Grading... (Sigh)

I just graded SO many papers (well, according to my standards - not Chad's). Grading papers is the only part of teaching that I don't love. In fact, to be perfectly honest, I don't even especially like it. To tell the truth, there is little that is more discouraging than a stack of papers to grade. But I had to get them done this evening because I have to submit my midterm grades tomorrow. Sigh. So of course, to console myself in the drudgery, I turned on the Bruins game as a sort of self-deception (ha ha I can't be miserable because there is a game on somewhere in the outskirts of my consciousness!). Okay, okay, miserable is a mighty strong word. And as long as I have a game or something it's quite endurable.

I had a college professor who said that the only way he survived paper grading was by setting a strict quota for every day. Otherwise they would pile up and completely overwhelm him.

And in honor of professors and the dread of paper grading, I bring to your attention this fascinating bit of trivia I ran across recently, concerning our dear friend J. R. R. Tolkien and the creation of The Hobbit.

"One day when he was engaged in the soul-destroying task of marking examination papers, he discovered that one candidate had left one page of an answer-book blank. On this page, moved by who knows what anarchic daemon, he wrote "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."
In typical Tolkien fashion, he then decided he needed to find out what a Hobbit was, what sort of a hole it lived in, why it lived in a hole, etc." (From tolkiensociety.org)

Pretty good, eh? So who knows what good may come of paper grading! Take heart my old professor! Take heart, Chad! Take heart all you other teachers out there! Some great epic work may yet come of this business...

Happy Christmas Season!

I LOVE the Christmas season, and I love it more and more as I more and more comprehend the incredible significance of what it stands for. Emmanuel: God with us. What an amazing – staggering – life-changing reality!

Yesterday I read in Colossians: “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Jesus’ birth means Christ in us, salvation, and a Savior who understands the human condition, who has made the way of escape from that “condition” to eternal rightness and perfection. Amazing truth!

I still remember and am blessed by Amy’s 9:00 hour message during our third year: Jesus was willing to come to live on “this mortal coil” (quoted from Hamlet! Amy is incredible…) with all of its “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” for our sakes. He lived through it. He understands it. He died in it. And He won the victory over it.

He “counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in likeness of men.”

Almighty God, Love Himself, would not allow mankind to suffer and perish. And Christmas is our yearly reminder that because of this we have a Savior: God with us.

Teaching is a Serious Business

There are some scary things about teaching. These kids think you know what you're talking about, and expect you to be right. And they have amazing memories (except for where quizzes and tests are concerned, of course). Students will remind me of things I said last year - things I'd totally forgotten I even told them. And if I'm wrong... phew!

Last year I taught my science class the phases of the moon. We spent all of class on it. It took them awhile to catch on. Then I went to assign their homework, and discovered that I had taught them everything exactly backward. I spent the whole next class trying to fix the errors of the class before ("okay kids, remember everything I told you, except in the opposite way"). Oy vay.

One must really be careful in the teaching profession. What if I hadn't caught that mistake, and they'd gone on to college and told their teacher that a waning gibbous was a waxing gibbous? Oh the horror. As a teacher, I cannot o'erlook these possibilities. (Sorry - Shakespeare is on my mind. We finished Hamlet today. SO good. The kids really liked it.)

All of this is just to give you the context (which, as we all know, is vital) for my leaping up in the night, grabbing my laptop, flipping it open, and googling "hanged." You see, ever since last year with The Tale of Two Cities I've been telling my students that you haven't hung the person, you've hanged him. Weird, but true. But in the dark watches of the night I wondered: Was it really true? What if I just picked that up some weird place and it's really not the case at all?!

Google, however, came to the assuring rescue. The past tense of hang (when talking of people) is indeed hanged. Phew. That's one thing that won't come back to haunt my students in later years!

Schooling Ups and Downs

Yesterday was SO much fun.

Okay, you know how Hamlet is described as the "melancholy Dane?" Well. Danny, when he taught Hamlet, spent a day doing personality testing for the four personality types! He suggested this to me and I tried it and we had such fun doing it. My class has a Choleric, a Sanguine, a Melancholic/Sanguine, a Phlegmatic/Melancholic, and a Sanguine/Phlegmatic. They had such a great time going through the questions and laughing and comparing and discussing.

One of the classic moments came when one student looked up from the incredibly meticulous drawing he was working on to ask "What do they mean by detailed?" Ya. That would be you, pal.

I pointed out how their diverse personality types were probably part of the reason the class gets along so well...

Then came today. Whew. The kids came to class and within ten minutes trouble broke out. It was a small thing, really - one of the boys took one of the girls' water bottles. But that was just the straw that broke the camel's back, as it were. [Side note: on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire someone got out at the $100 question for saying it was the stick that broke the camel's back. It pays to know your cliches!] Up to the surface bubbled the wrongs of three months. People were mad in no time! So much for the class getting along so well...

The lesson plan was chucked. Well, I attempted it, but looked out upon sullen and flushed faces, and decided other things were more important. [Happy thing! In the mornings I pray for the Holy Spirit to help me to be the teacher I need to be, and to remind me of Him throughout the day. During this class I actually remembered to PRAY for help in dealing with the situation! That was a big deal for me, and I'm thankful.] Instead of reading of Hamlet and Polonius, we talked about give and take, personality differences (how handy that we'd just done the personality tests!), kindness, and going on a journey from where we were now as a class, to a place of harmony:) I encouraged them that they have a special class - uniquely close. They're lucky!

Then I resumed Hamlet. But I could tell some of them were still pretty upset. My poor choleric had been ganged up on, and was not recovering quickly. SOOOO, the lesson plan was scrapped again and we played the telephone/pictionary game! Fortunately they loved it. Laughter once more filled the classroom.

They were ten minutes late to their next class - I ran ahead of them to tell the teacher it was my fault. But I thought it was important.

I love that class so much. They are so much fun, and so fabulous. But they need to work on the whole "walk in love" idea. And we will work on that, boy howdy! They have incredible potential, and there's no sense wasting that in squabbling and needless barbs. So there are my recent adventures in school-world.

Man. I love teaching.

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:)

Portland Head at Sunrise

I found this picture on line and thought it was astonishing. I love the breaking dawn - the way the darkness is giving way before the light.

It's coming, friends...

hgjlk

Climax Reached!

NOTE: Those who have not read Jane Eyre should NOT read this post!!! Instead you should go directly to the library, check the book out, read it cover to cover, and then return and read this post.

I have been holding my breath since September 12 or so (which is a very long time to be holding one's breath - that's got to be some kind of record), when I started reading Jane Eyre with my class. I was paranoid lest someone spoil the surprise for my students!

I distinctly remember the how surprised and horrified I was the first time I read that book: the feeling as if all the wind had been knocked right out of me, the total shock and dismay, the sense of going through that darkness with Jane, thinking nothing can possibly work out right now.

And I really wanted my students to be able to remember a similar feeling! With the accompanying feelings that come at the end of the book, of course. But my wishes for my kids were in constant peril, as chronicled below:

September 14: Headmaster walks through the classroom, sees the book the kids are reading, and asks "Oh! Have you reached the part with the locked up woman yet?"

September 30: I realize that the high school students have read this book several years ago, and that they love to give away endings to each other...

