“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah 9:6
Merry Christmas to you and yours! May the joy and peace of JESUS our Saviour be with you this Christmas!
The most wonderful part of Christmas truly is knowing that the little babe born into a manger became the Saviour of the world. If you would like to know more about how you can know Christ in an intimate and real relationship, check this out.
I am sick. Therefore I am bored. Therefore I will blog. Too bad that this has to be the correlation that makes me sit down and actually write a post. Seriously.
Here it is. Thirteen Things I Love About Christmas
Edit: So a dear friend just informed me that I actually put 15 things instead of 13. Ooops. I guess I got a little excited. But there’s no way I am deleting two. They are all way too important!
1. Decorations – I love decorations at Christmas and since I’m still living with the parents (cough, cough and knock on wood) I still get to enjoy all of my favorite childhood decorations. I’m hoping to take pictures of them all and put them up here soon!
2. Rudolph – I seriously love Rudolph. As a child I was never big into Santa. I think I always knew that he wasn’t real and I was ok with that. It made me maybe a little less selfish because I knew that my presents came from my parents and that I should be grateful. But I loved me some Rudolph. I remember in Kindergarten we did a big Christmas play thing for all of the parents and each class dressed up as some fun holiday decoration and sang songs. I have no clue what my class was but I remember sticking a red dot sticker on my nose and calling myself Rudolph for one whole day. It was so much fun. Rudolph was the underdog reindeer. He needed love and I liked him. He had gusto. Go Rudolph!
3. Hot Chocolate – Yum yum!
4. My Family’s Stocking Tradition – When I was little my parents wanted my brother and I to be able to contribute to gifts somehow but without spending a lot of money. So we started the Stocking Swap. We put everyone’s names in a hat and then we all pull one name. Whoever’s name you get is whose stocking you have to fill. You have to have something Homemade, something Edible and something under $10 (it used to be 5). It’s really fun to see everyone’s creative and thoughtful sides come out as we do this. It’s all a secret until we open the Stockings on Christmas afternoon.
5. Lights – Especially when you squint your eyes oh so slightly and they get all blurry. It’s such a wonderful sight and it makes me happy and feel all warm and fuzzy.
6. Candy Canes and Peppermint Things
7. Being Together As A Family – It’s nice to just spend “chill” time with my family during Christmas. We all hang out the days surrounding the big day and eat meals together and play board games and watch Cheesy Christmas movies. During college this was always such a much needed break and time for me after being with college aged kids all the time. Now it’s even more special since my brother is married and his wife (whom I love) gets to join us!
8. Christmas Parties – I’m a sucker for a good Christmas party. Some of my college friends and I would throw some great ones always with extremely tacky and hilarious White Elephant exchanges. One year I hung out with my friend Chelsey and some of her friends and we ended up having races on those bouncy balls with handles in the dorm hallways – it was so funny! And did I mention that people bring amazing food to Christmas parties? Yum yum!
9. Telling Complete Strangers Merry Christmas
10. Giving Back – Growing up my family would always volunteer every year around Christmas with a ministry downtown that helps parents get presents for their kids. It was a highlight for me every year. This is the first year that the ministry is not doing it for many reasons and I must admit that I am sad. But I feel that I have seen so many other people give back this year and it’s been fun to watch. If only we could continue our giving spirits year round!
11. Christmas Music – On the radio, on CD’s, at my church’s Christmas Concert, I love it all. Just don’t play that “Christmas Songs” too many times. For some reason it starts to irritate me.
12. Watching Cheesy Christmas Movies – I’m always up for a good Hallmark Movie but the Christmas ones are great! My friend Sarah and I watched one a couple weeks ago called “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” and it has Henry Winkler (aka the Fonz) and it was amazing! My all time favorite Christmas Classic is Holiday Inn. My mom raised me on White Christmas and Holiday Inn.
