*Deep breath* Okay...here we go...

[dreamcoat_mom]

My year-long moratorium on LJ usage was not intentional. It just...happened. It's been a tremendously difficult year, and as my life unraveled I didn't have the strength or the intestinal fortitude to share it in a blog. I have good friends here. I don't know why I withdrew. Most of you have been with me on FaceBook, but that's another world.

Comments

[dreamcoat_mom]

Missed you, Kit! *glomps back* I've thought of you as I got our place up and running, and I'm very, very proud of our beautiful new space. Jobs are pretty thin on the ground just about everywhere you go these days. I applied for an academic assistant's position at our local university library, but they were looking for someone with a heavier academic background. I love their new director, and she was very sad that I couldn't make it past the HR screening. Ah, well. I'm keeping my ear to the ground. I'm assuming that you've wrapped Summer Reading and can rest on your laurels for all of five minutes before the next project begins.

I don't exactly blame our congregation...when one of your main worker bee families goes through something like this, it's too difficult to acknowledge because here in the upper midwest, financial distress is considered to be a character flaw. There is a huge stigma of shame attached to people of our age who don't own their own home, so it's basically a don't ask/don't tell situation. I DID expect our pastors to offer us some support, but that didn't happen either...just an expression of disappointment that I was leaving them with committee vacancies! Not cool...so I'm just on autopilot with them for the time being, and will probably look for another church home once we choose a community in which to settle.

[kit_the_brave]

You are much kinder than I am. I'm still sporkitty at the idea of financial distress being a character flaw. Good heavens, since when does having a "character flaw" mean you don't get help when your family is having such a bad time?

Of course, in our social circles going out involves discussing (a) which taco dive is cheap enough and (b) whose car is running, so what do I know? :)

We had 216 kids in teen summer reading this year! That's up from 20 last year. I have 180 sixth graders coming this fall for field trips - we're having 3 sessions of Camp Half Blood. Teen Read Week is a manga convention. And they're remodeling the bathrooms and using our meeting room as a "staging area." October will be an interesting month!