He is faithful!

Good Reminder

Tune my heart

       I've sung these words for my entire life and never realized what a great picture it gives! I've been learning how to play the guitar. With playing the guitar comes tuning it. If I don't tune the strings the sound that the guitar makes is not a pretty one. When you turn the knob to tune the strings of a guitar it cranks them tighter so they make the right note.
       What an interesting picture for our own lives. When saying the words "tune my heart to sing Thy grace" I'm asking God to pull me how He needs to so that I will see and sing all that He has done for me. Sometimes it is hard to see what God is doing in our lives. We need God to tune our hearts so that we can see how He is working.
       This is such a good reminder to me, not only to ask God to work on my heart to see how gracious He is to me. But also to take the time to read words of the songs I am singing in praise to Him and think more about what they mean.

Reading Challenge Update #4

9. The Goose Girl - This is a book by Shannon Hale. I read The Princess Academy a while back and really liked it so I thought I'd try another of her books. This is the first in her Bayern series. It was really good. Kinda predictable in parts, but I liked it over all. It's not a book I'd read to my class because there were some weird things in it here and there, but for myself it was ok. It reminded me a little of a Gail Carson Levine book (Ella Enchanted style). Looking forward to reading the next one in the series!

Feeling Thankful

Just feeling very blessed and thankful today.
God has done so many great things for me that I couldn't even name them all.

I know it sounds funny, but I'm actually thankful that I'm feeling thankful. I've been complaining a lot lately about things...mostly mice. But things could be far worse. And even an annoying thing like mice in my kitchen is something God is using to teach me something.

Do you ever have those weeks where it feels like you are complaining about everything? I've been frustrated by those kinds of people before and I DO NOT want to become one. I'd much rather have a heart of thankfulness than of complaining and griping.

How do we get out of the pit of complaining? (it sure is an easy pit to fall into!)

1. Keep Scripture close at hand. As a kid I went to Awana and memorized God's Word weekly. And actually I memorized it in school every week as well. But I was totally one of those kids that memorized it the night before it was due and forgot it by the time the test was over. I have to say it wasn't until I was an adult that I realized how important it is to have God's Word memorized. I do love using my verse cards, but it is much more convenient to have the verses memorized. I don't always have the cards with me. And when the verses are memorized God brings them to mind and just the right moment. 
2. Remember what you are thankful for. When you find yourself complaining stop yourself and name 2 things you are thankful for. This take a bit of time to become a habit, but keep at it and it will. There are times when I have to make myself do this. I let myself get into a terrible mood and it is hard to think of the things I am thankful for. But once I get my focus on the positive and what God is doing the bad mood starts to fade away. 
3. Pray about it. Ask God to help you stop complaining. It is easy to forget to bring a little thing like that before the Lord. We have to remember that when we are weak He is strong. 

These are all things I know, but sometimes I have to remind myself. 

Reading Challenge Update #3

8. The Unusual Suspects - This is the second book in the Sister's Grimm series. I really loved this first book in the series. This one wasn't as good, but it was still fun. I love books, movies, and tv shows about fairy tale characters. Its fun to see how the author uses the fairy tale characters in this series. I look forward to reading the third one and seeing which characters he uses next.

Reading Challenge Update #2

7. Mr. Popper's Penguins - I'm actually a little surprised that I had never read this book until just now. I saw the movie when it came out a few years ago, but the movie and the book are like night and day. I absolutely LOVED this book! I decided to read it to my class since we are working on penguin reports this month. My 1st and 2nd graders loved it. It was adorable hearing their giggles and "oh no!"s when something crazy would happen to Mr. Popper. We were all surprised by the ending. It was such a cute book!

Mice aren't Nice

I've  been really good at not watching TV while I'm trying to fall asleep over the last month. But tonight is a little different and I'm breaking my rule. The reason I'm breaking my rule you may ask? None other than the fact that there are mice in my house and while I was watching TV in the living roomI could hear them eating the poison bait I left out. (Shudder!) I'm trying to distract myself from the fact that there are mice in my house! Ugh!! So watching tv in bed is a must.
Hoping the poison does the trick and that they all die.

Good Night, Jamie the Mouse Killer

Reading Challenge Update #1

5. Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run - Finally a book I read for fun on my own! Yay! I was intrigued by this book when I saw it on the library website. I did enjoy it, but I wouldn't read it to my class. It was definitely for older kids. But even then I wouldn't want my older kids to read it either. There was some bad language which was disappointing to me. Other than that I really liked the book. It gave an interesting perspective on the Civil War.



