We got the Christmas tree taken down and all that’s left is vaccuuming up the big pile of pine needles where it used to be as well as the trail going toward the door. We are soooooo having a fake tree next year.

After the tree was taken down, we had family naptime with Jon and I snuggled under the covers and the cats curled up on top of us. The cats then helped me strip sheets and make the bed. They are very helpful creatures. 🙂

In Sunday School today, I needed something to do with my kids that did not involve “Veggie Tales” or “Little Dogs on the Prairie” (prairie dogs talking about faith issues — very cute). My solution: since it’s Candlemas today, I drew a picture of a candle for them to color. This went over *VERY* well. My little ones *love* to color and though I couldn’t convince them that it wasn’t a birthday candle, they loved my badly-drawn candle. I’m already plotting — I mean planning next week’s picture.

I’m a bit less angsty than I was last night. I applied for a few jobs on Monster, called the LCMS congregation that is sitting on my secretarial app from last fall to see if there was any progress, got part of a stripe on my scarf done,got some layout changes on my candidacy blog up, and actually had a healthy dinner (spinach salad with feta cheese, mandarin oranges, and walnuts). My financial paperwork for next year came today, as did my unemployment paperwork. I’m aiming to mail in the unemployment stuff tomorrow. My in-laws have been trying to tell me that filing unemployment is a way to stick it to the government and keep them from being able to afford nukes for the war in Iraq. If it were the federal government paying it, that would make sense. However, I don’t think the State of Ohio is buying any nuclear weapons any time soon.

Thank you to those who commented. There’s always the fear that when you lay yourself out bare, that someone is going to say something hurtful; and I’m thankful that I have people who support me and remind me of the strength that I can draw upon.

I do get angsty from time to time, partially because I’m in a weird position this year. It’s kind of like having a glass placed over me on the walk of life — I’m stuck in one place for a period of time and I can’t proceed until the glass is lifted. I can’t believe that my time in Newark is half-over and that in 6 months, we’ll be back in Cols or in St. Paul. It’s also been a stressful year because it’s our first year of marriage (living with someone is always strange for the first year), I’m doing my candidacy process for ordained ministry this year, I’m trying to narrow my options down for seminary, and this is the first year since I was 4 that I haven’t been a student. This was supposed to be a year of rest and November 24 to January 24th was not restful in the least. I’m praying that the secretary job does come through because it’s not as stressful as retail was.

Off to create a few bookcases!