Roanoke, VA, on the last day of the year.

With a few days of vacation still to go when we returned from Maryland, it was my thought at first only to rest and clean and prepare to go back to work. But I found myself in only a couple of days more rested and generally caught up than I've been in months (I remember fondly what that felt like, now I'm back at work). So when I came across a Free Admittance For One Child ticket to the VA Museum of Transportation, we decided to be intrepid and drive up to Bustling Roanoke.

Unfortunately, we hit an unexpected obstacle. A beloved volunteer at the museum had just died, and all employees wanted to attend the funeral. So the museum was closing at 12:00 that day. Since we'd arrived at 11:40 that day, it seemed wise to find another occupation.

Fortunately, Roanoke's just finished this lovely new Center in the Square building, which is really a cultural triumph for a city of just under 100,000 people.

The new science museum is on the 4th floor of the CITS building. It is just what a little-city science museum should be: simple, attractive, hands-on, and cheap!

At this Living River you could pick up and handle sea urchins, sea stars, and horseshoe crabs.

There were loads of aquariums, which always cheer me up.

I actually love the reflections in this picture. 

There was this whole horrifying exhibit about parasites... very clever, very fun, and terrifying! Carrot Top was the ringmaster in this circus of fear.

I preferred the physics section, with exhibits about sound, noble gases, light, and electricity.

They loved being struck by blue lightening. 

But the dinosaur probably saw the most of the kids. Once they were good and convinced that it was plastic and unable to pursue them, they grew impressively bold with it. They'd charge up and roar at it, and just laugh and laugh when it roared back (has a motion sensor).

In the "Children's Curiosity Corner" where we lingered for a good hour:

Adele climbed up here herself and sat down to read. If only I had a shot of her reading to Spot, her beloved stuffed companion. That's one of my favorite recent developments.

In one corner, you could do what you liked with a HUGE pile of cool wooden blocks. We all tried our hand at engineering.

I think Jon won, though. 

In another corner, you could dig up dino bones like a real archaeologist.

Probably one of my top favorite things about this museum was the view it afforded of DT Roanoke and the surrounding mountains. Good place to gaze thoughtfully.

Here's looking at you, 2014. 

I have many reasons to think that 2014 is going to be an improvement over 2013. Jon is (hopefully) going to see some important milestones in his academic work, I have some resolutions that excite me, and *just* got an invitation for an event in the summer that took my breath away (more on that last later). Also, let's face it, 2013 had a 13 in it. It caused mild pain to write it all year! 2014 is just shinier and prettier and more angular.

My oneword for 2013 was "See." I wanted to notice more what was actually around me, both as an anxiety-fighting measure and to promote prayer and an attitude of wonder & praise. I have seen improvement in this area. Resuming daily yoga in September has done a lot to root me back in my body and physical surroundings, too. As I continue to battle anxiety, I have decided I need a subtle adjustment in attitude. I often fall prone to scarcity thinking. I think, I'll just have this meager little life and hopefully fly under the radar of Big Scary Forces in the world. I think my energy and abilities so limited, and assume I don't have the energy or time or money for this or that activity which might really bring great joy. I'm trying to wean myself from this mentality, fearing that if it continues, I'll one day be too meek to inherit the earth.

Because I am rejecting this scarcity mindset, I'd originally been planning to use "abundant" as my 2014 one word. But it just didn't give me the tingle. It wasn't simple enough, I think. So I'm going to fix upon "Alive." I want to do things that mean I'm courageously living life, things that give life, and things that allow me to experience more of it. I want to rise to the surface of my skin and meet other people in the world. As Anne LaMott observes in her lovely new book Stitches, "It is most comfortable to be invisible, to observe life from a distance, to be at one with our own intoxicating superior thoughts. But comfort and isolation are not where the surprises are. They are not where hope is." (Thanks for the book, Dad!)

So I have either set the bar very low or very high: in 2014, I will be Alive.