Binging

I just binged on apple slices. At least it wasn't a package of freakin' Oreos...but I still have that uncomfortable full feeling. It is roughage, at least.

In related news, I HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND cutting your apples in halves, and then using a melon baller to scoop out the core. It was speedy, neat, easy, and attractive.

Question for Readers

When we married, I asked him for a new Bible for my birthday. He came through (of course), and I resolved not to write in/highlight/underline in this one.

I like my old Bible with all its underlining and notes, but I really wanted to allow the words to speak to me freshly each time I read them. The previous markups remind me only of the previous lessons from those particular words.

So, what do you do? Do you mark up your Bibles, or do you leave the pages as they are? AND why?

Educating. Magic.

When I was in college, learning about being a secondary (not elementary!) teacher, I sneered at the Elementary Education majors. Then, I taught 5th grade for a while. I learned a bit of respect, but didn't really want to teach the little kids full-time.

I took a college class last year: Developmental Psychology. Learning all sorts of intricacies about how people grow and develop through all the stages of their young lives...awesome. Our Creator-God is so wise and gracious to us!

But I still never thought I'd want to teach the little guys. But last week, I got to do something new. I was a classroom assistant in a little-kids' classroom. Yes, there were 17 kindergarten-2nd graders.

I thought I would be irrelevant and stodgy to them, but I really got to like them. They were so cute. They thought new things were adventuresome instead of tedious. They attempted (and succeeded!) most of the crafts and activities we threw at them. They thought I was the coolest. They drew me pictures. They gave me goodbye hugs. They gave me good-morning hugs. Aaaaaaw. (Hugs make me melt.)

I sat with one boy on the bus after our field trip. He is a kindergartener. He told me all about his school, his teacher, his classmates. We talked about what we had done on the field trip (we saw sheep! we learned about spinning wool! we got koolaid packets to dye the wool they gave us!).

Here's the best part: he recently learned to read (he learned the letters and how to sound-out words, at least), and I helped him read the word "LEMON"...then I showed him the picture of lemons on his koolaid packet. His eyes lit up and he read the word again, and again, and pointed to the picture. "They're the same thing!" he said.

Magic. I love little kiddles now.

A Very Clever Spider

has built a web right outside my kitchen window. The moths congregate there, so he (she?) constructed the web right where the buffet is hot and the eatin' is good! She (he) is wrapping a moth right now.

If I had a digital camera, I'd take a picture. It's cool, like a science lesson right outside my window!

Let Us Then Rejoice

Taken from Intellectuelle. It's a quote from Malcolm Muggeridge's The End of Christendom.

Let us then as Christians rejoice that we see around us at every hand the decay of the institutions and instruments of power, see intimations of empires falling to pieces, money in total disarray, dictators and parliamentarians alike nonplussed by the confusion and conflicts which encompass them. For it is precisely when every earthly hope has been explored and found wanting, when every possibility of help from earthly sources has been sought and is not forthcoming, when every recourse this world offers, moral as well as material, has been explored to no effect, when in the shivering cold the last [log] has been thrown on the fire and in the gathering darkness every glimmer of light has finally flickered out, it's then that Christ's hand reaches out, sure and firm. Then Christ's words bring their inexpressible comfort, then His light shines brightest, abolishing the darkness forever. So finding in everything only deception and nothingness, the soul is constrained to have recourse to God Himself and to rest content with Him.

You are my Shepherd

I drove to work this morning in a hurry. My morning "blah" time was interrupted. I got to Husband's school to drop off the VITAL thing he forgot and got really annoyed. This darn laryngitis! I realized the core of my bad attitude: I was mistrusting God's sovereignty. After all, why would He strike me dumb in the middle of a week in which I assist in teaching 17 K-2nd graders?

Then we went on our field trip. Know where we went? To a sheep farm. And you know what sheep are? They are creatures designed by our loving heavenly Father to teach us a little about ourselves...and how He cares for us.

I saw the flock of sheep come running when the shepherdess walked to the gate with their bucket of food. They saw a crowd of strangers, hesitated...and when one turned away, the rest of them ran away.

I heard the shepherdess tell us about the importance of fence. Fence keeps the sheep off the road, on the pasture, out of the ponds, and fence keeps the coyotes and wild dogs OUT!

I heard the shepherdess talk about looking for a lost sheep. If one doesn't come for the morning feeding (she counts them to verify their presence), then she goes looking for it.

I saw a sheep getting sheared. Do you know they only have to fasten the sheep's head to what they call a "block." The shepherdess said, and I quote, "All we have to do is tie the sheep by the head and the rest of the sheep will follow the head. If the head is fastened good and tight, then the sheep will stand totally still."

!

He turned my attitude around then and there. I thanked God for his faithful care of this poor silly sheep...even in the midst of mute laryngitis...even with a bad attitude...even when I'm stubborn and ridiculous.

Because I'm easily spooked. Because I need safe fences to keep me away from danger and predators away from me. Because I get lost and need Him to come looking for me. Because I want to be docile and manageable--I need to be docile and manageable.

Lord, shepherd me.

Right Now, I Am...

Right Now, I am:

feeling... thankful that I have a little bit of voice back (I've had laryngitis for two days)!

enjoying... the last of the crickets' chirps outside my office window.

wondering... why I doubt and fear so very, very often.

listening... to ABBA.

drinking... hot lemon tea with lots of honey.

wanting... to go to Greyfriars with some good old college friends and have hot chai and a good talk.

loving... being tenderly cared for by a loving Shepherd.

looking... at pictures of me and my family.

Fall Puzzle

I Actually LIKE the Place that I Work!

• I love to see children engaged with a challenging task...they learn better coordination, motor skills, problem-solving skills...and they are so pleased with themselves when they master it!
• I love when parents (or other adult-people) engage themselves with their children when they visit the museum. The children are so pleased with themselves, and their grownups have a wonderful chance to celebrate that happiness with their children.
• I am so thankful for co-workers who choose to work at this place. There are certain skill sets and personality types that gravitate toward a place like this. I have yet to meet someone who works here that is irritated or annoyed by smaller, younger, less mature people. Those people wouldn't even be hired; they would not even apply! Still, here we are.
• I love being able to develop my own teaching/classroom management skills. It's a good place to grow.
• So many families, so many children, so many co-workers...so many, many chances to pray for those that need Jesus' salvation and for Jesus' influence and healing in our broken lives.