This life of mine is going at twice the speed of light. Is that even possible? I stink at physics (and all other sciences, truth be told). Be it possible or not, it's true.
Two months ago, I was a high school student. I was carrying a pillow to first block to sleep through Chemistry (a hint at why I stink at sciences?) and only concerned with Volleyball or the next trip I'd take with my youth group.
A month ago I was a college student, standing outside my Senior Seminar English, watching planes crash in to the World Trade Center buildings and then the Pentagon. I was terrified that this could happen in my country (but never stopped to think of the countries where suicide bombs are the everyday-norm). And then I was awed as the people of our country wrapped themselves not in fear, but in Truth.
Three weeks ago I was expecting my first child. Terrified that I would break him, or hurt him in some fundamental way.
A week ago I was expecting my second child. Terrified that I would break her, or hurt her in some fundamental way.
My life continues to change, to go so fast that most of the time I feel like I'm on the merry-go-round, being turned faster and faster and faster until I can't hold on any longer. I know that I'm going to be thrown off and have no say in where I land or how hard.
But today. Today I am almost 30. Today I am the wife of my best friend. Today I am the mother of two of God's greatest works of art, and still terrified that I will hurt them in some fundamental way. Today I will go to sleep with a full tummy, in a warm bed. Today I will rest easy, not because of who our country has elected to lead us for the next four years, but because no matter where I go, what I do, how fast the merry-go-round is spinning, "The LORD my God will be with me wherever I go ..." (Joshua 1:9).
I blinked and Halloween was here and gone, election day was over (DJ voted for the "first time" at school!), as El went on her first pony ride ... oh, it goes so fast ... but it's so much more than o.k., no matter how fast it goes.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Favorite Teachers
Do you have a favorite teacher? From elementary school? Middle/Junior High, High School? College? I ask because Mike blogs, too, and the other day he got a random e-mail from his high school AP English teacher who he hasn't seen since high school (Class of 1989!). Wow. It really got me to thinking ...
My Mom is a teacher - she's taught 1st grade since completing her degrees in Elementary Education (B.A., Limestone College, Gaffney, SC) and Divergent Learning (Masters, Columbia College, Columbia, SC) and this year is teaching 5-year old Kindergarten. This year, she's teaching the child of a former student. I could really get into the socio-economics of her school's part of our county, but I won't get started on that today. Suffice it to say that my Mom has only been teaching for about 10 years, and you get the idea.
Myself, I've been blessed in that I've had not just one good teacher, but numerous great teachers who standout in my memory.
I'll skip 1st grade as it pretty much was the worst year of my life (chicken pox, scarlet fever, and I was stuck in the middle reading group the whole year!).
But Second Grade ... second grade was WOW. I had Mrs. Banks who was amazing. I mean, even the part where she made me sit behind the classroom door because I talked too much & then I only had the wall to talk to, even that was great. She was (is) a dynamic teacher in that she laughed a lot, let us laugh a lot and had the good sense to teach to the strengths of her students. And she took us on a field trip to Clemson University so that we saw what it was like to go to college. Mrs. Banks made me love school.
Skip a few years - not because Ms. Culbreth (3rd) or Mrs. Bridges (4th) weren't great teachers because they were - but to save some time a space for Mrs. Nichols (5th).
Mrs. Nichols was (is) a wonderful, sweet teacher. She loved (still loves) her students as if if each one is hers. And she taught me about forgiveness - mine and others. When Eden and I got in to an argument, Mrs. Nochols took us out into the hall and spoke with her sweet, patient voice. And explained that we were friends, and in order to stay friends, we had to be willing to forgive each other. And she added, we should remember that if we wanted God to forgive us, we had to be willing to fogive each other. That's a lesson I need to learn over and over again.
Middle School and Junior High are a blur - the first years of having multiple teachers - but Ms. Parker (6th grade Math), Mr. Andreasen (8th grade geography), Mrs. Kimbrell (8th grade lit) ... those are the ones who standout ...
