Let it Snow!

Okay people. Here's the deal: I want snow!!! What's the point in living in New England if you don't even have snow by NOVEMBER 28?!?!

I know, I know, all you fellow New Englanders are screaming at me now (inwardly, if you happen to be in a more public place): "What are you thinking?! We're going to have plenty of snow, loads of snow, TOO MUCH snow before you know it! Stop tempting fate!"

But I'm starting to get anxious. What if it didn't snow this winter? Can you imagine? What if I was forced to move to (gasp) Canada or something to get my snow fix?

Sometimes you don't know you're an addict until the addiction is removed. If we don't get snow I'm going to have serious withdrawal symptoms. I mean, the fact that moving to Canada even crossed my fingertips is a tell-tale sign.

Anyway, the point is, I keep seeing snow globes, and snow flake cut-outs, and snow stickers, and snow storms on tv, and I look outside and see fall, fall, fall. Let's have a little winter!

Now, I'm not being an extremist here. You'll notice I said a "LITTLE" winter. But whatever it is, I'm feeling a little desperate.

Let it snow let it snow let it snow!

(Ya, ya, first big blizzard you'll all be inwardly - or outwardly - berating me. You superstitious readers, you.)

Happy Thanksgiving... and Merry Christmas Season!!!

I am thankful for a wonderful year! God has blessed me immeasurably, most noticeably in the deepening of my relationship with Him and in my teaching. But also in an awesome summer. And of course the amazing people in my life! Thank you, friends and family, for enriching my life, for encouraging me on, for being the world's best people!

And NOW, since it's the day after Thanksgiving, it's time to start in on CHRISTMAS celebration!!! YIPPEEEE! The day after Thanksgiving is one of my favorites - especially at that moment when Dad puts on our family's favorite Christmas CD (An Old World Christmas). And Dad was out putting up our Christmas lights, so when sundown hits the Christmas season will be here big time!

(Back to the Thanksgiving theme - I'm thankful for Danny, who just came jogging by here and stopped to chat for a bit. "Here" being my car, which is parked outside Gerry's where I'm pirating his high-speed connection. My brother is so awesome, and he makes me laugh so very much. He and Andrew and Brandon - they are the three kings of laugh-provoking - at least as far as I'm concerned. Anyway, just wanted to add that little spontaneous 'thankful-for.')

So ya, opening day of Christmas season: HURRAH!!! May it be a blessed one for each of you - and full of the reality of what it all means: Emmanuel - God with us! Amazing truth.

:)

I almost never turn my laptop off. I just flip the cover down and it goes into hibernate, or standby or whatever it is when the screen goes black and then you have to hit the power button to get it to come back to the screen you left it on. Anyway. Last Friday night I decided to turn it off. And as I was clicking on the buttons to do so, into my mind flashed the paraphrased verse, "There shall be a Sabbath of rest for the computer of Andrea." Hee hee hee. It still makes me laugh! My subconscious is hilarious. I guess that wouldn't be my subconscious, actually, since it dawned on my consciousness. Well, whatever it is that puts funny ideas into my mind out of the blue is hilarious!

Then, driving home from school yesterday I was listening to NPR (I don't have a CD player right now, and was sick of sports radio; i.e. I was desperate, okay?). Apparently there is an NPR program called "Open Source." Instantly the whatever-it-is-that-puts-funny-ideas-into-my-mind suggested Open Sores as a possible alternate title. Quite appropriate, if you think about it.

I am going to kick myself. I had a third hilarious thing to relate and now I can't remember it for the life of me! Grrrrr. It's probably just as well, since I'm sure these things are much funnier to me than they are to anyon

I REMEMBERED IT!!!

Okay, so you know how I'm just finishing teaching Macbeth and am in the midst of teaching Hamlet? Well this morning I was driving to work and thought, "Ay, this likes not me." This likes not me?!?! Um, I think you mean "I don't like this," Andrea. Snap out of the Shakespeare talk!

