best parent meeting ever

mom came in with Starbucks iced mocha for me.

world war i

For your perusing pleasure, I would like to direct you to this site: http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/index.htm#12. You will learn so much about WWI and there are so many pictures - you could spend an hour looking a photos, drawings and postcards alone, not to mention the text. Elizabeth Stewart found it and showed it to me, and we'll be looking at it this week.

Actually you could probably spend 10 hours looking at this site, so let me show you something cool - go to the artists and find Hansi. Hansi has some artwork in the menu from Cafe Alsace in downtown Decatur. He drew cartoons from that period depicting the contrast between German occupation preWWI and when the Germans left it. It's kind of comical: http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/Hansi/Hansi_02.htm. I'm also really hooked on all the postcards that they have too. So amazing.

community

On my way to church this morning I pulled up to the intersection just by church. I noticed from the various university stickers that the car in front of me was my neighbors/student/fellow church members. Behind me I knew was Courtney: I had passed her at the intersection of Clairmont. Then the Terrells' pulled up in their van next to me! (I'm still confused about which one, but either twin brother is an elder and a dad of middle schoolers.) I was just struck by how much I love feeling the community and closeness of knowing people.

This afternoon I went to lunch late because I had a little meeting. People in the singles' fellowship usually arrange to eat together somewhere: this week it was Felinni's pizza which is just a mile from my house. When I pulled up into the very crowded parking lot, I saw a Mr. Terrell pulling around. Inside was full of Intowners! It turns out that the "singles", "got kids" and "got teens" fellowships ALL decided to have lunch at Fellini's on the same day! We flooded the place, and my students were there, and parents were smiling at me, and my friends were there, and I just loved it.

I think this is one of my favorite things about my life here. I love how I bump into people from school and church in my neighborhood, and feel a sense of community. I seriously see the Terrells everywhere: I run into them at restaurants, I run into them in Chattanooga when they are visiting their son at Covenant, I can't remember where else. I remember seeing Paster Sherman at the grocery store once, before I really knew him. This afternoon I took a walk around my neighborhood, and a dad and some kids were playing football, and sure enough - one of them was my sixth grade math student!


I know you all are waiting with bated breath for this news: I have figured out how to successfully make a loaf of bread with extra ingredients. It turns out that there is a beep after most of the kneeding is done. Then the machine sits for five minutes to give me time to run to the kitchen, measure out the chocolate chips and pour them in before it mixes the dough up one last time. This bread is for my students tomorrow morning. I, foreign minister of Belgium, have called delegates from European powers for a peace conference to come to avert the great war. I decided some refreshments would be in order.

hemmusic

This is the most lovely site ever. It's the new homesite of Hem, the most bestest band. They are coming to Atlanta on Feb. 18th, and alas, I won't be going. It's hard for me to belive myself - how I could ever miss a show of theirs when the first one was so amazing. So, my charge to anyone in Atlanta on the 18th of February, is that they find themselves at Vinyl at 8pm.

If you go to http://myspace.com/hem you'll get to hear some of their music.

grammar

Grammar Review
Punctuation: Semicolon, Colon, Hyphen, Dash

Edit these sentences using the above punctuation. Note that some sentences might be fixed in different ways: do what you think is best, but leave each sentence as one sentence.

1. I intend to bring four things for the party, napkins, plates, drinks and cups.
2. Amy will I certainly hope remember to bring the cake.
3. Betsy said she would bring a vegetable tray, Christy will bring the dip.
4. There are a lot of things to do for a person turning twenty eight.
5. A party for a four year old might not be so complicated.
6. Nathan arranged for the clown, bought large, red balloons, picked up the presents, cards, and prizes, and sent invitations to friends in Ashville, North Carolina.
7. Next year we won’t plan something so big this is getting ridiculous.
8. Courtney will be surprised she thought we forgot.

the bread machine

I am now eating the most delicious slice of a ruined loaf of bread. But the bread machine is the most forgiving of kitchen contraptions.

I brought home an old bread machine from NJ this Christmas, and it is my new favorite toy. I've made several loafs of bread, but they are all sorts of experiments, because I have no manual for the machine, and less experience.