13. Christmas Cookies.
14. The Love Feast on Christmas Eve – This is my absolute favorite day of the year. Well next to Joy Prom. I love Christmas Eve. Probably even more than Christmas Day. We have a Moravian Love Feast at our church complete with Hymns sung while holding the Hymnal (gasp, what are those?!!) and the reading of Scripture. It’s such a special time. At the end we light candles and hold them up high while singing my most favorite Christmas Song – Silent Night. Every year I take a mental picture of it and try to save it for the whole year.
15. Jesus! While the above things are all fine and dandy, Jesus truly is the reason for the season! I am challenging myself this year to focus on Christ and his Incarnation and not all of the frivolous stuff. Christmas is about so much more than a little baby in a manger – it’s about the Gospel! If you would like to know more about Christ and who He is, check out this sermon from my church.
Boundless. Have you ever read/listened to Boundless? If not, you really should. Boundless is a ministry for Young Adults that is a part of Focus on the Family and it rocks. It really rocks. Those crazy people are all about getting married and honoring God in every part of your life. And they’re really funny and insightful all at the same time. I listen to the podcast on a regular basis, a lot of times while I am doing laundry or things around the house. You’ll definitely want to check out the Girl’s Guide to Marrying Well and the Guy’s Guide to Marrying Well.
The Inspired Room. Loveliness in a blog. I mean it. This blog is all about living simply and beautifully. There are some awesome decorating ideas that I really want to try including these epsom salt snow candles. And I really want to live in the bathtub in this post. Looking at the pictures on this blog is like taking a vacation.
Celebrating Christmas Blog. The posts on this blog are all from last year but they are great! A bunch of awesome ladies from my church wrote about how they celebrate Christmas with their friends and families with an emphasis on Christ.
Simply Breakfast – Man these breakfasts make me wish I actually got up in time to sit down and eat breakfast!
Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day. Our media teacher e-mailed us some video clips that we could show to our kids today if we had time. I figured, hey why not educate the kids with some good ol’ fashioned history. We watched the video during snack.
Afterwards since of course the video was kind of over their heads we had a discussion. I explained that Veteran’s day was about thanking and honoring people who have served in the military. I told the kids that we should tell these people and their families thank you for helping to protect (which was a vocabulary word the other week) our country.
Then of course I had some kids share some stories about people they knew in the military. Here was one dialogue:
Child: Miss R my Grandpa served in the army. He was in such and such war.
Miss R: That’s great! You should write or call your Grandpa and tell him thank you for protecting our country!
Child: But he’s dead!!!!!
Miss R: Well then.
(I wasn’t really sure what to say after that so I changed the subject and then ended snack.)
Is it sad that later I had a good laugh about the whole thing? I cannot believe what I said but what was even funnier was that the child totally stretched out the word “dead” with major exaggeration.
Starbucks Peppermint Hot Chocolate: Chocolate and mint in a cup. Warm. Heaven. I had one on Thursday night, another on Friday morning and then a frozen version on Sunday. Sheesh I’m addicted. If I could drink these things all day long I would! (and I actually might when I start writing report cards soon!)
too bad starbucks doesn't put a peppermint stick in theirs!
Countdowns: I’m counting down the days till my track out begins! I have the entire period from Thanksgiving all the way until after New Years off. Yes you should be jealous. Extremely. Right now I have 11 days!!!
Movies: Yesterday my friends and I watched A Walk To Remember in between a couple of meetings at church. I love that movie. Every time it makes me teary eyed. And I have decided that I want to name my child Landon. End of story. Oh and P.S. the soundtrack is even more amazing.
TV: Having something fun to watch is a much needed break at the end of my day. Don’t hate me but I kind of am addicted to 30 Rock. I watched last week’s episode 2 times. I pretty much laugh the entire episode. It’s that good. Don’t judge me.
Lists/Organization: I rearranged my classroom last week just because some things were driving me crazy. I am trying to keep my room at home organized. And I dedicated an entire spiral notebook for my never ending to do lists at school. Lists are my friends.