October 15: Headmaster's son (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, Marilla!) asks one of my students if the ex-wife has showed up yet. (Fortunately I'm able to later assure said student that headmaster's son had it all wrong - thank goodness for monosyllabic prefixes!)

October 23: Fellow-teacher says, "Oh the person who laughs wasn't Grace Poole!" (And then, much to his credit, he realizes the students haven't read that far yet and adds:) "It was the butler!"

October 24: I mention to my high school students that we're about to get to the climax in my Jane Eyre class. They cannot stop joking about giving the story away. I impress, very deeply, the fact that I do not wish them to do this. I think they understand. But I can't be totally sure.

October 25: I read aloud the chapter about the wedding at last! The students are shocked, and questions fly so think and fast that I can't even finish the chapter. Incredulity and understanding hit all at once. SUCCESS!!!!!!

I begin to breath again.

October 26: The students are still incredulous, and keep giving Jane not-quite-morally-sound advice about what she should do (here's a new one - "They should just put Bertha out of her misery! And then they should get married!" A short but interesting - and slightly disturbing - discussion about euthanasia follows). We get to the end of the period and the wails of anguish when I say we have to stop are enough to persuade me to get permission to read more to them during their lunch period! Five of seven (the five girls, surprisingly enough) opted to stay.

What a fabulous success! I can't wait to finish the book now...

This Just In...

Salad is more palatable if eaten with one's hands!

Perhaps part of my deep loathing of salad springs from my inability to get the stuff onto my fork.

Sadly, conventions of acceptable societal behavior may put a damper on my latest discovery.

The Two Happiest Teaching Moments of my Life

The first of the happiest moments of my teaching life came last year, sometime around the first day of school, right after my first class, when I realized, "I LOVE this! I was MADE for this!"

The second of the two happiest moments of my teaching life came today. I was talking with the headmaster, whose son is in my senior class. They had just gone down to PA for a college visit. The headmaster said, "Andrea, have you heard what my son's been telling people? You're not going to believe this. This is going to floor you. We got down there to PA, and the people asked what he was thinking about going into. And he said Literature."

!!!

Let me try to tell you what this meant to me. I was awake in the night, two and a half years ago, wondering what in the world I was going to do with my life. I realized that teaching was all I could see myself doing career-wise. I had discovered how much I loved literature that semester. And I couldn't imagine anything better than being able to stay immersed in it all my life, and passing on that love to other people. That was what I wanted to do with a teaching career: inspire others to want to find the beauty I had found - show people the possibilities and the richness there.

When my headmaster told me that news, my cup was full! THAT is why I had become a teacher. And I realized in that moment, very concretely, that that vision I'd had was being realized. What an amazing moment!

The Jane Eyre Mystery

I'm teaching Jane Eyre to my 7th and 8th graders, and I'm having a ball with it! The following tale is based on a real class... We just read the chapter in which someone sets fire to Mr. Rochester's bed. We got to the end of the chapter, where Mr. Rochester tenderly thanks Jane with her hand in both of his, and then I started asking the questions. "What is up with this Grace Poole character?!"

You should have HEARD the hypotheses that flew about thick and fast. We started with the more expected:

"Maybe she's crazy!"

"Maybe she's evil!"

"Maybe she knows something about Mr. Rochester, and if he fires her she'll tell everyone, so he can't get rid of her."

I write blackmail on the board.

And THEN...

"I know! She didn't really do it - the other servant, Leah, paid her to go by Jane's room and laugh and then leave, and then Leah did it!" (Motive? Um, no.)

"It was probably MRS. FAIRFAX (the very docile, ordinary old housekeeper), because she was distantly related and maybe she would inherit Thornfield!"

"Maybe Mrs. Pool has someone locked up in the attic!" (Miss Murray laughs in what she hopes will be perceived as a how-cute-of-you-to-be-so-far-wrong way, and not a nervous how-in-the-world-did-you-hit-upon-that way.)

"Or MAYBE Mrs. Pool is really Celine, the French dancer, Adele's mom, that Mr. Rochester used to love. And she's pretending to be crazy and she's so good at it Mr. R doesn't even know it is she!" (Actually, none of my kids would say "it is she." sigh.)

"It was probably Pilot (the dog)."

"It was the wife of the guy Mr. Rochester shot in the arm long ago, and she's come back to get revenge!"

"No, guys, it's always the person you don't suspect. It was probably Mr. Rochester himself!"

And then came the crowning moment of the class:

"I know. Guys, I know. Mr. Rochester just did it so he could have an excuse to hold Jane's hand." (Gales of laughter. Order never restored. Teacher laughing too hard to try. Class over.)

The Really Real

This week I've run into a few negative interpretations of religion.

In a tv show two people were discussing prayer. One said we thank God for things not because it does anything for Him (the speaker didn't even believe there was a God), but because it was good for us to express that feeling of thankfulness. Hm. The other said we thank God for things because we don't want to be squished like bugs. Nice.

Then, in bloggerdom, I saw a comment about religion being something man has created because of his own ego - he wants to think his ego can connect on with something that will last forever. Cheery.

And I just want to scream "PEOPLE! You're MISSING SO MUCH!!!"

All week long, since last weekend's awesome experience with the Holy Spirit, I've been thinking about how wonderful it is to dwell on the things that really matter - the things that are really REAL. It is so good to focus on the things that are high and lasting and right, instead of being absorbed with the trivial and temporary.

And I was thinking about other people who don't even know of this whole realm - the realm that is so much more real and lasting than what they see around them. My prayers for the removal of the covering (aided in inspiration by Craig's comments about being a prayer warrior even in the little prayers) have taken on new life. How dreadful to go through life without experiencing reality! It's as if a bunch of people are walking around with only half of their lungs, so that they can never breath deeply. It's like unsaved humanity can only see in black and white, or have no taste buds, or something... only so much more so. There is SO much MORE!

I breath in, deeply, the air of reality. I rejoice that God has allowed me to see Him and His truth - and I pray it out to the rest of humanity. I want them to break through the thin veneer on which they live their lives, and fall into the rich depths of what life is really about: the REALLY real!

God is huge - He is everything good - He is the meaning - He is the purpose - He is the most real reality. He has set up the world to be enjoyed in this context: that He is GOD! So let's live our lives in that context - experiencing all the good He has given us in this life - and looking forward to the time when what is really real is all we see, and the trivial, superficial, and transient are gone forever. And let's believe for others to get the reality too!

Praise the Lord for TRUTH!

Sept 30, 2006

By now you’ve probably read, on Craig’s or Derrick’s blog, about last Saturday night’s outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Here I am at last, with teacher training tomorrow and thus no lesson plans tonight (!), to weigh in on the matter.

It seemed to me a time of great import. It was a unified surrender of self to all that God has for us. It was a joint outpouring of our desire for God, for vision, for His highest. It was a time unlike any I’ve experienced before, in terms of being with a group of peers seeking God in that way. I found myself real and open, uninhibited, as I talked to God, despite the fact that so many others were listening. That was the Holy Spirit.

And I believe God heard us and is answering. Actually, I think we were the ones who were answering His call. But when we called to Him in response, He answered us and worked and is continuing to work, continuing to call us higher.

