Bible Reading

So my father decided that he wanted to do a Bible study after our Friday night dinners. So, we started tonight in the extremely to the point book of Mark. It didn't take five minutes before I was thrust back 15 years to my time in youth group when I sat through every Bible study each week thinking "what in the world are these people talking about? It just said there was a flood. That means lots of water and a big boat floating around with pairs of animals." I've never been good at digging for deeper meanings in any literary work. Most of my thoughts were and are completely different than everyone else's which only makes me feel wrong.

Back to tonight though. We start reading in Mark and my dad is talking about all of this stuff and I sat there having moment after moment of "I totally didn't get that" thoughts. And so it made me wonder if sometimes we dig so far into the Bible to try to decipher a deeper meaning that we forget the really important stuff is clear. "Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself." Do we need more in depth discussions?

Now, that being said there are numerous parts of the Bible that could be taken in different ways such as the passage of baptizing Jesus. Are God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit the exact same entity or are they part of the same? Ultimately though does this have a strong impact on my belief system? Does it really make a difference if they are the same being?

Thanks to my minister husband I will be reading a controversial book called Love Wins. I'll let you know what I discover!

Early Chapter Books for Young Readers

So we have been looking for books for our little man to read and stay interested in. We still have beginner reader books for him to practice reading by himself but I decided to expand to chapter books recently to help expand vocabulary and increase comprehension. We started the magic treehouse series. They have been a huge success so far. I have had to filter some situations (I'm just not ready for my four year old to have pictures of knives, guns etc. In his dreams). So if you have a four year old who needs a vocabulary or comprehension push read the magic treehouse books with them.

Remember with vocabulary to pick a few words that your child isn't sure on the definition of and use those words daily. Have your child use those words also and define the word to you. Always remember to use appropriate language with your child

To help your child with comprehension ask questions like "what do you think is going to happen in this story?" or "what do you think is going to happen next?" Also ask your child about the what you read. "why do you think that happened?" or "what did Annie learn in this book?". Asking these questions early in your child's reading will help tremendously with his or her ability to read non-fiction in the future. That reminds me that I need to encourage non-fiction reading. Dk kids has some wonderful books with great information. Get your kids reading and change their life forever!

Lack of Communication

In the past few weeks it seems that every frustration and argument is centering around a general lack of communication.  So, I've been spending time thinking about this anyway but had the unique experience of teaching about communication in relationships to a couple of people and it was another eye opening event.

I spent a week anticipating the time when I would get to help some young women work on their communication skills in an effort to help every future relationship they are to have.  During this week, both at home and at work, I felt frustration because things didn't get done when I wanted them to get done, or people kept griping about how hard their life was, or how tired they were.  I really wanted to tell them to just get over it but quietly smiled and said, "that's too bad, I hope things get better for you."  My Friday began to send my emotional tolerance of everyone over the edge when a close friend of mine had a major disappointing moment occur.  Nothing else mattered.  This amazing person's heart was once again crushed and everything else seemed trivial.

A series of other little things happened throughout the evening and weekend and I caught myself having more of the thoughts that are so harmful to relationships.  "He doesn't even care that I've been in here working all day on stupid laundry."  "She didn't even have the nerve to apologize for being so rude."  "They aren't even going to say thank you."  And, thus I went to sleep mad and angry at the world. 

Sunday I as I was listening to these two young women talk about how and what hurt them I realized that they were almost the same things I had been thinking in the previous days.  One of them said, "I feel under appreciated.  I need lots of thank yous but even that isn't as important as some random acts of love."  In my head I thought wow how many times have I said that. 

It was at that point that I began talking to these women about how we have to nurture our relationships.  We can't take them for granted and expect everyone to do what we want them to...especially if we don't tell them what we want.  We took a turn in the discussion and they began talking with me about ways they could prevent certain things from happening.  We talked about how much easier it would be to proactively say, "hey I need you to buy lunch" instead of getting into a fight over who's buying lunch and how unappreciative the other person is.

So, I applied this in my own life today and my expectation when my husband stays home with the kids is that something gets done, dishes, or putting away laundry or cleaning off one of the many messy surfaces in the house.  But, I don't think I've ever told him that until today.  I told him and my little man that I needed them to work on laundry and clean off the table while I was gone.  I caught myself holding my breath as I walked in the door half expecting to see the mounds of laundry still piled on the floor.  As I opened the door a huge smile appeared on my face because the laundry was gone and the table was cleared off!  Even more than that the recycling was taking and many of the toys were picked up.  Yeah for communication.  Even more words of praise and joy to my wonderful, and often under-appreciated husband for listening and making me smile.

Changing The World

The world I must change,
this vast open range;
to be a place where people care,
and protect each other from the dragon's lair.

An army created through merely love,
represented by the peace of God's dear dove;
to be tolerant of others,
and respectful of their elders.

People walking in a line,
working with a common mind;
to be a follower of the rule gold,
and show all the way to be bold.

I must change the world
this wide open range;
but I need you to be a part,
and spread God's love with every inch of your heart.

Oatmeal Caramelite

This is the most amazing dessert brownie type thing. The recipe comes from my co-math teacher and every bite puts a smile on my face.

