Ok...so I haven't updated in a while. I'll get around to it...eventually. This week is going to be crazy. In-service starts tomorrow at 8:30 and goes until 4:00 and then I have to go to college orientation for the one tutorial class I'm taking. That starts at 6:00 and then my class will be after that. Not how I want to start my week.

I am almost finished with my classroom. I have a few finishing touches and 2 more sets of tests to collate. I think my final count is 23 students, including one of the administrator's kids. 14 boys and 9 girls. Even though I worked in my classroom all last week, I feel that I have barely scratched the surface of getting ready.

Lots of stuff has happened since I last posted, but that will have to wait for another time.

Those preschoolers are a hoot! Yesterday, as we were walking down to the gym, T says, "Hey, I love you!" I told him I loved him, too. Then, as we were almost to the gym, he asked, "Why are you holding my hand? So you don't get lost?" LOL!!!! He's just hilarious!

Today, N is playing with K and he tells her as he is precariously hanging between two tables, "Hey girlfriend, look at me! Hey, you're supposed to say 'WOW!' when I do something cool." She was obviously not impressed with his balancing act. hehe!

Today was my last day in the preschool. It feels good. Dad and Nessa are supposed to come down here tomorrow, but they have yet to leave to MD.

I am so exhausted! This week has been a blur. Monday happened to be very chaotic and I wasn't sure how the rest of the week was going to go. But, Tuesday was much better, as well as the rest of the week. I really enjoyed teaching the fourth graders. We had 18-20 every single day this week...with about 25 registered. Tonight is the closing program, but I am unable to attend since I have a college class to attend. This is the last one for the summer!

One of the best things about today was that one of my girls got saved!!! That's what it's all about. From what I heard, there were about 20 decisions about salvation this week and that's the highest number of decisions in at least 8 years. It's wonderful!

I know I haven't been posting regularly, but life tends to take over. :)

I may get to see some of my family this summer after all! My sister is moving to Maryland, about 2 hours from me! She's renting a U-Haul truck and dad's going to be driving it and then helping her move into her new apartment. I told them that I'd be willing to help if they could come and get me. I'd either get lost or my car would break down (if it's fixed by then, that is). Or I could see where the Metro line runs and take that. I so miss my family right now! But, with Nessa a bit closer, we could possibly get together every couple of months.

Well, I think I need to catch a catnap before class or may not survive tonight.

I just finished reading an excellent book for my TM class entitled "Teaching to Change Lives" by Dr. Howard Hendricks. He laid out 7 laws or principles of the teacher:

Teacher- Stop growing today, stop teaching tomorrow
Education- How people learn determines how you teach
Activity- Maximum learning is always the result of maximum involvement
Communication- To truly impart information requires the building of bridges
Heart- Teaching that impacts is not head to hear, but heart to heart
Encouragement- Teaching tends to be most effective when the learner is properly motivated
Readiness- The teaching-learning process will be most effective when both the student and teacher are adequately prepared ( Hendricks, Howard. Teaching to Change Lives. Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Publishers, 1987, p. 129.)

I've seen some areas in which I need to work on, that's for sure. Some of the most influential teachers in my life have been those who went the extra mile. I remember 4th grade because the teacher made it a point to make learning fun and hands-on. I remember a particular college instructor that came over to the dorm after school hours to look for me and give me suggestions on how to improve in a certain area. I've also had teachers who bored me to death. They did not have any variation in teaching technique and were so engrossed in what they were saying that they weren't listening. Some tend to "dump" information rather than teach it.

As a teacher, I want to reach my students not only academically, but spiritually. I know my parents have a hard time figuring out why I wanted to be a Christian school (since it's known that that specific field does not make a lot of money). I want to be able to be used of God to touch these children. I've have already been in the lives of at least 60 children. To me, the best result of teaching is seeing how the children that I have taught have grown up, what kind of adult they are going to be.

I stress to my students that they have two choices in EVERY thing they do: Do right or do wrong. It doesn't stop in the classroom, but extends into every area of life. I want to see them succeed as Christian, living a full life for the Lord.

