Winding down?

School is over...or so they say. Really, just the students are gone, which has allowed me the time to get so many other things done. Prior to students leaving I was juggling so many things -- inventory, updating collection, genrefying fiction, weeding the collection, and prepping to move the entire library around. Oh, and that's right, collating resources to use for my fall research class. Got inventory done. Hallelujah! Genrefying classifications are 75% done thanks to my student assistants. Got weeding sort of done -- reference weeds need to be out-processed, but this can be done any old time as there is no rush. I started shuffling the collections (F vs. NF) around during the half days but came to a stand still until I could physically begin moving bookcases. Let me tell you. You haven't worked out until you have loaded and unloaded about 12500 books, then removed shelves from bookcases (3 double-sided ranges apiece, with 5-6 shelves per range) and then pushed the bookcases to their new location. Then, of course, you reverse the process. So...three days later this is done. Lets see...where am I now? Well, with the move around and inventory out of the way I feel I have at least finished a couple of things. I now spend my evenings changing call numbers to match the genres assigned for each fiction title. For instance if there is a science fiction book classed as F Bra, it has to be changed to F SCIF Bra. Fun eh? Yes the good times never stop. I have tons of 'stuff' collated for my research class...maybe too much stuff. I really need to sit down and organize and structure things in a realistic manner. I find that I have a hard time doing this at home. I lose focus, getting distracted by the dogs, or beautiful days or anything. So, tomorrow I'm headed back into school to try to find some focus for a day. I'll be heading to the shore soon and want to know that I have at least begun this process. I will enjoy my vacation much more. Then, when I come back I'll really dive into that project. Yes, I like so many teachers across America have my summer "OFF". Yeah...I think that since I have begun working in education I have truly had but 4 summers completely off across my 18 years. I am not complaining though as I have always enjoyed my summer coursework and other summer projects. Learning, as we try to embed in our students, is a lifelong process. Meanwhile, at the homefront, all three of my children are now in the same zipcode...for 3 weeks or so. The happiness this brings to me is immeasurable. This is home. We are all home. Not forever, nor for even a month, but for now. Sharing memories and chuckling over the many foibles of childhood, and making new memories. We are each so different, but when we are all together see ourselves in each other. Family. There is nothing in this world that means more. This is true for all of my family -- brothers, sister, niece, nephews, and the multitude of cousins -- who I spend less time with than I should. I know this, and yet I find myself distracted by my life. The aforementioned work, daily worries about income/expense ledger, my own laziness, and the certainty that they will all always be there. But they won't be, and as I write this I am going to make a pledge to myself to be a better communicator with all of my family. So...those of you reading this that are my family, look out! Here I come...but only because I love you. Well, as always, thank you for reading my rants and raves :)