jury's out

I am at the moment waiting to hear from the administration/hiring team for a school in this area. If I am not chosen for this job - I am currently being offered a position in IA. This position could, of course, be filled by the time that I hear one-way-or-the-other for the job here.
But either way, in-any-case -
jury's out and I don't know what's happenin' next
until next Monday
or Tuesday.



Moving seems overwhelming - but I don't need to think about it.
until
next Monday
or Tuesday.



I suppose there may be some new weeds to take pictures of in Iowa. (you can look at my 'photo files' blog at the right for more photos of the weeds around my house.)

last light

It really doesn't get any more 'done' than roses in shades of roses with water drops in the fading light of day -


but it's still pretty.

ironic weather and prayer

I've noted that irony as a concept can be difficult to pinpoint - just ask Alanis Morissette. I got out on the lake this morning at 6:15. As I approached the middle of the lake I noticed that the going was pretty easy, but the water seemed a bit choppy. A bit further and I noticed that my hair was blowing forward and the waves were passing me from behind. Generally when a person has only had one good workout on the water - kayaking out with the wind at your back is not such a good idea. By the time I reached the shallows of the mouth of the Red Cedar, I was being blown up river. This seemed great since it was the direction that I was going, but I was pretty sure that I was going to have a tough trip home. I would be circling round, hugging the north shore of the lake. I began to wish that I knew someone on the north shore of the lake. The wind was coming from the northwest and there was going to be little lea along that shore anyway. While blown into the shallows, grounded on the bottom, I did take a few pictures. Having my camera with me makes me a bit hyper about the weather. I isn't an amazingly expensive camera - but since I am completely incapable of replacing it - it doesn't really matter how much it costs.
As I headed out toward the north shore I offered up this prayer - 'Lord, please give me the strength to get back. I don't expect you to cut the wind, it may be that this breeze is part of a weather pattern that is bringing rain to the farmers, and I don't need the wind cut so that I can cross the lake, but please strengthen me.' This attitude in prayer was strongly influenced by reading Yancey's book on prayer, in which he notes that truly persecuted Christians (like in China) do not ask for the persecution to end, just the strength to endure it. While in a America, Christians claim that God has granted them parking spaces when needed. I suppose I didn't need to worry about praying at all - I wasn't in a life-threatening situation. I only 'needed' to be back in time to meet up with family to head off to the Renaissance Faire.
I made it across the lake,with strength to spare. But I couldn't help but notice that as I reached the side of the lake that our cabin in on - the wind completely died down.
I was on the lake from 6:15 until 7:40 and it was windy from 6:30 to 7:30 - maybe I should've prayed for the weather to change. As it was it seemed to be set up to be breezy just for me.




I didn't see the purple flower until I got it on the 'big' screen.


"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows..." Bob Dylan Subterranean Homesick Blues but I could've used a weatherman to tell that the wind was going to stop blowing so soon.

lucky sweet detour

This post should be from Saturday. I wasn't in the mood on Saturday to get it done, so it wasn't.

I took Castillo's to the airport this morning and then had a day of 'adventures' planned detouring my way home. I was going to stop at the conservatory and take pictures of flowers, then go to Michael's and buy my missing embroidery floss, and finally jog through Stillwater to get salt water taffy.
The conservatory opens at 10 AM and it was busy by quarter after nine.













The flower pictures that I did take were relatively not-so-good. The light was too bright - a lot of feedback.
I did get to see a duck sitting on a lily pad, which I thought was pretty neat.