I can not believe summer is almost over! Right now, I'm taking my second set of summer classes and I double booked myself. This class is two weeks long and during the second week we have VBS. Now, I've never actually done a VBS (I've done NBT's) so I'm not too sure how it's going to go yet.

This afternoon, a friend called me and asked me to fill in in the pre-school. I only had 4 kids to watch, but boy, were they a hoot! They got the biggest kick by me pretending that the plastic chicken nuggets were hot and tossing them (the nuggets) about. Then, as one of the boys was describing the car he was holding (it was given the off-road muddy look) and I said that it needed washed. Another little boy piped up that it didn't since it wasn't really dirty. It was only pretend. lol!

Anyway... there's not much else going on that I'm going to blog about right now. Perhaps another time.

So, I've been MIA for a while. I'm ok with that! I just got back from an amazing week at the Camp BIMI reunion. Most people think of it as a "camp" camp, but it's not really like that. A friend of mine described it as a super-charged missions conference with class sessions in the morning and services in the evening. I really enjoyed the devotions we had each night after the service. The guys and gals separated and had a time of open forum. I like hearing how the missionary wives dealt with the day to day life on the field.

The sessions were great, too. We had 15 in total. This year I was able to attend the Camp III sessions. Some of the topics covered were issues in missions, deputation disasters, calamities of a candidate, the family unit, commitment, organization, and spiritual dryness. These sessions are taught by missionaries and directors. They know their stuff. One of the sessions that really touched me was the about commitment. I live in a generation that has commitment issues. We are noncommittal about many things. God needs people who are willing to commit to the cause and not look back or leave when the going gets tough. Life is full of joy and sorrow. I liked the phrase that the best (not necessarily safest) place is being in the center of God's will. Many Christians have faced great trials, even lost their lives, living for the Lord. He gave them strength to endure. He allowed the trying of their faith so that they could grow. Bro. Baughman has a file full of names of those who have QUIT the mission field. There is a difference between those who give up and those who are unable to continue serving due to health issues.

Camp BIMI and its staff do not push that every camper is supposed to go off to the foreign field after attending. It simply gives you the knowledge of the reality of the missionary's life. As long as you are doing the will of God, the staff is excited for you. Their big project was formatting the current issue of the Encourager like a yearbook and listing those alumnus who are serving as laymen, students, missionaries, and full-time Christian service workers. It was wonderful to see so many people continuing in service.

I attended Camp BIMI for the first time 6 years ago just go get information. Then I went again the next year. What draws me back each time is the sincerity of each staff person and their heart for missions, here and abroad. One of the things I want to do is go on a SMART trip. I've been wanting to do that for 6 years now, actually. I want to experience it and see what the Lord has for me.

Right now, I love where the Lord has me serving. My classroom is my mission field. But, I'm still open to the call of missions if that is what the Lord has for me.

Welcome to the world Annabelle! This beautiful little girl is the first child of my friends Jon and Sarah. She was was born at 1:37 am, 9lb 3oz, 21 inches long. It was a hard labor, so please keep Sarah in prayer. Jon had worked all day and then was up all night with Sarah.

Holy of Holies

The Holy of Holies;
God's special place.
I can stand within
And seek His face.

In Your presence, Lord,
I see Your glory.
Your amazing love
Tells Your wondrous story.

This life of mine, dear Lord,
I lay it all down.
With Your care around me,
I'm safe and sound.

And then I remember
Amidst all my strife,
Jesus, mt Redeemer,
You gave Your life.

Jesus, let me see
You are always near.
There's nothing in my way;
I've no cause to fear.

In that Holy of Holies,
I stand before Your throne.
With my Lord, so sweet,
I know I'm not alone.

Written by Nicole S.

istockphoto

This is how I feel at times. Family. Friends. Other areas of my life.

