Pinkie

I'm an instructional assistant for a little girl.  I call her Pinkie (in my head).  I sit in her classes, take notes, and smile at her when she turns around to make sure that I'm there.  She's a very nice girl, and she works hard and pays attention in class.

Pinkie is hard-of-hearing. She has a cochlear implant which enables her to hear most things, plus her teachers wear an FM microphone which transmits to a receiver that she wears around her neck.  I take notes on what the teachers are saying so that she will have a record later, in case she missed anything.  Today I took Pinkie into the library through teachers' lounge, so she could bypass the metal detectors (she's never been through one).

When I took the job, I was afraid that I would be bored.  Not yet!  So far I've learned about the tools of geography, glanced through a science book, reviewed PEMDAS and absolute value, heard about proper kitchen safety, helped kids log on to multiple internet accounts, and observed the three-clap in P.E.  It's my first time going to junior high (besides being a teacher), and it's okay so far.

On to the rest of the year!

Here I sit with...

bags of frames at my feet, frames holding pictures of our church's global partners and maps of their areas of ministry

a small, white, empty plate (save a few strawberry Pop-Tart crumbs)

my hair in a ponytail

my eyes on the screen

a crick in my shoulder

the drip of the faucet in my ears

Les Mis' "One Day More" playing through my speakers

the thought that I need to do the dishes

delight from getting Roald Dahl's Esio Trot from a used bookstore using our store credit

questions: Should I take our unwanted books back to Glendale tomorrow?  Where will I get new frames for church?  Will my hair and face cooperate for church staff pictures on Wednesday?

gratitude for a new assistant job at this school

Les Mis again (how about "Stars" this time)

the thought that I really do need to do the dishes...

Found on page 124

This is an important thing, which I have told many people, and which my father told me, and which his father told him.  When you encounter another person, when you have dealings with anyone at all, it is as if a question is being put to you.  So you must think, What is the Lord asking of me in this moment, in this situation?  If you confront insult or antagonism, your first impulse will be to respond in kind.  But if you think, as it were, This is an emissary sent from the Lord, and some benefit is intended for me, first of all the occasion to demonstrate my faithfulness, the chance to show that I do in some small degree participate in the grace that saved me, you are free to act otherwise than as circumstances would seem to dictate.  You are free to act by your own lights.  You are freed at the same time of the impulse to hate or resent that person.  He would probably laugh at the thought that the Lord sent him to you for your benefit (and his), but that is the perfection of the disguise, his own ignorance of it.

:: Gilead, Marilynne Robinson

$1.00

As the previous post states, I've been busy organizing, rearranging, and sometimes tossing our papers, possessions, and paraphernalia.  I looked around and saw paper bags, plastic bins, stacks of books, piled blankets, and weary pillows, and while it doesn't usually bother me, for some reason it rankled for a few days.  So I decided to do something about it.

In our bedroom, we have a  tall, plain, white Ikea cabinet that we use for a dresser.  It has four big shelves, which work great!  I never really liked regular dressers anyway; I usually tried to stuff too many t-shirts or socks or whatever into the drawers.  Not the greatest for easy access, plus I could never see everything all at once.  Anyway, the cabinet is great.  The white filing box, clear plastic bin, green sleeping bag, and roll of Christmas tree lights were not great.  So, I jumped on a local facebook page that permits members to buy and sell items at discount prices.  I put up a picture of an Ikea basket that I found on-line and asked if anyone had any to sell; I was willing to pay $4.00 each.

Ikea basket, normally $12.99

A week later, and I have five baskets, for a total cost of $14.00, five for the price of one!  I bought two from one lady for $4.00 each, and three from another for $2.00 each (there was some wear on these).  Now I have three of these on top of our cabinet.  One holds gift bags and boxes, one holds frames and pictures, and one is empty (for now).  The fourth basket is also empty, and it fits perfectly in this little shelf-thing that is also nearly empty.  The fifth is in the kitchen holding plastic bags.  Not too bad!

Another nice thing about this is that I sold a dish set for $15.00 and bought these baskets for $14.00, so I still made $1.00 by getting rid of something I didn't like and acquiring something I did!  Haha!  Now to see what else to sell... ;)

Organizing, tossing, meeting

I don't know what started it, but I've been on an organizing kick recently.  I don't think we have a lot of stuff, but when I start opening closets and looking in bags and boxes, I wonder, "what is all of this?!"  In the last few days I've thrown away old school notes, random pieces of fabric, unwanted gift bags, old shoe boxes saved for shipping, etc.  And it's still not done!  Next we have to go through Amos' school notes and old bills; hopefully we'll get rid of a lot of those. ;)

In our living room, I have one and half tubs full of things to be sold.  I'm not really confident that we can sell all of it (video monitors, Madame Alexander dolls, Zeusy's old tank, etc.), but I might as well try!  Two boxes of books and sci-fi magazines are waiting to be taken to the used bookstore.  Two boxes and a bag have been dropped off at Goodwill, and I'm sure we'll fill at least one more before we are done.

