Its summer time!

Its summer time and that means that ARC Summer Adventures has started. This year I am working in the baby room. There are 7 campers. Rebekah is working too, she is my assistant. She has already made a few new friends.

Ready for our first day!Rebekah and Barrett conversing.Cole and Rebekah. He pushed her all over the room on that toy. Papa Dale and Rebekah before their ride.Papa Dale and Rebekah after their ride.

Papa Dale is a great asset to camp. He rides the fussy/tired babes around on his scooter until they are asleep or calmed. IT IS AWESOME. All the kids love him.

We have had a great two days at camp. We are going swimming for the first time tomorrow.

ARC is a great organization. This is a link to the national website, a link to ARC groups in MS, and a link to the ARC group we love.

We've been making art

My class...well we've needed a break. I know we just got back from spring break, but we're all a little "urgh" and very ready for school to be out and very much on each others' nerves...so we need breaks. And art breaks are working for us. Some pictures for your enjoyment.

Once again...

God got all over me again this morning.

Tony preached from John 13:1-17. He titled his sermon "Jesus and Dirty Feet".
He started off with the following video.



(Click here to learn more about Penn and Teller)

My heart was struck. It is hatred to believe in heaven and hell and to not share/witness to people you aren't postive are headed to heaven. So many of us don't share because it is awkward or we are scared of how a person will react. Which reminds me something of Priscilla Shirer's I read several weeks ago --"Not allowing our happiness to interfere with our holiness can be a difficult challenge..." So what is more important our personal comfort or someone else's eternity?

Deep stuff.

The main point of the sermon was we are commanded to love as God loved us. God loved us by serving. So we should serve because we love. And in a week or two or three, you can listen to the sermon here.

Tony ended with this quote from Mother Teresa --"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you." which made me think of my school babies (who have obviously already been on my heart and mind A LOT) because they are near to me for the majority of my day. And thinking on the school babies made me remember these other lovely ideas I gleamed from Mrs. Shirer.--"Mothering is not the ultimate goal of being a mom, revealing Christ to the children is." and "The anointing causes a woman with children to become a developer of Christian soliders."

Now I know my school babies are not my personal children, but I think I am closer with them than most regular education teachers are to their children. We get up close and personal in my room. It is me and 4-5 kids most of the day. We really know each other. I get called "Mom" A LOT. And God has laid it on my heart that it is my job to try to teach these little lovelies their academics but also to show them His love. And I'm taking that job assignment way more seriously these days.

I'm very glad God continues to reinforce this lesson time and time again.

School Babies

-A New School Motto-

and a few pictures of my kiddos

A rare moment of peace and everyone paying attention at the same time!

Last week, they saw paint. I had to promise to let them paint.

So I developed a sneaky sneaky plan. We watched two

super short videos of a little boy. Then we talked about them.

Next, I broke the "horrible" news to them: They had to write about the videos.

Then I made them a word/picture bank of the board.

And sent them to their seperate tables to write.These are their little sentences. They show much improvement since August.

Our handwriting is not great but I didn't ask them to have perfect handwriting,

I asked them to write a sentence and they did.

And their reward for obedience with no tears was PAINT!

They painted pictures to go with their sentences.

These pictures show much improvement as well.

They were in heaven.

We might start doing this every other week.

I was amazed at the peace and orderliness during the paint time.

God answers prayers.

For B,D,T & K....my school babies

So...I got a little video happy tonight. I haven't posted a video since November. And like I mentioned in the previous post, I'm doing it for the kids.

If you've talked to me one or two times since August, you'll know I haven't been as thrilled about my job as I have been in previous years. It has been hard being a wife and a mom and a teacher.

But God gave me an attitude adjustment over Christmas break that has recently been reaffirmed by the following quote...

Here's a radical idea: next time you're tempted to complain about your work, praise God for it instead. -Mark Buchanan

I have been doing a few things very differently. I've been praying and talking with God about work a super lot. I've been setting small short term goals at work, so I can leave there knowing I accomplished something (because I got to check it off my goal list) instead of feeling like a failure. And I've been trying to have a God-consciousness (thank you, Priscilla Shirer)...you know working like God is looking over my shoulder, and He actually is. He put me in this job for a reason and I need to do my very best at it to bring him the glory. All these things are really affecting how I deal with my sweet school babies. And they are sweet even when they are driving me up the wall!

That said, we still need your prayers. We have 13 weeks of school left and A SUPER LOT A BIT to accomplish.

And I found a new blog, it is written by this really handsome extremely wondeful guy... whoever is married to him is super blessed and I bet she is proud of him too. And I bet she may have permission to share his blog address with you very soon.

These sights give me happy thoughts

Kim got me, Crystal you're "it"

Kim tagged me, so I am supposed to tell you all 6 things about me.

1. My least favorite chore is emptying the dishwasher. I get it from my momma.

2. I can be on time for work, be there and be productive for the day, but I get the most done in the 30 minutes after everyone else goes home.

3. Rebekah is sick and asleep. She wakes up, cries, and goes back to sleep. Its easier for me to just hold her and feel her breath than to keep "running" to her room.

4. One Sunday night, I was spending quality time with Gravy (a.k.a. the most wonderful dog in the world). We were practicing her commands, cleaning her ears, etc. I go to trim a big knot of fur on her ear and I cut her ear. I cried.

5. One of my favorite people in the world will be 11 on October 16. He was in my class two years ago. Daily I wish he was still in my class. We got "murried" on a field trip to Landrum's Country.

6. I am thinking about making my own household cleaners.

TAG, Crystal. You're it.

Without

Yesterday, I went back to work and Rebekah went to the sitters from 7 to 3:30. We missed each other but the missing was lessened by the prescence of friends. I love my co-workers and I think Rebekah loves her co-players. When I arrived to pick her up, the sitter's little boy and two other children surrounded her. She was talking, talking, talking to them.

We were both so tired from our busy and different yesterday. Rebekah woke up ate, went right back to sleep, woke up ate again, went directly back to sleep, and (we) finally got up for good around 11:30. It was so NICE!!!!