Don't get me wrong, I love the life the Lord has given me, but sometimes I don't feel like I belong anywhere. I don't feel the Lord wants me to leave my current position. He brought me here and I'll stay here until He moves me. I guess I just haven't found my niche yet. I love my Sunday school class, but I feel too old for it sometimes. I don't want to move up to the next class or any other class for that matter. I sort of thought about doing the Newcomers class, but I've been here nearly 2 years already. I don't know.

It seems now that most of my friends here are married and have children. I frequently get invited to go places with two families and I enjoy it. But, I feel sort of left out.

Sigh...such is life.

(photo courtesy of Olive Garden)

Plus


(photo courtesy of thatangiegirl.wordpress.com)

Equals

(photo courtesy of learningresources.com)

I went to dinner with my roommates Friday night. I ordered the lasagna and received a charred portion. Delicious, huh? After sending it back (which we had to wait 10 minutes before our server even came back to check on us after bringing our meals), we had to wait another 15 minutes before I got my meal. We asked for the manager and he said he took care of it. I got my dinner for free! Of course, I asked that it be brought in a container so we could leave. My roommates didn't finish either of their meals and offered me theirs. The lasagna was great for lunch!

It's only Tuesday, but it has been an interesting week. Last night I heard from a friend back in Indiana. She told me that she bringing her girls to visit me this summer. I'm so excited! My family doesn't even make plans to see me, but a someone I came to know through babysitting is going to be here! I'm not upset with my family since I already know how things are with them. I'd love for my family to come see me but I don't foresee it happening any time soon. Anyway, I haven't seen Cathy and her girls since April of 2007 when I attended preaching conference at Fairhaven.

Then today I found out that a friend of mine is expecting! It was shocking news, but I'm excited for her and her family. I was one of the select few whom she told.

My supervisor is a goober. Just because I didn't get him anything from Starbucks when I went on a coffee run for another friend who couldn't go out at the moment, he hid my double chocolaty chip frappuccino on me. Goober. If only he knew… and I'll leave it at that :)

Today was our awards chapel for the kids. One of my students received the Principal's Award for having the highest average in the upper elementary. Sweet! During our indoor recess, my kids made me a couple "Best Teacher/Greatest Teacher/Greatest Leadership" awards. Too cute!

Near the end of the day, a high school student knocked on my door and asked of one of my students. She was in the middle of taking a test. I thought it was odd, but I let her go and found out upon her return that they (as in other staff) were able to connect with her dad in Iraq and she was able to see and talk to him. The wonders of technology. It was so sweet. From what I hear, they are going to do that Friday night during graduation (my student's brother is a senior) and he's going to address the grads. That's so exciting!

Well, some of my summer plans are starting to take shape. At the end of June, I will be attending a reunion week of Camp BIMI in Tennessee. I'll be riding down with friend from here. We're already taking about some of the stores we want to stop at along the way. Anyone ever hear of Hamricks? Sounds like a great money saving store. Another thing that is taking shape is continuing my education. I was looking at some of the summer courses being offered and knowing that I need to have some credits for my recertification coming up in a couple of years, I signed up. I'm only taking two classes, but that will be enough for me. The Christian Ethics class looks interesting and Teaching Methods does as well. I'm going to try to get ahead on the reading already. Those are the only two things I know for sure that I am going to do so far. I have some things I want to do, but I don't yet.

Just another day

Everyday I have to laugh at something my students have done or said. Recently, while talking about the bad weather and tornadoes, one of my girls was ordering lunch and in the process of asking for a large cereal, she said, "I want a large city." lol
On another day, my over-achiever, in all seriousness, answered a geometry question about a 90 degree angle as a "left angle." I could hardly contain myself!
So, today was no different. The other 4th grade teacher came to room near the end of the day to ask me what the tune was for the president song we sing. I had no clue. She mentioned Michael Finnigan and then one of my kids said she thought it was Skip to My Lou. I knew it wasn't the latter, so I googled the other one and then the tune came back to me. It was the tune of our president song. I went over to the other class to let her know she was right. Then, when I walk back into my room, more than half of my class had an ear to the wall! They started scurrying to seats, but I surprised them by laughing and having them get back over there. I wanted picture!