Besides the organizing, Amos and I have been going to a lot of meetings, with more to come!

Wednesday: Staff meeting, 30 Days of Prayer meeting
Thursday: Girls' dinner at our small group leader's house, phone meeting for Amos
Friday: Lunch meeting with old college friend Alicia, phone meeting for Amos (canceled)
Saturday: Website meeting for Amos
Sunday: Church, The Gospel in the Muslim World meeting
Monday: Interview for Jennica, tech team meeting for Amos
Tuesday: -nothing...yet-
Wednesday: Staff meeting, interview for Jennica

It's a little crazy over here, as you can tell by the disjointed sound of this post!

Fonts and food

Not too much going on over here. I've spent the last 2.75 hours converting fonts on my missions documents for church.  Very exciting!  Our "creative media" director, Mark, came up with a style sheet for our church to follow, so I've been faithfully replacing fonts and reformatting documents.  At first I wasn't too sure about this style guide ("is it really necessary?"), but I can see that it is a good idea!  My documents look a lot better, and all I did was change the font!  Now I just have to print all these sheets out, hang them on walls, e-mail them to the missions director and the ministry assistant, clip them in clipboards, cut some of them down to size, etc...oh yeah, and finish converting my other documents. Oh dear!

In other news, I think Amos and I are going to have pancakes for dinner tonight.  Here are some of the potential toppings (not all together, of course):
+Whipped cream
+Blueberry curd
+Syrup
+Nectarines
+Pumpkin butter
+Pecans

Happy Monday!

Nebraska in July

Well, this was my sixth trip to Nebraska and the longest yet!  Amos and I went for a week and had a great time hanging out with family and eating tapioca. :)

Some of the things we did...
+ Went to Cabela's
+ Tried Jimmy John's sandwiches
+ Went to Wednesday night prayer meeting and Sunday morning church
+ Hung out with Doug and Glee and slept in their basement (the pastor and his wife)
+ Visited with Cindy, an old friend of the family and a really nice lady
+ Watched at least five firework displays, large and small (they are crazy out there!)
+ Ate a lot of tapioca; I need to find some pearls at the store and make some!
+ Walked around Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo (I saw a monkey with yellow fur!)
+ Had a siblings photo shoot
+ Went to a barbecue at Jesse and Carly's new house
+ Visited a barn sale (i.e., antique heaven; we didn't get anything)
+ Checked out Seward, NE, the Fourth of July capital of the state
+ Took pictures of everyone for a frame on Barb and Lester's wall
+ Went to the Crete Public Library and introduced Barb to The Mysterious Benedict Society
+ Looked around Lester's Shop, the gun shop that Amos' dad started
+ Listened to toooo many knock-knock jokes
+ Received a beautiful, hand-quilted, turquoise and brown quilt; a few of Amos' sisters pieced it (Julia and Sara, I think) and Amos' mom hand-quilted it, complete with little pictures!
+ Did some laundry
+ Made some homemade French onion dip
+ Met our nephew Oliver for the first time
+ Ate some venison
+ Did a lot of other things that I can't remember right now!

All in all, it was a very, very nice week.  I don't usually spend a lot of time with people, so it was overwhelming for a few days, but now I miss everyone. :P  Oh dear.

Here are some pictures!

Seward Courthouse

Cornerstone Bible Church

Lawn ornament at the barn sale

In the corn! 

An Amos in his original habitat...

A yellow-furred, blurry monkey!

Visiting with Cindy in her new house!

Our quilt, complete with photbombing Hobbes (birthday present for Amos
last year)

Around the web 5

I will get around to a post about our trip to Nebraska and our second anniversary, but for now, enjoy some links! :)

Why I Stopped Looking for the Perfect Church by Cole Jeffrey
I'm not sure that I ever actually talked to Cole, but we were a Master's for the same four years.  Some great thoughts on looking (or not looking) for the perfect church.

Teaching Children the Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones
I LOVE this article.  It really hit home with me.

The Day My Husband and I Got Inked and
Every Day Radical: To the Last Virgins Standing by Emily Wierenga
A very emotional writing style, but I really liked what she had to say.

