Worship

 When I was growing up, we'd go over to my grandparents house on Saturday nights to listen to music.  My grandpa had a music room in his basement where he and his friends would play everything from gospel to country.  My brother, sister, and I would run around and dance.  It was such a special time that I will forever treasure!  Music was happy, upbeat, and joyful.  

My own children and I used to crank up the worship music and dance around as we cleaned the house.  My youngest would grab his guitar and pretend to play along.  Music is such an experience that touches our souls and causes us to move physically and emotionally. 

Then, when we go to church, where is our passion in worship?  Are we truly singing to the creator of the universe or just merely calling out words?  If I can be excited about worship when I am at home, what should change when I am at church?

I decided not to let church hinder my worship.  I won't run or dance in circles, because I don't want to distract others, but I will raise my hands.  I will sing to a holy Father with my hands raised and my heart prepared.  

What will heaven be like?  Will we bow down in worship, hearts and hands lifted to our creator, or will we stand politely, arms folded, lip syncing the words?  Our prayers and our worship could use some powerful, thirsty cries from our heats.  Worship like you mean it.  Worship like you are thirsty for Almighty God.  We need it. 

Jonah

 Jonah was told to go to Ninevah and warn the people there about their wickedness.  Not sharing God's compassion for his enemies, Jonah decided to go a different direction.  He looked like he was obeying in the beginning....going to the docks, looking for a boat and all.  Then he dodged and went the opposite direction.  What was Jonah thinking on his walk to the boat?  Was he analyzing the risks?  Mulling over the bitterness he felt towards Nivevites?  Reasoning that maybe God hadn't actually told him to go to THAT particular people group?  Or did Johan decide in his heart that the strangers were simply not worth it?  They were far away and not his friends.  Instead of following God, Jonah decided to disobey and run from God. 

Silly Jonah, you cannot hide from God.  He knows exactly where you are--physically and spiritually. In his heart was disobedience. Now, at some point Jonah was not disobedient.  He heard God, so he had to have been listening for God's instructions.  He was tuned in.  Did God know that Jonah would flee?  Sure!  This was a time for Jonah to grow in his obedience to God.  

The astonishing thing to me is that the sailors actually let Jonah on the boat.  He told them that he was running from God and they apparently did not care.  I don't think I'd help someone who is trying to go AWOL on God.  Ephesians 5:6 says, "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient.  Therefore, do not be partners with them."  These sailors were fine with Jonah until God sent a violent storm upon them.  Then they tried to appease God.  When nothing worked, they gave in and threw Jonah overboard.  

This is where the giant fish comes in.....

It's dark.  It's stinky.  It smells of rotten fish and sin.  Jonah sits all alone in the depths of the ocean.  Here, he is repentant.  Here we see his heart.  He was crying out to God and thanking Him for not letting him drown in the sea.  Jonah's first words were, "In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.  From the depths o the grave I called for help and you listened to my cry."

It had seemed like all hope was gone for Jonah.  No where to go but up, right?  He had disobeyed, tried to hide, and was residing in the belly of a fish.  God, in His infinite patience, heard Jonah's cry and listened to his heart.  He gave Jonah a second chance to obey.  It wasn't pretty.  Jonah was vomited onto the land by the fish....not exactly on anyone's bucket list, I'd imagine. 

Jonah goes to Nineveh and preached to the people.  They cried out in repentance, turned from their ways, and worshiped God.  The Ninevites were blessed because Jonah obeyed.  Jonah not only learned obedience, but that God offers salvation to everyone...even his enemies.  However, he wasn't so happy about it.  How dare God save those people from destruction?  It's not fair!  Jonah proclaimed that the Lord was "...gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity."  He could not reason that the same God who saved him also wanted to save his enemies.  When the book ends, Jonah is a contender for the academy award for best dramatic performance.  Not really, but he is so angry that he wants to die.  I think he forgot about his time in the belly of the whale.  God reminds him that He is in charge.  Not Jonah.  A sort of "You're not the boss of the world." moment.  Then the book ends.  

What ever happened to Jonah?  Who knows?  You see, the book is not about Jonah.  It's about God.  His will.  His mercy.  His plan of salvation for all people.  Salvation for the Ninevites (as well as for us) required that we stop our wicked ways, cry out to God to forgive us, and worship Him with all of our obedience.  

When we are sinking in sin, we need to cry out to God to save us, not run away from Him.  When we are saved, we need to continue to worship God with our heart, pray for our enemies (ouch!) and walk in obedience to whatever God calls us to do.  

