The Weather Outiside is... Delightful

Dear Blog,

It's been really lovely outside the past few days; the kind of weather I wish we got in the summer, warm but not roasting.  I intended to clean my room today, but when I got home from running errands this morning, there was just no way I was going to be able to sit around inside, knowing it was so nice out.  You see, I lived in Scotland for nine years and I spent more time outside than I have in the nearly eleven years I've been living here.  Where California is lucky to get a week with rain, Scotland is lucky to get a week without it.  So, I was sick of not taking advantage of the loveliness outside, and I went for a hike with my brother.  We walked off the main trail and explored some of the various forks (and there were a lot of forks) and perhaps nearly got eaten by something big and growling (or small and growling - we didn't stop to look).  It was a really nice day.

I might add this to my New Years Resolutions - to spend some time outside everyday.  It's really too lovely - even on California's worst days - not to appreciate it.

In other exciting news, I bought fifteen books yesterday - an entire day of used bookstores; you have no idea how wonderful that was.  I spent $36 on them.  I couldn't have gotten two brand new hardbacks at Barnes and Noble for that.  I had Christmas money I was saving for that trip, and I consider it to be money well spent.  My only problem now?  A lack of shelf space.

I can't wait for school to go back.  I'm not excited about how early my classes are starting (and starting next week, I'm going to get in the habit of going to bed earlier and waking up earlier, just to get into the swing of it), but I am very excited about the classes I'll be taking.  I love school.  I'm all organized and planning and can't wait.  And this semester, I have breaks between classes; I may spend them on homework, but I might just spend them on resting and reading.  It would be good to get back into the swing of reading again.

Dear Blog, I do admit, there is a lot on my heart right now.  I find myself stalled; I cannot move forward right now, because I don't know how.  I have been reading my Bible more and more, morning and evening, praying often and trying to fall more in love with the Lord, that I may love him with all my heart and mind and soul... But I find myself at a point where I don't know how to translate any of the things I feel stirring within me into action.  I think this may be why I'm so impatient for school to start again; I want to be around others.  Here at home, on vacation, I'm left too much to my own devices.  And that doesn't mean I can't be kinder to my family and do more to help at home, and it doesn't mean that I can't love God from where I sit right now... but I have such a hard time getting out of my own head, and focusing on the people around me - and I remember it being so much easier when there actually was other, non-related people around me.

So, Dear Blog, these are my thoughts and ruminations and recollections, and I'm signing off for tonight because I've got a bit of a headache, and I think it may have been the 29 grams of sugar in the soda I just drank that did it.

Love,
Judith