reading the book.... There is so much to read and so little time (as we've heard somewhere).
One of the workshops I went to was by a young woman (I guess she is Eden's contemporary or perhaps a little older) who wrote the books below on "The Faith of Jane Austin." She has spent a life-time researching Jane Austin's life and books and letters and is convinced that Jane had a true and vital faith. Sadly, Lori, the author has struggled with pretty severe Lyme disease for the past 10 years which has really colored her life, of course. So she wove into her presentation autobiographical material too and her own life's journey, making some comparisons with that of Jane Austin. I bought these two books and am happy to pass them on after I read them. Maybe they'll even become birthday or Christmas gifts :).
Sunday night the predictions for another "major" snow brought on a host of cancellations including school for Monday, Steve's class for Monday and the much anticipated book launch. So there was disappointment about the launch, which has now been rescheduled for March 31. The snow did come, and we also had Tuesday off, our 10th snow day of the school year. On Wednesday we had a two-hour delay as well. But now the delays and days off are probably over. Though we've had to make up days, it's always fun hoping for and getting some unanticipated snow days.
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| Out the front window |
Jessica came home late Wednesday afternoon in preparation for leaving Thursday night for Italy and a week with Elliott and Becca and the Green family in Florence. Happy times! So Eden and Charlie came for dinner that night to say hello to Jessica. Thursday night Jessica and I met David and Jonathan in Arlington for dinner before she had to head to the airport.
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| Evening meal together: Eden, Charlie, Jessica |
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| Garber ladies: Mia, Jessica, Eden, and me |
