Caught in the [Natural] Details

the sunlight makes the fields turn from crops to gold

and while the crops wait together with anticipation...

the trees drag their colored leaves slowly across the sky.

the trees become engulfed in the flames of fall

and the leaves dance in even the slightest breath of wind.

yes, God is in these details. more than that, His love is in these details. what else can explain these little phenomenons i often overlook? exactly -- nothing else can sum it up.

and tonight, that love is all i need because it feels as real as

the sunshine that warmed me as i walked along

the branches brushing my hair as i maneuvered my camera amongst the leaves

the sound of music coming through my headphones

the concrete path under my feet

this beauty brought peace to my mind, dusting off the place it hasn't occupied for some time, and stealing some of my breath.

~"I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes." [-e.e. cummings]~

Recent Realizations

1. Despite all of the warnings people have given me about not having a life outside of teaching, I really don't have a life outside of teaching right now.

2. It won't always be this way. I know this because I'm slowly finding myself having more time as I learn where to find things, where to turn for help, and falling into a routine to try to stay ahead of the game a bit.

3. My time management isn't always that great. But when I think about it, I can figure out some areas where time is wasted instead of going to something necessary, and it's fixable.

4. The first step in trying new things is finding places to do them. Example: there is a place where Zumba is taught that's very, very close to my apartment as well as very, very inexpensive. Score. And all it took to find it was a little online searching and an email to an instructor. More possibilities await my typing fingertips...when time allows, of course.

5. I have a love/hate relationship with having to schedule things so far in advance these days. And by that I mostly mean trips home, to see friends, etc. But I love that it gives me something to look forward to, something to count down to. [ Thanksgiving is 55 days away, in case you were wondering. And New Years is 92 days away.]

6. There is no such thing as too much of the following things in the kitchen: orange juice, Gatorade, crackers, tea, water, cereal, Lysol, or paper towels.

7. There is nothing wrong with recognizing your body's limitations, especially when your body is telling you to slow down. I used to think that calling into work or missing class was the end of the world, but now I've realized it's just negligent if you don't take care of your body. It's hard to put your passion into doing what you love when you're not feeling well enough to.

8. This isn't a recent realization, but it's just one that can't be said enough: There are some truly amazing people in my life. :)

~"A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book." [-Irish proverb]~

The Best Laid Plans...

A while ago I made a list about reasons why I enjoy having my own apartment. Today while I was lying on the couch feeling so yucky that I didn't even want to go get my own glass of water and cursing my procrastination on grocery shopping, I was composing a list of reasons why it kind of stinks to live alone.

I had every intention of making that tonight's post...but then I started thinking about how many ways living alone has challenged me to become more independent and to prove to myself that I'm capable in many more ways than I thought. And yes, sometimes it downright stinks to be an adult taking care of myself, but the benefits far outweigh a day or two of feeling sick and having to take care of myself.

Coming across this list didn't hurt, either, of course.

And Batman the Pig, while tough and fast, was just not tough and fast enough. He came in 2nd in our heat and did not qualify for the final round. But he had fun. The kids did, too.

~"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." [-a revised version of Robert Burns' famous line from "To a Mouse"]~

My First Vlog: Pig Racing

This just says it all. And proves my job is fun....and a lot of work....but did I mention fun? :)

Sentimentality

I've got the kind of mind that holds on to dates and likes to recall things on that exact day in later years. I like to take a minute to reflect on what's changed since then, and usually I'll pray about it, too. Sometimes the words are few, but sometimes my heart just unleashes words that have been building for a while.

Life is made up of all kinds of memories of experiences that make us who we are today.

And usually those memories of mine have soundtracks to them, too. You know what I mean -- those songs that carry you back to the day with somebody and brings snippets of conversations and emotions to mind as well.

Here's a piece of my soundtrack...but I'm keeping the memories to myself. [Sidenote: It really bugs me that the video does NOT match the song at all...why, Train? Why?]

Ideas in This Head of Mine

Sometimes my brain has an idea and then just doesn't let it go.

There are a few of those in my head right now, and they are just downright distracting.

Time, patience, and prayer will tell if these things come to fruition or flop.

In the meantime, a girl can hope and dream, and that's what this girl will continue to do.

~"If at first the idea is not absurd then there is no hope for it." [-Albert Einstein]~

The Greatest Sales Pitch Ever

So as a general rule of thumb I'm kinda cautious about buying fundraiser things because, let's be honest, sometimes you pay too much for something that really isn't that great. [Yes, I remember all of those things my schools used to try to get us to sell. I think wrapping paper was just about the stupidest one. Or was it the wreaths?] I'm willing to cave for good causes, though...like Boy Scouts or what have you.