6. Brave Emily - This was a very sweet American Girl book. My boys groaned at first when I said I was going to read it, but I think they actually enjoyed it. Although they would never admit it. What I liked best about this book is that is brought good conversations about WW2. Most of my students don't know anything about WW1 or WW2. So it was neat to explain some about the war to them. We talked a lot about what it would be like to leave your family and have to live somewhere else during a war.

Already working on a book at home and a new book at school too! Almost halfway done with my challenge!

God's Word

I'm super thankful for this packet of cards. They have seen me through a lot of stuff in my life. Every card is full of truth from God's Word. I made this ring of Scripture cards when I was in college, but I really started using it and adding more cards my first year of teaching. For a while I was in a good habit of carrying it around with me, but sometimes I fall out of that habit. Yesterday I came across them and decided I needed to try keeping them with me again. It is so helpful to have God's Word in my hands easily. I work at memorizing these verses and God brings them to mind at just the right time.  

Just last night I was praying through some 'what if's' I was struggling with. God brought to mind Psalm 118. I love that every other line is "His steadfast love endures forever." After some time praying and giving my 'what if's' to God I made a list of them and wrote this phrase after each one. What a relief to know I can say that phrase after every worry I can come up with. No matter what gets thrown my way God's steadfast love endures forever. Even if something is hard or makes me feel uncomfortable God's love is still there and it is better than anything I can think up. 

Yup I'm a Geek!

Grading papers and watching this one! Yay! 

Reading Challenge

       Is it cheating on my Goodreads reading challenge that the 4 books I've read this year are books I've read aloud to my students? I'm saying no. They are all books I have never read. So I'm counting them. It's my challenge I can read what I want to. (I'm totally singing that in my head now!)

       I've really been wanting to read a lot lately. I watch way too much tv and read way too little. So I've started reading when I go to bed at night instead of watching a show on my computer. I have to say, I've been sleeping a lot better because of it. And my desire to read has been growing.

       One thing that has made me really excited about reading is my local library. We have a cute little library in town. The first time I walked in, all of the ladies working there knew who I was. That was the moment when I realized I liked living in a small town. Anyway, not only have I liked checking out books for school, I've discovered that my library is connected with overdrive.com. I log on with my library card and can check out ebooks that will link to my kindle app on my ipad. It is wonderful!! Some of them I have to wait a while to get because they only have so many copies. But I'm loving it! I've created a long list of books on there that I plan on checking out. The only hard thing is that you only get the book for 7 days and you can renew it only once. I even use it for read aloud books at school. The kids think it's fun that I'm reading off of my ipad and I can still show them pictures when there are some.

Back to the reading challenge.
       The last few years I've majorly failed at my reading goal so this year I only put 15 books as my goal for 2015. I've already read 4. I think I've made a good start. And I'm almost done with the only I've been reading at home.

Here are the books I've read so far:

A Bear Called Paddington - I read this book to my class because the movie was coming out and I thought it would be fun in case they went to see it. I'm sure the movie is very different, but the kids really liked the book. There was a lot of giggling while I read this one.

 Attack at the Arena - The is an Adventures in Oddessy book. I checked it out from my library on my ipad. Woohoo! My class was really disappointed when this book was over. They wanted it to continue. It was a fun one.

 Who was Dr. Seuss? - Dr. Seuss' birthday is coming up so I figured it was a good idea to learn a little about it. This was a very interesting book. As I read it I also read Dr. Seuss books that were specifically talked about in the book. It was really fun. There was one part in the book though that was a little inappropriate for my class and I was really disappointed that the author felt it necessary to put it in a book written for kids.




 Who was George Washington? - Read this one to them right after President's day. It was a good one. It brought up good conversations about our country's history. Things that did not go into our history curriculum. Any time I picked up the book the boys in my class were really excited. It was great! I love that it gave my kids an excitement for history.

Blech

       I'll be honest. Today was a rough day. I'm still getting over a cold so I'm tired, which doesn't help. But I've been struggling with one of my coworkers yesterday and today complaining about a lot of things. I try to be encouraging to her, but today it was just so discouraging. Nothing seems to meet her standards and she even tells people how they should change things so they will be better for her.

       I tried really hard to brush it off today, but couldn't. It put me in a funk and I really struggled getting out of it this afternoon. I made myself go to the school basketball games tonight, which turned out to be a good thing. It was the perfect distraction to get me out of the mood I was in. That along with some funny pins on pinterest from a good friend.