That’s all for now. I need to go make a peppermint hot chocolate and get ready for a thrilling episode of Jeopardy!
Halloween. Oh what a day Halloween is. On Friday the kids were crazy. Crazy I tell you. They were so excited for the weekend and trick or treating. And of course we had two birthdays last Friday which meant a “party” at the very end of the day. They inhaled those sugary cupcakes. I looked over and saw one child literally sucking the frosting of his cupcake. Talk about a sugar high.
I went with my friend Amanda to eat Sushi on Friday night. It was delicious. It had been a whole month since I had eaten sushi. Well actually a friend pointed out that I have had sushi on pay day the past 2 times. Weird? Yes but not really – it’s more of a finding the time to get good sushi. We ate at a fun place downtown and then got strawberry mousse from Harris Teeter and watched some TV. It was semi-lame but it was also very relaxing.
On Saturday I went with a group of friends to a Corn Maze. It was really fun. Half of the group went on the scary Haunted Trail. They tried to talk Katie and I into doing it but we are jumpy girls. Meaning that in high school when a basketball hit the wall 5 feet from where I was I would scream and jump. I don’t do well with things jumping out at me. So Katie and I did the Corn Maze and it was a blast. It was over 6 acres big and man did we get lost. We had to find different letters/stations hidden throughout the maze and punch a hole for each. We made it out in 58 minutes. We were sweating so much it was not ladylike. But then Katie and I are not always the most ladylike ladies.
And now Daylight Savings has begun. Or has it ended? I always get the whole system confused. Oh well. I am really liking the light in the mornings and can actually see when I walk out to my car and when I get to school instead of being greeted by pitch black darkness.
But at night I am starting to get tired a lot earlier. It’s pretty funny. Last night I had my light out and was asleep by 9:00. And then I woke up at 5:oo this morning. But thankfully I rolled back over, cuddled up and slept for a bit longer. Mornings have never been my favorite. I do not like getting out of bed. I cannot seem to make myself get up at a reasonable time most days.
I have 3 1/2 weeks till Thanksgiving and my super long and awesome track out. I’m so excited! Though I am dreading having to do report cards soon. Thankfully everyone is really helping me figure things out (did I mention how awesome my coworkers are?!) so I think I’ll make it. Every time I start to get really stressed about it I think about how happy I will be when I am tracked out and sleeping in and traveling and doing crafts and enjoying the holidays.
This afternoon my assistant and I rearranged the room somewhat. There were certain “areas” of the room that were driving me crazy. So we moved some things around and it made me feel better. Now their tables aren’t so close together so hopefully that will cut down on some chatter and crowding.
Oh and let’s see I should end with a quote. There are LOTS of great quotes in 2nd grade.
And of course as soon as I typed that I drew a blank. That’s what happens when your brain has been going all day.
This is where I am pretending to be, relaxing on a tropical beach. bliss
I know. It’s been a while. Sorry. I think of some great things every now and then but I have a hard time following through.
I have now been an official 2nd grade teacher for 25 days. That’s 3 weeks and 4 days in school time. I cannot believe how quickly it has all flown by!
I am really loving my job. Seriously. I could not be in a better place this year. I work at an amazing school with some really supportive and helpful coworkers. They listen to me when I need to whine, answer my endless questions (they really are endless) and take the time to encourage me. It’s such a positive environment and I really am feeling like I fit and belong.
My kids are the best. They are crazy but they’re the best. They would talk all day long if I let them. Sometimes I think I let them talk too much. I’m really too nice. I’ve realized that classroom management is one of those things that you can read all about and talk about how wonderful your classroom is going to be but until you get in there and grab the bull by the horns it’s all just talk. You have to be mean sometimes and it’s not fun. Especially when the kids are cute and you see those little tears begin to well up in their eyes. Oh those little tears. Those tears will be my downfall if I’m not careful.