[Disclaimer: Being on the teaching end now, I must add that yes, I do understand why these sales are necessary and respect that. I still, however, do not enjoy sales of any variety. This is why I am a teacher and not a sales person. That's all you, Matt.]

So about two weeks ago this boy came into my classroom and asked, "Hey, do you drink coffee?" Why yes, yes I do. Like it's going out of style, in fact. "Would you like to buy some?"

My interest was piqued at this point. I asked what he was selling it for. He answered that it was for his football team, and elaborated when asked to say they were raising money for new gear that wasn't falling apart.

Wait, wait, wait. Buy coffee to support football? The only thing better than that would be buying it at the stadium while watching football.

So I bought some coffee which will in turn buy some better gear for those football boys. I opted for the box with the samples of different flavors, dreaming of Saturday mornings where I could drink my yummy flavors in leisure.

And here I am. Today's flavor happens to be Rain Forest Nut Creme, and it's delicious. Kinda like hazelnut, almond, and vanilla in one cup.

"And there you have it, kids, the story of how I met your mother."

...and by that I really mean how I caved to a young boy's quest for funds...and also the recipe for getting me to buy something. That's right, combine coffee, football, and children, and I'm faced with an offer I can't refuse.

~"Coffee makes me invincible. But when the cup is empty, I return to mere mortal." [-Terri Guillemets]~

Snapshots of Wedding Weekend

I spent some time last night and today editing pictures from last weekend. Here are a few of them. :)

Ode to an Overlooked (Small) Significant Beginning

It starts with a breath.

The one deep and paired with a stretch that wakes me up in the morning.

The one that psyches me up as I sit in the car before heading someplace intimidating, where my place isn't quite set.

The one that calms me when chaos takes over my classroom.

The one that I pray will bring an enlightening moment with it when I just don't know what to do.

The one that slows me down at the end of the day as I pause to look at the beautiful Nebraskan sunset.

The one that helps me gain the extra ounce of courage to speak my mind.

The one that relaxes me and persuades me to push aside the thoughts of school until the morning.

The one that comes before putting one foot in front of the other as I take this life day by day.

The one that brings learning. And the one after that. And the one after that.

And it all begins with something as small and habitual as a breath.

~"The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plan, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life." [-Robert Louis Stevenson]~

Another Dose of Music...to Make Up for Being Too Tired for a Real Post

Firstly, kudos to my computer for being super-sneaky. It seems to know when I'm going to post a music video on my blog because that's the only time the speakers refuse to work. Seriously, they were working just fine an hour ago. Silly computer.

Anyways, this song came on Pandora the other day, and I really enjoyed both the lyrics and her voice. It's not a very upbeat song, but it's so fitting for some of "those days" when melancholy begins to seep in.

My favorite part? "I'm thinking about calling on Jesus." Sometimes prayer pops into my head as the solution, and it sounds so brilliant. Immediately after that, I'm amazed at my own stupidity to be marveling at an idea which should be a natural thing to do anyway. Good thing God isn't stupid: He knew that we'd never be perfect on our own and planned accordingly.

And now, without further adieu, I give you "Wreck of the Day" by Anna Nalick.

The Weekend: Abridged

I kinda went MIA this weekend from the blogging realm...and my absence looked like this:

Friday: Woke up early. Finished packing. Taught all day. Packed up and gassed up car. Picked up co-pilot. Hit the road at 5 pm.

Saturday: Arrived home at 3 am. Bed by 3:30. Woke up at 7, cozied up under the covers. Joined by the pup around 7:30, up by 8. Nephew time until 1. Got ready, hit the road for the wedding. Cried a lot, laughed a lot, loved it a lot. In bed by 2:30 after some pizza and hilarious conversations with the boys.

Sunday: Woke up and said goodbye to Spring Grove/Richmond. Time with Pops, a quick back scratch, then on to gas up and buy kringle. Lunch with Mom and Brandon, then time to hit the road. Left with tears and smiles on my face. Ten and a half hours later, home at last and down lots of sleep plus one pillow.

More on the weekend to come later. I'm going to bed now. Yes, it is before 10. Don't judge.

A List About Apartment Life

Okay, it's time for another list....

And thus begins "Reasons Why I Love Having My Own Apartment"...