And I want to go. What else is there? What else would we possibly want to waste our time with except the highest and best – that for which we were created.

And I’m anticipating great things. God doesn’t work at random – everything He does is moving us toward that final goal of history. What happened that night happened for a reason. God prepared us for that, and what happened was preparation for something else… I keep thinking about the impact a group of people totally committed to God and to His will could have. Who knows what God has planned?! It is as if He is building a force for something. And I’m in.

I don’t know what it is, exactly. All I know is that I want to be totally His – totally surrendered – totally taken up with Him. And He'll do the rest.

Of course, emotions don’t last and the high fades. But the truth of the matter continues on – the vision is still there – the desire to deal only with what’s real remains. Whatever I do, I want to be close to Him, and furthering His Kingdom.

And that’s where it starts. As we give ourselves to Him, He can use us. So, readers, I encourage you to think about what really matters, and give yourselves again to His cause. It doesn’t have to be an emotional thing, even – just a conscious assent to His will is incredibly powerful. I am praying for new life all over the Kingdom – for an entire church with the passion to be His and only His, to see Him and only Him, to pursue Him and Him alone.

I believe this is possible, and that, if and when it happens, the power of such a movement will be immeasurable. So let’s turn to God and see what He will do! This is what really matters.

Across the Sea

I am sailing, I am sailing,
Home again 'cross the sea.
I am sailing, stormy waters,
To be near you, to be free.

-Gavin Sutherland










And, doubtless, unto thee is given
A life that bears immortal fruit
In those great offices that suit
The full-grown energies of heaven...

But thou and I have shaken hands,
Till growing winters lay me low;
My paths are in the fields I know,
And thine in undisover'd lands.

Tennyson, In Memoriam, XL

My Latest Games...

After having two people from school comment on my driving (specifically my tactic of weaving about through various lanes of traffic on the highway), I decided it was time to do something about it. One never knows when one will be spotted by someone from one's work world. Sigh. So recently I've been playing this game called "patience." It's actually quite entrancing! Finally I begin to understand children's attraction to The Quiet Game. I always assumed they were just a little too, um, immature to realize that the game was merely to keep them from driving adults crazy. But they may be on to something. It really is entertaining to spend time doing something contrary to nature! I calmly drive down the road, sticking with one lane, and shaking my head and sighing condescendingly about that young hot-head who is weaving about through lanes of traffic trying to save himself one extra minute. These silly impatient drivers. Someday maybe they will be as mature and peaceful as I am, serenely gliding down the highway.

The other game I've been playing is the "be more like Danny" game. It's great fun. You pretend that you have the work ethic of your older brother, so you work like a slave all week on lesson plans and essay grading. The reason this is a game is because you're pretending that you're doing the work in order to be as good a teacher as your brother, but really you're doing it because you have absolutely no choice - the amount of work is the bare minimum for survival now that you are teaching this many classes.

In other news (lest we forget) I LOVE TEACHING!!!

Okay, who told the Chinese?

It's so nice having TJ home - it means we eat Chinese food more:) And last weekend, I got a fortune cookie that made me reflect on deep life truths. Or deep life questions, rather. Like, who told the Chinese about me? Which of my friends and relations is the mole?!

My fortune was "You will find yourself in a position of dignity in the end." HA! You keep trying to be grown up and dignified, but we fortune cookie writers know that you are fighting a losing battle. You?! Dignified?! (giggle giggle) But hey, don't worry. You might be dignified by the time you DIE! (If you're lucky.) (more giggles)

Today one of my students told me that her mother said I bring sunshine to the school... you can hear me all through the halls. Oh. Great!

Well, here's hoping for that dignity in the end...

Confrontation? Not Today!

This morning I got a text message from one of my student's moms (the one who really befriended me last year - I love her!), saying she was sorry to bother me, but she needed to ask me a question.

Uh oh, I thought, here it comes. Her daughter had not completed her summer assignments, and I had told her that she could either tell her mom she was starting the semester with three zeros, or I would have to call her myself. From the text message I surmised that the daughter had told the mother, the mother was upset, and the mother wanted to talk me into some kind of excessive grace or something.

But I texted her back and told her she wasn't bothering me and to go ahead and ask. She texted me back: "[re: the logic puzzle I'd given her daughter in class the day before] Who really did steal the art picture, Charlie or Bill?!"

Hee hee hee. I was vastly relieved and told her it was Charlie. How cute!

And now, with that lovely segue into the subject of school (HA! What else do I ever blog about during the year?!), I am happy to report that things are going fabulously. Last night I was reflecting on the difference between this Friday and last Friday. Last Friday I was a mess, worried about the work load, hating the prospect of Rhetoric class, sure I would never survive. (Incidentally, when I start feeling like that I love quoting "The Princess Bride" at the part where Westley and Buttercup are about to enter the Fireswamp and Buttercup says "We'll never survive," in that beautiful English accent. Hm. Obviously I can't be too despairing if I am still quoting TPB... Oh well. It was pretty despairing for the likes of me.)

This Friday I came home wicked tired, but also happy with how the classes had gone, how I'd handled them (I felt so good-teacher-y because I went the extra mile, in trying to explain truth, validity, and soundness in my logic class, by bringing in a diagram and a visual aid made with legos!), and how the future looked. That talk with my headmaster made such a difference, as did getting further into the groove. I'm going to have to work hard, harder than last year, but not nearly as hard as I envisioned (burning the midnight oil - not a moment's free time - all that jazz). It's going to be okay, thank the Lord!

And this week, I had many of those moments where I thought to myself, or even said aloud: "I LOVE TEACHING!!!"

My Style of Conflict Resolution: Everyone Agree with Me!

This morning I was grumpy as all get-out, bewailing my overworked state. But by afternoon I was blissfully saying I had the best job in the world. What made the difference? The world's BEST headmaster!

Friday afternoon I suddenly realized that Rhetoric class was going to be totally boring and a waste of time and energy. This is not a realization one wants to reach at the beginning of a school year. So I generally panicked, and then started casting about for alternate curriculum.

This afternoon, with fear and trepidation, I sat down with my headmaster and told him I wanted to scrap the curriculum and replace it with a new one. And he listened! And (gasp) agreed! He was totally on my side. Isn't that amazing?! As an employee, I felt like my boss was really behind me, and wanted me to succeed. Now that was a good thing to realize at the beginning of a school year. He is really a good man. Bless his heart! He just saved my santity. It's amazing what the losing of a horrible class and the gaining of a fascinating one will do for my morale!

An Exciting Win, says you...

A Change in the Wind, Says I!

"It's Only a Game"

That has to be one of my most-despised phrases of all time. And for some reason, I always tend to hear it when it is the least true! It is NOT just a game! Well, okay, technically, definition-wise, it is just a game. Not a llama. Or a compound sentence. It is not a game AND a pistachio. It is just a game. That much I can accept.

But we all know that when somebody says, complacently or conciliatorily, "it's only a game," the implication is, "it doesn't matter." "Only" means "merely." "Only" means "I can't believe you care about something this insignificant." "Only" means "why don't you get an interest like world peace or something that really matters?" "Only" means "you are an inferior human being for even thinking about caring." Humph. Only, forsooth!

