Two

My favorite view this winter! 

I love my little tree. :) 

One

Favorite spot to sit this winter. 

A little hard to see but it is my parent's new gas fireplace. 

Love love love!! 

So thankful

I'm a little late in writing about thanksgiving, but better late than never! 

God has been so good to me! I have a wonderful family who loves me and loves the Lord. I've been blessed with great friends. I have a job that I love. And most of all I'm thankful that I am a child of God. Life would be terrible without the hope I have in Christ. 

Facepalm

Gotta love those days when you encourage a friend and later realize that you need to listen to you own advice. I just want to smack myself on the head and tell myself to get with it! So after telling my friend to start reciting God's truth and promises I now need to do that myself.
TRUTH: God loves me more than I can even imagine.
TRUTH: I have been saved and will spend eternity with Christ!

Blessed

I'm currently in a Bible study on the book of Mark. I've been blessed by every week of this study. I don't know why it surprises me when God speaks to me through His Word and those who teach it. Last week this quote from my Bible study stood out to me. 

"Jesus never fails to see us with love, even though we have scars of sin and a rumpled nature that shows in out stutter-step faithfulness." 

Thank you , Jesus, for always loving me!

Fantastic Book!

Usually at my job we have a required reading over the summer. Sometimes it is related to teaching and other times it is related to our lives as believers. This summer because of the transition of having a new principal we did not have a required reading. Instead we were given the option of joining a group once a week to read and discuss the book "Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands" by Paul David Tripp. I was excited because I had read the book in college. It was one of the few books in college that I enjoyed...mostly because it was easy for me to follow where as many of the books for my Bible classes seemed so over my head. Don't get me wrong, I know they were good books I just had a hard time following them.
I pulled out my copy that I had underlined and written notes in and dove right in. I liked the book then and I love the book now! It is fun to see the things I underlined and commented on when I was in college and see the new things I'm discovering this time around. If you haven't read the book I strongly recommend picking it up and giving it a good read.

Here are a few quotes I've grabbed onto just from reading the first 2 chapters this week and last week.

We must faithfully proclaim, "Hope is only found in Jesus Christ, the king of Kings. In Him, lasting, personal heart change is possible."

The good news of the kingdom is not freedom from hardship, suffering, and loss. It is the news of a Redeemer who has come to rescue me from myself.  

When a certain set of desires rules our hearts, we reduce prayer to the menu of human desire. Worse, we shrink God from his position of all-wise, all-loving, all-powerful Father to a divine waiter we expect to deliver everything we ask. But God will not shrink to this size. He will only be our Father and King, who "satisfies your desire with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's" (Ps. 103:5)  

 I'm so excited to keep reading this book!!

Fall Bucket List

I was pinning a couple of fall-ish things this evening and decided that I needed to make a fall bucket list. Some of these things may be very basic to most people, but lately I've been needing a plan to get anything accomplished so here it goes!

• make a wreath
• host a fall tea
• make a crock pot meal
• bake a pumpkin pie
• jump in crunchy leaves
• make a fall sign of some sort
• drink caramel apple cider
• make a fall-ish popcorn
• walk around Spring Lake
• thankful garland

So in a few months I'm hoping that I'll be able to report that I've completed all or most of these tasks. :) With how crazy busy my life has been lately I'm not sure how I'll do, but I'll try. 

Confessions of a Combo Class Teacher - No More Drama Please!

I have to tell you, this week it feels like I barely survived. It was a hard week. There were multiple mornings this week when I woke up and thanked God for new mercies every morning. I'm so glad that God is on His throne and I can lean on Him. This week has been filled with so much drama. Today was, thankfully, much better than the rest of the week. There were a lot of smiles and hugs today. I'm so thankful for my sweet group of 2nd and 3rd graders. (and the 4th grade boys who tried to sneak in my class today because they miss me -- I am so blessed!) I'm praying that the weekend will be much more relaxed. I'm ready for no drama for a while...well except for when I watch Downton Abbey. :)

Confessions of a combo class teacher : relaxing is essential

Highlight of a long Monday at school = sitting at home, watching a movie, and soaking my feet in my inflatable foot tub. :) I'm one happy camper!

Confessions of a Combo Class Teacher -- Survival

Well, I made it through the first week of school! And boy was it a tiring week! After a teacher orientation week of meeting galore the first week ended with me feeling totally exhausted. It was a fantastic week though. I can already tell that this is going to be a great year. I love my class of 2nd and 3rd graders. What a sweet group of kiddos. 

