On Your Mark...

The pace has really accellerated this past week or so. It usually does, in August, but this year, the summer was busier than usual. Here's a recap:

• June began with our air conditioner needing replacement (a necessity in the Washington DC area!).
• My mother died shortly thereafter, after a long illness. I spent a week with my father and brothers.
• We received notice of grant funding for Madrichim (teen aide) training, to be held on August 30th.
• A colleague contracted for a major curriculum rewrite - we worked together over 25 hours between the end of June and the end of July.
• Our kitchen, dining room and hallway were painted and "re-staged."
• I met with another client to plan some family programs with her.
• We went to Israel.
• I wrote lessons and teacher guides for the Madrichim Training - and submitted two of them to a publisher who'd asked me to develop some materials for madrichim training.
• We staffed the Training session and distributed teaching materials to the facilitators.
• Five directors spoke to me about doing training workshops - three for staff orientations, and two for training during the school year.
• I met with another colleague, who's piloting an innovative idea for family education.
• I had eye surgery (successfully!)
• We received notice of funding for another large program (Lev B'Lev - "Heart to Heart") in Northern Virginia that I'll be facilitating again this year, in January.
• Materials for that program were compiled, duplicated and will be distributed at a regional directors' meeting next week.
• And there's been the usual complement of volunteer work: meetings (committee and board), knitting, Mitzvah Heroes work.

Whew! I knew the summer was busy as the weeks were passing - but, wow! I really did get a lot more accomplished than I thought. My "to-do" lists have seemed unending - I hadn't really focused on the "Done" part of the list until now.

That's the recap. Tomorrow begins the Hebrew month of Elul - which is a preparation month in anticipation of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement): a month in which we focus on how the past year has gone and what we look forward to in the year ahead.

Stay tuned!