The phrase is invariably used by someone who is not a fan, or not an athlete, and is directed toward someone who is very much one or the other or both, and almost always when the team that the latter is supporting is losing in the playoffs or something. At the point where the fan is at his most tense - the team is at the do-or-die point - history is in the balance.

It is not "merely" a game. It is a CONTEST. It is a CHAMPIONSHIP. It is VICTORY at stake. There is a lot more to a game than it's definition - than the fact that what is being achieved isn't affecting the economy or the state of the Middle East. In a game there is the striving after perfection, the pitting of the best in the world against the best in the world, the attaining of things no one else has ever attained. It is a team - a group of men who have been seeking the same goal, together. It is a fan-base: people who have watched history unfolding with bated breath, and with passionate interest. There is a LOT to a game! It's not just a couple of hoops and a ball that bounces. That's almost like simplifying the Mid East conflict into a couple of guns and a line in the sand. There's a lot more to it than that! Similarly, there is a lot more at stake in a championship game than "only a game."

So, folks, let's not trivialize the role of the game in America. Let's not forget the lessons games teach, the character they build, the inspiration they give, the perfection they demand. "Games" is a word with which the word "ONLY" should never be coupled!

(And no, nobody said this to me recently - something innocuous just reminded me of it, and I thought it would be of utmost blog-worthiness.)

First Day of Teacher Training

The first day back was great! I was practically giddy: as sociable as I come. Well, nearly. Anyway, I guess I was happy to be back.

I met the new teacher, and he seems really nice. But, since we didn't get that third teacher, he might be the homeroom teacher for the 7th and 8th grade, which means I might not even share a room! Weird! But fun! If it means I don't have to oversee the 7th and 8th grade clean-up in their room at the end of the day I will click my heels for joy (or something). That was the worst part of last year. Well, that and having to confess that it was me, and not one of my 7th grade girls, who had just screamed like that.

Today we learned Logic. It was great fun. As a Classical school, we teach Logic, and our headmaster decided it would probably be good if all the teachers (even those for the younger grades) knew some logic, so we could all be heading our students in the same direction. Hear hear! I really enjoyed the day - it was so much better than hearing about what the ideal teacher is like, and feeling like I was up to about 1% of that ideal. Bring on the logic! Plus, I'll be teaching it this year, so it's great review for what I learned this summer in preparation (as well as some new stuff!).

Most of all I had fun setting up my posters. I have decorated this post with copies of two of the poster I have hanging in my room now! Beautious, eh?

Overworked and Underpaid (but still loving it!)

Okay, here is my sob story (which I'm not sobbing about):

My school was going to hire another jr high / high school teacher. Good. We needed one. HOWEVER, somehow that fell through. SO, the other teacher and I are totally picking up the slack. Oy vay. I am going to be teaching SO many classes!

I was all set to do British Literature for the 11th and 12th grades, as well as general Lit for the 9th grade. I was also planning on Logic (hee hee hee), possibly for two levels, as well as Rhetoric (for two levels, but during one class time - one-room school house syle). Okay, good. I was feeling like that was quite manageable. Oh, typing too, but that really doesn't require a lot from me since it's just Mavis Beacon.

THEN I got this e-mail from the headmaster asking me to call him asap. Call him I did, with an elevated pulse. The conversation did nothing to lower my blood pressure. "How do you feel about math?" He asked me. "Umm, I think that it is evil in number form." No, actually I said "I can handle low-level math, but I never went beyond Algebra II..." "Okay, do you think you can teach Algebra I?" "Sure!" (That last statement was made in a fit of insanity. No, I think I can really do it, as long as the real math teacher can help me out a little...")

We discussed some other possibilities, and then he popped in a little, "By the way, I think you're getting your 7th and 8th grade Lit class back." Here there is a pause, as I reflect back on the fact that I have just spent the whole summer preparing two Lit classes, and have one week to work on this third one. "Ummm, I don't really have any books or anything." "Oh, just teach something you've read before." "Well, okay!" It wasn't like he meant to spring this on my last-minute - it wasn't his fault the teacher decided not to work at our school after all. Sigh. And I'm taking him up on the books you've read before thing: The Hobbit, Tom Sawyer, Jane Eyre, and maybe The Chosen. Fun!

So now I'm teaching EIGHT courses:

*Lit (11th and 12th)
*Lit (9th)
*Lit (7th and 8th)
*Logic (7th)
*Logic (8th and 9th) - this one might be in with the 7th grade logic, or might be scrapped all together, so I might only have 7 courses
*Rhetoric (11th as well as 12th, but in the same period)
*Algebra I
*Typing

QUITE THE LINE-UP, EH? Good grief. But now I have to say that it's really not that bad:) It looks like a lot of fun, and I think it's do-able. For one thing (and this is a big thing) Logic, Rhetoric, and Typing are all just three days a week. So really only four courses are every day. And also, some will take very little preparation ahead of time (like typing and Algebra). So it's not as bad as it initially looks. But I just wanted to make it look as bad as possible for effect:)

Should be quite a year!

Girls Singing Boys' Songs

So here's this dilemma. Some of the most beautiful songs in the world are written from the male perspective. But when I'm rich and famous and cutting 276 CDs a year, I'll be realllly tempted to use the most beautiful songs in the world! Because really, why would you want to cut CDs that didn't have the most beautiful music in the world? I mean, that would be like if you were an incredible writer but chose to write stories about red ponies who die and stuff.

"Danny Boy" for instance is an incredibly beautiful piece. I love singing it at the top of my lungs when the occasion warrants (occasions in which I'm cleaning the house and no one else is home, for example). But really it was written from the father's perspective. Lots of girls sing it, and thus change it to a love song, and it's very pretty. But for me it loses some of its meaning that way. Sigh.

"My Love to My Bride" is one I actually sang at a recital in college. It is another incredibly beautiful one, but really there is no way to make that work. So that one gets the old scratch.

Fortunately for me, and all other females who like to sing, there are also beautiful songs that are written from a female perspective. So all's well there. I don't really have to settle for ugly songs for all of my days...

Anyway, this all came because I was listening to just such a song being sung by a girl on Pandora Internet Radio. PEOPLE! You should check it out! Melissa introduced me to it, and then Penny reminded me of it (Pandora, that is). You type in someone you like, and then you can listen to tons of music in that same style! Right now I'm listening to "Lisa Kelly Radio" and it's beautiful. (Lisa Kelly is one of the "Celtic Woman" singers.) COOL, HUH? I highly recommend it. It can introduce you to all kinds of great new music!

Also, I'm still having a fabu time in GA! I love it down here. We've done some great shopping, some great fellowshipping, some great dining, etc. Oh! And swimming! For like an hour and a half or so last night we had the pool to ourselves and it was such fun. I won the "swim underwater the farthest" contest. Yippee! My calling in life! Today we joined the Adams girls for shopping on the square and had a delightful time. We had fried green tomatoes at the sweet little restaurant there. Success all around. Hurrah for GA!

Happy Birthday to Gretchen!

Today is my big sister's birthday! I love her.

When I was little she was one of my standards of cool-ness.

Now she is one of my standards of Godly-woman-ness.

