this has got to be one of my favorite times of the year. i know that the holidays are often stressful, but i truly enjoy the time from my birthday to thanksgiving to christmas and new year's. thanksgiving was excellent - time with the fox and otterbein families, great food, time with good friends, complete relaxation. i realized that i haven't worked a full five day week in all of november, which is lovely. i've also been pretty productive, both at work and home - my caseload is going down, i'm not terribly behind on anything, and i've been trying to pick up little things to make our house homier. our tree is up and our carpets are clean (thanks to the generous loan of a steamer from my mother-in-law and her husband!). blaze went to the vet for the first time in years today (thanks to the help of our wonderful roommate, julianna) and she is healthy, although she has dry skin. she's had the occasional skin bump which worried me, but it turns out they're just ingrown hairs. but now she is up to date on her shots and has her tags, so i can worry a little less when she manages to escape the back yard. (seriously, she's a mischievious genius - for five years, she never dug holes, and now i can't seem to stop her no matter what we do. any ideas on how to stop it?) i've been thinking lately about what it really means to dig into building community and share our lives with others. somehow, it seemed easier before i moved to columbus. i think my life has gotten crowded with other things as i've grown older, and finding community as two people being one flesh can sometimes be a little more complicated than doing it as one person, but we want community and we need it. i think we're in a stage of figuring out how to really commit to people. it takes effort, and i've been a lazy. there are people i want to share life with, but i need to get off of my butt and start doing it, eh? really, isn't "just doing it" the key to so many things? for example, it's seems like such a simple discipline to read scripture and pray daily. when i'm doing those things, everything is so much clearer and i'm far more grounded. i know this, but still, i have such a difficult time doing it. so, discipline is another recent theme in my life. scripture, prayer, exercise, eating well, spending time with people, reading actual books, calling and writing friends. these things are lifeblood for me - why is it so hard to neglect them? my brother has invited us to consider meeting him in india or france in the spring. any thoughts on which would be a better trip? ok. time to unwind. sweet dreams!