Abraham

 Abraham is in the "Hall of Fame" when it comes to faith.  Why did God choose to include a story about Abraham in the bible?  He was an ordinary man who led an extraordinary life.  Abraham did not part the sea, defeat Goliath, get swallowed by a whale, or defeat great armies.  What did Abraham do?  He believed.  He had faith (Genesis 15:6).  He was righteous because of faith.  He followed God, who gave him a vision of a great nation.  Abraham never witnessed this promise.  Sometimes the promise and the provision are not delivered at the same time.  Abraham was a part of God's plan (Genesis15:12-16), but he wasn't the only part of God's plan.  His part was to stay faithful and learn about the character of God. If we feel that we are living the mundane, day to day life, let's look at Abraham.  He was born.  He married.  He moved.  He raised cattle.  He received a promise that he would not see fully fulfilled.  He moved around.  He met with God.  He saved Lot (twice-once by force and once by God).  He had a son.  He died.  

Sometimes God calls people for great things and we feel like God should call us to something really BIG.  We should do something significant in this lifetime.  But in reality, most of the time, God just calls us to obey and be faithful.  God had big plans for Abraham.  He was called to go in order to see where his descendants would one day live.  

God also showed himself to others through Abraham.  Maybe God is not calling me to something big.  Maybe He is calling me to worship and faithfully obey.  To pass on my faith to my children.  To share God's love with those around me.  I am a part of God's plan, just not the only part.  

The Pillowcase Dresses

 

 

Passing out the dressess...............

Ok, so my goal of 100 dresses was not quite met.  We did; however, pass out 65 to children in a village and girls in an orphanage in Arusha. 

The dresses were not the most stylish or practical, but they served their purpose.  They were a gift.  A gift that says, "We care."  A gift from someone that they will never forget.  The girl with the light skin and straight hair like straw.

 

 

 

Show and Tell part two

Student 1 brings in a plastic baggie containing a tooth which fell out the night before because her mother made her floss.  She had worked on getting that tooth to fall out during class, but it did not give up its stubborn hold until later that evening.
At show and tell time, she pulls out the plastic baggie and displays her old baby tooth proudly.
Student 2 asks, "How much do you think you will get for that tooth? Because I got $20 for my last tooth!"
The rest of the class begins to call out numbers and confer on what a tooth is worth.
Student 1 replies, "I don't know.  Maybe $100."
Student 2 pipes in again with, "Well, you let me know.  Because if you get $100, I'm switching tooth fairies!"

These are a few of my favorite things....

What are those luxurious things that you are so thankful for?  Here's my list..........

1. creamy chocolate
2. dinner dates
3. snow days
4. warm, gooey, chocolate chip cookies and milk
5. hot cocoa
6. bubble baths
7. candles
8. honeydew
9. the smell of clean babies
10. my husband's bathrobe (it's super fluffy-soft)
11. high thread-count sheets
12. cheese and crackers
13. fluffy towels that smell like fabric softener
14. lying in the grass soaking up warm sunshine
15. sleeping in
16. girly movies
17. good books
18. hot tubs
19. wine
20. naps during Sunday football
21. funnel cakes
22. the smell of fresh coffee beans
23. hot apple cider
24. my fleece scarf

And one of my own ideas.....

Okay. Here is one of my ideas.  I probably swiped it from some source (or at least got the general idea somewhere), but developed it for my own classroom.  I have an "Out of the Room" system.
Each child has their picture (laminated) with a metal ring clipped through a hole. I placed these pictures in a pocket chart. 
I hung three clips with "office", "nurse" and "restroom" by my door. 
If they are in the restroom, they hang their picture/tag on the hook.  This does 2 things.  One: It tells me who is out of the classroom at any time.  Two: Only one child can hang their tag on the restroom hook at a time.
At the beginning of the year, I had a lot of students that were going to the restroom several times per day in addition to our scheduled classroom breaks, so I started having them use the tag one time, then place it in a basket on my desk.  This gives them at least one emergency restroom break every day without having them leave the classroom constantly because they want to wander the halls. 

Ideas That I Stole from Great Teachers.....

OK. Here is my list of fabulous ideas which I snatched from super-creative, talented teachers that I am fortunate to work with. 

First, here is Ms. Zuskin's gigantic math calendar wall.  Is this awesome or what?

Here is a cool idea that I stole from the second-grade teacher (Ms. Beeson). In our reading curriculum, we have the students respond (answer) on a sticky note.  Then there is the challenge of how they turn it in and how you are supposed to grade a pile of sticky notes!

Ms. Beeson came up with a system for this organizational dilemma.  When you have an assignment that have to be done on a sticky note, have them put it on a sticky note challenge board.  Get a posterboard and section it off.  Place sticky notes on there (in desk number order).  Then laminate it.  When the students have filled in their sticky note, they put it on the number that corresponds with their desk number.  Right away, you can see who did their assignment and grade it easier!