I admire her devotion to God - her vision for what her life is about - her unselfishness for the sake of her family.

I love being friends with her.

Happy Birthday, Gretchen!

Penny = Superer Woman than Superwoman!

Okay folks. So you see THIS. But I saw the process! Well, not the painting, which was already done, but the hanging of the accessories. And was I ever impressed! I wish you could have been here to see Penny, surrounded by tools, working away with levels and tape measures, hammers and weird tools whose names I didn't even know. She's amazing! I was wicked impressed. She even has her own power drill! You can get much more super-woman-ish than that. This living room is BEAUTIFUL! If I even get a house, I think I'll ask Penny to be the interior decorator. I love her style. Oh, she also makes her own iced coffee! Folks, this girl is goooood. I'm such a fan.

In other (but pretty related) news, I'M IN GA!!! Man, I love this place. Katie and I had a lovely time getting here, except for about 2 hours in NY City and 1 hour in Virginia where we weren't doing very much in the "getting here" department. But actually, even that wasn't too bad, because hey, we were hanging out, and taking a road trip! Okay, I'm lying. NY City stank. But VA was okay:) Anyway, the rest of the trip was fantastic. Katie read "The Ball and the Cross" by G. K. Chesterton out loud to me, and it was fantastic. I HIGHLY recommend it. Funny, great story, great characters, and great point!

Yesterday I joined the youth group for some basketball. After two days of sitting in the car I was ready to move around, and it wasn't too hot (amazingly). So I jumped onto the court and went at it. I was having a fabulous time. I even got some baskets (I was on Zohrab's team which meant that everyone on the team got the ball - yay!). But after awhile my feet were really starting to hurt. I was playing barefoot on the pavement - and this was no ordinary pavement. Very rough. Soon my feet hurt so badly that I had to take a time out to go beg some sneakers off someone.

Lo and behold, after more basketball and some volleyball too, I returned to the Browns to discover that there were large blisters on the bottoms of my feet! Like I say, no ordinary pavement. Both big toes were really scuffed up. Interestingly enough, they scuffed along the toe-print lines. Weird. But the balls of my feet were the worst. They had large, paisly-shaped blisters just below the big toes. Woooo! They are things of beauty. I guess it's from all the rapid changes of direction and such. I don't know. But there they are. Large, red, and squishy.

So since then I've been walking around on my heels and the outside edges of my feet. I feel like a grandmother. A really old one. But it's kind of fun. You should try it! It makes my walking really slow though, so sometimes I kind of run that way in order to catch up with the person I'm walking with. It makes for quite the hobble.

Last night Nate, Penny and I went swimming at the near-by pool (which was empty!). We were walking back to the car, when I commented that I hoped no bad guys came to chase us, because I'd have to just run regularly, and the blisters would have to fend for themselves. Then Nate said cheerfully that he and Penny would be fine - they'd just have to make sure to run a little faster than I could. I told him I didn't like his attitude.

I'm having a wonderful time!

"It could happen!"

Last night Katie and I went bowling. Actually, Katie went bowling and I went to watch her. We only had one pair of socks between us. And the Red Sox game was on, so I wasn't in great need of other entertainment.

I took some sweet video of the occasion on my phone, but alas, I can't get it to transmit. Something is definitely wrong there. I'll have to look into it.

Anyway. I sat there, happily keeping one eye on the tv and one eye on Katie. The result was strange to behold, but fortunately Katie had requested a lane far away from other people, so nobody noticed.

As I watched, I began to notice a strange phenomenon. When the Red Sox did something right, Katie did well, and when they did something bad, she did... um, not so well. Odd, I thought. I pointed it out to Katie. And then it got a little uncanny. Katie got the ball, er, semi-far-from-the-middle, and the pitcher (Hansen) got a ball. Katie got one more middling and Hansen got a strike.

There was definitely some kind of connection there!

But then there was a commercial and I kind of forgot about it. I got absorbed in the games (Katie's and the Red Sox). But THEN it happened. Ortiz was up to bat, and Katie was up to bowl. She strode forward, released, and lo! it was RIGHT down the middle. A PERFECT STRIKE!!!

And I looked up at the screen and Ortiz was trotting around the bases. Trotting? Why YES. He'd just hit a HOMERUN!!!

Oh my word. Stop the presses. Folks, it has become abundantly clear that Katie is the key to success for the Sox. Obviously there is some mystic bond between the two. One cannot succeed without the other. I predict that this year's World Series will occur with Katie in the bowling alley. We need to foster her love of bowling. Take her often. Get her in excellent form. She must bowl the Red Sox to VICTORY!

Hm. On the other hand, she'll probably want to watch the World Series. This could be a problem. Okay, solution: have her bowl many and many a 300 before the WS, in order to get some victory in the bank that the Sox can pull out and use at the opportune moments.

Now if I ONLY had that video to post...

My Confession (which is quite different from Josh Groban's)

I HATE SALAD! There. I've said it. After years of just eating it because it was there, it finally hit me, clearly and undeniably: I simply loath the stuff. I wouldn't mind if I never saw another leaf of it again. I like the veggies fine: tomatoes, green pepper, cucumber... yummmm. But as for the leafy stuff, absolutely no redeeming value. Except for nutritionally, of course, which doesn't count.

Many of my more meritous friends enjoy it, which makes me wonder if perhaps I am missing out. Sometimes, even where there is the option of a hamburger or a quesadilla, they choose it at a restaurant! To me, that is a waste of stomach space that could have been used more efficiently, and pleasurably.

I don't see any way out of this vicious salad-loathing cycle. Every time I convince myself that it's good for me, and try some, I am reminded all the more vigorously of why I do not like it, and I am all the more hardened in my anti-salad stance. It is not for me to munch upon the green and leafy.

Now if they would come up with CHOCOLATE lettuce, that would be a different story!

The Big Coffee

Claire coined this spin on the Big Apple, and I liked it (sorry, Claire)and therefore stole it. Remember the time when I went to Seattle? Well, here I am, back to tell the tale! Quite an amazing place, really... I agree, Linds -- I kind of want to live there. It suddenly dawned on me at some point on the trip how incredibly rich I am in travel experiences. Here I was in a brand new corner of the country, taking in new sights while at the same time being reminded of Jerusalem, Northern Galilee, London, and Boston. Wow. What a variety of places God has put me, without my even realizing it.

Okay, so instead of launching into a full blow-by-blow account of our (my immediate family, that is-- sorry I forgot to mention that detail before) adventures, I'll try to just hit the highlights.

1) MOUNTAINS. REAL ones. I could harly believe it from the plane -- all these massive, craggy ranges, complete with honest-to-goodness snow on top. We're not in [my small, flat hometown] anymore, Toto. Mt. Ranier was the most impressive, of course. It kept popping up and surprising me around every turn (enough so that T and A got sick of me saying "Look! A mountain!" every 5 seconds). It was really weird to travel by typical stores and strip malls and suddenly see this majestic panorama towering above a Michael's like a fake backdrop meant to garner business. On one day we went to Olympic National Park and wound around impossibly steep cliffs with no guard rails (a little like the ascent of Akrabim only with trees). What a vista. On top we found some leftover snow and some feisty park rangers who were very diligent about protecting the dead pine needles on either side of the path. I thought of Brandon's Adventures in Yellowstone and of course appreciated their keeping us all safe. We didn't see one single buffalo...