It reminds me of the Calvin and Hobbes in which Calvin and his mom are going back and forth in Elizabethan language for awhile, and then in the last frame you see they're watching some such movie together, which is totally captivating the mom and totally revolting poor Calvin:)

Ahhhh, I love Shakespeare.

Speaking of which, the teacher with whom I share my room thinks Shakespeare's plays were written by Sir Francis Bacon (HA!). The students got us into a minor confrontation on the subject (which I totally won, by the way... I think), and this fellow-teacher told me he had been reluctant to broach the subject with me because he knew how much I loved Shakespeare and "it would be like telling you I saw your boyfriend at the mall with another girl."

Well actually, sir, this wouldn't bother me because it obviously wouldn't be true, just like it's not true that Shakespeare's plays were written by Bacon!

Case closed.

Post over.

(That was fun!)

Some Sabbath Thoughts

It has been impressed on me over and over in the past several months how intensely personal the Christian life must be.

Last February, when I was in GA with Diane, Uncle Dave had a wonderful mid-week meeting along these lines. He talked about "the secret place" - that hidden place in which our souls commune with God. And he talked about the white stone given to the overcomer, on which a name is written that only God and the overcomer know. He connected the two ideas, hypothesizing that the relationship we form in secret with God is the basis for that secret name, as if the name captures the essence of the relationship between that soul and God. I love that.

It made me think of C.S.Lewis' "The Four Loves" in which he talks about friendships, and how, when two people are friends there are three identities: friend one, friend two, and the relationship between friend one and friend two. Fascinating thought. So with God. The relationship I have with God is an entity totally unique from any other entity.

And as I prayed, a few months ago, for revival and vision in the church, I realized so clearly that in praying that way I wasn't praying for a church that had incredible Sunday services in which everyone was crying and shouting hallelujahs and never disagreeing about anything. I was praying for individuals to catch a fresh glimpse of Jesus, and follow after Him with their whole hearts - totally in love with Him and desirous of His will. A church of individuals whose eyes are fixed on Jesus. And it was very real to me that in praying for revival in the church, I needed to start with praying for my own relationship with God to take on new and vibrant life.

And since those thoughts started percolating in my mind I've run across SO many Oswald Chambers quotes along the same lines. (And I will now take this opportunity to HIGHLY recommend the Oswald Chambers one-year Bible: "My Utmost Devotional Bible." So good.) I know it's hard to read quoted work sometimes, but believe me, this is well worth it!

"It is not sufficient to know that God has redeemed the world, and to know that the Holy Spirit can make all that Jesus did effectual in me; I must have the basis of a personal relationship to Him. Paul was not given a message or a doctrine to proclaim, he was brought into a vivid, personal, overmastering relationship to Jesus Christ... Paul was devoted to a Person not a cause. He was absolutely Jesus Christ's, he saw nothing else, he lived for nothing else."

"Abandon in the profound sense if of infinitely more value than personal holiness. Personal holiness brings the attention to bear on my own whiteness... The holiness produced through the indwelling of the His Son in me is a holiness which is never conscious of itself. There are some people in who you cannot find a speck and yet they are not abundantly blessed of God, while others make grave indiscretions and get marvelously blessed; the reason being that the former have become devotees of personal holiness, conscientious to a degree; the latter are marked by abandonment to God. The only way to be kept cleansed is by walking in the light as God is in the light."

"The battle is lost or won in the secret places of the will before God, never first in the external world... That is the way abandonment begins. Every now and again, not often, but sometimes, God brings us to a point of climax. That is the Great Divide in the life; from that point we either go toward a more and more dilatory and useless type of Christian life, or we become more and more ablaze for the glory of God - My Utmost for His Highest."

I started writing this post without knowing where it would go... But I probably should have guessed

It is not Kimberly's birthday anymore. It is, however, parent-teacher conference day! And consequently, since I had only three conferences, I am home from school waaaaay early. I love conference day!

