I wrote to a friend today to say that I didn't really fall off the face of the earth. Good thing I emailed her: she was worried. Not just my poor blog has suffered, but emails, too. And reading other blogs. And comments. And many many household tasks. I apologize. We just suddenly had a busy spurt.
Here are a few things that have been going on:
1. End of the semester rush. Final tests, panicked students, grading papers. All of that, hopefully, will be done (for me) by Friday, except for my final exam/critique in my ceramics class, which is Tuesday. I'm hoping to be able to take some photos for you of the pieces I've made in the class, including one inspired by my blog friend Beth. More on that, later.
2. Paul is finishing up his semester this week in grad school, and so has finals to worry about. Then he has to give finals next week in the classes he teaches.
3. We've had a small family situation. I don't really want to go into it, just that an extended family member needed some help from my dad and a place to stay for a few days. It appears to be resolved, for now.
4. We've had a car situation, as well, which has good parts and bad parts. Bad news: our car needs way more work than we are willing to invest. Good news: we are getting a new car. Bad news: they don't have the car we want on the lot and we've already agreed to trade in the old one. So, we are stuck driving the old car, praying nothing happens to it until the new one comes in. And we're doing a bit of finagling since the dealer is an hour away and we both work all week. Happily my mom (as always) is helping us out in a variety of ways while we figure the logistics. And, also happily, we'll end up with a new car this week sometime. Merry Christmas to us.
5. And then of course, in all of our dealings with cars and family stuff and work, I have sorely neglected the household duties--laundry and cleaning and meal planning and all that.
6. Not to mention Christmas preparations--planning and gift-getting and gift-making and holiday-fun-stuff-doing.
So...forgive me, please, for my absence from the blog, and my slowness in responding to (or initiating) emails, and, well, my overall in attentiveness. I will be back soon, I promise.
In the mean time, here's a post I love from last year, on decorating out Christmas tree (something I hope we'll be doing this weekend):