Even so, I try my best to be kind and show the kids that I’m a normal human being too. I talk about Appalachian all the time and how they should all grow up and go to college there. I’ll make them into Mountaineers if it’s the last thing I do.
I hand out band-aids, give hugs, break up arguments and help repair friendships. I encourage, motivate, and try to give them some hope on the gloomy days. I tell them stories in social studies and once I even fell on the floor to help exaggerate a talk about not asking what to do when you are done. I give funny faces and am working very hard on developing my teacher evil eye. I’ve been told it’s very effective if mastered properly. I laugh at many things, sometimes only in my head in an effort to not embarass and the kids laugh at me often. When the morning announcements are over and they play a song I often sing along at the top of my lungs.
These are the kinds of things you can do as a 2nd grade teacher. You get to be a little crazy. In fact you pretty much have to be crazy or else you wouldn’t make it.
And most days I go home and feel that I have done something positive, that even though I’m sure there were flawed lessons and many mistakes made, that hopefully something good happened.
I constantly remind students that it is not the Miss R game and that they do not get points for saying my name. I say cheesy things like “if I had a dime for every time a student asked me to go to the bathroom I would be a rich person”. I write notes on stickies in the shape of an elephant. I receive hand drawn pictures of elephants and flowers and shark teeth from the playground. I can spot trash and pencils on the floor from across the room and its rumored that I have ears and eyes like an owl.
Today is a good day to write all of this and be reminded of how blessed I am. I took the day off due to an unfortunate double ear infection. This was not planned and I am not happy about it but I’m trying to muster up some positivity. Also I’m very sad because I was supposed to be going up to Boone with a bunch of good friends for a little reunion and for the football game. Oh I was looking forward to it for a long time. I want to see an ASU football game live in the new stadium so badly.
But this infection and fever is gonna keep me here at home. It’s a bummer. I’m thinking I might allow myself a slight amount of retail therapy to make up for the missed fun. And I’m thinking ahead to my track out which is only 5 weeks away and planning some fun trips for then! It should be a blast! That’s all for now.
I got a sweet facebook message today from a girl that I went to India with who is currently living and serving there. She updated us on some of the ministries and people we worked with and it was so encouraging to me. I later was driving and thinking about India and the people and began to tear up.
Tonight I found my old journals from that summer and began to read. This was a period in my life in which I actually a wrote a lot and just poured my heart out on paper. I thought I would share some things that I wrote then that really touched me tonight.
Wednesday June 06, 2007:
“I am realizing that while mountains, oceans, lakes, canyons, and deserts are breathtaking the most important form of beauty is found in the hearts of people. Of people in love with You. Of broken vessels, shattered and torn yet filled with Your presence.”
Tuesday June 11, 2007: My first day at the orphanage
“I have a new friend. His name is Vikas and he clung to me from the beginning and literally wouldn’t let go – my hips were so sore. He is about 5 years old and is super precious. We twirled, sang songs, and he ate a lime. He absolutely loved my sunglasses and wore them the entire time. Pretty soon all of the kids wanted a turn. It was great. Towards the end I put him down when it was time for their baths. He went and said goodbye. Then when were actually leaving all of the kids lined up and said bye. Vikas was at the end and he was literally sobbing. One of the workers asked him why and he said that he was in love and didn’t want us to leave. I stayed with him until everyone else was gone, picked him up, and gave him a big hug and said I would be back. One of the workers told me how to say it in Hindi, but I think I completely botched it. He gave me a kiss and I left. It was so incredibly hard to leave. See, I was in love too.”
Tuesday July 17, 07
“I had a great day of ministry. On the way over I just prayed that God would reveal himself to me and how He would desire to use me. He totally came through. I spent pretty much the whole time with the same group of women and their babies that Carly and I hung out with last time. We just sat there and talked about anything and everything: weather, arranged marriage vs. love marriage, children, school, family, friends, cultural differences. It was so much fun. We laughed over the communication problems and one of the older women gave me a banana. In the middle of our conversation I realized that it didn’t matter that these women live in a leper colony, that they don’t have all that I do or that we live thousands of miles apart. It just mattered that we were a group of women talking together, sharing friendship.”