- The biggest reason is that I am always welcome here. I call the shots and I make it my own. And I make it messy, too, but thats okay. I never have to question if I belong in this home because it is my own.

- I can listen to music every waking second around here if I want to. ANY kind of music. No judgement. Yeah, that's right, my Pandora mix shifts from hard rock to Disney to CCR in no time flat...now what? Oh yeah -- CRANK IT, of course!

- When I want to dance like crazy -- and I know I'm not really good at it -- the only one laughing at me for it is myself.

- I can come home to complete silence and solitude for 5 minutes, 30, an hour, a night...whatever feels right. And some days I just really, really need that.

- If I want to just snack all night instead of eating dinner, it's all good.

- I can leave dishes in the sink overnight if I want to...or load the dishwasher and start it as I'm going to bed without worrying about waking anyone else up.

- When I pack, I can take up however much space I want. In tonight's case, apparently I wanted to leave piles in every room of the apartment before making them all migrate to one location.

- I can sleep with the windows open whenever I want to, even on nights it drops down to the 40s. Yes, that actually happened last night. No, I was not happy getting out of bed to shut the window when I got up this morning. Yes, I did wake up very quickly. Yes, I am contemplating the effectiveness of that kind of alarm clock. No, I am not sleeping with them open again tonight. Yes, I like being able to feel my toes.

- When it comes to temperature control, I have Absolute Power. It's pretty nice. [Unless it's about 45 degrees outside and I've discovered the windows are kinda drafty but I refuse to turn on the heat regardless. Hello, heating blanket, we're going to be friends tonight.]

- I can pace and talk on the phone all I want without hearing "Stop pacing!!" I've been known to get that from just about everybody I've lived with at one point or another...until now.

- I don't get funny looks for bathing stuffed animals in the sink who have been infected with the snot of kindergarteners.

- Laundry day always consumes my living space...now in guilt-free form!

Hokay, on account of being super-sleepy and preparing for a long drive tomorrow, I'm going to call it done despite knowing there should be many more things on this list...

The Adventures of Hugging Hippo's First Year in the Classroom

I'm taking over Michelle's blog for the night. I don't think she'll mind. I think she's busy lesson planning or some such teacher-y thing anyway.

Anyways, hi! I'm Hugging Hippo. I live in a kindergarten classroom where I get to spend lots of time with 21 kids. I love getting hugs, comforting crying or upset kiddos, and occasionally giving high fives at the end of the day.

Today I learned about two new things: getting sneezed on and slimed is disgusting, and bubble baths are fantastic vacations away from the classroom.

After my bath, I had to rinse all the soap off. Hugging Hippos have sensitive skin, after all. This is much different than my typical Lysol shower!

Now I'm just lying around waiting to dry so I can go back to play with the kids tomorrow. It's nice to be out of the classroom for a night. I should try this more often. I'm thinking about checking into those Living Social deals so I can boost my social life. You know what they say: if you give a hippo some insight, he'll probably want some experience to go with it. See, Moose? There's more to life than eating muffins. Don't even get me started on you, Mouse with the cookies.

Until next time, stay happy and healthy!

~Hugging Hippo

Driving Along I-80

I tried to give equal attention to both sides of the road as I drove. My eyes were drawn away from the road in bursts to admire all of the hay bales adorning the gentle rise and fall of the hills. Somebody's product of hours of labor dotting the landscape beyond the interstate. The cows graze while traffic passes, bringing the occasional bunch of black dots into view.

I pass the same fields on the way home. Even hints of sunlight pushing through the clouds now transform them into something captivating. The gold now has a soft glint to it and initially deters my eyes from the darkening shadows. My open window invites the sweet smell of the damp hay and grass to accompany me on this drive. I shiver a little as I notice the chill and dampness beginning to collect in the air as the change in seasons is tiptoeing this way.

As my chest rises with a deep breath of contentment, my mouth rises with a soft smile. Fields are a beautiful sight to my eyes and a comfort to my mind. That's been true my whole life, it was true in Texas, and it's true to this day. It's what I missed seeing while I was in the city near Chicago at the beginning of college, and it's what I'll miss if I ever move near a big city again. Yes, I'll always be a Midwestern girl through and through.

~"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves." [-John Muir]~

"Mama said there'd be days like this..."

I call this the "Things I Do When All I Feel Like Doing is Snuggling Up Under a Blanket with Hot Chocolate and Growling at Anybody Who Happens to Try to Even Talk to Me Because I Just Want to be Left Alone in the Beyond-Cranky Mood Consuming Me"List...and also a "reminder to Future Self"...