(Picture has been edited to shield the identity of my students)

Everyday I have to laugh at something my students have done or said. Recently, while talking about the bad weather and tornadoes, one of my girls was ordering lunch and in the process of asking for a large cereal, she said, "I want a large city." lol
On another day, my over-achiever, in all seriousness, answered geometry question about a 90 degree angle as a "left angle." I could hardly contain myself!
So, today was no different. The other 4th grade teacher came to room near the end of the day to ask me what the tune was for the president song we sing. I had no clue. She mentioned Michael Finnigan and then one of my kids said she thought it was Skip to My Lou. I knew it wasn't the latter, so I googled the other one and then the tune came back to me. It was the tune of our president song. I went over to the other class to let her know she was right. Then, when I walk back into my room, more than half of my class had an ear to the wall! They started scurrying to seats, but I surprised them by laughing and having them get back over there. I wanted picture!

Tissue please!

My allergies are horrible this spring! I can't ever remember them being this bad...well, maybe I can...but that was because of a houseful of cats...and my eyes nearly swelled shut. But this past week, I've had trouble breathing, I've been getting winded just going up the stairs, chest tightness, lots of coughing, scratchy throat, slightly hoarse voice...and I've used up quite a bit of tissues. I hate blowing my nose in front of people and I've had to do that ALL in front of my students. Bleh! Oh, and the sneezing fits have been just awful! I think the kids are counting to see how many I can do in a row.

Poor girl from the other fourth grade class was in the hospital with pneumonia. This stuff is not fun. I'm glad we only have three weeks left.

My kids are to funny. This morning, while ordering lunch, one of my girls asked if she could order a big city...opps...cereal (we were talking about the tornado that touched down last night and the cities it affected. Not too long ago, I had another student answer a geometry question for me. I couldn't help but laugh when she answered. I asked to name an angle that was on the board (right angle) and she said left angle. lol!

Anyway...I have a busy Saturday ahead of me. I've got to clean the college building, possibly attend a scrapbook workshop, and go to the Mother-Daughter Banquet. I wasn't going to attend the banquet, but someone just asked me Wednesday night. These banquets are odd when you have no family attending them. Makes me feel out of place.

Dioramas

I assigned the last book report for the school year a few weeks ago and decided to have my students give their final report in the form of a diorama. They did a great job! I just wanted to share what these fourth graders did. :)

New Recipe

Ok, so I was feeling a little adventurous for lunch so I concocted something that turned out well. I cubed and fried up some steak, cooked some elbow noodles, added cream of chicken soup (with milk), mixed it all together, added some colby-jack cheese and garlic salt and it was done. I usually stick to known meals, but used my mom's cream of mushroom with steak and noodles meal. I was never fond of the mushrooms, so I decided to use what I liked. Maybe I will get domesticated after all... :)

Time lengthens and pain fades

I can not believe it has been 11 years already. April 23, 1997, my mom gave birth to triplets 3 months premature. Logan was 1 lb. 13 oz., Laura was 1 lb. 12 oz., and Lucas was 1 lb. 6 oz. They were so tiny. Their time in this world was short. Logan passed away at 10 days and Laura at 15 days. Lucas was our fighter. He fought for life until he was 2 months and 27 days...just 3 days shy of his original due date.
Now, I'm not recalling this just to have a sob story. The Lord worked in my life through this time of trial and heartache. I went from being the oldest of 3 kids to being the oldest of 6. I was already second mom in the house since my mom was the bread winner of the family and worked afternoons. With the birth of the triplets, I knew my responsibilities had grown. At that time, I figured all the things I wanted to do in life were to be set aside to help raise my siblings. I was only in eighth grade at the time. I can say I was the proud big sister.
It hurt me to see my family in such pain as the days went by. Mom was torn by thoughts that she had caused the premature birth because she didn't stay in bed when the doctor put her on bed rest. I had never seen my dad cry as much as he did. Nessa and AJ were still young.
My church family was so supportive during this time. People made us dinners and I know they were praying for us. My pastor and assistant paster officiated the funeral, which ended up being packed and another room had to be opened. So many folks were supportive.
I remember feeling like God was ignoring my pleas at first. I was so upset that He wouldn't allow the babies to live. I mean, they were innocent children they deserved to live. They had a family that loved them.
In July of that year, I attended Neighborhood Bible Time and the evangelist gave me good counsel. I was able to move forward in my walk with Christ and accept what He had done in my family's life. Every now and then I find myself wondering what the triplets would look like today, what their personalities would be like, and what I would be doing if they had lived. I do know that all things work together for good.

