Writer's Workshop beginnings

It's a new year, and I'm trying to do writer's workshop in my class. This week is the first week I'm taking journals home and reading what the kids have written. Tonight I read the first 6, and I must say that I'm impressed with the creativity so far. Here are some of my favorite quotes:

"We call it my mom's room because my dad snores really loud and sleeps with Maggie the tiny pup and Coco the lovebug dog in the guestroom."

"If we didn't have love their would only be hate and that's horible. So the world has love and hate not just one." (Note: this is pre-editing stage)

"People had told me that Mrs. Dalton is a very very nice teacher. At first I did not belive them at first. But now I know that she is the nicest teacher of 3rd grade and 4th grade." Aww, I'm blushing!

I also have a story about a green, egg-like rock that a rock collector discovers. One day it cracked, and a blaze of fire came from it. Out of the flame came a baby dragon. This story is not complete yet, but it's interesting. It even has ghosts that the dragon and boy fight while they ride!

My last story is called Penguin Wars. I need to check this, but the kid has to have parents in the military. The penguins are fighting "terrist seals" that invaded Iraq and Afganastan. He uses actual ranks (Private Flipper, Tank Sgt. Beak, etc) and actual weapons. He did ask me if a nuclear weapon would be appropriate, and we decided to play it safe and change it to a water bomb. This is a chapter book.

We'll see what tomorrow's journals bring!

Judging others

Why are we so quick to think the worst of people and drag their names through the mud?

I was watching Rick Warren's interviews with Obama and McCain on Youtube because I missed them Saturday night and was very interested in seeing what they had to say in that kind of situation. I had heard that there was a debate on whether McCain had heard the questions ahead of time because he was in a car on the way there when Warren had said he was in a "cone of silence". Still, I think that Rick Warren has proven himself to be an honest, trustworthy person, so I believe him when he said that he thought McCain was already there by that time. It was an honest mistake and completely harmless in most people's opinion.

Anyway, I'm watching the videos on Youtube and notice that someone has posted a comment saying that Rick Warren needs to admit that he lied in order to help McCain do better in the campain. I just don't get how some people are so stubborn to think he did it maliciously when he's never shown that type of behavior in the past. Why can't we be a little more trusting, especially when we haven't been given a reason not to be. (Btw, I did reply with something of that nature directly to the person on Youtube. I just don't think it's fair for him to say that.)

Bible Study

I get to lead Wednesday night bible study for the senior high girls at my church! I've been wanting to work with the youth for a while now, but I couldn't seem to get involved. But today, one of the women from church called and asked if I could do it. I'm so excited!

An Odd Job

I'm reading this book right now called "The Top 100 Women of the Bible", and it's very interesting because it lists a lot of women that most of us have never heard of. I just started it today, so I'm still in the "A" names. One of the strangest so far has been Abishag. She's mentioned in 1 Kings 1:3:

Then they searched throughout Isreal for a beautiful girl and found Abishag, a Shunammite, and brought her to the king.

Basically, she got the job of keeping the old and dying King David warm by simply laying with him on his death bed. Can you imagine being a beautiful young woman that is chosen to be a dying old man's personal body warmer? I don't know about you, but I'm not seeing this as a highly sought-after job. I don't care that it's King David...being that close to someone who's dying is NOT a glamorous job. I think I might have tried to make excuses or hoped that they'd find someone else to do it so I wouldn't have to.

Sometimes God calls us to do things that are a bit odd or uncomfortable. It's hard to remember that life isn't about us. It's about bringing glory to God and serving Him. Instead of complaining about what we "have" to do, we should focus on who we're doing it for and why. True, it could mean that we have to clean a few toilets or even wipe the butt of someone who can't do it for themselves anymore (that's probably the job I would hate the most...just thinking of it makes me shudder). We won't always love the things we're called to do, but we do them because we love the one who calls us.

Welcome to my world!

I finally decided to move on from xanga-world and create my own blogspot (yes, I copied Christina). I kept my typical name since I use it for basically everything. I don't know how often I'll be posting on here, but I do check other people's sites pretty commonly. So...moving on to life...

I'm in my last few days of summer break right now, although it really just got started for me. I taught summer school for most of it, and then I spent a week at Jr. High camp. Nevertheless, it has been a fun summer. I guess 3 weeks is a good amount of time for me because it's not long enough for me to really get bored. Today I went up to the school to help our new 4th grade teacher set up her classroom. I get to be her mentor!! (I know, scary, right?) I'm really excited because she's actually my age, so I'm hoping we can hang out and stuff. I need people to hang out with here. It's been two years, and I still don't feel like I've quite found a group I feel really comfortable with. The rest of the NK teachers my age are almost all at the other school, so I don't see them very often. We'll see what happens though.

In other news, Steven interviewed for a job with Henrico schools today. We're praying that it works out because it would be a big pay increase, and he'd be closer to home.

That's pretty much it for now. I hope it's not too boring.