One of the joys of living on the border between suburban and rural is that this morning the entire herd of 17 deer were resting in the woods behind the house. Two of them were sitting under the trampoline; I guess they like the protection for some reason (like our cats which also enjoy sitting under things, although they are a lot smaller than an adult deer). Jean leaves some food for the deer to eat in the winter, but sometimes the squirrels get it first.

I have been so busy the past three weeks that my weekends have been more stressful than relaxing, a combination of schoolwork and Christmas/executor chores. This weekend I will spend most of my time writing an Honors Algebra test and an Algebra 2 quiz, grading a Statistics test and a Statistics mini-project, writing Christmas cards and Thank-you notes, making a shopping list for Christmas Eve, and preparing a package concerning my father’s VA benefits to mail to our congressman since he offered to pursue it for me. That is in addition to the pile of mail sitting on my desk. Fortunately I only have one more week of school before Christmas vacation when I should be able to really catch up on things.