Today was a not-so-good day, and I came home feeling the need for some 'comfort food' -- a warm, yummy-smelling chocolate chip loaf of bread sounded like just the thing. I know from my last endeavor at making cinnamon raisin bread, that the raisins must be added near the end of the kneading cycle so that the pieces don't get all chopped up. So one morning when the smell of cinnamon and baking bread woke us up, I found the bread yummy, but the raisins all chopped up.

So tonight I dumped in the ingredients, started the machine, and sat around reading All Quiet on the Western Front and listened to the kneading and rising bread cycles. But I missed the last kneading cycle, and when I poured the chips in, they rose up with the loaf of bread as it baked, spilled around the sides and down into the oven, but did not get baked in the bread. Anyways, the sweet loaf still tastes amazing, and it is chewy and hot right now, and Angie and I enjoyed it after a little bit of Wallace & Grommett.

So if you ever have a bad, rainy Monday, give me three hours notice and I will do my best to cheer you up. (Angie will provide the W&G.)

the sweetest thing

oo, It's been so long since I've blogged. I'm a bad bad blogger, and it's late late on a school night, but then I seem to be most prolific in the dark hours of the night, so here I go.
I have a good story.

On Friday at school, I got thrown a birthday party! Quite surprising and quite delightful. We were up in the library/computer lab researching, and when we came back down there were balloons and flowers on Sara's desk. It isn't her birthday, and we didn't know what to make of it. Sara happens to be the last one in the room, and so Matt convinces everyone to start singing "Happy Birthday" as soon as she enters the room. She joins in, but then has a confused look on her face when we all say, 'dear, Sara...' and the mystery remains. Until one kid pips up, "I think this is for you, Miss M." So of course I am duly confused until someone points out that it is January 20th, and so today is my half-birthday. And they threw me a surprise party. Because they wanted to celebrate my birthday. (Nevermind about why the kids were confused. I don't know. I should say 'their parents' threw me the party then. They are good parents to me.)

That afternoon during our last hour they brought in a cake, and I think maybe we sang again. And I was very touched, because it is the first-ever birthday I've celebrated in school, and the first time I've ever been surprised for a birthday celebration.

I do believe it redeemed the week.
so begins another one.

hope you have a good one.
and, listen, thanks for commenting, people.
You inspire me to write again.

sewbuttons

Observe small changes in the sidebar and know that I spent hours to make it just so.

a severe week

It was a long day at work today, and when I got into my car late in the evening, I was greeted by Billy Joel, blasting from the speakers. I was reminded that life exists outside of work. Strange how I could seem to forget that for 12 hours. "We choose between reality and madness..."
It's been a long week, and especially two very long days since students returned. And I say, shoot, my reality has been madness lately.

Yesterday, on students' first day back, we had a parent meeting in the evening. One parent asked me, "So, did you find the kids had trouble staying awake today as they transitioned back to regular schedules?" I literally had to think long and hard to draw my mind back to the beginning of the day, and I'm sure I had a confused look on my face as I asked, "Was today the first day back? I...don't remember this morning." It seriously felt like five days. But then I did remember a bit of what we did that I shared with them.

As we transition between 2 novels, we're studying the poems of Emily Dickinson. One of my favorite poems ever is "There's a Certain Slant of Light" and ever since I read that, I felt like I could relate to what she was talking about, and I have always seen winter afternoons with different eyes. What I didn't account for, in teaching my students here in Atlanta, is that the effect is not as drastic down here as it is in New England. Perhaps it oppresses even more in Alaska. I shall see... I guess that here there is just less of a tilt to the sun's path, and less of a change in the way the light hits the atmosphere, making it white and bright. So there I was, bearing my heart out, on how I felt that 'heavenly hurt' it gives, and they were looking at me with odd expressions, saying they don't know what she means: summer sun is far more oppressive. I challenged them to write a poem in response. "To You: Emily Dickinson" [ha ha, I laugh because I think Courtney and Mother will get my references.] Or perhaps they will understand the next time they go outside and see with new Emily Dickinson eyes.

Today was such a long day because report cards are due tomorrow. Ideally I would have finished them on Monday, our work day, but unfortunately that was just not as productive a day as I would have liked. There was planning for the week to do, and other little petty things that always take up more time than they should like planning/curriculum work, writing emails to parents, arranging parent-teacher conferences etc. I won't bore you all with the details. I was just talking to fellow teachers about how it's hard to explain our job. People have a feeling for what teachers do, having been students for 12+ years, but it's hard to explain to them what takes up my time post 3:30. Maybe someday I'll get inspired to do it and post it, but I fear it would be a most dreadful boring list.


