Puff the Magic Dragon

My husband has never seen  "Puff the Magic Dragon."   We shall have to remedy that right quick ... 

(as it plays on the radio of "Frog Quarters," the little coffee shop we are mooching interwebs from) ... 

By the way, it's really hot outside, but don't worry, we are taking advantage of all the AC we can find, and the campground where we are staying for a few days has a pool, so we can stay cool. 

invention ideas ...

From our invention diary:

Day one: come up with a problem.
--For Junior (his younger brother) to stop bothering me.


Day two: list all possible solutions to that problem.
--loock my door, lie, and bother him, tie him up lock him in his house. 


Day three: tell three people about your solutions...  see what they would suggest.
(talked with mom, dad, and brother): they chose "bother him." 


Day four: after talking with those three people, rethink any possible solutions that might not work, and pick ONE to start working on:
Love him and take good care of him :)   :)   :)   




His invention: a cardboard facsimile of the church building with a door opening big enough for a hamster. I'm not quite sure of it's intended purpose, but his dad came to the invention fair, so that was cool :)

sign of the beaver (pt 1??)

from Sign of the Beaver:
(use the word in bold in a sentence):

I reckon it'll rain tonight.

I love johnny cakes.

It is not safe to venture into the woods at night.

The squirle was quavering when I shouted at him.

The quick-witted nerd hit me and ran.




I predict that in the next chapter Matt will meet an indian and become friends with it.

Lest I forget

[from an un-mailed letter to my dearest non-biological sister, several years ago ... I wonder what would have happened had it ended up with its rightful "owner"] ..

...My life nowadays is comprised of work, reading, sleeping, and occasionally finding some kind of food. my life nowadays is not comprised of exercise or daily Bible reading or hanging out with people. I have "time," it seems, to read book after book from the library, but when it comes to reading love letters from (and about) the Creator of the universe, i throw it aside and go to sleep. . My heart is growing cold and crusty, and I don't know whether to like it or hate it. I know I ought to hate it because it says so in the Bible and all, but I'm not sure if I like it, either,. If I don't really "like it," though, the fact is still there that I am tolerating a cold heart. Or lukewarm. Or hypocritical. Or all of the above. Either way, I do not like the position I find myself in now. The thing is, I don't know where to start to change it, or to ask God to change it. My heart should be crying right now, but there are some kind of callouses growing over any tear ducts and the tears cannot escape, no matter how much I wish. 

 All this I haven't really thought about writing until now, so I suppose this letter is something of a thinking process... If you can bear reading it, maybe it will give you something to pray about. Because seriously, I don't know if I can really pray anymore. I still "talk" to God, but I don't really "listen" to Him anymore, so it's not really "talking," but more like a 3-year-old. And I don't even know if it hurts. It's like when someone's so used to pulling hot cookie sheets from the over with their hands that it doesn't hurt and they can't feel it when they go without oven mitts to take the pans from a hot oven. 

blessing #10 - failure

My class is ridiculously unable to sit without talking when it's just myself in the room, but when the principal is in the room, they are as silent as a newborn rock.

*sigh* ...

~this was taken during our archaeological dig expedition in the class ... aren't they just adorable? :p

Lately my quizzes and tests (well, the ones my students take) are incredibly either high or low, rarely in-between as far as grades go. :/   ugh.   I can't do much when half of the class fails and the other half - that studied! - passes with flying colors (whatever THAT idiom means ) ... suggestions?  they need to know the material, but a good portion of the class is having trouble listening in class, and i'm sure i'm just a terrible teacher. ugh .... but the failures are a good thing, because maybe this is the wake-up call some parents need to start paying attention to their babies ...

Blessing #9 - routine

It is in the routine of life where we are really visible.

Establishing this routine - school, kids, dating, more kids, church, more kids, making new friends, more kids, maintaining relationships, more kids - has been changing who I am.