1. Make hot chocolate. Secure said blanket. Get comfy.

2. Have a good, long cry. [In extreme cases, this actually is number 1]

3. Breathe. Pray. Breath. Pray. Breathe.

4. Stare out the window for a while contemplating the beauty of nature, the peacefulness.

5. Remember Rule #34 ("Enjoy the little things") and make a list of the beautiful little things sprinkled throughout the day.

6. Blare some tunes and do some cleaning. Singing is optional.

7. Thank God for giving me the kinds of friends who know me well enough to know when something's wrong but understand that sometimes no, I don't want to talk about it, and no, I don't want them to help me, but no, I don't want to be left alone, either. Whose presence even over the phone -- silence or non -- is comforting. Call one of those friends.

8. Think about the things that won't matter tomorrow. Wrestle myself into letting them go. Ponder things that can be fixed and ways to fix them...or new ways to try to fix them.

9. Call Papa. Or Mom. Or Auntie Cindy. Or Jess. On a particularly terrible day, call all 4.

10. Smile. Faking it is better than nothing, and eventually it'll turn into the real thing.

11. Remind myself that tomorrow's a brand new day. It might even be the complete opposite of this one.

~"[The days] come and go like muffled and veiled figures sent from a distant friendly party; but they say nothing, and if we do not use the gifts they bring, they carry them as silently away." [-Ralph Waldo Emerson]~

10 Years.

So I've kind of been dreading today's post for days. The 10th anniversary of 9/11 just can't be overlooked, and yet nothing I can say can adequately give justice to ANYTHING about that day or the years since. And yet...it's too big of an occasion to not say anything about at all. Even a poor attempt is better than nothing at all.

I didn't fully understand anything about that day 10 years ago other than lots of people were dying and iconic buildings were collapsing. Slowly the pieces came together a bit more. I remember my teacher breaking the news to the class (although I had known already) and summing it by saying, "We are under attack." I remember the tears on our confused faces as we watched the coverage in the library at school and heard all the talk of other potential targets that day. And I remember it all felt unreal. All we knew as we watched those images was that this was something that we'd never stop hearing about. We were living history and watching it unfold, living moments we'd someday tell our children about as they studied about it in school.

The only thing that I understood, truly understood, was that this really shook the footing of the USA. I remembering thinking, When will anyone ever feel truly safe again in this country? Is that even possible?

And then I felt so guilty as this event was a wake-up call. Before that day my classmates and I were just stereotypical middle school kids worried about who liked whom, what we looked like, and how we were going to get whoever was currently grounded to talk their way into being ungrounded. In one day we were challenged --no, forced-- to see that the world was much, much bigger than ourselves. I felt terrible that I had been so self-absorbed before that. Ashamed, really.

And now it's 10 years later. I still struggle to see that the world is bigger than the one I see every day. I still feel ashamed when big and terrible things happen around the world and remind me of that, making my own worries so small and stupid in comparison. And honestly, it's still a little bit of an abstract thing to me. It always will be. I understand that it was an event with magnitude, and yet the only way it's truly personal to me is in the form of the people I know who have served overseas and also how it's increased my respect for the people in my family who are firefighters. A lot. Maybe that's more than some people have to make it personal, but it's certainly far less than a lot of others.

And I almost feel like a fraud for saying that my heart goes out to those people who lost someone on this terrible day a decade ago because I don't truly know anything about what they went through, not even second-hand. I've heard the stories and seen the pictures and tried to imagine it, but I will never be able to. That doesn't change the fact, though, that my prayers are with those people because God knows what they are dealing with and they do, too. And prayers never, ever hurt. I will continue to send my thoughts and prayers in their direction.

This song makes my heart ache every single time I hear it, but it also makes my heart swell with thanksgiving that not all hope was lost 10 years ago. This country took years to build and would take more than a day to destroy.

Recent Reads

I just finished reading My Antonia by Willa Cather. It was on my List of Books to Read Someday, and since it's both by a NE author and about NE living, right around the time I moved here is as good a time as any to read it. Possibly the best time, actually.

I enjoyed the book because Cather has a knack for capturing emotions really well, especially giving a voice to some of those hard-to-capture ones that run deep and pure within us. The main one is the love and appreciation for a true friend and how that friendship carries with you wherever you go. It's closely followed by the way she reflects a love for home that follows a boy through his childhood and into his adult life as well even after he moves away.