So that is my week in a nutshell. And since I worked so late today, I didn't take a paperclip home today, and so I am getting to blog to my heart's content. I'm now going to get into pjs, and with some delicious ovaltine, read A Severe Mercy. I cannot recommend this book enough. It is so good. I picked it at a gift exchange with fellow teachers. It was a white elephant for books. I was really tempted to pick up Good Poems, a collection by Garrison Keillor, or Peace Like a River which received wonderful recommendations. But instead I decided to buy those for Mother and Ruth for Christmas, and take A Severe Mercy for myself. Summer, a teacher at my school, said it was excellent. I will tell you just a little bit about it, and while I know that I rarely actually read what someone recommends to me unless they put the book in my hands, I still say read it!

It is a true story written by a man about him and his life. It is a salvation story of their love. He tells the story of their love together - how it grows and is preserved, and is led to real Love. It is written so well that I hang on each word, full of vivid imagery. Part of the book, the part I am reading now, includes letters written to and from C.S. Lewis which, of course, are so well written and hold great insight.

I'm quite thrilled to have comments on my blog. Would that have to do with me actually posting things? =)

Does anyone know how to indent on CSS? I'm looking for a tab-sort of thing. I found 'blockquote' which achieves the above effect, but I'm looking for something that will indent without separating itself from the paragraph above and below as that does with those lines.

January 1

A new post in 2006.
In 2006 I do not resolve to be a better blogger, for I don't think that is a very good goal for the year, nor do I pretend I can do a better job. My posting tends to be sporadic, and usually good intentions of writing ideas are never actualized.

But how about some comments on those end-of-year traditions.

• Aside: I'm really into hyphens right now. Did you know that when you take a noun phrase and make it into an adjective [which, by the way, is one of my favorite things about the English language--how you can change parts of speech around (that was a dash)] that you should use hyphens between those nouns-turned-to-adjectives? I don't know how to explain why I used hyphens on that last noun-phrase-ish thing.

making resolutions and thinking about the old year, and the next year coming
I have mixed feelings about it all. I usually go through a general rebellion about the idea of having resolutions, and the reason is two fold. One, I am skeptical about my ability to keep them, and I hate making promises I'm not sure I can keep. Two, I usually can't think of a good one that I can keep and is worthy of doing, and I don't want to just join the bandwagon. But, this time, I have one.

My resolution is to be better with my quiet time, and let me explain what I mean by it. I'm not making stipulations about when and where and how long, because I know those sorts of things don't last long, and I don't want to be legalistic about it. But I have established something that I think is important, and here is where it lies: When I haven't had good time with God, just me alone, then I cannot be a good friend. I cannot give when they need, and I cannot lead where God would like me to direct, change, influence. And so then, how am I to reflect God, to advance the kingdom? So, I resolve to be better at having my quiet time--making it a priority over being with friends. Not letting myself go hang out when I need to have God time. And this goes for both good-one-on-one coffeeshop talks, and also for fun group gatherings. Because in all cases I should be an instrument of God, using my spiritual gifts to bring glory to God in what we are doing and what we are saying. So that is what I've been convicted of lately, and since it's that time for turning a new leaf, I shall call it a new year resolution.

On the other hand, this is also a time for looking back and looking forward, and this I have always liked to do. I once started writing letters to myself in the future, and it is always entertaining, and a neat exercise. It's fascinating to me to recollect exactly what I was doing on such and such day last year, and how different my mindset was then. I tend to do this around more monumental times. Like this November I was thinking about how last November I just moved into the house at Stonecliff. Or birthdays and the beginning and end of the school year are also good times to do it.

But, here's my final, general point. The things that we designate to do at New Year's are good things to do all the time. We should always be reflective about where we are and where we need to improve and how we will work on it. It is healthy to look back on how you have changed and seen God's hand at work again and again. It's exciting to take the realization that unexpected things happened, and unexpected things will keep happening. In the past I have had feelings of rebellion against these sorts of traditions, and certainly we could enumerate ways the traditions have been misused and the focus is distorted. But I am resolving ;) not to throw the baby out with the bath water. Instead I am trying to recognize how they are beneficial. I want to see if I can be challenged and edified by making a resolution and reflecting on time going by.