Each day, I have the choice - Joshua 24:15. I can choose to serve gods, or I can chose to serve God. Some days, I make little choices that serve gods like my students, my boyfriend, my family, or myself. Other days, I can jump up and down and spin in circles because I can honestly say I was serving Him - those are the best days. ... but they're still not as regular as I would like. I want to be at my 111% for Him. Not just 87%, or 94%, or even 17%. . . but 111%.   (That's my number - substitutable for whole-hearted.)

and part of being 111% is what I do in the routine, everyday bits that appear day after day after day.

the chaos of being a "first" (albeit, second) year teacher is wearing down and picking up at the same time. We've survived the first quarter, I've noticed both good and bad things that need tweaking in my classroom, and God's been reteaching me the importance of carving (and stealing, if need be) time for Him alone.

I've been trying to read a bit of Proverbs every day, along with a bit of various books and passages. I want to go deeper. starting with every little bit of every day God gives me - the big days and the small ones.

blessing #8 - a new body

went to church at South Dade today - it was good :) they used to be about the size of West Cannon but after hurrican Andrew hit lost a lot of people (because of the damage to the area, etc). but anyways.... definitely super solid, super loving group. I got to hang out with some kids while their parents were at choir practice :)
also, studied some of how Philippians 1:9-11 (Paul's prayer for abounding love) relates to I Corinthians 13 and I John 4:7+ ... pretty neat.
And David's here now - we just ran to Walmart to pick up some groceries. He's staying with the pastor for now, and they invited us over for dinner with their kids / grandkids :)  good fellowship, sweet people. Pull-apart biscuits and stew :)

God is good.

blessing #7 - 3 days down.

This week I had "new teacher orientation."  Lots of [free] breakfast, sunrises and sunsets, gorgeous clouds and spontaneous rainstorms (in Miami (that's what they all call the general area, even if Miami is 45ish minutes away) there are lots of random rainstorms. Perhaps it's like another peninsula I know, where the weather "changes" every five minutes . . . usually the rain doesn't last long, but sometimes it's sideways rain. Those are the days where umbrellas are purely decorative. :)  "My" camper door exits to the North, so I can peek out and see beautiful clouds or sunrises or sunsets any time of day, basically. Like a few minutes ago, I peeked myself over to the door and there was a lizard just chilling between the screen and the door. This post is totally stream of consciousness, Amanda-style (which means I throw in some complementary punctuation in or out of its proper place). He didn't want his picture taken, so he let me take a picture of the screen with his little body slightly blurred in the background. Anyways. 

We went over policies, procedures, curriculum stuffs, et cetera, with The Administrator. It was great fun. We got to jump into our classrooms, and apparently this school is super flexible with their teachers as far as decorations. After spending countless hours in rooms where flexibility is basically frowned upon, it was super refreshing to see teachers painting their rooms purple, green, blue, et cetera. . . and rooms full of raccoons :) yeah, Ms. Johnson! (the 1st grade version).  I got to meet with last year's fifth grade teacher; prettier than Idina Menzel, and has a cute li'l bump :) she gave me a good run-through of all the fun of fifth grade.... like safeties, the fifth grade end-of-the-year trip (like "sixth grade camp" at Crestview - fifth graders are the bigshots at my school here. :)  her time schedule (YAYYY) and lots of other fun things. :) Also got to go to "Get Smart" with Habyibah (4th grade!) and her mum (the amazing teacher superstore = store FOR teachers, not selling teachers) and only spent less than half of the amount "gifted" to each teacher at ma school.  Got some neat stuff - my classroom "theme" is going to be rather international - thinking Acts 1:8 or something similar, or praying for the brothers in chains, or ...)taking suggestions(
Also stopped at "Whole Foods" and found an amazing hummus - it had lemons in it. OH MYLANTA. : )

Now doing some research on family "devotions". . . thoughts? opinions? suggestions? - i.e. regularly scheduled, spontaneous, how often, is it / are they important? Something I need to research, that's all woot woot. 