The white stuff is snow. They must have had some crazy drifts this winter, because it was HOT and there were still piles lying around.



Here's A. leaping into the great beyond. This was before we saw the "please stay behind the wall" sign. Oh well. It wouldn't have been the first time we ignored such warnings on our trip. I think we killed a rainforest by the side of the road earlier in the day.... It brought back fond memories of Kingdom History trip.



2) "Only in Seattle" moments. There are always some signs of foreignness on trips like this. Just the fact that we were on the West coast was kind of weird. At one point A. said something about what we do "out East" -- do they say that in Washington? Or do they say "back East," since everything began here in the first place? hmm... Anyway, that's beside the point. The point is that people here really are majorly obsessed with coffee. At least that's what I gathered from the fact that we kept seeing espresso huts in every other parking lot. They were around the size of the old snackbar on the ballfield -- some even smaller-- with the one word "espresso" emblazoned on the front to assure weary passersby that they would survive until the next Starbucks. I didn't see very many people actually stopped at them, though, which made me wonder.... Personally, I missed Dunkin' Donuts (although that one green tea raspberry frappucino I had from Starbucks was pretty stinkin good).

Here's another oddity that I found highly amusing. I guess this fully-illustrated warning makes it very clear to potential lawbreaking truckers exactly what terrors they have to face if they DARE go over 30. I think I found my calling as an artist.








We also went to the famous Pike Place Market, which reminded me a lot of the souq. Part of it is an open-air type affair, with little booths of fruit, nuts, flowers, hot, melt-in-your-mouth donuts, and fish. The fish stands are particularly famous, I guess, because they throw the things around and tend to make a giant show of it all.


3) Friends. There are so many cool people in Seattle! We went to the A's house the afternoon we arrived (relations of Penny, Brad, and yes, Craig -- somehow that connection slipped my mind. so many family trees to remember...). We were treated to some FABULOUS raspberry pie made by Kristi, and enjoyed a tour of their beautiful home and backyard garden (I think we should hire out Mrs. A to come landscape for us). I'm afraid we weren't very thrilling company since our bodies were telling us it was around midnight... but it was a nice visit nonetheless and we got some good advice about what to do with ourselves in Seattle.
We also saw Luke and his fiancee (who was super nice and we all liked a lot). We met them at Safeco Field (more on that later) and watched the game with them, then went out to dinner later on. I had a great time chatting with Luke, getting caught up on our goings on, filling him in on the who's who of the 2006 Red Sox (kind of hard to stay on top of things way out there) and even launching into a very interesting discussion of politics. We covered a lot of ground during batting practice. :)
Finally, I got a chance to meet up with 4 friends from high school. I wasn't totally sure how it would go, but I ended up having a fabulous time and wish that they lived closer. It's kind of cool to relate with friends from long ago who are still the people you remember, only more grown up. If that makes any sense...

4) The Game.... Sigh. It really was a fabulous game, but such a killer loss. Safeco Field is really nice -- very big, and very new and therefore clean. One thing that struck me as being different from Fenway was the fact that we looked DOWN on the field when we walked in from the street level. Not the same glorious impact.... But there were plenty of reminders of home. The Sox fans were out in droves, and the camaraderie was all the more spectacular being so far from home. There was this instant bond with every 3rd person we saw, it seemed. I even sat next to a guy from Boston on the plane who was going to the same game we were, then heading to Oakland to catch the series there. At batting practice I chatted with a guy from Worcester; he showed me a picture of his daughter w/ Curt Schilling that he was going to try to get signed. What other team can boast such fabulous fans... I love it. During the game itself I was torn between reveling in The Nation's numbers and cringing at how loathed we were by the Mariners fans around us. There were some pretty hearty, stadium wide "Let's Go, Red Sox" cheers. I get the impression that it takes quite a bit to get the few Seattle fans whipped into much of a frenzy (though they got pretty frenzied at the end, which made the walk-off loss all the worse. But then there was that great guy who came walking past holding up his Boston hat and nodding to his comrades in the stand, "it's all right; we've still got it!")


Here's where we got our seats. Those tiny specks are apparently ballplayers. The depth perception was totally off from up here; we couldn't even tell which way the ball was going -- it was weird. An interesting perspective, but of course we fell back on our old ways and moved to some seats T scouted out for us about 30 rows up from the first base side of home. Nice. We didn't even get kicked out once! A new record!

As you can see, we got within pretty good picture range at batting practice. Alex Cora tossed a ball that Luke, being very tall, snagged. Someone near him asked who had thrown it...good thing I had just told him who Cora was :) At one point T was hanging out near where the pitchers were warming up and Manny Delcarmen tossed a ball into the stands. T reached in front of some girl and caught it, then felt bad and said he'd give her the next one. Sure enough, Craig Hansen threw him one, and he handed it over to the girl. Papelbon saw it, and yelled up, "WEAK!" to T. haha. T. tried to explain that he already had a ball, but "Papi Jr." just shook his head and yelled "weak!" again. Ah, the momentous brushes with fame.

There's plenty more I could write, such as the fact that we did in fact see the first ever Starbucks (and the awesome a cappela trio out front), and the Space Needle, and lots of art galleries (yay for me! poor everyone with me!), including one in the Experience Music Project building designed by THE Frank Gehry (oooh, ahhh... who's Frank Gehry? Look up the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. wowzers). However, this post is a veritable beast already, and I'm tired. Thanks to all you well-wishers out there -- we had a really good time. You can see more pictures if you ever run into me someday.

The end.

Reading Like Crazy!

I have approximately two weeks left free for the rest of the summer. Gasp! Where does the time go?! So I've designated it as reading time - as in, reading the books I'll be teaching next year.

Yesterday I read H. G. Wells' "The Time Machine." It was actually quite a fascinating read! I liked it better than "The War of the Worlds," which I'd finished just before. And it reminded me of this hilarious bit of writing.

Today, on a vastly different note, I read "The Pilgrim's Progress." Wow! I was sort of familiar with it, I guess, but hadn't read it in years (if I ever did read the whole thing). There are some really deep things there. I'd recommend it to all! It wasn't exactly a page turner, and I did skim some, but it was well worth the time. (I read just the first half - about Christian - and skipped the second half about his wife...)

I'm taking a break for the Sabbath (doing some P. G. Wodehouse or something), but then I'll be tackling such things as "Silas Marner" (has anyone read it? I haven't yet. Obviously.) and "Paradise Lost." Woooo!

Oh. Before vacation I massively skim-read "Frankenstein." I had no idea what a horrible story it was! Oy vay! Barely a drop of good cheer to be seen anywhere! I decided not to make my kids read it:) But I did learn something valuable: Frankenstein is the name of the guy who made the monster-ish guy, and not the monster-ish guy himself. Who would have thought?

When I wrote my PC English profs to let them know I was an English teacher, one wrote back with the bad news that it's a lot of work, but the good news that the work is usually reading, which is why we got into the field in the first place! Hurrah for books!

Weeohd!