I found Michael's after much round-about through the neighborhoods. On the way to Stillwater (at least I told myself I was on the way) I stopped at one of those 'scenic view' stops. It reminded me of a set-up for unsolved mysteries and some place that someone was last seen. I didn't stay and enjoy this view very long - it didn't take long to absorb anyway.
The trip to Stillwater seemed straight forward until my road closed. Since I didn't really know how I was going to where I was going, detouring wasn't straight forward. (Many folks are aware that navigating the cities is not my forte - I have learned that 35W and 35E are different roads - this has saved some back-tracking.) I ended up lost in Woodbury/Maplewood/Lake Elmo for a bit - thankfully in that order. Upon arriving in Stillwater it was hard not to notice that everyone else had too. I still haven't adjusted to how crowded the Midwest is. One of the first times driving on I25 with friends, we merged onto the freeway and I asked Laura - 'Where's everyone going?' (I figured there must be some big sports event at 'the Pit' (or its equivalent). She thought I was kidding and then told me it was normal. Getting my taffy in Stillwater reminded me of going to Universal Studios - only there were more people in Stillwater. I did get my taffy and I have since decided that it was worth the trip.
I was then thinking that there are many things that the process seems so difficult and the outcome so sweet. From this thought I jumped to comparing the acquisition of my pound and a half of salt water taffy to child birth and become quite certain that I had taken the whole thing too far.
Saturday July 7, 2007 was a lucky day I guess - but I'll take the trips up the river on either side of it any day. (This is not in any way in reference to Trevor's Birthday which was also Saturday - I'm sure that he and his family had a much more worthwhile day than I did since children are worth so much more than taffy.)
This summer should be the fourth summer that I head off on an adventure by myself. (Someday someone will perhaps come with me, but for now they have been by-myself-adventures.) The first summer was Phantom of the Opera, the second Apostle Islands kayaking, the third was London. I realize I can't 'top' London, but it is not a matter of 'topping' anything - it's just a matter of going - and I don't know where. (The reason that Tanzania and Virginia didn't count is because there was someone there to meet me when I got there - that sterilizes the adventurous part of the adventure.)

seemingly insurmountable tasks

The only muscles that don't seem to be hurting in my body at the moment are those that had atrophied to the point that are not capable of hurting due to their general lack of existence.

and I have to make my bed.

adventures up river

Josh (we teach Sunday School together) and I went kayaking this afternoon. My left arm became quite heavy by the time we reached the bridge (essentially around the first corner). I think that was about 20 minutes into the afternoon. We found ripe raspberries and headed up river to find whatever we would find up there. Josh asked where we were going - but since I didn't know I didn't give a very satisfactory answer. Through the shallows Josh got out and walked, I think this was one way of letting me get ahead a little. I kept telling him that pet alligators had been released into that water or a snapping turtle would bite a toe off, he completely ignored both comments and kept walking along when he felt like it. These stories may, however, have something to do with the fact that I have a very difficult time walking in water where I can't see my feet. I was thankful that the hot day had become overcast and it was actually quite pleasant weather-wise. I have been dropped off at a boat landing up the way we were headed and I thought we may find that there were lots of alligators and turtles there. (I even released a turtle there that I had rescued from Hwy 25, but I have never heard of a painted turtle biting off a toe.) We eventually came across another canoe and when asked they told us that the boat landing was behind us. So at that point we were further up river than I have been before and that had been a one way trip. Forty minutes after I had begun to notice that my left arm felt like lead we headed up the Hay River against the current. Somewhere in there I decided that I had various parts of my arms, wrists and hands that hurt enough that we should head back. (Josh was able, this whole time, to paddle against the current fast enough to continue to move upstream not paddling more quickly than I was paddling. He was good enough to periodically paddle with his hands (when he wasn't walking) to let me catch up.) We floated gently and lazily back downstream and as we left the mouth of the river the fact that it had become overcast began to look more like it may rain. Getting a little wet while kayaking doesn't bother me. Sitting like a lightening rod in the middle of a lake during a thunderstorm bothers me. We 'raced' the storm back to the cabin. I really had no options regarding the speed I was going to be going. I was amazed I was still paddling at all. I must've looked beat because the boaters that we met on the way back asked about my arms. Maybe it was in comparison to Josh who still looked like he was politely waiting for me to eventually catch up. Crossing the Elk Point resort bay, the wind began to pick up. The sky overhead looked like the set for the movie 'Twister'. The encroaching black and green tinged clouds did serve as a bit of an incentive to attempt to keep going.
So we did make it. The neighbors were happy to see us back. Josh pulls boats in and stores them as intuitively as he does everything I need him to in Sunday School. If a person can be gifted in seeing what needs to be done and doing it - he is. (Maybe the skill will rub off a bit.) We made it to the car just as drops were beginning to fall. I dropped Josh off at home in a deluge of water. When I got home, there hadn't been any rain yet.
Tired arms can't compete with a family of ducks, a deer and Great Blue in the same bay and all the beauty of the river banks. Although 'keeping up' was never really an option, I wouldn't have made it as far as I did if Josh hadn't gone along - I can only be glad that he didn't know where we were going, he would've been there and back again before I left the bay.

it don't get better than this

Today I started my day by heading off to work by 5:30. After watching kids until 9:ish - I went canoing with Mom and Dad. I rode in the middle of the boat - princess style. I was able to get a few photos and a bit of color on my calves. From the lake it was a quick shower and back to work. We spent the afternoon at work playing with the kids in the water. The afternoon flew by - we spent a good bit of time putting on sunscreen and changing into and out of water clothes. Coming home around 5:30 I stopped at the farm to dig up potatoes for supper. Snarfling (if you feel that snarfling is only with one's nose, I will state that I was using my hands) about in the dirt I found potatoes for supper and was able to pull a good bit of weeds in the process. New potatoes were added to bacon-wrapped steaks, fresh zucchini and mushrooms for supper.
Now to tea, left-over mint chocolate cake, and my book.
It really doesn't get any better.

