It is hard to believe that the holiday season has come and gone already. It was a busy time. Both of my sons came to visit and although it was great to see them, we had the usual ups and downs.

For one, my house is too small for five adults and the cat. The newlyweds were jammed into the small bedroom, normally our TV den, and my younger son bunked in the sewing room. Of course, we had the drums set up in the little hallway room in the middle of the house. The electronic piano found its way in there, too.

Things went pretty well. Turns out that Brian is allergic to dust, mold, cats and other unknown pollutants, all of which we seem to have in abundance. One particularly bad night found me and my husband up at 3 a.m., fully dressed and ready to take him to the emergency room. He was coughing and wheezing so much we thought he was going to develop respiratory failure. Otherwise, we maintained an endless cycle of snacking, cooking, dishwashing (by hand), taking walks to get out of each other’s hair and playing music.

Brian is back in Denver, where the air is dry and he can breathe again. Dave flew back to Boston last Saturday. The cat finally came out from under the bed and I am exhausted.

The new year is officially in full swing. I find I am suddenly busy with all the administrative jobs that have pesky deadlines attached to them. That will be my life for the next week or two.

We have purchased many job seeking and career books with an LSTA grant we received this year. Over the next two weeks, we will install the new career resource collections in libraries throughout the county.

At 10 a.m. Feb. 1, the library in Lumberton will welcome April Turner’s Life as Art Productions for a program of African music, drumming and storytelling. We are expecting our storytime groups to attend and hope that you can come as well.

Don’t forget to mark your calendars for Lumberton’s second annual Book ‘Em North Carolina on Feb. 23 at Robeson Community College. Keynote speakers are Chuck Williams, Hollywood producer, director and actor, and bestselling author, Mary Alice Monroe. The purpose of this event is to raise public awareness of the link between high crime rates and high illiteracy rates. Proceeds from the Book ‘Em North Carolina book fairs go directly toward increasing literacy in Robeson County and to reducing crime in the area. We hope to see you there.