^^^
~~~~~~Scripture to back it up, comments preferred on the blog, please. (not on FB). 

anyways, it is a blessing to have the first 3 days of orientation "done." 

blessing #6 - climate change

methinks I need to update more often, because then i might have more quality posts / at least post more than once a month.
i am moving to a wee bit south of miami, and looking forward to a change of pace . . . Going to be teaching at a Christian school down there - 5th grade!  Open to all of your advices!

side note - g'bye party at Crystie Long's this Sunday evening after church. come from wherever you are. and if you can't come ..
GET SKYPE. so we can talk once i'm in FLORIDA. craziness.

God is good.

I finished my huge portfolio, so other than discussion questions, I am DONE with classes. (other than student teaching, too, i guess).

it CRAZY-STORMED here tonight. as in, the rain was so loud I could barely hear the (slightly-old) news about the heartbreaks in Norway. it's amazing how big God is. He can create just by speaking. He can stop things just by speaking ... yet He humbled Himself to take my place, my punishment!

What a wonderful saviour!

(repost from May 4th, 2008) - blessing #5 - babies

This past weekend I got to meet two new babies - my friend Tracie's baby Lucas (a month old), and the newest addition to Berean Baptist, John Gage - called "Gage" as, i guess, most of his dad's line of men are named John ____ and go by their middle name. Rather cool concept, if you ask me. 


   At -(one of my roomates)- Danielle's baby shower, Lucas was a darling most of the time I held him. We had fun... I put him on his stomach across my lap and he just chilled until his socks fell off.   It was great to see Danielle and Leonard again, and watch how excited they were to get ready for their baby and how loving they were towards each other.  It was also great to see Tracie and Lucas and how becoming a mommy has changed my friend for the better - someone as small as Lucas was, making such a difference in so many lives. 
   
And at church today I met Gage - the oldest looking newborn I've ever met. He had the aged, wise old man look to his face, which was intriguing to see on one so young. Not your ordinary chubby-cheeked baby-faced baby, but a young man in a baby's body.  Incredibly handsome, to say the least, and incredibly tiny.  And fashionable, in his little white knit cap. 


Both of these little men were fortunate enough to be born into families where God is honored and people have made the choice to serve the Master rather than the World... how many others have been born this year alone into families that are struggling to make ends meet or struggling with sin and its effects?  Pray for the babies you never meet - and the ones you do.  I've seen God work in so many lives, and I know for a fact not all of these lives started in homes where God reigned. 
I've also seen children that have been blessed with parents who "chose" (if you will) to follow Christ, only to run away from their Creator as soon as they leave home. 



I wish it weren't that way.  I need far more than both of my hands to keep a count of the people I know who've been entrusted with godly, loving parents only to turn their back on everything true and real.  



Choices, decisions, and heartbreak.  



"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. - Pr. 22:6

"If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselvesthis day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers servedbeyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.  - Joshua 24:15


Something somewhere - most likely the nasty thing we know as sin - gets in the way of the "way he should go" and forces the people who were once babies to make a choice... a choice much like the ones made by the Israelites in Joshua's time.  God's side - the God who basically conquered the inhabitants of the land for the Israelites, or the world's side?

a choice that - when made - can set fire to the innocence of the babies we adore. 

One day, Lucas and Gage will have to choose. As must you and I.  Joshua commands his people to make their choices ASAP.  There is an urgency there, because innocence once lost is never again found in its entirety.  

Pray for these two new little men, and for the babies you meet or are planning on meeting - pray that God will allow them to make a choice for Him, and that their parents will lead them into the battle for truth.  

Pray for your own choices; pray that the choice you make every day will be to serve the God of Israel.  All other gods will fall before the true God, as will all who chose false gods... 

pray for innocence to return to our land.  Make choices that bring innocence back... see what He can do when you do. 


I hope this post was encouraging... and understandable.  It's just something I've had on my mind and I needed to share it.  


from my olde Xanga