Freshly Planted

My latest craft project...

My prize box has been getting a little sparse lately. My students have been doing too well and therefore getting more prizes than I predicted. If I were going to have a problem, I guess this one would be one I would choose. One of their favorite things has been the little blank books I brought back from the States.

 

I used my sewing machine to sew several trimmed pieces of paper into a piece of fancy card stock.

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I had a lot of fun putting these together. I just need to find a good way to make some look a little more masculine. Adding rivets, eyelets, and ribbon brought them up another notch. I think my fifth graders will really think these are great prizes... I hope.

  

Dishing it Up

This weekend my roommate and I took the time to get some much needed (and some not so needed) shopping done. For one, we bought a vacuum. It's beautiful and yellow and has a rotating brush to get up all of our long hair. It also is a good brand so we won't have to go shopping for another one for a very long time. In the Middle East, there are lots of knock off brands and things that come from who knows where. These can look legit but they die in a week and the shop owners will certainly not take it back. So it pays to be careful.

While the yellow vacuum cleaner is awesome and colorful, there were some other things that brought even more color and fun into our house.
At the bazaar we went through the second-hand fabric shops and found several new tablecloths. All are bright and cheerful and each one cost about a dollar. Yay for second hand!

Then we visited a pottery and dish store that we've been hearing about for months. Some of our dishes are chipped or cracked and I broke yet another bowl the other day. And so we decided to add to our collection and brighten them up some too. They are all so pretty!  

 

 I also have a list of things I am thankful for from this past week. 

559. Team dinner on a Wednesday

560. F's hugs

561. N and D thanking me for their Bibles

562. E-mails of encouragement in the dark times

563. New dishes in bright colors

564. Yellow vacuum cleaner

565. Bright tablecloths

566. The super helpful man at the Bosch store

567. Birthday flowers still growing weeks later.

568. The Litany of Humility

569. Planting my seeds

570. Bulbs sprouting in pots

571. Chasing the propane truck... it's good exercise especially if you don't manage to catch it

572. The Beatitudes

573. A new (surprise!)brother in Christ--how great is our God!

574. Knee Deep by the Zac Brown Band and my sister for playing it as her wake up alarm over Christmas--now it just makes me happy!

575. Trips to the bazaar with friends

576. Nacho Libre and nachos night with friends

577. Sunshine flooding in through lace curtains

578. K and Y saying that when they grow up they want to come back and teach at the school

579. Encouraging e-mails and friends praying for me

 

Litany of Humilty

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart,  
Hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed, 
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved,  
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled, 
Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the desire of being honored,  
Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being praised,  
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others,  
Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the desire of being consulted, 
Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the desire of being approved,  

Deliver me, Jesus. 

 

From the fear of being humiliated, 
Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the fear of being despised,  
Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the fear of suffering rebukes,  
Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the fear of being calumniated,  
Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being forgotten,  
Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the fear of being ridiculed,  
Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the fear of being wronged,  
Deliver me, Jesus. 
From the fear of being suspected,  
Deliver me, Jesus.

That others may be loved more than I, 
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. 
That others may be esteemed more than I,  
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. 
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease,  
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. 
That others may be chosen and I set aside, 

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be praised and I unnoticed,  
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. 
That others may be preferred to me in everything,  
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it. 
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should,

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

My Heart for You...

I gave my students a task.

I hoped that this task would grow their hearts on Valentines day.

We talked about what it means to be thankful and how we can be thankful for so many things, even the hard things.

So, each one wrote lists. And these lists were more than being thankful for the ones they loved, but also thankful for the details they loved.

And we wrote and cut and taped and created a masterpiece in the hallway. The students were excited to share their new found joy and love with the rest of the school. 

 And I told them that this is my heart for you all...

that you would be thankful for what you have been given.

What is your heart for the people you love?

539. Rusty pictures
540. Our red heater
541. My leather purse
542. The school bag my mother and sister made for me
543. A sweet birthday note from my father
545. Little L's typed birthday note that called me sweet teacher
546. Hundreds of Valentine pictures
547. Grains and eating them
548. Time to exercise in the morning
549. Prayer room
550. New fabric for a traditional dress
551. Fresh strawberries
552. Deep heart hurting talks
553. Abandonment and being ignored
554. Glued things--shoe, bracelet, travel mug
555. How broken things remind me of the war
556. Contrite spirits in my students
557. Snow falling in big fluffy flakes
558. Thankful kids

Barbed Wire

After reading a post over at Scribing the Journey I was inspired to think more about the barbed wire I see. I think people expect that I see a lot of barbed wire. And, well, I do. But after 5 years, I've kind of stopped noticing it. So, I decided to look at it a little closer. I wasn't inspired. It's swirly sometimes, rusty often, and if God was speaking to me through it, I didn't hear.

See? Barbed wire.

But that thought led me to something else. My fifth graders have been asking me a lot of questions about how God talks to me and how I know what He wants me to do. And they want to know if He will speak to them if they ask Him to. My answer is always that God will reveal himself, but most likely not in the way you expect Him to. So look in the unexpected places and keep your eyes open all the time. All of creation is God's spoken word to us.

So wait, does that mean that God is speaking to me through the barbed wire after all?

What I Saw on My Walk Home...