And then there was high school ...
Mrs. Smith (9th grade English), Mr. cannon (10th grade English), Mr. Smith (11th & 12th AP English), Mrs. Putnam (11th grade AP U.S. History), Coach Fisher (9th grade World Geography), Herr Hope (10th, 11th & 12th grade German). Thanks to each of these people I can not only form a coheerrant thought, I know how to write it down. Thanks to each of these people, I can not only name a United States Supreme Court decision, I know its significance. Thanks to each of these people, I can find Russia, China, the Yang Tze River, The Andes Mountains, the Nile River and many, many other countries, Rivers, Mountain Ranges, countries and all of the 50 U.S. States on a Map. And I can find a bathroom, food, a hotel, an airport, the Post, and say hello the next time I'm in Germany, or during Oktoberfest. And they did it all creatively, kindly, harshly, determinedly. I was important to each of them and I knew it. I still know it. And they are important to me.
College professors are a whole other post, so ... Thank you to teachers. They give of their time, their energy, their money and themselves. And they do it for not nearly what they should get in monetary compensation. And they get up early, when it's rainy and cold or hot and humid. Teachers are amazing ...
My Mom is a teacher - she's taught 1st grade since completing her degrees in Elementary Education (B.A., Limestone College, Gaffney, SC) and Divergent Learning (Masters, Columbia College, Columbia, SC) and this year is teaching 5-year old Kindergarten. This year, she's teaching the child of a former student. I could really get into the socio-economics of her school's part of our county, but I won't get started on that today. Suffice it to say that my Mom has only been teaching for about 10 years, and you get the idea.
Myself, I've been blessed in that I've had not just one good teacher, but numerous great teachers who standout in my memory.
I'll skip 1st grade as it pretty much was the worst year of my life (chicken pox, scarlet fever, and I was stuck in the middle reading group the whole year!).
But Second Grade ... second grade was WOW. I had Mrs. Banks who was amazing. I mean, even the part where she made me sit behind the classroom door because I talked too much & then I only had the wall to talk to, even that was great. She was (is) a dynamic teacher in that she laughed a lot, let us laugh a lot and had the good sense to teach to the strengths of her students. And she took us on a field trip to Clemson University so that we saw what it was like to go to college. Mrs. Banks made me love school.
Skip a few years - not because Ms. Culbreth (3rd) or Mrs. Bridges (4th) weren't great teachers because they were - but to save some time a space for Mrs. Nichols (5th).
Mrs. Nichols was (is) a wonderful, sweet teacher. She loved (still loves) her students as if if each one is hers. And she taught me about forgiveness - mine and others. When Eden and I got in to an argument, Mrs. Nochols took us out into the hall and spoke with her sweet, patient voice. And explained that we were friends, and in order to stay friends, we had to be willing to forgive each other. And she added, we should remember that if we wanted God to forgive us, we had to be willing to fogive each other. That's a lesson I need to learn over and over again.
Middle School and Junior High are a blur - the first years of having multiple teachers - but Ms. Parker (6th grade Math), Mr. Andreasen (8th grade geography), Mrs. Kimbrell (8th grade lit) ... those are the ones who standout ...
And then there was high school ...
Mrs. Smith (9th grade English), Mr. cannon (10th grade English), Mr. Smith (11th & 12th AP English), Mrs. Putnam (11th grade AP U.S. History), Coach Fisher (9th grade World Geography), Herr Hope (10th, 11th & 12th grade German). Thanks to each of these people I can not only form a coheerrant thought, I know how to write it down. Thanks to each of these people, I can not only name a United States Supreme Court decision, I know its significance. Thanks to each of these people, I can find Russia, China, the Yang Tze River, The Andes Mountains, the Nile River and many, many other countries, Rivers, Mountain Ranges, countries and all of the 50 U.S. States on a Map. And I can find a bathroom, food, a hotel, an airport, the Post, and say hello the next time I'm in Germany, or during Oktoberfest. And they did it all creatively, kindly, harshly, determinedly. I was important to each of them and I knew it. I still know it. And they are important to me.