       I'm hoping that a good nights sleep will help make tomorrow go better.

Time Flies!

Wow, it has been over a month since my last post!

This last month feels like a whirlwind. What is really blowing my mind right now is that we are sending out progress reports this week. That means that the 3rd quarter of school is half over! Good Grief! How is it that times seems to go faster as you get older? Have you ever noticed that? As a kid school lasted for-ev-er. Now as an adult it flies by! I don't get it. Not sure that I ever will.

I've already been offered a contract for the next school year. It's hard to believe that I'm thinking about the next school year. This year has gone nothing like I thought it would. If you would have told me a year ago that I would be living in my grandparent's house by myself I would have thought you were crazy. Honestly, it is going ok, but it is very strange to live here alone. I'm living here as if it's my home, but it looks nothing like me. There are so many changes I would make to this house. I have moved a few things though. I probably could get away with moving furniture, since I'm not sure when my grandma will be coming back, as long as I move it back before she comes. ha! But I think if I remodeled the bathroom she would notice. (not that I have the money to do that--don't worry mom)

On an extremely random note: whenever I hear Ellen Degeneres' voice I want to watch Finding Nemo.  It doesn't matter what she says I just think of Dory. K I'm done now. :D

A goal for 2015!

       Like most people I make goals for the New Year. I'm trying not to make too many goals because I actually want to accomplish them, and if I have too many goals it just isn't going to happen. One of my goals is to complete a project once a month. I love working on craft projects but I don't always make the time to do them. So here goes nothing! I'm looking through my gazillion pins and finding a project to do for the month of January.
       I've been in the mood to sew lately so this month I'm going to work on a quilt. I've got some really cute little girl fabric that I'll use. Not sure who will get it, but will be fun to do. Time to get cutting! I'm excited!

Christmas Traditions in the Classroom

This has become a Christmas tradition in my classroom. I love to see how it turns out every year.  My kiddos did a fantastic job coloring each section this year! I bought this Andy Warhol inspired Christmas Tree mural several years ago. There are a bunch more murals on the site. I might have to buy another one sometime. 

Having fun!

Too much thinking

I really shouldn't stay up late.
Especially when I'm alone.

Too much time to think and overthink things. But then I guess it is also a good time to pray about it.

Wishing my copy of "When people are big and God is small" weren't in storage in CA. I really need to read that book at least once a year. Fearing what other people think is not something you stop doing easily. Here I just had a nice evening with friends and now I sit here remembering things I said throughout the evening and start worrying about what they thought when I said it. If a friend of mine were telling me this I would be reassuring them that what they said was ok, but it is hard convincing yourself. Have you ever noticed that?

So, what do you do? My initial thought...

I have no idea.

But when I sit and think about it I know that I need to pray about it and let it go. I would know if I had said anything really wrong. And when I think about it I know I didn't. I know that God has put these friends in my life for a reason. If I really did say something dumb they would let me know. But if they really do know me they would know that I didn't mean anything by the things I said. It all comes down to the fact that I may have said a few things that were embarrassing and I don't like being embarrassed. They have probably forgotten about it by now...they are probably sleeping by now. Which is what I should be doing.

Ok, going to bed now. Time to stop thinking about it. Sleep will help!

Grandma

Grandma and I showing off our White Elephant gifts. 

I've been trying to get my grandma out of the house a little bit more. Hard when it is so cold outside. She doesn't like to be cold. Here we are at our church Christmas party. I have to say that I think she is adjusting well to my Grandpa being gone. I know that it is hard for her at times. I'm excited when I can take her out to do things since she is stuck at home alone all day long while I work. The biggest outing will be in a few weeks when I take her in California with me for Christmas. That will be a big adventure...I haven't told her yet. I know that sounds terrible, but she is such a worrier that I was afraid she would be miserable for a month. Miserable with worry for a week and a half is much better...hopefully. I'm prepared for the fact that she may be very mad at me for just buying her a ticket. But in the end I think it is the best decision. She needs a big distraction from the first Christmas without Grandpa. And my mom and I need her around so we don't worry about her the entire time I'm in CA. Praying that God keeps us safe and healthy while we travel.

Oh Grandma

Oh the things that happen when you live with your grandma.
She used so much bleach to clean her kitchen towels that I had to open the front door so I could breath. Did I mention it is 24 degrees outside? But breathing is important. :)