Combine
1 cup flour
1 cup oatmeal
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup melted butter
Press half of mixture into a 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Melt a bag of Kraft caramels and 5 tablespoons of milk in the microwave...stir regularly. Spread over the mixture. Sprinkle 1 cup chocolate chips and 1/2 cup nuts over this and top with remaining crumbs. Bake 15-20 minutes longer.

Eye Opener

Have you ever stopped one day to reflect on how you do something and realized that you aren't doing whatever it is at all the way you know you should? I had one of those experiences this week. I was taking one of those crazy online surveys that make you analyze yourself. I started off feeling great because I "knew all the answers" and then about halfway through the quiz I realized that most of the concepts I believe in regarding my job and my personality are things that I have given up on in the past few years.

I could blame it on any number of things...workwise; constantly changing standards and expectations, making excuses, lower expectations from others than what I have myself. Personality wise; having children, working with daily negativity, not feeling supported.

The truth is though that I have allowed myself to slip away from the very things that make my job fun. I strongly believe in students taking an active role in their own assignments and assessments, yet not once this year have I required my students to develop a project in class or assess theirselves. I almost always do rubrics where I grade on one and the students grade on another and then we discuss the differences. I have learned more about how my students learn in the past week because of listening to them than I have all year and we have five weeks left.

I let my style become dictated by teaching to a test and in that I quit being creative. Now that I realize it, I have to fix it. I have to become in practice the person my ideology knows is true me.

Back Porch Sittin'

So, this is the post I was trying to do from my phone because it had a picture of my brother and Andy but instead you get the post with no picture.  My brother came over last night to help my husband work on our fort... I mean the kids' fort.  If you know my brother...this post is even more funny.

This is how we do it at my house.

Brother:  eating salad
Husband:  eating day old cold pizza
Me:  Quiche

No burgers, hot dogs, or steak.  We are so out of the habit.  I need summer break to start.

Grrrr BloggerPlus!

I admit that I try to avoid getting too involved with technology.  It's mainly out of a fear that it will take over my entire life because I am so amazed at what can be done with a computer or phone these days.  All that being said, I was trying to blog last night from my newly acquired iPhone (yes I caved to the all powerful Apple peer pressure) and I ran into a problem.  It wouldn't publish because my settings didn't have an album selected for my pictures.  Okay, no problem I can fix this.  Only not really because I can't for the life of me find out where my BloggerPlus settings are.  I have looked everywhere and no luck.  So, if anyone has ideas or has a similar problem I would love any help.

The Fort!

It has been a gorgeous weekend, if you take away the 30 mph Oklahoma wind. With some encouragement and support from my in-laws, my husband and I set out to build our kids a fort/swing set extraordinaire.

My husband found the plans online Thursday night. Of course, since I am cheap, I wouldn't let him buy the actual plans. So, he made his lumber lists and headed off to Lowe's Friday morning. He arranged for the lumber to be delivered by 8 Saturday morning. He set the posts for the fort structure Friday night and was so excited he couldn't sleep that night. It reminded me of a child on Christmas Eve.

While it took us all awhile to settle into a routine and work at maximum efficiency we eventually began working like a semi-well oiled machine. My brother and I worked on the floor for the top of the fort while Andy and his dad worked on framing the mini-house that will sit on top.

We still have the roof and the siding to attach, along with the swings but for really only one and a half days of good work, I am very impressed.

I am even more excited because we have a swing set for our children that will last for a long time. The guys at Lowe's even recommended not buying their kit because what we would build would be cheaper and better quality.
I think I could go into business selling these playgrounds. Sure we would probably have to have people sign all sorts of liability release forms but we spent way less money than what okplay quoted us. We have a much bigger structure and their quote was over $5,000. We could do it for half that cost and still make a decent profit. Keep your eyes on the blog for completed pictures and if you know of anyone in the metro area that wants a swing set or fort or playhouse structure built let me know!

Reading Above Grade Level

So as a teacher I am always pushing knowledge in my kids and trying to anticipate future problems. Actually my anticipating future problems as nothing to do with my being a teacher and everything to do with me over analyzing and worrying about every possible situation. So, I am beginning to think about the future. My little man is sounding out words in his books that he doesn't know and prefers me to read "big books" instead of the preschool books he has memorized. The problem I am running into is that the topics that he likes most cars, sesame street, toy story and Thomas are all low level books that he loses interest in once he has memorized them which is after reading it maybe four times.

So I got to thinking what will happen in the future and remembered reading Eclipse, the ever popular Edward and Bella story. The next day went to work and one of my students was reading the book also. I remember my cheeks flushing as she told me that in the next book there was an S-E-X part that her mom wasn't going to let her read. I remember thinking I hope her mother doesn't let her watch the movie.

A few weeks later a fourth grader at church was spied with the first house of night book. I caught myself wanting to ask the mother if she had pre-read the book as in the beginning there is a pretty obvious sexual encounter with two of the characters.

All of this put together made me think that parents really need a place to look for age appropriate books on their child's reading level. Sometimes schools have this information but sometimes teachers don't know anything more than that a lot of students read a certain series.

So, if you are a parent that has a question about a book your child wants to read ask me about it. If I haven't read the book I will and give you my honest opinion about it. I believe in protecting the innocence of children and keeping them kids as long as possible so my book reviews and book lists will be based on that.

Keep checking on the blog for some book lists. I am going to try to post some lists for all different ages.