There are some incredible parents at my school. I haven't had to deal with any of the "oh my child is an angel - the bad grade must be your fault" types. They are supportive parents, and great to work with. Hurrah for Christian schools!

I came home with three video versions of Macbeth. I will be watching them for a large part of the afternoon, deciding which version will be best for my kids to watch. My life is so hard.

I had my students write out what they thought of Macbeth, and 3 out of 4 of them hated it. Hm. The class is four 9th grade boys, so it's not like it was my upper level or anything. But I was still surprised. (Boy #4, by the way, got an insane amount of brownie points for liking it!) Who hates Macbeth?!?! Part of me was sad, because if I had taught it better they might have liked it better. And part of me was annoyed because of my suspicion that one of the boys' very negative attitude influenced the other two. Grrrr. I sense an attitude peptalk/lecture coming up!

So I'll just add my little exhortation here (warning: preaching to the choir coming up!). Be one of those people who makes things go. Go into whatever you do, especially if it involves a group, with a positive attitude. It makes such a difference for everyone else! And it's scary how much one bad attitude can poison a group.

In other news, I'm reading Hamlet with my older group, and they're loving it! And, what's more (perhaps) they're understanding it! I was so overjoyed yesterday when the whole class was laughing - really laughing - at Polonius and his way of talking. Yay! Way to understand Shakespeare's sense of humor! That class is so awesome.

And while I'm in the midst of Lit updates, since I guess that's what this post has turned into, my 7/8 girls told me yesterday that Jane Eyre is the best book they'd ever read in a literature class. HURRAH!!!

Man, I love teaching lit.

Happy Birthday KJ!

Today is Kimberly's birthday!

I, for one, am so glad she was born. She is a wonderful sister and friend - a wonderful girl. And here she is, away from home for her birthday. And she's having a great day! I talked to her on the phone and she was so chipper and happy... she is amazing.

In fact, she's been amazing throughout this FL business. Who would have thought the youngest would go so far away? But she has been thriving! I can't even express how proud of her I am. She is forging her own way - being so responsible and grown-up - and she's having fun doing it! She is taking college maturely - even going to a professor's office to chat about how WRONG he had been in class. The two had tea together and talked for an hour or more. She's doing good work, she's learning, and she's enjoying it. And I'm SO IMPRESSED!

That's not all that impresses me about KJ - add to the above her response to God, her courage, her poise, her beauty, her sense of humor, her ability to make whatever she's doing a party:), her friendships, her intellect, her just plain old awesomeness!

So happy birthday, Kimberly! I love you!

EXTRAVAGANZA!!!

Melissa here...back from semi-retirement, once again glad that I glommed onto Andrea's blog instead of creating my own. But this week was rather momentous for several reasons, so here I am.

Numero Uno: I got into my very first real car accident yesterday. Yay! How blogworthy! Ugh. I was on my way to class and got stuck in traffic -- the kind where the car in front of you moves up 10 feet, then you move, then they move, then you move, then they stop moving, and then you keep moving. Just took my eyes off the road for a second, and WHAM! Suddenly the rather large pickup in front of me looked a whole lot larger, and my brain slowly registered the fact that this was no slight tap of the bumpers. Thankfully the guy in the truck was fine -- in fact, he was incredibly nice ("don't worry about it... these things happen."). There was just a slight dent in his bumper and some cracked undercarriage parts. I was also fine, besides my crumpling nerves. Unfortunately, my nerves were not all that was crumpled. Waaaaah! The truck's bumper was high enough to pretty much take out my lights, grill, and the front of my hood. It looks like my car was punched in the face -- a very sorry sight. A situation like this creates such a helpless (and utterly stupid) feeling! One second before, the hood was shiny and intact; then suddenly it wasn't. Surely there must be a way to go back that tiny amount of time and make it go away. But sadly, life sure doesn't work that way. So I was left to feel foolish and shaken up, and then get rescued by so many heroes: my mom (only a few minutes away at the time), the nice truck guy, the cop (um, actually he was a little annoying), Uncle Dave, who got me over to the shop and hooked me up with new wheels in no time (sure is nice to have connections), and my dad, who got home that night and flooded me with love and immediate forgiveness (and a few exaggerated [I hope] estimates of how much it would cost to repair the thing). Such undeserved grace! I really am very thankful that it wasn't worse. It reminded me of how easy it is for such things to happen, and how much protection God really provides on a daily basis. And boy howdy, I was so careful on the way home it felt like it was my first day with a driver's permit.