Homemade Whole-Grain Pancakes by King Arthur Flour
I'm going to make this recipe with the whey that I've drained from my plain yogurt...I sound crazy. :P

Some children's books that I read at the Crete Public Library in Nebraska:
Boot and Shoe, Miss Moore Thought Otherwise, The Houdini Box, Sheep in a Jeep, and Here Come the Girl Scouts! (Boot and Shoe was a fun story with really cute illustrations, though it did have two parts about the little dogs "relieving themselves" on a small tree...just a warning)

EDIT
And another one: DOMA and the Rock by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

The best pictures from the book. Click to enlarge.

Busy every day

Monday
+ Hanging out with some Bible study friends at the Tea Gardens
+ Waiting around at TMC to give a friend her pillow and clothes (she went on a mission trip, so we kept some stuff for her till she got back); didn't see the friend, but we did see an older friend, Kelli Bolen!

Tuesday
+ Early-morning wake-up to see Heather, Austin, and David and to learn about their upcoming ministry

Old ollege friends + children
Heather, Austin, and David are right behind my head

Wednesday
+ Church staff meeting
+ TMC Alumni Dodger game versus the GIANTS!

Here's the pitch!

Amos and I at the game (Amos is wearing his birthday present shirt)

Thursday
+ Amos had a meeting with a friend from church

Friday
+ Picking up bulletins
+ Making scones and blueberry lemon curd for a ladies' event tomorrow
+ Getting groceries and going to the post office
+ Watching Jeeves and Wooster?

Saturday
+ Ladies' event
+ Laundry
+ Swimming!  It is supposed to be up to 102-105 tomorrow!

Sunday
+ Church
+ Missions Leadership Meeting
+ Open House for our newest global partners

Monday
+ Pack for Nebraska
+ Clean
+ Eat the odds and ends in the fridge
+ Go to sleep early!

Camp memories

Some of my favorite childhood memories happened at camp.  I first went to Awana camp when I was ten years old.  Despite feeling left out for the first half hour or so of camp (I was very shy, and my friends were in a different group) and getting really sick later in the week (I threw up in the nurse's office), I had a great time!  I attended Awana camp for seven years, only missing my last year because I went on a mission trip to Zambia.

My first year at CYIA camp was when I was twelve.  This camp trains you to teach Bible clubs during the summer.  My favorite memories include the annual skit and talent night and the daily practice groups, where we took turns telling our Bible stories to our peers.  I attended CYIA for five years.  I missed the last year of this camp, too, because I was in Africa.

Amos also went to a summer camp for a few years, but he didn't have as good of a time as I did.  Some of the boys in his cabin were little punks, and they threw his pillow in some poison ivy!

Now my little sister, Brenda, is off to Awana camp!  Amos and I packed up a present for her, and I shipped it off on Friday.  I'm pretty sure she's going to like both camp and the present. :)

Everything was stuffed in except for the sticky notes, some glo sticks,
and some pixie sticks

Ready to go!

Around the web 4

Here are some links I've enjoyed recently:

Believing That Which Is Hard To Believe by Mike Gaston, small group and outreach pastor at Grace Baptist
"Wouldn't it be arrogant of me to assume that God would only do that which I am capable of understanding?"

My Dad's Impromptu Challenge by Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Ever thought of making 50-year goals?

Listening to Young Atheists: Lessons for a Stronger Christianity by Larry Alex Taunton for The Atlantic
This just in (okay, it's old news), but Christian youth turn from the church when they sense that the teaching is neither genuine nor able to answer their tough questions.  Interesting study.

How to Read a Book by The Art of Manliness
I haven't read this article yet, but I plan to soon!

Crockpot Peach Chipotle Chicken at thefrugalgirls.com
This recipe was just for inspiration.  I made peach preserves and mixed it with a little bit of honey barbecue sauce, onions, and bell peppers.  We ate it over grilled chicken breasts with brown and white rice, green beans, and avocado.  It was really good.

Song of the week by Michael Buble': It's a Beautiful Day

And a funny video that Danielle showed me on Monday, when I invited myself over to her house:
Cat Jump Fail with Music

By the numbers

1 day till Julia and Katie's birthday
4 days till my next staff meeting
1 week till we have to do laundry again
1 week and 1 day till my friend Sarah comes back from China
1 week and 2 days till we see our friends Heather, Austin, and David
1 weeks and 3 days till we go to the TMC Alumni Dodger Game (Go Giants!)
2 weeks till my next MLT meeting
2 weeks and 2 days till we go to Nebraska!
3 weeks and 2 days till our second anniversary!

And a few pictures from today, our adventure to Ventura

Amos, aka, Jennica's Best Friend

The bees love these huge flowers

More huge flowers