The other night I needed a book (I hadn't really brought vacation books on our vacation - a serious blunder), so I rummaged in Aunt Laura's attic and found one I'd never read. I forget what the name and author are (it's waaaaay upstairs, and heaven forbid I leave the couch for investigative research), so sorry about that. But anyway, I picked it up and started to read and it was the weirdest thing. The book kept reminding me of myself!

It wasn't a particular character - it was more the author. She put in things that sounded so much like me. For instance, she had a character who got really mad when he walked outside and felt the cold air. That's ME! When I walked out on the way to school early early in the morning, and was hit by 20 below winds, I just wanted to punch something. Angrily.

And there was also the dislike of talking on the telephone - an inability to really communicate without being able to see the other person. Yup. That's me! Hate phones.

And then there was the guy who was feeling annoyed because he'd figured out the world's most beautiful word the night before and he'd forgotten it. I love beautiful sounding words! I've never figured out the world's most beautiful before, but if I did I'd surely forget it (if I didn't write it down immediately).

It's kind of uncanny, really. So many peculiar little things that made me think of me. That doesn't happen very often. I think there was another thing, too. And ALL of that was just in chapter one. Phew! At this rate, the depths of my soul will be in chapter 12!

"A man said Why, why does traveling
in cars and in trains make him feel sad,
a beautiful sadness.
I’ve felt this before.
It’s the people in the cities you’ll never know,
it is everything you pass by,
wondering will you ever return.
The colors of rowboats, the greens and the blues.
Orange grove side streets you only see halfway.
And beaches in winter
and when kites are flown.
It’s the people in the cities you’ll never know,
it is everything you pass by,
wondering will you ever return."

-Innocence Mission, "Song about Traveling"

Happy Golden Birthday, man. Find some good spots today.

Girls Week Flashback

Here are some of my favorite pictures from Girls' Week!


These two are at the ocean in Newport...



We had a lovely, sunny, chummy, and creative day!




Then there was ice cream in Newport...
And here is a sample of the AMAZING drama that came about because of the long van rides. Hurrah!

(Thanks Steph and Diane for the pics you left on my computer:)!)

Coffee, Rain, and Some Big Needle...

...is pretty much all I know about Seattle. But that is about to change! This is Melissa, by the way, back from the netherworld of summer school. Biology is over FOREVER! Huzzah. I still don't really have time to be posting anything, of course, since I haven't packed one speck and we're leaving the house at some horrible hour tomorrow morning(like 4:45 or something... is it even POSSIBLE to wake up that early?). But yes... I now declare to the blogging world that we are going to Seattle. My dad had Sky Miles that needed to be used up, so we randomly picked that unexplored corner of our fair land. Some of my friends from high school live out there, as well as cousin Luke and the um... people who are relations of Penny and Brad (there's my occasional burst of Internet Anonymity Consideration coming through), so it will be nice to see people who we haven't seen in forever. AND, what is more, we're going to our first Red Sox game on the road! Everyone be sure to watch every second of the game until you see us. I'm curious to see how many Sox fans there will be that far afield. No doubt a whole host... I love The Nation.

Maybe I'll figure out how to actually post some pictures one of these days so I can share the natural wonders (such as the aforementioned attractions) with the world. Okay. The end.

p.s. We're going to Sunday's game... kind of forgot that little detail.

24 - AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Okay, this post isn't really about 24. But MAN is that show intense. We have only two episodes left of season one... AAHHHHH!!!

What this post is really about is this: try to remember waaaay back to 7th grade. What was your favorite book of those you had to read in school? Or 8th grade? Or 9th? In the next few days I'm hoping to finalize the list of books we'll be reading in the lower grades, and I'd love some suggestions. I can only remember a couple of the books I read then, but I figure that if all of you remember one or two, I'll have quite a list to work from...

So how about it? What books did you enjoy as a junior high school student?

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my father's birthday!

He is my all-time #1 hero. If I was allowed to have an idol, he would be it.

I was a little limited in my selection of photos (not being a digital camera person, myself), but I liked this one that was on my computer from Girls' Week. He is looking inspiring, and I am looking adoring:)

I love you, Daddy!

Literature Prep

I've been working on getting ready for teaching my BRITISH LITERATURE class next year (woooooooohoooooooooooooo!!!). My preliminary preparation has been reading up on the history of England. What a tale! I never took a British History class (shame on me), and things are beginning to click left and right!

"Ohhhh, THAT'S what the 100 year war was! Ohhhhh, THAT'S why Bonnie Prince Charlie should have been king! Ohhhhhh, THAT'S where the word spinster comes from! Ohhhh, THAT'S what "Tudor" and "Stuart" and all that is referring to!"

I love learning things!

But as I'm going through history like that, I have to brace myself for my strange alter-ego tendencies to emerge. I am such a conservative, and such a fan of tradition, that I just side with the Kings and Queens as a matter of course. So I'm reading along about such and such a king that was living in horrible excess, and I get annoyed when Parliament tries to check him! Weird. I really had to stop and get hold of myself when I was siding with the King against the MPs who wanted freedom of religion! Good grief. This conservative thing can go a bit too far. I mean, I'm an American, after all! I DO believe in freedom! So I decided that the Kings were pretty cool, but sometimes they did have some, er, issues.

By the way, I'm doing this study out of "A Children's History of Britain and Wales" or something like that. It's perfect! It's written for older children, who are really supposed to be learning, so there is actually serious content there. But it's not filled with humongous words, dry passages about currencies and such, or political nuances (or blatant agendas). Very nice! More history books should be written that way.

The Homerun Derby!

Oh my WORD!

Okay, remember (those of you who have any kind of maturity of years) the '94 baseball strike? Everyone wondered if baseball had just lost all of its support, if it would ever recover, and all that stuff.

Well, we're talking big-time recovery tonight, boy howdy!!! MLB.com (that would be the Major League Baseball) is streaming the home run derby on the Internet. I'm sitting here typing this blog while I watch it! What could be better?! Who needs cable?! David Ortiz is definitely going to win, that's my prediction.

Baseball. Ahhhhh. What a beautiful thing.

The NE Curse

For those of you who may not read my blog all that much - and even for those of you have picked up on the fact that I kind of like teaching, but haven't yet picked up on other nuances of the Dreweyfern Blog, allow me to enlighten you to the fact that I love New England. I think it is one of the best (if not THE best) places on Earth. It is beautiful - historical - characterful - idiosyncratic in a most endearing way - and pretty much perfect in every possible way.

However (as we learn in the Little Elba song), there has to be something to remind us that this world is not our home, and that we're bound for a more perfect place. New England's particular reminder is mosquitoes.

Daddy set up the hammock: the place of joy and peace and relaxation. Hurrah! However, I kind of forgot (during all those winter months) that evening is not the best time for hammock lounging. I happily read for a little while before noticing my back was kind of itchy. As was my arm. And there were some mosquitoes and mayflies buzzing around. I decided it was time to go inside.

And THERE I discovered that I had not been victim to a bug here or there. I had been absolutely GNAWED upon! I had been out there with a blanket, but the weasely bugs had figured out that they could access my back and arm from the backside of the hammock. I HAD 15 BITES!!! Grrrrr. And some of them were huge! My prize winner is about the size of a quarter.