Wow! What an interesting weekend. Friday after school I decided it was time to wash my car and touch up the paint job my dad did to it. Not too bad, but my finger is still stiff from using two spray cans. Then I figured I might as well water the flowers and vegetable garden while I had the hose out. I don't usually do anything with the landscaping or rabbit food, but my roommate who does was out of town for the weekend. Feeling rather good, I decided to mow the lawn, but gave up after doing the section by the road. Heavy gas mower, very uneven ground, too many rocks, and an asthma flare up.

Then on Saturday, I was asked to help make the favors for the Mother-Daughter Banquet. After 304 cards, my hands were quite colorful. Each card was handmade with stamps and such. I came up with some cute designs, but the little girl stamped cards that another lady was working on turned out so cute! Then I cleaned the college building. After that, I was recruited to help with the college banquet in the nursery. I was told it would be about 2 hours, but it was really a little over 3. I chose to watch the babies and we only had 4. There were 2 other nurseries, but the turnout for the use of the nursery was a lot smaller than expected.

At church today, I found out that our current administrator is accepting a pastorate position, starting next week. He's going to finish up the school year, though. While it's always hard to see good people leave a church, it's a blessing to see them leave to further the work of Christ. The church gave him a farewell fellowship after the evening service. The school will be looking for a new administrator now. Please pray for wisdom in that area.

Oh, another thing about today (btw, that was a mild interjection...this is stuff I'm teaching my 4th graders...stuff I didn't even learn!), we received A LOT of rain. Must have been because I washed my car. :)

Two years in a row, a person has made a mistake that ends up costing me money...of which there isn't much. Last year, I told the person handling all the finance stuff at school that I wanted to be paid over 12 months (thinking ahead to the summer months and knowing that my loan payments won't wait for school to start). I went all school year thinking everything was set, because that was what I requested. Come the first payday of summer, I found out that what I had requested wasn't done. They paid me over 10 months. The Lord provided within days.

So, today, I'm outside at dismissal with my kids and another staff member wants to talk with me. He then tells me that the dental insurance coverage hasn't been taken out of my salary at all in the nearly 2 years I've been here. Uh oh. Now I have to pay back the church since they covered it. Then he asked me how I wanted to take care of it. Umm..well...I kinda live paycheck to paycheck as it is...so I don't know. He then offers me more work. I did have to point out to him that I teach, clean the college building, and work in the library already. I am willing to pull those extra hours this summer...just not right now.

I know God will provide and this doesn't come as a shock to Him. He answered a prayer request just this past Friday. Now, while my supervisor is trying to slowing introduce me to the supervisor position I already declined (he volunteered me for it next year...no way!), he asked me to proctor the interview test for a new student. I do get paid for it and it was for the amount I had just prayed for hours before he approached me. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills... :)

Ever stop to think….and forget to start again? :D

I've been reading through Job lately and a verse that stuck out to me was

Job 37:14 Hearken unto this, O Job: stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.

In this fast-paced, gottahaveitnow, eat great even late, have it your way world, it's hard to stand still. I know that I can think of many other things to do while I'm already doing many things. It's a never ending cycle of Restless Life Syndrome. I think that is was Satan is doing to us. He keeps us so busy thinking that we have to be doing something that we don't take the time to stop.

Stand still and consider. Stop and think. About what? The wondrous works of God. Job, a man that God said there was none like in the earth, perfect and upright, one that feared God and stayed from evil (paraphrased from Job 1:8), is told to stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.

Life is short and eternity is forever. Take time now to stop and consider His works.