Snowflakes

Today the high temperature was 79 F (26 C).  It felt a little strange doing a little Christmas decorating for my classroom while the temperatures were so warm.

This evening I made paper snowflakes with Peter.  Making snowflakes is a winter tradition that I resurrected around the time I was finishing high school.  Snowflakes were a cheap way to decorate in college, and they made great shadows when the sun shone through them on the window.  Today I made my first snowflakes of the year.  My first one turned out really well.  The second one was for Abby because she wanted one with a stable and manger, similar to one I already have in my apartment.  After doing one like that for Abby, Susan wanted one as well.  So I made Susan an angel, a stable with a manger, and a star above the stable.  I don't consider myself an overly artistic or creative person, but I like to say that my creativity comes out when making snowflakes.

To finish the evening, I read Susan and Peter a 'bedtime story.'  I read the book Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin.  It is the story of Wilson Bentley who spent his life trying to capture snowflakes for the world to see.  He photographed hundreds of snowflakes over the course of his lifetime.  It has the main story with sidebars of historical fact.  On the last page are three of the snowflakes he photographed, which fascinated and amazed us.

It was an enjoyable evening.  It was fun to once again share my snowflake tradition with others - making snowflakes is more fun when done with friends.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is a time of giving thanks to God.  Here are a few of the things for which I am thankful:

• Salvation, freedom of religion, and access to God's Word
• Wonderful family and friends
• Christian fellowship
• Safe travel to Maryland & Virginia
• The opportunity for my entire immediate family to be together
• Beautiful fall weather - sunshine, colorful leaves, warm temperatures
• Delicious food
• Hospitality from Timothy and Catherine, as well as Lynnea
• My new nephew, Anthony
• A good job
• My great community, especially my church, in Louisiana

There are many more things, but that is a good list for now.  Thank you God for blessing me beyond measure, though I deserve none of it.

Thanksgiving Feast & Grandparent's Day

In the week leading up to Thanksgiving Break, we had a couple of special activities at school.

On Thursday the entire elementary enjoyed a Thanksgiving Feast.  We had a slightly extended lunch in order to enjoy the catered turkey, corn, rice dressing, and bread.  In addition there were brownies for dessert.  This event is only possible with the help of numerous parents who set up and decorate tables, serve food, supervise children, provide brownies for dessert, and generally ensure that everything runs smoothly.  It was a pleasure to be able to sit down with some of the other teachers and enjoy our own meal while parents attended to the children.  Due to the large number of elementary students, the feast was divided into multiple locations for the different grades.  Our location was for the first through third graders.  The food was enjoyable.  The feast also provided opportunity to emphasize giving thanks to God.

Friday was Grandparent's Day.  Our school does Grandparent's Day in a unique way - I least I had never heard of it before teaching there.  Each class, in first through fourth grade, prepares a short program for the grandparents.  Basically this means that in 30 minutes we try to do a little bit of every subject as a demonstration for the grandparents.  I get to pick and choose the fun activities, and I work to make sure that each student has the opportunity to do some independent activity and write on the SmartBoard.  After the short program the students give gifts to their grandparents.  The students had a wonderful time.  Our program was schedule for 8:00 and went until about 8:30.  After the program was over, the grandparents were welcome to take their grandchildren with them.  Some grandparents took them right away while other got some refreshments before taking the children.  Each grade level had their program at a different time so that the grandparents could attend multiple programs for different grandchildren.

The few children who remained afterwards helped clean up the extra chairs in the classroom and then did other jobs for me.  A few of the children stayed for a couple hours after we were finished, but that was a small number.  After our program was over, I was able to get lots of small jobs done in the classroom and get ready to leave for break.  An added bonus was that we only had a half day on Friday because our football team had an away playoff game and students were encouraged to attend.

These two special days involved extra work, but definitely blessed those who were involved.  It was a great way to end the week before Thanksgiving Break.

Human Error - My Own

So I am sitting in the airport in Baton Rouge.  I had images of writing fun blog posts about the past couple of days while I was here, instead I have been trying to rebook a flight.  I miscalculated my travel time and my hour advance needed at the airport, so I missed my flight.  It is rather ironic that someone who enjoys math as much as I do would make such a simple error.  Maybe God is trying to humble me.