Sunday afternoon

Pene and I went out to Tainter to take a walk and I wanted to kayak. It turned out to be too windy to kayak and Pene thinks it was a bit hot to be walking.

back to work

It's good to be back to work. (Real, getting-paid-a-bit, not-for-family work) I made my re-entrance to the daycare with the foot of elephant for 'jungle week'. Nothing can make a person more popular with a seven-year-old than the severed appendage of a pachyderm. Two-year-olds, however, will have little to do with an elephant's foot - no matter how interesting a picture it may provide.
Both of them did wash their hands prior to eating breakfast.

karibu

Pastor Jack told of a door plaque which quips:

"If you're here to see me,
come right in;
If you're here to see my house,
please make an appointment."

I thought this was wonderful and I vowed to make such a plaque should I one day have a house.
Now I am facing the fact that not only have appointments been made - but we have invited everyone to come see the house (if I've missed you - let me know). This open invitation to our open house brings a whole new level to my definition of clean and presentable. After cleaning today for about five hours I was unsure of any difference in the amount that needs to be done - at this rate, by the 30th I will not be presentable, but the house may be.
All this stress is just funny in light of the fact that I do not, technically, have all of my walls. But I am bound and determined not to have spider webs inhabiting the sheet rocked and insulation packed corners.
I suppose the saddest possible ending to this tale would be sitting about on Saturday with no one coming - and not even a spider to talk to.

Written in the sky

Two o'clock this morning I arrived home bleary-eyed and eager to fall into bed for at least 8 hours. Five-thirty this morning I was awake and wondering which part of me didn't get the sleep memo. I did get to share a bit of the highlights of the vacation with Mom and Dad before they left for work. I didn't have to be to work until 9:30 so I went back to bed, which didn't really work. I did get to work this morning after getting back to the computer - checking emails and deleting more than half of the hundred messages waiting for me and downloading more than 500 pictures from Virginia.
The week was wonderful. Grandma and I were able to spend hours in conversation. With no schedule (other than my wanting to eat about every 3 hours), we were able to sit at the kitchen table for hours and let topics come and go as whims took us. We talked about cousins, uncles, aunts, my Grandfather (whom I had barely known), teaching, theology, authors, American history, grammar, and our dogs. The entire week was a gift. It was a relaxing vacation, photo opportunity, and delightfully blessed time spent away from the demands of my existence. Blessings abounded in all areas. I was able to complete about an eighth of my new cross-stitch, have been 'commissioned' do make calendars of the farm for the family, and simply rest on all levels before the demands of the summer. I didn't realize how much is 'hanging over my head' around here until I returned to the house today to all that needs to be cleaned up, organized, filed, scanned, painted, or built, not to mention - swept, scrubbed, or dusted.
I will also be returning to work - where I can find it. I will being doing whatever I can at the daycare - painting, cooking, changing diapers (perhaps not in that order), helping on the farm, and hopefully finishing some of the basement. I have come home feeling that paint on the walls could be a nice addition - even set off my photos a bit. I only hope that I don't lose momentum. This evening's sky and the message therein.

school's out for summer

School's out
just out
I'm done
All I have left to do is scan and load what I did so I can prove I did it and
it will only be confirming that
I'm done.

Grandma is flying me to her home to visit for a week and a half. I leave tomorrow morning early. So I should go to bed so in the morning I can remember what I've forgotten. I will not be remembering my computer or books about grabbing students by their brains, or how to talk to students so they will want to make the best of their educations, or teaching to change lives, or the hope of discipline or discipline of hope, or using love and logic to help children develop attention and behavior skills or strategies for all of the above.
These I have not forgotten, but I am not bringing them for just this week.

Did I mention?

