Monthly Archives: April 2013

Finally, finally, finally–after just shy of two years in my new job, new city, new house, I have managed to make my living space livable.  “Livable” for me means “practically functional” so that I can quickly find what I need, use it, and put it away again.  I can’t count how many times in the last several weeks I have filled the back of my car and hauled things to various local charities.  No longer am I stumbling over still-packed boxes and wasting time hunting through hastily over-stuffed closets or badly arranged cabinets!

Now,  I have only to get through about 10 more days of full-time teaching, and my lovely long writing summer will open out before me.

Finally, finally, finally–I have a clear house, a clear head, and a clear schedule ready to converge into, I hope, clear writing!

Long overdue spring seems finally to have arrived in Central Kentucky and the forsythia are celebrating by being intensely bright and full.  It makes me feel a bit like a walking, talking cliche to say so, but I’m suddenly feeling motivated, in practice–rather than just in theoretical longing–to clear up the spaces in my house and, at the same time, my head.   My working semester will be finished in just short of a month, and I’m determined to meet the gift of my writing summer with my personal nest in order, cleared of the clutter that has lingered since I moved–house, job, whole life–in 2011.

I’m enormously grateful to the members of the Indiana German Heritage Society who welcomed me into their midst at their annual meeting at The Dome in Ferdinand, Indiana.  For those of you who are thinking about spring and summer excursions, you might consider a driving tour of beautiful Southern Indiana (oh, no, this Hoosier girl is not biased!), including stops at The Dome and at the nearby St. Meinrad, pictured here, which has the most intricate and beautiful stained glass windows I’ve ever seen.