During debrief
“Today we went swimming, which I have been eagerly looking forward to. Miele, Carly, Jaimee, Jess, and I went to try to get to this waterfall and walked on a bunch of rocks barefooted. Jaimee heard growling from the bushes so we turned around and then let the river’s current take us back downstream. It was painful because my butt kept slamming into random rocks but it was so much fun!”
“I just rode an elephant! It was really neat, except I was riding backwards since there were only 3 of us and I felt like I was sliding the whole time. But it was beautiful riding through the jungle. We saw a ton of deer and a couple monkeys. Haha last night there was a mouse in our room. I actually didn’t scream – I just quickly told Jen. It ran under the door and thankfully didn’t come back.”
“The view in front of me right now is breathtaking – the mountains, the gushing river with rocks. The trees, so diverse and green. The fields with crops being harvested, the sheer jungleness of it all. Funny but my life feels like a jungle right now. Some stuff is so exciting and fascinating, full of adventure and other parts are full of fear. I don’t know where I am going, just constantly stumbling upon new paths and challenges. Some days I feel as if I am a great explorer, tackling the trails with gigantic zeal. Other days I feel like a bad fever has overtaken me, leaving me at the mercy of the strange land I dwell in.”
Oh India. You are still in my heart. Lots of prayers going out tonight for my brothers and sisters in India.
So it’s been a while and I realize that I have not posted my exciting news yet. Here we go:
I got a job. I am now a Second Grade Teacher!!
Isn’t that exciting!!!
I have no way to explain it except to say that GOD IS SO GOOD!! There is no way that I deserve this job. Every day I am completely blown away that I got it. God’s goodness and graciousness are the theme of my life lately.
Oh and my school is literally less than 10 minutes from my house. And everyone has been SO incredibly nice to me. I love it!
So I’m busy getting ready. The nice thing is that it’s a year round school and my kids are currently tracked out (on vacation). So I have two more weeks of preparation before I the kids come back. Thank goodness for time to get ready!!!
I LOVE this song. I’ve had part of it stuck in my head lately, especially as I’ve been falling asleep. But for some reason I couldn’t find it in my i-tunes, but alas after some googling it was found.
It’s called “Anchor” and it’s by Ross King:
It’s bigger than your doctrine
Cause there’s only so much mystery
That doctrine can explain
It’s bigger than tradition
Cause you’ll turn around and see that
All of your traditions have been changed
Hear what I am saying
All these things are fading
It’s bigger than your science
Cause your soul cannot be saved by anything
That scientists can prove
And it’s bigger than compliance
Cause even compliant people
Can be lured away from what is true
Hear what I am saying
Only trust in One Thing
Jesus is my only Anchor
Jesus is the only Way
Very few things last forever
And everything else floats away
It’s bigger than your politic
Cause there is no policy that rescues us out of
the Shadow-lands
It’s bigger than your rhetoric
Cause this is a living Word, you speak it
With your feet and with your hands
Hear what I am saying
All these things are fading
It’s more than just your conscience
Cause your conscience may be clean, that doesn’t mean
That you are innocent
It’s more than circumstances
Cause when your circumstances change,
How will you keep yourself content?
Hear what I am saying
Only trust in One Thing
We want it to be easy
To find the safest version of the truth
But we’ll find out what we really believe
When all we have to hold is You
It’s bigger than the words your preacher preaches
Cause I guarantee sometimes you will forget
what you have heard
It’s bigger than your Bible exegesis
Cause there are bound to be some days when you don’t
Thankfully everyone is really helping me figure things out (did I mention how awesome my coworkers are?!) so I think I’ll make it. Every time I start to get really stressed about it I think about how happy I will be when I am tracked out and sleeping in and traveling and doing crafts and enjoying the holidays.