This was one of those books whose pages were comfortable to be wandering through, calming to take in, and which were left in my mind even hours after I set the book down. It wasn't so gripping that I had to gulp it down; it was a good book to linger with, to set down and stare out the window contemplating before picking it up again. Sometimes that's exactly the kind of book our minds and hearts need.

What really got me was the character of Antonia herself. I love reading books with characters whom I would love to have as a real friend, and this girl's one of them. She reminds me of a lot of the women in my life, actually, and I think that's why I like her so much. When Jim, the boy telling the story, goes back to visit her many years later, here's what he said about her:

She lent herself to immemorial human attitudes which we recognize by instinct as universal and true...she still had that something which fires the imagination, could still stop one's breath for a moment by a look or gesture that somehow revealed the meaning in common things. She had only to stand in the orchard, to put her hand on a little crab tree and look up at the apples, to make you feel the goodness of planting and tending and harvesting at last. All the strong things of her heart came out in her body, that had been so tireless in serving generous emotions.

What "Friday Fun" Has Become

Once upon a time as a young princess in her teen years, Fridays were much-anticipated for going out. Just kidding, I was still just a princess in training. And "going out" usually meant movie nights with friends at somebody's house. It's true that they were much-anticipated, however. We spend those nights with friends and putting off homework, staying up until ridiculously late praying that none of us would get in trouble for getting home late while laughing hysterically and making silliness that'd be legendary even years later.

These days I've come to look forward to Friday because it means taking a night off from doing anything school-related, not even THINKING about school stuff. That's accompanied by my favorite Friday companions: Netflix, a glass of wine, and the futon. And now "ridiculously late" has become anything after 11 pm.

And the legendary part of this Friday? Buying my first humidifier. Scratch that, it was only part of the legend. The truly legendary part was figuring the stinking thing out. Who knew those things could be so stinking complicated? 'Cause that's just what every ailing person wants to do when they're not feeling so great -- deal with complicated directions. Yeah. Or not. But no worries, I'm now basking in humidified glory. At least...I think it's working right.

And now back to Netflix. Oh, I made some hot chocolate to really get crazy tonight.

~"Sometimes the cure for restlessness is rest." [-Colleen Wainwright]~

A Few Things I Love

1. The sound of crickets outside my window. [Yeah, that's right, crickets, OUTSIDE. Once you cross that threshold, it's a whole new ballgame.]

2. Unexpected text messages that not only make me smile but actually make me crack me up.

3. A hot cup of tea. Tonight's cup: Throat Coat.

4. Getting to linger over a cup of coffee [even if it's only a few minutes in the morning when I'm pretending I'm not going to be at school after my targeted time.]

5. My good ol' pair of jeans worn to a holey state [Sidenote: no matter how I tried to write that, it sounded either sorta sacrilegious or like I was trying to make it a joke. I merely mean that as a comment on its appearance. Seriously. ]

6. The shift in the weather allowing me to leave my windows open and to snuggle comfortably into my covers at night. Knowing that soon the breezes coming through the windows will be undeniably laden with the smells of fall.

7. Moments of feeling like I know what I'm doing, of seeing where I've already learned more than I thought I'd even know.

8. Being able to look around me -- at this school, this town, this aparment -- and finally feel some ownership, comfort here. That clicking into a place becoming "home" rather than just "the place I moved to". Realizing it at the same time a smile spreads across my face as I turn onto the road to my apartment after work.

9. Wandering around the store trying to figure out what I want for dinner after allowing myself to be lazy tonight in the culinary area in order to will myself to be productive in the teaching area. Frowning at the salads, considering the taquitos instead: learning to listen to what I really want instead of what I probably should get. Being forced to decide by myself, for myself.

10. Having ideas, making them happen, and seeing the beauty in things not going exactly as I had planned.

11. Family, home, love -- 8 days away.

The Kid Cures

And after going today, I know why it was the right choice and why I'm okay with getting better over the course of a few days rather than a "quick fix" of a school day spent in bed instead of with my kids.

"You sound like you have a froggy in your throat."

"You know what would make you feel better? One of those add-a-vils."

Taking a second to slow down, just breathe, watch, and being surprised by little arms around me. "You feel warm," she says as she hugs a little tighter. Hugs from little hands just when I need them -- Hey, God. You're awesome.

"I need some hanitizer!" he says as he squirts the lemony-fresh slime all over his hands.

