I'm borrowing this from someone, but trying to make it my own. (Thanks Katelynn!)
1. My aunt and uncle from New Mexico flew up to the Tri-Cities for the Labor Day weekend. Good times were had... including Texas hold 'em, Ice Harbor, several BBQs, and wine tasting! Hope you had fun Dan and Mary Beth!
2. Back to the wine tasting... I've never really been until this summer. It's really a good time! For $5 (and sometimes for free) you can taste several of the offered wines. At one place (Barnard Griffins) we tasted about 18 different kinds! We also bought a bottle called Orange Muscat.. pretty tasty! Eventually I would like to take the chartered bus that drives you around to all the various Valley wineries.
3. The day after labor day was a bit of a rough one at school. It's like the kids forgot that we had school last week. Anything I taught them, especially routines and rules, were gone. Starting from scratch... again. :(
4. Hailey and I were supposed to be training for a 1/2 Marathon. If you know us at all, we've been "training for a 1/2 Marathon" since we first met. As you could probably guess we've wavered from this plan a bit. The race is supposed to happen on September 19th, but I haven't run since before I had to report to my classroom. Nevertheless, we are determined to complete one this time... even if we have to walk parts of it! :)
5. Yesterday I was in my classroom working for about 4 hours. Shouldn't that be against the law on Labor Day?
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Saturday, September 5, 2009
The teacher-biz...
What a difference a couple years makes. With one week in the books, I look back over the last couple years and ponder the extent of my anxiety-filled, completely stressed out self. What they say is true, "The first few years of teaching are the hardest." There wasn't a day (or second for that matter) that went by when my mind wasn't planning for the upcoming day, week, month--you name it. I feel so much more relaxed and at ease about this school year. Hailey says that she can tell. I feel like I've built up my little "bag of tricks" that will help get me through. Here's to another solid year at BL!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
My goal...
I'm going to set a lofty, but attainable goal. I will attempt to write in this blog everyday for one week. It is generally not in my nature to sit down and type about things that I am thinking about. But I will rise to this self-made challenge!
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Words of Wisdom from C.S. Lewis- Part 1
Charity and Fairness
When it comes to a question of our forgiving other people, it is partly the same and partly different. It is the same because, here also, forgiving does not mean excusing. Many people seem to think it does. They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out that there was really no cheating or no bullying. But if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. They keep on replying, 'But I tell you the man broke a most solemn promise.' Exactly: that is precisely what you have to forgive. (This doesn't mean you must necessarily believe his next promise. It does mean that you must make every effort to kill every trace of resentment in your own heart -- every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out.) The difference between this situation and the one in which you are asking God's forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept them easily enough. As regards my own sins it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are not really as good as I think: as regards other men's sins against me it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are better than I think. One must therefore begin by attending carefully to everything which may show that the other man was not so much to blame as we thought. But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine percent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one percent of guilt which is left over. To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christain charity; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.
This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life -- to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son -- how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.' We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God's mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.
When it comes to a question of our forgiving other people, it is partly the same and partly different. It is the same because, here also, forgiving does not mean excusing. Many people seem to think it does. They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out that there was really no cheating or no bullying. But if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. They keep on replying, 'But I tell you the man broke a most solemn promise.' Exactly: that is precisely what you have to forgive. (This doesn't mean you must necessarily believe his next promise. It does mean that you must make every effort to kill every trace of resentment in your own heart -- every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out.) The difference between this situation and the one in which you are asking God's forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept them easily enough. As regards my own sins it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are not really as good as I think: as regards other men's sins against me it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are better than I think. One must therefore begin by attending carefully to everything which may show that the other man was not so much to blame as we thought. But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine percent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one percent of guilt which is left over. To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christain charity; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.
This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life -- to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son -- how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.' We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God's mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.
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