All Smiles

  Today, the happiest person in the world graduated, a miracle of God's great grace.

And I loved enjoying the day with my sweet boyfriend at my side.

I'm smiling, listening to the rain splatter on the leaves.

God - Your joy, Your peace, Your nearness is amazing.

Stars

This from Ann really resonates with me tonight.

"When the world strives -- the wise still. It's the only way to feel God's embrace."

"You can give up the need to compete in the world -- when you accept being complete in Christ."

"She needn't be heard....because she was known.

The hatchlings, they held themselves in this silent, fearless assurance.

The fog settled down in the hollow, a veil hiding the woods away. Behind it somewhere the frogs sang on...

She felt found.

She would be small. She would make her life small.

There on the stairs, there by the next of hatchlings in the deepening twilight, she looked up.

She could see it all abover her --

How the stars are always small..."

Mother's Day and other Happy Pictures :)

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

God gave us the best when He gave us you!

Beautiful flowers from my students and their parents. :)

Last Friday was Walk-a-thon.

We had A LOT of fun. :)

We were SO HAPPY to see each other last Saturday! Can't you tell? ;)

Hmm...he doesn't make me smile at all. ;)

Is this much smiling legal?! ;)

He's just the greatest. ever.

Yep, I just can't contain it. :D

 

And one parting picture... ;)

Weekends are for:

• eating LaRosa's and drinking Coke 
• playing the piano
• falling asleep on the couch
• sleeping in
• listening to Bluegrass
• eating biscuits and gravy
• grading papers / getting caught up
• laughing around the table with family
• noticing those little purple and yellow flowers in the green grass
• shopping at Meijer
• listening to the Selah channel on Pandora
• being quiet
• drinking good coffee
• stepping back, getting some perspective (Hindsight's 20/20.)
• picking a yellow bouquet
• thinking about that good man of mine
• thanking God for His ever-present faithful goodness

Easter 2013

"Five years from now you will be pretty much the same as you are today except for two things: the books you read and the people you get close to." - Charles Jones

Interesting quote that I think has a lot of truth to it.

So, I've been reading Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ and have been thoroughly enjoying it. Maybe it's due in part that my copy is dated 1908...I love an old book. :)

"To redeem the race -- I do not mean to destroy it -- to redeem the race, he must make himself once more manifest; HE MUST COME IN PERSON" (Ben-Hur).

"By-and-by the moon came up. And as the three tall white figures sped, with soundless tread, through the opalescent light, they appeared like spectres flying from hateful shadows. Suddenly, in the air before them, not farther up than a low hill-top, flared a lambent flame; as they looked at it, the apparition contracted into a focus of dazzling lustre. Their hearts beat fast; their souls thrilled; and they shouted as with one voice, "The Star! the Star! God is with us!" (Ben-Hur).

 

"...and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all...but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord" (Portions of 1 Corinthians 15, emphasis mine).

Now, some people who I'm blessed to "get close to." :)

My Spring break started with a trip to Indiana to attend Lucas' graduate piano recital. What a fabulous performance by a gifted musician! God is doing great things with that man. :) I was so happy to be in the audience and to be with him for the weekend. I treasure our time spent together.

Later in the week, I reconnected with my good friend Katie. She is my dear friend who's going to be a wonderful mommy soon. I admire her heart and am so proud of her.

And Easter was happily spent with the fam. :) Thankful...thankful.

Another Week Has Come and Gone

Last Saturday, we lost an hour. This Sunday, I gained an hour! Somehow amidst hitting my snooze about 4 times, I set the time up an hour. As I was frantically getting ready for church this morning, Mom mozies (sp?!) out of her room and says, "Honey it's only 7:30!" And sure enough, it was. So my stressed morning has now become deliciously relaxed. :) And I have time to update my blog.

Let's start with last Saturday. I judged at the ACSI Speech Meet. I got to see my cooperating teacher from my student teaching, several teacher friends, and a couple former students. It was simply great being back at that school. The judging was fun and painless, and all of my 2nd graders received Superior! I was proud. Even though the day before, I had forgotten to have them do a run-through earlier in the day, so they had to do it at dismissal time. Dismissal time in my classroom is akin to absolute chaos. The poor dears. But it must not have damaged them too much, because they all got Superior.

Then I was off to the other side of town to attend my best friend in high school's baby shower. We picked up right where we'd left up which entails her laughing at my silly remarks. :) It was great to see her and her family again. I also got to catch up with a couple other classmates who I hadn't seen since graduation. One's having a baby and one's working on her master's degree. It was neat talking about the past and future and acknowledging that God's been working in it all.