 The above board is Ms. Owen's neat board (before kids put the assignment on there).  Below is my board after the kids have placed their sticky-notes on there.  I can see right away that a few students did not finish their sticky notes yet.  This is an easy way to grade their work at a glance without sorting through a stack of sticky notes that may or may not have names on them.

The next idea comes from the amazing Ms. Zuskin.  If you have plastic letters that students use to make words/in a station, put them in a letter box.  These boxes are available at teacher supply stores.  This is not the amazing idea.  The amazing idea is that she took alphabet stickers and put them on the bottom of the individual trays so that students would know right away where they letters went when they clean up!  This is what the box looks like upside down:



Here is an idea that I stole from Mrs. Hall (and modified it slightly).  For Christmas gifts for parents, we made sled ornaments.  Take kid's pictures sitting with arms out.  I had kids sit on a table and had them pose as if on a sled.  Then I printed it out, laminated it, and cut around the child.  They made sleds out of Popsicle sticks and painted them red.  Then we hot glued on yarn for the hanger and sled handle.  Of course, I whited out the kid's face for the Internet, not in real life!



I Wish...

I wish the printer never ran out of ink.
I wish all children had parents that read to them at night.
I wish jeans were considered professional dress.
I wish I'd never dropped the ball on a child's education.
I wish expo markers didn't smell.
I wish all pens were purple.
I wish pencils were sharpened overnight by magical elves.
I wish children were kind to each other.
I wish chocolate contained zero calories.
I wish I had a secretary! 

Show and Tell

Show and tell.
Child #1 didn't have his show and tell because his sister didn't pack it.
"Next!"
Child #2 brings in a Kindle Fire.  "I don't have any books on it yet, but I have over 100 games!"
"Next!"
Child #3 plops down in the chair with a stuffed dog.  "Now that's more like it," I think.
She begins:
"This is my stuffed dog.  His name is Dammit.  I got him from my grandpa."
"Wait," I interrupt, "What did you say his name was?"
"Dammit.  It's name is the same as my dog's name at home.  His name is Dammit because he pooped in my closet."
"NEXT!"

Ten Minutes of my day

7:39: Catch up on the news: who has brought a show and tell, who has left their backpack, who can't find their jacket from yesterday, etc
7:40: Answer 4 questions about if we are having outside recess or not
7:43: Locate the stapler
7:45: Say, "Yes, you can use the stapler.  Wait, do you know how to use the stapler?"
7:46: Pull staples out of  paper becuase they stapled it in the middle
7:47: Show child how to use the stapler correctly
7:48: Using tweezers, pull staples that are jammed in the stapler
7:49: Repeat answer about recess.  Threaten no recess if one more child asks

Worth the drive

One of my least favorite things to do is drive.  Let me just preface this story with that statement.  So when my son asked me to drive him to church tonight, I was not quite looking forward to it. 
 I left work at 4:10, drove to pick up my sophomore son at 5:10, drove to pick up his friend, and drove them to church by 6:00 for the high school ministry program on Wednesday nights.  As he got out of the car, he said, "Wait, I've got to get my wallet out of the back." 
"Why do you need your walled?" I inquired.
"I need to tithe," he said.
As he was shutting the back door, I heard his friend say, "Got your tithe?"
"Yep," Jeff replied and they headed into the church.
As I drove away, I teared up.  "Wow, God!  You are Amazing!"
I was reminded how 4 years ago, we moved to Fort Worth.  Everything was new.  New school. New people. No friends. 
I really wanted Jeffrey to connect and make some new friends at church, so I insisted that he go to the Jr. High program weekly.  He wasn't thrilled about going.  I kept driving him there every week and hoping he'd make a friend or talk to somebody. Anybody. 
Each week was fruitless.  Then one week after I dropped him off, I cried all the way home.  I cried because my son needed a friend.  I cried out to God for Jeffrey.  I wanted him to have good relationships.  I wanted him to have Godly friends.  I wanted him to have connections. 
The next week, God answered my prayer.  I got a call from a woman who heard that we lived near her and that my son was going to the Jr. High night weekly.  She thought we might want to carpool.  I talked with her about moving to the area and how we weren't connected in a lifegroup yet either.
She told me about their lifegroup and how it had several kids in it the same age as Jeffrey.  I was so excited and we started going to that lifegroup.
Now it is four years later.  I can look back and see how much God has given us.  How much He has given Jeffrey.  He has wonderful Christian friends that are as close as brothers.  Jeffrey has friends that he can talk about God with and share his life with.  What an amazing journey!
I realized that God cares so much about our needs.  He cares so much about our children's needs too!  He worked in Jeffrey's life to give him the connections that he needed.  Thank you, God for listening to my prayer and giving us more than we could ever ask or imagine!  What good gifts you give to our children.
And tonight's reminder was well worth the drive. :-)