The combo class this year is definitely causing me to think outside the box. I can't teach things the way I usually teach it because the 2nd graders won't necessarily be able to follow. Some of them can, don't get me wrong, but there are others who cannot. History for instance. Usually the 3rd graders and I read through the textbook all together. It generally takes a while for them to figure out how to follow along in the book, but we get there after a few days. 2nd graders aren't ready for that at all. Over the last few days of teaching history I've taken to having a few 3rd graders read and then I talk about what they've read as if I'm telling a story to the class. While the 3rd grader is ready the 2nd graders are a little glassy-eyed. But I can get their attention back when I retell it to them or continue on to the next paragraph. I'm not sure if that is the best way to do it or not, but for yesterday and today it worked pretty well. Today when I said we were moving on to history a few of the 2nd graders whispered "yes!" under their breath. That made my heart happy for sure. 

So as I said before, I'll be thinking outside the box all year long. But I think that is good. At the end of last year I was feeling like I was stuck in a rut. It is easy just to teach what the textbook gives you...especially when you are ready for summer. Now I'm having to really think about how I'm going to keep the 2nd graders engaged and challenge the 3rd graders. So I'm constantly searching pinterest and teacherspayteachers.com to find new ideas of how to teach my students. 

But right now I'm sitting on my bed relaxing. And I intend to do that for the rest of the evening! So there! :) As much as I love my job, I'm thrilled that tomorrow is the first Saturday of the school year and I don't have to set my alarm clock for any reason. (Huge sigh of relief!) 

Below are a few pictures of my classroom. I bought burlap this year to cover my bulletin boards. I love how bright and colorful they look! I took these before school started, there is student work up on them now. 

Enjoy your weekend! 

Here we go again!

Well, I'd say that summer is definitely over now. It was such a great summer! I'm so thankful for the the time I spent in Wisconsin. I think the time there has helped make me more excited about this school year. I'm thrilled to start school next week. I'm not quite ready for it to start, but things are coming along nicely. Tomorrow is the start of our teacher appreciation week. 8-4 Tuesday thru Friday. It will be long, but good. I'm so thankful for my job. God is good!  

All set to work in my classroom...wait...

...now I'm ready! Can't forget the coffee! :) 

EEeekk!!

Ok pray for me! This morning when I woke up and started thinking about school reality hit. School is very soon, and I'm not so ready! I'm praying that going to my classroom today will help calm me down a little. (sigh)

Cleaning cleaning cleaning

One of the things I’m going to be taking away from my summer adventure in Wisconsin is a feeling of purging. After living with my grandparents and seeing how much my grandma has hoarded over who knows how many years I can see that I could easily get stuck down that road. I have a pretty small apartment and have it too full if you ask me. When I get home it will be time to clean, throw away, and rearrange. I’m actually kind of excited about the thought. I want to feel comfortable inviting my friends and family over and not feel like I can’t because my place is such a mess. I want to host a tea party with my friends or coworkers. I want to have sleepovers with my niece. I’ve decided that I’m going to make a goal of inviting people over to my house once a month. I love being a hostess! So what am I waiting for? Time to get things they way I want them to be in my apartment and enjoy living there.

Wisconsin Diaries - Baby Shower

From 7.7.13

Today I finished up a baby quilt and stuffed monkey for a baby shower that I’m going to. I’m not sure if I mentioned it before, but I don’t even know the woman having the baby. Haha! She is my mom’s cousin’s daughter-in-law.My grandma was invited and it turns out that she doesn’t even want to go now. I laughed when she told me that after I had already finished the gift. Oh well, I’m still going to go. I’ll know some people there and this is a good opportunity to fight the fear of man that I so easily struggle with.

I finished reading the book “When People are Big and God is Small.” Everyone should read that book! I was challenged so much with my view of people and my view of God. Since reading the book my prayer on a daily basis is that I will fear God more.

Wisconsin Diaries - Quilting

From July 6, 2013

I’ve been making some progress on my quilt! I’m so excited! I have to laugh though. My grandma is very much into traditional quilts and doesn’t really like what I’m making. There are definitely traditional aspects of this quilt I’m putting together, but also some non-traditional parts to it. When I first bought this fabric I knew I wouldn’t have enough to use it across an entire quilt. So I decided that most of this quilt would be the solid fabric with a band of the patterned fabric in the pinwheel style. I really like the idea. I think it is going to turn out nice. Grandma was giving me a hard time tonight when I was laying it out and trying to figure out how I was going to put it together. She kept trying to tell me that I needed more squares and how to arrange the colors the way she liked. Multiple times when I told her I liked it the way I had it she said, “Well, to each his own.” Yup, that’s right. I like how it is looking and I think I’ll like how it looks on my bed.