After the shower, I went home, took a nap, and then got ready to head to Music Hall with the fam. The Chieftains were playing with the Pops, and we were so excited to go. It was a really, really neat night of music! It was such a fun time of being together.

On Sunday, we experienced God in such a powerful way. I love seeing God work, and He used various people Sunday morning to be His hands and feet. I don't think I'll ever forget seeing Kevin, addicted to drugs, make his way to the altar, and pray and cry. After receiving Christ, seeing him hug his mom and sister and step dad, clinging to them as if he was apologizing with all he had in him. And then seeing him stand and mutter, "I don't know what to say...," and looking to the ceiling, his 6-foot frame stretched tall, then looking back at his uncle, our pastor, "but thank you." Wow. It will forever be etched in my memory. Say a prayer for Kevin, please? I'm sure the road ahead will not be easy, but God is powerful.

Tuesday, we had a forty minute lock-down at school. Selfish or not, I was glad my kids were in music, and I happened to be observing in 4th grade, so I got to see how a master teacher handled the situation. Long story short, a suspicious character had left his car and was walking through the neighborhood. The police came and arrested him because of other charges on his record. And the rest of the day carried on as normal.

Thursday night, I got to be with my sweet boyfriend, who took time out of his spring break to come see me (and his sister :). Since we live hours apart, those times together are very special. Unfortunately, there are no pictures, because my camera's battery became "exhausted." That's really what it says. Haha! Pictures or not, the memories remain. I'm very thankful to be dating such an amazing, godly guy. So blessed.

Friday was Picture Day and Walk-a-thon Kick off. That evening, I met up with Rochelle and we ate Chipotle and then went to a nearby Christian school's high school musical. It was a new musical that the director had written. It was based on the story of Ruth set in Kansas during the "Dustbowl" years. It was really well done, and I nearly cried a couple of times. :) At intermission, I ran into the Simmons, parents of my grade school friends. It was so good to see them and talk with them! I had to run Rochelle back to her car during intermission, because she was dog-sitting. I went back and enjoyed the rest of the play. Then Rachelle, who had been playing in the orchestra, and I drove over to IHOP, drank hot tea and ate a crepe, and had a good chat. She's such a neat girl. Funny that we were bitter enemies in grade school, but now she's a dear friend and kindred spirit.

Saturday was the normal cleaning and school work. And now we're back to Sunday. One day last week, it had been especially dreary and rainy, but that evening the sun had broken through and was streaming through the window. The quiet moment reminded me of the verse in Lamentations 3:22-26:  


Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,

Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
It is good that one should hope and wait quietly
For the salvation of the Lord.

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I'm back from church and doing some final edits. Pastor and his family are out of town so Bro. Miles was our speaker today. As always, I thoroughly enjoy hearing him preach. Today he spoke about Jesus stepping into our world. One point he made really made me think. We often fight against the ordinary, the common place. We strive to make ourselves unique, special...to stand out in some way. But Jesus specifically chose the ordinary. He was so ordinary and human and homely that even His own brothers scoffed at His claims to be the Messiah. So when we choose to serve others in those small, ordinary ways, we are being like Christ. Also, when someone studies the life of Jesus and his encounters with other people, every person who acknowledges their need and comes to Jesus, always received help and their need was met. Jesus didn't come to condemn, but to seek and save.

Thankful for Jesus today.

Couple more things...we had as snow day a week and a half ago. I wanted to share some of those pictures...it was gorgeous. And a couple weeks ago, my student T.J. came carrying in this HUGE wrapped card with a bow on it. He had made this gigantic card for me...I think it was a peace offering for an incident we had the week before. ;-) I just loved it. Sweet boy. ;)

Impending Snow Day

What to do with stacks (and I mean STACKS) of papers to grade and check, and an impending snow storm happening outside? Blog, of course! :) This blog is in faith believing that we'll have a snow day tomorrow - even though that means trying to catch up on another missed day of school.

Let's see. I need to focus on what went well today, otherwise, I'll just complain. And that is counterproductive in so many ways.