Okay, so that's not the main reason I'm posting. You probably all skipped that first part anyway if you saw there were pictures below. I'M ONTO YOUR GAME! Man alive, people have no attention spans these days. Anyway, on Monday I officially signed the next 3 semesters of my life away to the art department. BFA FOR ME!!! (Bachelor of Fine Arts, to those who see only in IM-ese and thought I was saying Best Friends Always or something). I had to apply to get accepted into the program, which will theoretically lead to a studio art degree rather than the more generalized B.A. I had to gather my best pieces from current and past classes and present a portfolio for the faculty to review. Lil scary. But, hallelujah, I got in! And I got some positive feedback from my professors and even from a couple of the awe-inspiring senior painters... that always feels good. I really can't believe I've gotten to this point. Basically God has opened door after door over the past couple of years and gently shoved me through them. Suddenly here I am in my junior year, hardly knowing what happened, with a goal and the means to reach it (or at least head in that direction). I'm amazed at what God has done. I still don't know what the final result will be, but right now I'm grateful.

I know several of you more far-flung friends (FFF)have been wanting to see some of my work, so I figured I'd post a few pictures. They came out a little dark and oddly sepia-toned, but you'll get the idea.

First, here's my studio, in all its cluttered splendor. I thought about cleaning it before I revealed it to the world, but that wouldn't really be a true picture, now would it? Notice the spectacular lighting, thanks to the magic of the traveling A's (all these pictures actually came out quite dark, so illuminate times 10 in your imagination).

Here are a couple of drawings from last year. They're done with ripped paper textured with ink and charcoal and such kind of thing. Anyone recognize the above image? (hint: place)

And here are some of my paintings. The first one is, um, a still life with bottles (thanks to Uncle J, who happens to dig up some really cool ones).

This is Uncle L.'s skull (uncles sure are popping up a lot in this post). Not literally his, of course, but he happened to have an extra one kicking around that he let me borrow. At first it was a little freaky being locked up in the cellar with this thing (especially since that was before the days of spectacular lighting).

And here's one from this semester. We've been working on quicker, more gestural stuff a lot.

And that's all for now. Thanks for listening.

A Good Revelation for a New Englander to Have

Guess what I just realized this year: I really love autumn! (I was going to say I love the fall, but I was afraid that could be misunderstood...)

I've always been a spring/summer girl, myself. How could I help it? Weather getting warmer, flowers blooming... no school. But this year I have been struck over and over again by how beautiful the fall is.

There is the foliage, of course. I've noticed the beauty of the leaves repeatedly. But it's not just that. There's something bracing and invigorating about the briskness of the air, for instance. Maybe intense is the word I want. Everything feels sharp and alive. It's a very different kind of alive from that alive feeling of spring... but it is an alive feeling none the less. And this quality of the air makes the nights so clear. Like the night has come into focus.

Also, there is an amazing blueness of the sky that autumn has more than any other season. The contrast between leaves and sky can be breathtaking.

And now, even after the leaves have all fallen, I still love the season. The air is getting that Christmas tenor to it. I take a deep breath and think of the warmth of the Christmas season. No doubt about it, I am a new convert to this fall business.

And it probably helps, too, that fall is no longer "I have to go back to high school" time, but rather "I get to start teaching again!" time:)