I'm done

last day

(click the picture to get a better idea of how photogenic they truly are)

This is the middle school class holding their final recycle projects. They did a great job with their projects, but I think they were in such rambunctious moods for more reasons than that. The true beauty of this picture is that their personalities are as present in this shot as they are in class. (Of the three shots I got - this is the only one that all of them are visible.) They were a joy to teach and if, on any given day, I thought I was tired at the top of the day I left that class energized (and hungry) and ready to tackle the rest of the day. They were challenging and thought-provoking. They forgave me for my shortcomings, misspellings, and miss-counting. All-in-all they were a wonderful group of kids to teach through an introduction to teaching. With an introduction like theirs - the whole concept could be considered worth it all. This last few weeks of school I have even ceased sweating up a storm (rather literally) through this class time. I don't know if I should thank Mitchum or the kids.
There are pictured in this photo the empty Mountain Dew bottles that they downed after checking half the items off of today's to-do list. I know that "sugar does not make kids hyper" but this statement is not based on observation or experience. In any case, I do not recommend sugar on the last day in the classroom.

loved anyway

Pene is special to all of us - in so many ways.

beautiful menace

Perhaps 'menace' is a bit strong a word, but not good for the roses in any sense. Perhaps 'beautiful' is a bit strong as well. It sounded poetic though.

teaching in rural Wisconsin

It is only teaching in rural Wisconsin that you would hear this,
"I spent all of last period blow-drying my squirrel."

For a week now the hallways have smelt of dead fish - compliments of the same taxidermy class that requires blow drying squirrels. I have been told that if you need the hair on your squirrel to stand up a bit, mousse works well.

We were encouraged in our university courses to time labs that emit delectable aromas for important advertising days like the day that students sign up for their next year's classes -
apparently the ag teachers aren't worried about declining enrollments.

Tanzania choirs

Choir in Mgori church where Mom grew up
The music and the people were both truly beautiful.



Another choir, this one with electic keyboard accompaniment.

Sheryl communicating with rutting wildebeest

This is one of the photos that I took at the same time. We call it 'Wildeboost Peep'.

pillow weight

"...If your pillow is six years old -- which is apparently about the average age for a pillow -- it has been estimated that one-tenth of its weight will be made up of "sloughed skin, living mites, dead mites and mite dung,"to quote the man who did the measuring." (Short History, pg 365)
So,if you happen to be sharing pillows I suppose the fraction of its weight that is comprised of biological matter could be considerably higher. (I do actually sleep on the pillow that is beneath the two top pillows - but it is much older than six years old.)

why I teach

Today was a day that for every class I 'taught' I demonstrated another reason that I may not want to consider teaching as a career - it was just an 'off' day. So when I came home and had these pictures taken yesterday during Sunday School in my email, the timing was perfect. This is DJ and me. Every day that he is in Sunday School he encourages me with his answers to questions to the class. He is insightful and honest as only kids can be. He was also, this Sunday, helpful in letting me know that if I saw a black patrol car on the way to church it was definitely a sheriff's car. His mom told me later that he plans on working for the city police as well as the county and he is a bit concerned about where he will park all the vehicles.This picture looks good, even if I'm not looking at all. The class went out to the playground and we acted out our story for the day. (For reasons that will be apparent, we read the story prior to coming outside to act it out.)
One night after Christ had risen from the dead, the disciples fished all night, but with no luck. Many of the disciples had been fisherman before Christ had called them, so they were very good at it. But all night (according to the pictures in our book) they had caught only weeds and a shoe, but no fish. In the morning they saw Jesus on the shore. He told them to lower their nets on the other side of the boat. They listened to him and brought in a net-breaking haul. They had breakfast with Jesus and then went hiking up a mountain. From there he left them to rise into the air and go to heaven.
So we climbed up in the jungle-gym, our boat. We threw a laundry basket with ropes attached overboard and hauled up our 'catch'. It took us several tries and repositioning to the top of the boat before we learned how to haul up the 'net' without flipping it over before it could be reached over the railing (or under the platform). Because my helper, Josh, often seems to think on the same wavelength (or even slightly before the same wavelength) as me we also hauled up a shoe. Then Josh, with his great multi-tasking abilities, acted the role of Christ and stood on the shoreline. He told us to the throw the basket (er - net) over the other side of the 'boat'. I led the grumbling and the catty remarks that we knew how to fish and that if we had not caught anything all night it was not going to change now. We threw the basket and Josh changed roles again to load it up with the construction paper fish that we had made for the exercise. It was a windy day and many of our fish blew out of the net and had to be chased down. Somewhere in there I attempted to remind them to listen to Jesus even when it might not seem to make sense. Immediately following our grand 'catch of the day' one of the parents came and took pictures on our 'boat'. It was fiercely bright out (perhaps that is why the fish were not where we could net them), but I like the pictures.