September 17th, 2014

AoGG || Think scholarly thoughts.

(no subject)

Today I rocked teaching. Wait, no, I taught about rocks. But same difference, right?

I had all four kids today--one wasn't here last week--and we had a grand old time of bonding over zombies (during 'class meeting') and streams/frogs, imagining our forested hill as an ancient ocean, learning how rocks morph from type to type and move from place to place, and listening to the stones tell us how they'd like to be balanced in excellent rock sculptures (hint: 'wibble wabble fall' is rock for 'I don't want to be there!' or 'Haha balance gravity beat you'). Some of them worked together to make a faerie house and added a chimney for Old Saint Nick, which is thoughtful given it's September.

This is only about two hours every week on Tuesday mornings, but it's at the Earth Center I went to Earth Camp at as a child--with the same wonderfully brilliant Dominican Nun. (If that gives you a certain image, let me rectify it: today she wore flared jeans, a black t-shirt under a flannel shirt, and talked about how much she wanted one of the teenager's very colourful socks with animals on them.) She's a joy to be around and is just as infectious now as she was when I was a little Luna Lovegood child.

The committee meeting was less enthralling. The Board of Trustees has decided that any ministry-related groups are now to be referred to as "teams" rather than "committees". 'If we ask someone to join a committee, that doesn't make them want to do it now, does it?' asked my minister (paraphrased). 'But who doesn't want to join a team?' (Yeah, that should do it, thought I.) So I am now on the Worship Team (or "Worship Assistance Team"--dubbed "WAT" by yours truly, for I am the worst sort of person to have on a committee.)

When I was walking out the door and explained that the upcoming lay-led service I have to coordinate with the team who went to General Assembly includes one well-spoken person and then Enthusiastic Environmentalist Who Beats Her Dead Horse of a Subject alongside Academic Knowledgeable Therapist Who Can Make Most Topics Boring And Long, my minister looked at me and said, 'I'll pray for you. I really will' with her devilish little grin. (Yeah, that should do it, thought I again.) She knows my trials and tribulations--but at least she gets paid for it, much as she might not be thrilled with the amount!

Trying to keep things light at the moment. Spent most of the day with the lights low, stuck up in bed with a book and feeling unable to do much of anything. Tomorrow I have a meeting with a re-employment programme advisor I was assigned through the state (or "selected to participate in a re-employment program...") and I'm nervous. I've printed out my worksearch, resume and an example of my cover letter; my outfit is all set up.

In that way I'm the closest to normal I've been in a while. I was able to do a nightly tidy-up (I've missed those but haven't had it in me), organise, take my vitamins, I'm making a post... I'm about to head off to meditate, jot a few things down in my journal and write up a quick list of things for which I am grateful, which will go in my gratitude jar. I'm on track to have 7 hours of sleep; I'll be lucky to get that on a nervous night but I usually start from a lower base than that.

I'm glad this post came out more positive than the one that was forming in my head as I was driving home. It means pushing myself to follow my evening routine helped my mental state. I'll have to try my hardest to keep at it.

Sweet dream, loves. I hope to be properly back soon.

P.S. The kids had to take a picture of or draw a rock wall near their houses. One kid, with the nature name "Groot" (the things I let them get away with...), drew a pretty nice stone wall. With marshmallows on top. And a zombie eating them. Because last week we got to eat all-natural marshmallows at the end of the day and apparently there was talk of zombies. Anyway, I was handed that picture with the explanation of "It's a zombie eating marshmallows off a stone wall" and just about died laughing. That picture is now precious to me.

[Crossposted from dreamwidth.]