In times like this it is easy to freeze and now know what to do.  I am thankful for family and friends.  I was able to rebook a flight for tomorrow.  I am thankful for my mom who was simply praying that something would work out for me.  I am thankful for friends who were planning on staying in Baton Rouge for a while and can still bring me back home this evening.  I am thankful for other friends who can text people on my behalf because I do not have texting on my phone.  I am thankful that I have enough money to  pay for the change in flight so that I can still travel tomorrow to meet up with family.

In the middle of it, I told my mom "I am not sure what God is trying to teach me, but right now I don't see it."  I know that God has a perfect plan in this.  I may never know exactly what it was all about, but I trust him for it.

Random Memory from the Past

People Piles still exist!

I had not thought of them in years.  I took a picture of one on Saturday evening, but still did not clue in until someone asked me what it was.  It all made sense in my mind because I grew up making 'people piles'.  For those of you who do not understand, here is a picture to help you.  I know this may seem rather absurd to you, but those of you who know about 'people piles' will understand far better than the rest.

Women's Retreat - Surface Level

Here are a few random snippets from Women's Retreat this past weekend.  They are simple fun and random facts, that really don't delve into the depths of the experience.

Here is the sign from the dock by the cabin.  It made me smile and remember how far removed I am from where I grew up.  There were some comments from others that the alligator resembles a dinosaur.

76-78 degree weather, with dry(ish) air, and a breeze is very comfortable for shorts, pants, or something in between depending on who you are.  The weather this weekend was great!

If you are somewhat sick (with a cold/allergies) a Women's Retreat is a great place to get mothered by multiple people and fed all sorts of vitamins, cough drops, and the like.  It sure beats feeling completely miserable at home by yourself, but I felt bad for waking ladies up during the night and having them worry about me.

The second night not in my own bed is usually better than the first.  This may be due to the fact that after a not so good sleep, I am tired enough for my body to not care enough to be picky the second night.

I still enjoy sleeping on the top bunk, even though I don't get to do it as frequently as I used to.

I love the water!

We ate very well this weekend.  In fact we were somewhat spoiled.  I really enjoyed eating food that I wouldn't typically make for myself for practicality reasons.  It was also fun to eat meals with large groups.

Many hands make light work - as was evidenced in our clean-up of the cabins so that we could make it to Sunday School on Sunday morning.

Our cabins had great acoustics.  In fact, one of the coolest places to listen to the group singing was in the bathroom.  The sound was really good in there as well as in the bedrooms.

Stars always look brighter when you are out of town in the 'wilderness'.

It was a fabulous and fun weekend.  Later, when I am feeling more coherent and have more time I may post something more in depth about what I experienced and learned this weekend at Women's Retreat.  For now you will have to be satisfies with the above random details.

Pumpkin Carving

I have never been overly creative.  This year was the third time I carved a pumpkin.  I have not used a template or a design for it, but I have started with a cookie cutter and worked from that shape twice.  I tend to like simple designs that will look neat lit up.  Sunday evening we had a pumpkin carving fall party.  It was a great time of fun and fellowship.  

The youth from church were there as well as a number of the regular pizza group.  There were twelve pumpkins carved.  A number of them had super hero themes - most of which were actually carved by the girls, which the girls found ironic.  There were only two faces carved in the somewhat traditional manner.  It was neat to see a whole line of carved pumpkins lit up in lawn.  The time change helped because it got dark an hour earlier.

Last year's pumpkin: carved with the my good friend Catherine.
It even had the big dipper on the back.

This year's pumpkin: carved independently.
People kept commenting that I did leaves because I am Canadian, they aren't even maple leaves.

An extra one just for fun.
This is Paula's pumpkin, which I thought turned out really neat.

Part of the fun with carving pumpkins was separating some seeds to bake.  At one point I commented about the things we do for friends - I was going through the pumpkin guts separating a couple containers worth of seeds because my friends wanted them.  I really didn't care about the seeds other than the tradition of having seeds was part of pumpkin carving.

There was also lots of good food to go with the evening activities.  We also added in some birthday cake and goodies for Susan's birthday, even though her birthday was almost a month ago.  There was a fire for roasting hot dogs and s'mores; there were chips and a cheesy dip; there were peanuts in their shells as well as candy corn and candy pumpkins; there were cupcakes, spice cookies, pumpkin bread, cake, and birthday cake.  There was even hot apple cider, which is one of my favorites.

The evening was not complete until a board game was played after the pumpkins were finished being carved and the food had been enjoyed.  It was a great evening!