Ah … summer! Don’t you just love the sunshine?

Sunshine makes you feel happy. You could be stressed. You know, worried about the budget cuts, wondering if you are going to make payroll, wondering if you will ever buy a book again — and then you get that frown upon your face that makes your eyebrows into a V at the top of your nose and your forehead gets all of those puckered wrinkles as you are deep in thought. You know what I am talking about?

Well, if something like this happens to you, just step outside into the garden and sit in the sun for a little bit. You would be surprised at how good you will feel after about two minutes in the sun with your face uplifted, eyes closed, deep breaths, ahh … Now doesn’t that feel better?

I am happy to report that the library will receive the state-aid money for May sometime in June. We are still unsure if we will receive June’s payment. There is also serious talk that the library budget will start out with a 20 percent cut this upcoming fiscal year.

Oh joy. I think I will go sit in the sun for about five minutes.

On to more joyous news. My son Allen performed as the sultan in the North Carolina Children’s Theatre production of “Aladdin.” The entire performance was delightful. I had several teens come from Hendersonville to stay with us for the weekend in order to watch Allen perform. Needless to say, we had a busy weekend.

We went to the beach. (Sunshine helps when you have six teens in the house for the whole weekend.) We ate pizza, watched movies, played SingStar. Thank goodness when it was time to go to sleep, I was exhausted.

The library received donations from the following authors this past week: Alexis Morgan; Susanna Saville; Vera Boyd Jones; Ann Brashares; Connie Mason; Celia Rees; Anna Louise Lucia; Sabrina Jeffries; Bertrice Small; Beverly Barton; Reshonda Tate Billingsley; Julie Garwood; Bonnie Vanak; Frankie Livingston; Carrie Jones;, Lee Parmeter and Virginia Henley. The following publishing companies also sent books to the library: Riverhead Books, Penguin Group and MacMillan.

The library would like to thank Lisa P. O’Connor for donating books to the library and Karen Dickerson for donating DVD sets. Dick and Lorraine Taylor donated a book entitled, “One Standing North Carolina: 2009 NCAA Champions,” given in memory of William “Bill” Alston.

The children’s department and I would also like to thank the following people for making donations to the children’s summer reading program: Mary Ann Masters, Beverly Townsend and Mayme Tubbs. The library would also like to thank Smithfield’s for hosting the fund-raising event during which 20 percent of its sales went to the library to support the summer reading program.

If anyone would like to make a donation to the library to help us with the summer reading program, please contact me or the children’s librarian.

— Tina Stepp is the director at the Robeson County Public Library and can be reached at (910) 738-4859 or tstepp@robesoncountylibrary.org.