First Grade Survey

My first-graders are learning about surveys, data, and making a representation (or a graph) of the data.  Each pair of students came up with their own survey question and polled everyone in the class.  Then we went to the computer lab to make the representations on kidpix.  I personally think anytime you can combine kidpix and math, you are sure to impress someone with your tech-savvy 6 year-olds.  I am walking around viewing their representations when I come across one interesting one.  Now I told my students that they must have a title, their 2 categories labeled, numbers, and a representation of that number (tally marks, pictures, circles, bar graph, etc).  This group has the question: Which do you like better: bm or p?  Furthermore, they discovered that 15 people liked bm and 7 people liked p. 
While biting my bottom lip, I ask, "What is your survey question again?"  
"You know," they reply, "Which do you like better: blue macaws or parrots?"
"Oh, of course!  How silly of me!  One tip though: You might want to label it "blue macaw" and "parrot". Just so no one gets confused,"  
 "No.  We would rather abbreviate it," they reply.  Oh well.  I tried.  I think I'll hang it in the hallway anyway.  It will definitely leave people guessing!

Bathroom Rules for first graders

At the beginning of the year, I always go over the rules of the restroom: use whispering voices, do not play around, wash your hands, come back into the hallway and sit quietly.
Around mid-year, I think I should add some more rules.  Here goes:

1. Do not step in the water puddle on the floor in the first stall.
2. Do not put water bottles in the toilet.
3. Do not attempt to take water bottles out of the toilet.
4. Do not throw water on anyone else.
5. Do not crawl under, over, or peek into stalls.
6. Do not turn out the lights and hide, then pop out to scare someone and scream.
7. Take off your gloves before washing your hands.
8. Always flush the toilet.
9. If the toilet will not stop flushing, do not run screaming from the restroom. 
10. (for boys) Aim for the urinal.  Do not aim up in the air, onto the floor, or treat others as a target.
11. Do not sing at the top of your lungs just to hear your voice echo.
12. Wrestling is not allowed in the restroom.
13. Attempting to spider-man climb the walls is not allowed either.

So there are my 13 rules for the restroom. I'm sure I'll have to add more as May approaches. Hmmm...

Mom points

As moms, we can be pretty hard on ourselves.  We can often find the faults in ourselves quicker than we can find the good.  So tonight, when my daughter texted me that she “missed my cooking” because she is at her aunt’s house and they never eat “homemade”, that warmed my heart.  I think I’ll add that up as a win. 

Or when my 16 year-old son told me that he now prefers wheat bread over white.  Victory!

Or when my kids ask for more asparagus or broccoli.  I think I’ll count it. 

Maybe those wins will balance out all those times when I forgot to have them brush their teeth, or read a story.  Maybe I might be succeeding after all…at least in the little things. J

For my son Jeffrey's 16th birthday, I made him an ice cream cake.  It was really easy.  I purchased a package of Oreos, a gallon of cookies and cream ice cream, and a tub of whipped cream (Cool Whip).  I took one package (row) of Oreos and crushed them in my food chopper.  Then I mixed them with 1/4 cup melted butter and put them on the bottom of a spring form pan to make the crust.  I packed it pretty well then stuck it in the freezer for a few minutes.  I then took the ice cream (melting) and put it on top of the crust.   I let that sit in the freezer for a minutes also.  Then I covered the top in Cool Whip and added a few crushed Oreos to the top.  I froze it for a few hours.  To serve, I took it out of the freezer for 5 minutes, ran a knife (dipped in hot water) around the edges, then released it from the spring form pan.  You could add in layers of Oreos, chocolate syrup, cake or whipped cream if you have time to let every layer freeze/melt.  I didn't have that much time, but it turned out great anyway!  I also made one in a holiday plastic tub and gave it to my friend Holly.  You could also use a store bought Oreo pie crust and make an ice cream pie.  I just wanted the leftover Oreos!

Adventures in Tutus

Today I made tutus for my nieces.  It was soooo easy!  You need elastic and 2 spools of tulle.  The elastic I had was 1/2 inch.  I cut it into 20" sections to fit their waists.  I found the tulle in the fabric or wedding section of Hobby Lobby.  The tulle is usually 4.99 per roll, but it was on sale for $1.50!  I cut the tulle into strips that were 4 feet long.  Then I doubled up the tulle and doubled again, then slip-knot it around the elastic. It took me 24 pieces of the tulle in order to go around the entire skirt.  I secured the elastic ends with thread and voila!  Cute dress up tutu!  You could add flower embellishments, etc.  I found really easy directions on youtube.