• I was able to sleep in a bit, due to no morning meetings this week.
• Excited kids bringing in their snacks for the Spanish party
• Getting some tests graded during my prep break
• About 16 out of the 20 did great on their group time during math (and I think they understood what they were doing).
• One student who changed his attitude eventually thereby avoiding a meltdown. It's the little things!
• We got the bulk of math done before lunch time. I think I might try to do that everyday...math in the morning...so then it's out of the way.
• A solid group of students who faithfully do what they are supposed to do. I so appreciate their faithfulness.
• All those prayer requests before lunch...they know God hears and answers prayer. Lord, help me to so reliant on You.
• Even though one student struggled with attitude and motivation this afternoon, and even though he wasn't paying attention to the story we were reading together, he WAS reading and was into what he was reading ("I read 3 stories!"). ;)
• A good after-school work session with my student. We started on cursive and he can successfully write several letters, and he had a good attitude and was cooperative.
• My one student's sweet hugs and helpfulness.
• All those pencils, erasers, and trash - my daily pick-up - reminds me that I have the opportunity to influence real living people who seem to leave messes everyday. ;)

Well, after listing all that out, the day was pretty good after all. :) And "God has all that I need" - have to remember that!





 I need to recap from my weekend! We finally scooted out the door around 2:30 Friday afternoon. The kids kept hugging me and telling me good-bye and that they'd miss me. Love their hearts. After a bank stop, we were on the road. The drive was great and Mom and I enjoyed listening to The Horse and the Boy. We made a mad-dash into Wal-mart to buy a few last minute things and change clothes, and we were at Dunbar with ten minutes to spare. Walking down to the basement and seeing my brother all dressed in his suit in that hallway, where my friends and I were year after year, was a might emotional. The service was anointed by God. I cried and cried. God's faithfulness is so real back then, when I was in choir, and now in my present life. I loved chatting with Mrs. Miller and some of my friends. And seeing the bus. And hearing the laughter. Ok...so I was a bit jealous. ;)

Then we went to Marty and Tammy's and ate food, drank coffee, and laughed and laughed. I love, love being with my family! Then, Leanna and I drove to her apartment, talked and laughed some more, ate more food, and loved on her dog. :)

Saturday we slept in, enjoyed a leisurely breakfast with more coffee, and got ready for our tea. It was such a lovely little tea. The bright sunshine coming through the window and the snow softly falling. So lovely! I bought some raspberry tea leaves and I need to find a recipe for lavender scones (so yummy!). Then we were off to a thrift shop, the cupcake shop (to see Emily), and ANTIQUE SHOPS! :-) I found some great old books which makes me so happy inside. :) We went back to eat hamburgers at the house and then we were off on our way back home. I was so tired and I admit that I was glad to turn the wheel over to Mom. All in all, it was a lovely weekend being with family!

And now, two days of the week are done, and the snow is already piling up, so it looks like I'll be able to get caught up from my grading. *Note to self* When you give 9 tests in a week, set aside several hours to grade everything!

God continues to teach me to find joy in the little moments and that even if my world is not ideal (students talking, not paying attention, bored) there are always blessings to find. I also need to be open to new (better) ideas, but understand that I don't need to try to make my ideas, methods, practices better all at once. It's a journey, and I choose joy!

God, help me to remain joyful in the thought that You have given me all that I need. Help me rest in that. Give me wisdom to make effective changes. Help me to show patience and longsuffering. You are my example.

The Pond and Ducks and other Thoughts

These 3-day weekends are nice, but they throw off my groove a bit. (I've got to buy that movie. ;) Today was very sunny, but still cold. I fed the fire all day long, but Mom and I took a break and enjoyed a walk at the park. And I'm trying to keep up with my goal to take more pictures of my life. Pictures = Memories. :) And hearing birds sing and seeing ducks swim mean one thing - spring is coming SOON. :) I got lesson plans done, newsletter done, grading done, and filing done. Bring on the last 4 weeks before Spring Break! :) How has this year gone so quickly?! 

I made more oyster crackers tonight...haha. They haven't made it to the trash yet. ;) And I made banana bread. And listened to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and watched about half of the movie. C.S. Lewis was a genius. I'm reading Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and enjoying it so far. There's just something about reading an old, musty, stained, hardback book. I love it!

I really am thankful for these quiet, calm days. I think back to last year when my weekends were filled with worry, anxiety, and dread for the coming week. Not. Fun. Although I don't want to completely brush those memories aside, I am thankful for God's peace and for these easier, calmer days. 

I'm still such a work in progress. Sometimes I feel like for every two steps forward, I take three steps backward. Oh the battle that happens in our mind. No wonder, Paul wrote to "be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom 12:2) and to think on things that are "true, noble, just, pure, lovely, and of good report" (Phil. 4:8). God as well as Satan know the power of our thoughts. 

Lord, thank you for continuing to work on me. For not giving up when I give in. Lord help my thoughts to be filled with praise and thanks. Lord, help me to understand that dwelling on "what ifs" is not trusting You or others. Help me to remember, remember, remember. You are good all the time. All the time, You are good.