MrsDoF's Dear Ones

Everybody wants to know about Women’s Retreat, which is where I was over the weekend.  Today got all used up doing the laundry, running errands, shopping for groceries.
Shucks, I didn’t even read my online comics until about 4pm!

While supper was cooking, I called the automated system for Teaching Substitutes and learned my scheduled job was cancelled, but there was a request for me to work the same job I had last week.  It’s difficult to read anything into it, but I hope their family situation takes a turn for the positive soon.

This leaves this evening to do a bunch of writing while I am still decompressing.
Husband says he wants to hook up a generator or converter or something to put all my energy into light and power.  And I’m getting hoarse from talking so much to so many people.
Perhaps it is better if I sit and type awhile before I get going on more chores.

Friday morning seems so long ago.  There were 5 of us to meet in the church parking lot.  One of the husbands packed all our suitcases, bedrolls, pillows in quite neatly.  He even left a bit of space for the last one for when we joined up with a friend in an hour and a half.
She was driving through Chicago on her own, while we stopped in a mall food court for lunch.  With the help of cell phones, we found her in the parking lot of a hotel, where she had permission to leave her van over the weekend.

I remember the times of travel and meeting before cell phones.
Much relief of anxiety these days.

Then we stopped at a WallyWorld, well, just because we could.
I was riding shotgun in the van, and crocheting like lightning.
Our driver decided she also might like to do some crochet to pass the time at camp, so we soon found ourselves in a supercenter whose craft department hasn’t been downsized.  I bought a couple balls of 4-ply cotton in a color I haven’t seen in months.

We stopped for supper at a Chinese buffet, and I ordered a nice pot of hot tea.  Riding in the front passenger seat means air conditioning blowing across my knees, and I needed something warm.  Also, the weather was turning cooler as we traveled north.

Looking over the pictures in the folder, I realize I did not get a single one that first evening.

Camp is the same, most of the staff, the lake, the hill and woods.

And being with friends.
Everybody has aged a year, yet we’re all still the same.

This Retreat being connected with church, there are worship services.

I sat in the back, on a bench much more comfortable than the metal chairs.

in Retreats past, I feel moved, emotionally and physically

This year, the hymn singing was so beautiful, but I must admit I just wasn’t connecting with the speaker.
She’s about my age, a widow, who has returned to seminary to continue her education.  We were to separate into smaller groups and talk about a sorrowful situation in our life.
Now really, I do not want to go there right now.
Some others shared quite willingly, but I kept thinking I should just get up and go for a walk along the trail by the lake and admire the beauty of nature.
Nearer God’s heart in a garden, so to speak.

Pictures, crochet, buddy tales will have to wait.

the dishes and folding laundry cannot.

~~love and Huggs, Diane

On September 5, I marked a day that I didn’t ever think would be important.

It was the ONE year anniversary of the first day of my last menstrual cycle.  I remember thinking I was glad it had come along the first week of the month, so that I’d be all done by the time Women’s Retreat happened the third weekend of the month.
When I went to the CNP a couple weeks back, she noted that one year without a bleed means menopause is official.
I’ll still have some symptoms surrounding it, but for the most part, I should be fine.

This week (and next), I have been working as a TA Sub in the junior high, where the girls are just beginning their journey into womanhood.

Friday was Picture Day, which I always struggled with babies at the daycare center, and learned it doesn’t get easier to keep the line going when the kids are as tall as I am.
We did have a photographer who was quick with the shutter, and his witty remarks for tweens.

During a slow minute, one girl came over and told me confidentially that she was ssooo glad it was Picture Day and she wouldn’t have to dress for PE because she was on her period.  As if she just had to tell somebody, and all the more popular girls were busy primping.

I smiled a bit and told her that my doctor says exercise is the best way to get through it.  I carried newspapers in high school, and really liked putting the full bag next to my tummy and climbing 6th Street hill to help relieve the cramps.

She looked very skeptical about such a solution.

She’s got more than 30 years of monthlys to learn all about it.

Meanwhile, all the walking around the school is moving my muscles in good ways.  I also do some of the stretch exercises with the kids at the beginning of PE class, and when the weather is nice, I have to walk over to the back field and help monitor while they are running the track.

What a difference from my activities of the summer.

I was able to donate blood for the Red Cross today.  The mobile was set up out at the shopping center, and there were announcements on the radio.  The wait was about an hour, since there are only 4 beds in the mobile.  I got a really nice all cotton t-shirt with a neato Blood Donor logo.

I’m getting back into the mindset of working all week.  I had to do 5 loads of laundry, and will do the ironing tomorrow afternoon.

Also on the To Do List is clean the shower, but since I donated blood almost by impulse, I decided to take a nap on the couch with Mahalia this afternoon.

Which leaves the shower for later.  I don’t think the town government will send the health inspectors just yet, but it is getting to the questionable stage as to whether my feet feel clean enough when I turn off the water.

Looks like Sunday will not be a day of rest.

~~love and Huggs, Diane

Tuesday evening I attended the Opening the School Year in Prayer service.  Although it is non-denominational, the gathering is in a large Christian Church way across town, rising up from a former cornfield.  There is a Praise Band, and words to songs projected on a screen, not even space in the seating area to hold hymnbooks.  Not my idea of a church building at all, and I really can’t see myself going there for regular services.

Anyway, also there were several of my sons’ former teachers, and a couple folks I worked with in different buildings.  One gave me a tip about a TA opening in her building, with interviews.
I called the next morning, and got an appointment for just after the Noon hour.

It went well, I think, as interviews should.  The fact that I am already a part of the school system, with background check and all, was a plus.  The only deterrent could be that I have only an AA degree, but plenty of experience.

I expected to hear yes or no the next day, but no calls came.

Realizing that I am already an employee, I checked the SubFinder automated system, and found a need for a TA Sub at a junior high school.  I punched in my desire to fill the slot, and was accepted.

Today went well, considering how long it has been since I’ve been with anybody who is a tweenager.  One nice thing about being an Aide is that I’m not responsible for the whole situation, I fill in one small position, and do that job to my darndest.

It must have been good enough, the Schedule Person asked if I can do the same job all next week, and I said Yes.

Please hold good thoughts for the TA who is the regular worker.  She is taking so much time off because her husband was injured on his job and is in a hospital 2 hours away.

Meanwhile, I got in all the walking I wanted today.  The trot down the halls from the gym to Science class to the IMC, etc. will take some strengthening for my knees and ankles.

Just what the CNP says I need to do about losing weight.

~~love and Huggs, Diane