Quilt Progress!

My quilt is coming along! I think in the next couple of days I'll have the top done. Then to layer and quilt it all. Not sure if I'll be able to do that here or if I'll have to wait until I get home. But I love how it is turning out!

Summer Reading

One of my goals for the summer is to read as many books as I possibly can. As I was packing for my summer in Wisconsin it was really hard for me to chose which books to bring along. I have a major tendency to buy books and then never read them. I think I brought about 15 books with me. They are almost half and half fiction and non-fiction. So far I’ve finished 3 books: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Helen Keller’s Teacher, and The Adventures of Edgar and Allan Poe. So far they’ve all been juvenile fiction, but honestly I have no problem with that. My plan is to alternate between fiction and non-fiction.

So now for the next book I picked up “When People are Big and God is Small.” A good friend of mine gave me this book a while ago and I and just now picking it up. Usually when I read non-fiction books it takes me forever, but this one is different. I’m already several chapters into the book and boy am I feeling convicted. I’ve always known that fearing man is something I’ve struggled with, but after starting to read this book and answer the questions at the end of each chapter I didn’t know how so many of my actions show how much I fear man.

At the end of the third chapter the author encourages the reader to make a list of your actions that demonstrate a fear of man both from the past and the present. Oh my goodness!! I started making my list and it made me realize how badly I’ve feared man throughout my life.

So within the first 4 chapters of this books I’ve felt extremely convicted, but I’ve also felt challenged and comforted. I’ve felt challenged to be much more focused on Christ and comforted over how much God loves me.

This passage really stuck out to me as I was reading tonight. The author asked, “Will you trust in man or will you trust in the Lord?”

“Cursed is the one who trust in man,
who depends on flesh for his strength
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
He will be like a bush in the wastelands;
he will not see prosperity when it comes.
He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.
But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when the heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.
Jeremiah 17:5-8

My Quilt

I started working on my quilt on Sunday! I am so excited!! I love making quilts and I'm finally making one for myself! Here are a few pics of what I've gotten done. Obviously I have a lot more squares than I took pictures of. :)

I only have the little squares sewn together so far. Next I'll sew them into pinwheels like I laid them out here. It is going to be a fun quilt! I love all of the colors in the fabric. Each piece is very different. I've been holding onto this fabric for a few years waiting to make this quilt for myself. 

Wisconsin Adventure!

Well, it has been nearly two weeks since I flew into Wisconsin for my summer adventure. And what an adventure it has been so far! Here is a glimpse of what those two weeks have been full of.

• 1 afternoon at the ER
•  a freezing cold ER room – I think my toes turned blue
•  several days of high blood sugar tests (hence the trip to the ER)
• 1 HUGE Joann Fabric Store
•  2 stops at McDonalds for cheap hamburgers – my grandma’s favorite
• 1 quilt shop
• 1 real cup of coffee
• a lot of fried bologna – I’m about at my limit
• 3 thunder storms
• multiple attempts at running
• 25(ish) min walks every night after supper
• a little bit of sewing
• finished reading 3 books
• 4 trips to the library for free wifi

There have definitely been ups and downs in the last two weeks. The ER trip revealed that my grandma had a bladder infection, which is why her sugar was so high. So we were glad it wasn’t more than that. There were a few days that I really struggled being here and was a little stir crazy, but I’ve also been able to spend some great time in God’s Word over the last few weeks. My focus during my quiet time has been better than it has been in a while. My prayer is that I’ll be able to build a good habit of this quiet time and that I’ll be able to continue it when I get home and back into my routine.

It has been nice to spend time with my grandparents. My main way to help them right now is to make sure my grandma takes all of her pills throughout the day. That is the biggest struggle. She doesn’t like taking so many pills and she isn’t convinced that they help at all. She stands at the sink grumbling about the amount of pills she has to take. I just keep telling her that I trust her dr. And if he says she needs to take them then she needs to take them. She doesn’t like that I pester her about taking them though.

Today they claimed that their goal is to find me a husband and then I can buy the house that is for sale across the street. The house across the street is pretty cute. J

Jamie the Runner?

The two words "Jamie" and "Running" have never and I mean never gone together. I try not to think about running the mile in high school. The days we had to do that were the worst. And I was usually that last person to finish. But now I'm giving it a try! We'll see how it goes. 

Today I started using the Couch to 5K training plan. I made it through half of the first day. It is going to take me a while I think, but I'm not giving up! My goal is to walk/jog/run a 3 or 5k in the fall. I'm not sure if I'll get to that point, but at least I'm going to try.