A little hand tapping my hip as I'm coughing. A second later, I'm a little out of breath but ready for anything again. I turn and smile at her, and she knows I can listen now. "Are you going to be okay?" she whispers to me.

After coughing away again while we're lining up for lunch, she asks, "Are you going to take one of your other pills now?" "Pill? Oh, you mean cough drop?" "Yeah." "Oh, probably." "Good."

There are many reasons why I love what I do, but there are 21 main reasons with such caring hearts overflowing with love. Every day I'm lucky that they spill some of it out on me.

~"Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music." [-William Stafford]~

I Took Nyquil, and This May Not Make Sense

So I can't even tell you the last time I took NyQuil. That's a combination of how awful I feel at the moment and how little time I used to devote to sleeping. I never thought I'd have enough time to sleep it off. I once had a bad experience with not having completely slept it off but going to class anyways. Not my class, either, per se, but, well, that's a story for a different time. I think I have a few of those now. I should start a list of them.

Anyways, I wish I could someday get a cold without it deciding to leave my head and travel down to my lungs. That'd be awesome.

I'm thinking of making a parody of a Kings of Leon song. I'm trying to enlist my aunt to join my parody band first, though. She's my first choice because a) she introduced me to the band b) we spent the summer I turned 21 jamming out to KoL every chance we got c) she's just awesome, of course. Our first hit would be an ode to this cold and would go something like this:

Whooaaaa-ohhh, my lungs are on fire

Aaaand that's all I've got so far.

I'm starting to realize that maybe there were other reasons why I don't usually take NyQuil...

Hoping everyone else is avoiding colds so far...it's WAY too early in the season to start getting sick.

Forget About It...Until Later

I used to be the kind of person who would not go to sleep until everything on my to do list got done. Then I realized that's just silly.

To do lists, you see, have this crazy knack for growing when we turn our backs. They even grow while we're glancing at them. Sly little buggers.

I've been losing sight of how silly it is to try to do everything on the list each day. In fact, I had a nice, long list for this weekend that nearly nothing got done on. I had to admit that my body needed the sleep more than things needed to get moved around in my classroom.

I have to admit that a certain amount of peace came over me as I let myself forget about most of the things on the list aside from the "must do" items like lesson planning. But moving desks around? Yeah, sounds like a good thing to do Friday afternoon.

Take a look at your own to do list. What can you drop off of your list today?

~"Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency." [-Natalie Goldberg]~

This is Just to Say to This Body...

Dear Body,

As you know, it is a 3 day holiday weekend. One that I looked forward to for a whole 5 long, long, LONG days and more and more with each thing that went awry this week, in fact.

First and foremost, I'd like to thank you for being well and able yesterday for the wonderful season and conference opener Husker game. Well done. I suppose I would even like to thank you for feeling fine during the school week, too. Oh, and for getting this out of your system before the rapidly approaching Wedding Weekend.

I would like you to know, however, that I do not appreciate you getting sick on one of the days I was planning on spending all day outside to enjoy this fine weather while I can. I enjoyed the sleep but did not enjoy wasting such a gorgeous day partaking in it. In the future I'd appreciate if it we could pick a meeting time that's convenient for us both.

Anyway, I hope you are enjoying all of the additional fluids you are currently having to process as I try to convince you to shake off this cold.

Sincerely,

Michelle

A BusyFunTiring Saturday

a day of

sleeping in a little

thinking about being productive

journaling

lingering at the table over a cup of coffee

squeezing in some reading

good music

driving

panama

good company

lincoln

HUSKERS GAME (more on that later)

wandering

stopping by big brother's

home sweet home

makes a girl tired but happy.

Few Words Friday

...one of my new favorites.

Well-Timed Words

A week in the classroom with

the last hour of the day going awry every day as we strive to find our groove after rest time

being late to lunch one day...and making 2 other grades late, too

nearly making 3 kids miss the bus after forgetting to send them out

blood, runny noses, and tears

lesson plan flops

an unexpected change in classroom numbers

is also the week outside of the classroom with

a clean apartment

two visiting friends

a few much-needed heart to hearts

an hour long nap on the couch

spaghetti

new music

and a reminder

"Jacob was a cheater, Peter had a temper, David had an affair, Noah got drunk, Jonah ran from God, Paul was a murderer, Gideon was insecure, Miriam was a gossiper, Martha was a worrier, Thomas was a doubter, Sara was impatient, Elijah was moody, Moses stuttered, Zaccheus was short, Abraham was old, and Lazarus was dead.

God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the CALLED!"