Can I get a 1-2-3?

Or even an Uno- Dos- Tres would be good for now.

I've started school. Actually, I'm three weeks well into school. I thought I was pretty prepared for teaching little kids after nannying the Flanagan boys for 4 years, but in ways that I couldn't have anticipated, this job is difficult.

I did anticipate the following in this job:

• kids crying the first few days
• teaching them how to wash their hands, stand in a line, and other basic necessities
  
• throwing rocks on the playground
• needing to put kids in time out
  
• throw up
• snot

I did not anticipate:

• needing to tackle kids bolting for the door
• that speaking English to the kids would still get no response after three weeks
  
• that I would not be teaching them English so much as taking a crash refresher course in Spanish
• laughing every day at their preciousness
  
• being utterly exhausted every day of the week by 11:30
• poop
• yes, I said poop. One of the kids brought me a fecal sample of their very own on the playground with the words, "teacher, I need to go to the bathroom, see?"

It is a very good job but it is tiring. I have regained about 1/2 of my Spanish, still only speaking in present tense with an occasional fue, fuiste, fuimos or fueron (it's the past tense for "go"- it means "i/we went"). While I'm glad to be speaking Spanish again, my goal here is to teach them English- which is very hard for now. see the following: I get no response to "stop throwing the blocks!" and get an immediate response to "no lanze los bloques!" and since I'm a thinking being, I do not want to continue to do those things which provide me with no results. Therefore I've been learning a lot of Spanish rather than teaching much English.


Theres not a whole lot more to say about school. It's fun. Every day I have another funny story to tell my roommates when I get home. Every day they hug me. They're terribly cute and I like them all, even the defiant ones.


Here are some pictures for you:

mi casa con las bouganvillas.


These two plants belonged to Justin's grandad. I inherited them when he passed in June and nursed them back to health.

Una parte del jardin! Here all you can see are sweet potatoes, squash, tomatoes, but there is much much more.


CHICKENS!!
the two in the middle here are Grushenka and Old Warsaw


here we have Mr. Boltitude and Gingo


I love Old Warsaw's feathers



This is actually my roommate. Kris Hiew. Yes it is.
don't laugh too hard- he got $20/hr for this



This past weekend was spectacular. It was a huge Waco reunion as Ethan Durelle played their last show together. 8 years as a band and you'll know a lot of great people.
These are from the show at CG:

I have the WACO sign in this one. mucho gusto




The amazing Reeve Hunter.
L-I-V-E in the H-E-B

And there's Ellie, on stage with her best friends. The pinacle of this experience for me was watching her singing at the top of her lungs "I'm not worthy of this life."

Oh yeah, after the show- around 2am, roughly 40 people came over to hang out. Enough stayed the night to fill every room other than the kitchen and bathroom. We had 20 in the house when I woke up the next day. good grief.


All in all it was a poignant and triumphant close to the 8 years of music. I was glad to be a part of the final day. I love my family here.

reminders and remembrance

as of late I am reminded:

• that I am not alone
• that I am just as screwed up as the rest of us
• that "not forgiving is like drinking rat poison then waiting for the rat to die" -anne lamott
• that the tail end of a sunset and the coolness of a coming storm behind the barn can be deeply spiritual
• that working in a vegetable garden at 6am can be, too.
  
• that the kids' sermons tucked in between worship and prayer on sunday mornings are just as much for the adults as they are for the kids
• that pain is inevitable and joy is chosen
• that I have a heck of a lot to learn

as of late beauty was found:

• in sameness, in repetition
  
• in the new pub downtown
• in jon-led devotions
• in my ecumenical community
  
• in home-brews
  
• in studying the Arabian prophet
  
• in mothers and fathers
  
• in cooking for 20
• in listening well
  
• in being listened to
• in hearing from far-away people in far-away places
  
• in practicing a little discipline
• in coffee with an old, old friend
• in asking for forgiveness
• in individual faith histories
• in the old, unpretentious, worn-in, comfortable shoe called 'family.'

thanks be to God

shalom

sometimes, in the off time...

I think about how much life this place brings me.
I think about how there could be no better place for me, for today.
And I am thankful.

Sometimes I look at these people or I see the flowers and the sky or I take a bite of something right from the earth and I know that this is goodness. I work and I sweat more than ever, and it is joy. I wake up sticky and I go to work in the blistering sun until I drip with exhaustion, and then I fill myself to the brim with good food in the midst of community and go to sleep on the concrete floor of a tiny room that provides solitude and peace, and it is all joy.
A sense of peacefulness fills this place and out of that abundance I cannot help but be affected by it. The peace more than fills me and even spills out and I know it's not my imagination. Others have seen it in me too.
I can't imagine any reason behind why this grace has been bestowed on me now. His presence is not difficult to imagine here. I suppose this time is the preparation and equipping for another season. But thanks be to God.

Shalom

tune my heart...

Come, Thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace!
Streams of mercy never ceasing call for song of loudest praise!


Yes, my friends, there is a Fountain. and it truly does provide.

I've been stuck deep in melancholia for a few days. I dunno what got me there, but it is certainly my tendency to stay for a while. Actually, I got my car stuck in the mud a few days ago and ever since then I've been stuck here too. Let's be done with that. Thanks J,J&J for the beautiful news that helped to pull me out of it. (and thanks to David and his tractor skills that helped me get my car out of the ditch)


interesting:

"In the center of chaos, there is a stillness.
I am the stillness.
I am the chaos."

-on the wall of the Baylor ceramics class supply room

also interesting:

"haha! If I followed You...as I should... I would be broke!"
-j

Shalom, Shalom.