Being the socialite that I am, I went from family member to family member showing them the monstrosity on my arm, garnering all the sympathy I could. They did a good job being sympathetic. But I needed MORE sympathy. So up to Shawn and Gretchen's I went. Ian let out a particularly gratifying exclamation of awe when he saw the bite. Little boys know all about bad bug bites.

In the famed words from years gone by: poor, poor, pitiful me!

“All that Mattered”

I was glancing through a Guidepost article about Bonhoeffer recently, because it happened to be lying open on the counter at the Brown’s.

[Side note: Isn’t it amazing how God can work through “chance” occurrences like that? So often He will bring just the right thing along at just the right time. It’s like He knows us or something!]

Anyway, as I was reading the article it had a little sentence that ran something like this: “God was all that mattered to him.” I have thought of that SO often since then. That’s what I want to be true of me!

After reading that phrase, the importance of a real, vital relationship was emphasized to me by something I chanced upon on the Internet: some guy’s disillusionment with fake Christianity. I realized that I need to be absolutely real in my Christianity – connected with the source of Life. I can’t rely on past inspiration. I need to be up to date – constantly seeking – constantly getting closer.

[Side note 2: Isn’t it amazing how God brings along something to reinforce the lesson He’s taught, so it’s really cemented? It’s like He knows us or something!]

This summer I have more time than I have during the school year (though I’ll be quite busy preparing next year’s classes!), and I want to make it a summer spent in the pursuit of God. That’s what matters!

The Sanguine and the Melancholic

Last night at about bedtime I decided I wasn’t sleepy. So, anticipating Kimberly’s taking my car to work in the morning, I thought I’d empty all of the junk out of it for cleaning the next day. I had moved all of my stuff up from RI for the summer, but hadn’t unloaded it yet. So I began tackling the job. And it was quite the job! What a mountain of disorganized rubble met my eyes.

My car has a strange leak in it, which means that after there’s a hard rainfall there’s standing water in my car for days. This time the water was beginning to smell stronger than usual. Grim.

I began cleaning up a storm, picking things up and dumping them onto the driveway for transport. But alas, the more things I picked up, the worse the smell became. Uh oh. A bad sign, indeed. This must mean that it was NOT the standing water stinking up the place.

I delved deeper, through a smelly book, some smelly CDs, my smelly jacket (the shoulder was damp – gulp), some smelly potatoes (which were left over from the Girls Week), some smelly flour bags (ditto), and discovered, to my dismay, a Lipton Tea bottle, somewhat damp. Ahhhhhh! One of the girls bought it during Girls’ Week, and it must have leaked out. And WHAT a stench!

So back into the house I went to retrieve dry rags, wet rags, and club soda. After several soakings of various kinds I decided that I’d done all I could do. I began carrying things back into the house. A few loads later, and after I’d hung my smelly coat on the line to air out, I grabbed the potatoes to take into the house.

PEW!

It was then I realized that the potatoes, not the Lipton Tea, had created the problem. Oy VAY! Those things stank. For some strange reason the potatoes had not withstood 5 days in a roasting hot car. Odd. In any case, they were rotting and fermenting to beat the band. Gross potato juice had accumulated in the bottom of the bag, and that what is had leaked into my car. Alas!

I left them, as well as the tainted flour bags, outside, and put the book and CDs on the porch. I left the car windows open to try to air out the car, and decided that I was, finally, ready for bed.

The next morning I came downstairs to find a note on the counter that Kimberly had left before she went to work. It read like this:

Some early morning observations:
1. Found a book and 2 CDs on chair outside on porch
2. Noticed side door was unlocked
3. Fern’s coat on clothes line may get rust on it that way
4. Andrea’s car windows are open
5. Saw bag of potatoes and 2 bags of flour outside downstairs door way.
6. I LOVE MY FAMILY!

I read it, and was somewhat amused, but then, as I thought more about it, I just laughed and laughed. On one hand were my frantic endeavors in the middle of the night, combating decay and ruin in the midst of chaos, and on the other Kimberly’s pristine, unhurried chronicling of the results of my frenzied activity.

What a great juxtaposition! The only thing that might come close to that kind of black and white comparison is the fact that she had time to make such a list on a work morning, where I would be dashing out the door with my hands full of things I couldn’t take time to pack up in my bag.

We certainly are a strange pair. But fortunately, despite our dissimilarities, we have a great time together!

Girls' Week Report

For those who prayed, THANK YOU! It was a stunningly wonderful time. I had a group that was fun, interesting, enthusiastic, cooperative, thoughtful, friendly, and spiritually alive. They all got along with each other, and seemed to enjoy everything I threw at them. They even worked happily! My goodness.

We took trips to Newport, Boston, Wrentham, and Concord, MA. We saw amazing sights! We had an amazing amount of fun!

The girls learned the Virginia Reel, made up skits and radio dramas, sang, laughed, played games they'd never played before, and generally kept themselves beautifully and wholesomely entertained.

We also had some rich times in morning devotions and in the meetings. Our theme was "Intimacy with God," and I think we did more that just talk about it - we deepened our intimacy with Jesus. We had some marked times of hearing the call of God to our hearts. Praise the Lord!

And the most startling part of all, for me, was the fact that I was feeling sad about the week coming to a close. Generally, I have a great time, but I'm exhausted by week's end. This time I was feeling blothpicky about it ending. That was quite new!

Hurrah for Girls' Week 2006!

ps. Well, I valiantly struggled to upload pictures to accompany this post. But I am at Fairwood, and thus am trying to maneuver with dial-up. Sigh. Sorry. Maybe another time...

Girls' Week!

The Girls' Week has officially begun, folks. So no lengthy posts or brilliant essays. Just wanted to pop in to say that it's going SO WELL. Fabulous group of girls - fabulous schedule planned. Huzzah!

I would appreciate any little prayers you might shoot up on our behalf. I really want God's anointing to make it more than just a fun time. And an absence of rain would be just wonderful. Especially on Wednesday when we're going for a hay ride type thing:)

Thanks, all!

Sightseeing in Kentucky! (And Cincinatti, sort of, in an Across the River Kind of Way)

I have become quite enamored of this bridge. I love it! I guess I have a thing for beautiful bridges, like I do for arches. It must point to some deep spiritual truth or something. Anyway, this is fast becoming my second favorite bridge (After the Newport one, of course)!
..


This is beautiful 2nd street. So historic. So lovely. I loved the little gardens in front of each house. They were exquisite. I wish I had a close up shot, but Renee was telling a story and I didn't want to interrupt her any more than I already was:)


...

Here is a cute little arched door we found. It was so very wee!

And lastly, Cincinatti at night. Ahhhhhhh. (Note the beautiful bridge in the foreground!)

Looky Looky! I'm in Cincinnati/Covington

Renee (my wonderful fellow teacher) and I have now arrived at our hotel. It is AMAZING! Here are a few pics of the room itself (Renee is by the window, working diligently). Note the sweet laptop. That's mine:)


.....


Here is the lobby. There is a player piano in the middle of the, um, canopy thing. It's playing tunes as we speak. There is a tile fountain behind it which is hard to see, unfortunately.



.......



Here is the Red's Stadium! I took this picture from my hotel room window.

Woo woo!

So far this conference business is great!