College professors are a whole other post, so ... Thank you to teachers. They give of their time, their energy, their money and themselves. And they do it for not nearly what they should get in monetary compensation. And they get up early, when it's rainy and cold or hot and humid. Teachers are amazing ...
Thursday, September 18, 2008
The Big Top Comes to the Springs ..
As the title of this post implies, the big top - and by that I mean the Circus - came to town. A little tiny circus called the Lewis & Clark Circus made a stop in Boiling Springs this week. And we had to go. Let me interupt & say that I hate the circus. I hate that the animals are caged and made to perform or carry small children or overweight adults around and around and around in circles, I hate that circus people travel from town-to-town because I love having "roots" and think everyone must have roots. But, Mom got free passes for the boys and paid the $15 admission for us adults, so to the circus we went.
There weren't so many thrills and chills but they were lots of laughs. The "Ringleader" (I'm not sure of the official title) was great & shameless as he tried to convince the audience to spend ridiculous amounts of cash on silly things - $2 for a balloon,$2 for a coloring book, $3 for a cone icee, $5 to ride Lawrence of Arabia (the single hump camel), $5 to ride a pony around in a circle, $2 to feed the goats/llama/calf ... you get the idea. But folks were lining up like crazy (ok, kids were lining up like crazy, begging for cash) to buy what the circus was peddling. There was a family who performed a balancing act (the youngest child tumbled while the older child - who was 11 - climbed a pole while his Dad held it up on his chest & then rode a bike, there was fire-eating, there was an alligator & there were even tigers jumping through a flaming hoop. But DJ loved most were the (gulp) clowns. I hate clowns. But DJ loved the clowns who pulled off a bank heist & were chased by (stereotypes alive & well!) a do-nut-eating clown policeman. They somersaulted, the had a play fight, the tripped ... they wore black & white striped outfits & masks ala-Zorro. And the boys loved it. Elly loved Big and Little (the full-size horse and the miniature horse) - she waved at them and bounced. She fell asleep during the camel's act.
Even though it put us getting home late & getting to bed even later, I'm glad we got to go ... I'll post some of the pictures later ... For now, I need to go fix DJ's lunch for tomorrow and get myself to bed ... signing off ...
There weren't so many thrills and chills but they were lots of laughs. The "Ringleader" (I'm not sure of the official title) was great & shameless as he tried to convince the audience to spend ridiculous amounts of cash on silly things - $2 for a balloon,$2 for a coloring book, $3 for a cone icee, $5 to ride Lawrence of Arabia (the single hump camel), $5 to ride a pony around in a circle, $2 to feed the goats/llama/calf ... you get the idea. But folks were lining up like crazy (ok, kids were lining up like crazy, begging for cash) to buy what the circus was peddling. There was a family who performed a balancing act (the youngest child tumbled while the older child - who was 11 - climbed a pole while his Dad held it up on his chest & then rode a bike, there was fire-eating, there was an alligator & there were even tigers jumping through a flaming hoop. But DJ loved most were the (gulp) clowns. I hate clowns. But DJ loved the clowns who pulled off a bank heist & were chased by (stereotypes alive & well!) a do-nut-eating clown policeman. They somersaulted, the had a play fight, the tripped ... they wore black & white striped outfits & masks ala-Zorro. And the boys loved it. Elly loved Big and Little (the full-size horse and the miniature horse) - she waved at them and bounced. She fell asleep during the camel's act.
Even though it put us getting home late & getting to bed even later, I'm glad we got to go ... I'll post some of the pictures later ... For now, I need to go fix DJ's lunch for tomorrow and get myself to bed ... signing off ...
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