Two things I like about washing my hands at school:

1. Foaming hand soap
2. Hot water

You know you're a teacher when . . .

You meet a parent at the grocery store and they greet you, "Hello Miss Vis" and you wonder if they even know your first name, after teaching their child for a year and a half.

Morning Devotions

Some mornings my morning devotions come more easily than others.  

On days like this one,

it is so easy to praise God for the beauty of His creation and how His creation reveals His character.  It makes me sad (and reminds me to pray) for my neighbor who thinks the view is magical, but doesn't recognize the God created it.

I am so thankful for the beauty of God's creation, which I get to enjoy everyday, and for my senses that enable me to enjoy it.

First Day of School - stream of conciousness

So, that day when you are really sore from doing a workout you shouldn't be sore from, on a day that just happens to be the first day of school, and because the sun is out after school - aka around 6pm when you finally leave even though it was a half day - you go for a run to enjoy the weather and you feel your sore muscles with every step. 
But, in all that, you feel so blessed because the first day went better than expected, the sun is shining after a number of gray rainy days, the ocean water looks so blue, the mountains are beautiful, there is a rainbow in part of one of the clouds near the sun (apparently rare for the cloud to turn into a rainbow), and despite feeling sore and stiff you actually feel really good while running; seeing the sun peek through a hole in the fast spreading clouds after noticing you have a partial shadow, and thinking that maybe God did it just for you. 
And, feeling incredibly blessed by a good God and a good day.

Last day of Official Vacation

Today was my last official day of Summer Vacation.  I have gone to school most days in the past two weeks - including a family work day this past Saturday.  Today, instead of going in and doing prep work, I enjoyed my last day of vacation going hiking with a friend.

We stopped to enjoy the view of Mount Baker along the drive.  It was cloudy when we left home, so we were very thankful to have such a clear and beautiful view!

We took a trail called Rainbow Ridge.  After climbing 1000 feet in the first half mile, we got out to some great views.  First was Mount Shuksan.

We got to see many different views of Mount Baker as well.  The clouds came and went, but only at the end did they come in front of the mountain.

As we were leaving some clouds moved in.  This view reminded me of artistic depictions of Mount Sinai, except it is missing the lightning bolts, I thought it was a fun connection.

Summer Smoothies

Summer is a great time to make smoothies!  The other day I decided I wanted a smoothie.  I went outside and picked what was left of mom and dad's strawberries.  Then I moved to the raspberries and picked a bunch of them (there were more of those left than strawberries).  I went inside and added some frozen saskatoons - I would have had to go for a walk to get enough saskatoons.  The only drawback was that because the berries were warm, I had to add ice to make the smoothie cold.

Delicious summer treat.

When does this happen?

The best view I've ever had while playing piano.  The acoustics were excellent too! 

I wish I brought some music along.

On Sunday we hiked up to Crater Lake with some friends.  On the way we stopped to play piano in an alpine meadow.  The piano was brought up by helicopter a few days before and will stay up there until September.  It is part of a local program promoting music in Smithers.