Adopted

How sweet to be a child of God
In times of peace and rest
When thankful praises smoothly flow
From heart and mouth, for well I know
How much my Heavenly Father has blessed.

How sweet to be a child of God
In times of want and woe
When in my Father’s arms I hide
There, through His grace I safe abide
Though harsh the winds of worry blow.

How sweet to be a child of God
Where e’er my pathway lies
In health or sickness, toil or rest
My Father gives that which is best
For He is infinitely wise!

An Ant in the Offering Envelope

It was one of those strange mornings when everything seems to go just a little different than usual. Of my seven Sunday school students, one came in sulking about something, one had separation anxiety and wouldn't leave my lap, one was sad about something and cried most of the class, and the rest were either extra sleepy or extra energetic. I was the only teacher that morning, because my helper was out of town, and our class routine was a bit different that morning anyway. And now, as I filled out the attendance sheet in the offering envelope, out fell an ant! I couldn't help but laugh as I looked at the little ant crawling on my hand and tried to imagine where he had come from.

Perhaps, I thought, one of the little boys in my class had picked him up on the way into class, stuck him in a pocket, and forgotten about him. Or maybe he was part of an invasion force, and inadvertantly crawled on to one of my students, falling into the envelope with the precious pennies and dimes of the offering. Or I suppose it could have crawled in with the attendance sheet. At any rate, there it was, crawling around bewilderedly, no doubt wondering where it was.

It had certainly been a very strange morning...

You Know It’s Too Hot When…

• You wash your hands just so that you can put them under cold water.
• You find yourself saying something like “Hooray! It’s only going to be 100 tomorrow!”
• Window-shopping in Fred Meyer’s freezer section sounds like a great way to spend an evening.
• You don’t get mad at your brother when he “accidentally” gets you soaking wet.
• Ice cream for breakfast, anyone?
• You seriously consider camping out under the air conditioner
• You fight over who “gets” to water the yard.
  
• You’re willing to spend the whole day in a dark room rather than turn a light on and have the temperature go up one degree.
  
  
• The short trip to the mailbox makes you tired.
  
• Your fan-less backyard seems eerily quiet.
  

Piano #1!

Yesterday I got the first piano for my studio. (Which, by the way, isn't quite finished yet.) Daddy and Tristan moved the piano out of the house it was in, which was difficult because it was heavy and the doorways in the house were very narrow.
Tristan was able to rent a trailer to put the piano on...

Then we followed Tris and the piano home to make sure nothing went wrong.
Once we got to our house, Tris and Daddy moved the piano into what will someday be Mommy's studio, where it will stay until my studio is finished.

-But not until after I tried it out!
Once it was inside, I cleaned off all the dust and shined it up with some lemon oil. Now it's really pretty!
It does need to be tuned though! It's a Wurlitzer spinnet, and has a brighter sound to it than my parent's piano upstairs does. I am so glad to have a piano downstairs because now I can practice whenever I want without bothering anyone! And it was free! (Thank you Teacher Lindy!!)

Is That Really A Word?

It all started with the word “pertinacious.” Mommy and I were pulling ivy in the front yard the other day when somehow the subject of words came up. I mentioned that I had always wanted to use the word “pertinacious” in a sentence, and Mommy asked somewhat incredulously, “Is that really a word?” I got to thinking about that, and I realized that I actually didn’t know. We then started thinking about all the funny words and phrases our family had come up with over the years.

For example, there’s “spiky bombs,” the seed balls from a Sweetgum tree with which my brother and I used to pelt each other while we waited for my sister’s piano lesson to be over. They have barbed prickles all over them, making them extremely difficult to get out of tangled hair, but they do make excellent ammunition if you happen to be playing war with your big brother. : )

From my sister, we have “flufflebugs,” which was what she called dandelion seed heads, and I think it was my brother who first coined the name “exploding grass” for a prolific weed in our backyard that would “explode” at the slightest provocation, spreading a multitude of seeds everywhere, to ensure that we would always have weeds to pull up the next year.

My nephew and nieces have come up with many good words and phrases over the years as well. When my nephew was just learning how to talk, he couldn’t quite manage to say “Aunt Gwennie”, so I was dubbed “Aunt Gooey”. (Although thankfully not for long!) He also called horses “cowies”, and the first time he saw a real deer he exclaimed “Reindeer horses!” : ) My older niece has a charming way of reversing the words in certain phrases, such as string cheese. One day, we were trying to get her to say it right, and she responded by saying, “You can say it cheese-string, or cheese-string…either way!” : ) My personal favorite from them is my younger niece’s variation on “Uncle Tris”. I tried to teach her to say it last time we were visiting, but she couldn’t quite manage, and ended up with “Uncle Sis”. : )

So, when we had finished outside I pulled out my dictionary and looked up the word pertinacious. It really is a word after all! It means obstinate, holding firmly, or stubborn. So there!

Day 5...

Today was the final day of NBT. The teachers all looked tired this morning, especially the evangelists, but all were smiling and energetic by the time their classes began lining up. Somehow, the law of entropy did not apply to me this week. Instead of becoming more and more tired with each passing day, I ended up with more and more energy each day. (Probably due to the fact that so many people had been praying that all the NBT workers would have strength and energy.)

30 in attendance again this morning, and once again, some were absent, but we had enough visitors to balance it out.

Tonight we had the final program, and only about half our class showed up. It was great to see the kids that did show up recieve awards and cheer the other classes on. I sat at one end of the third grade row, by some of the boys. They were a bit wiggly toward the middle of the program, but for the most part, once I told them to be still, they were. (Though I think it was partly due to the fact that they were so tired that they didn't want to move anymore.) : )

In all, it was a great week, even though I did have to go outside of my comfort zone quite a few times. --I suppose that's partly what made it a great week, just seeing the things that God was doing in my heart and life as well as in the hearts and lives of many boosters and teens.

Day 4...

Two more boosters from our class got saved today!

During line-up time, all the little ones from the neigboring classes wanted to show off their ribbons and tell me their plans to get more. -The kids have really warmed up to all the teachers...I even had a random little girl from another class give me a hug today for absolutely no reason! : )

We had 30 kids in our class again! One was absent, but we had a visitor. One of the Junior classes is trying to double their first day's attendance because if they do, their teacher volunteered his helper to take a pie in the face. (If I remember right from last year, it's a pie tin with shaving cream in it.) Miss Kathie told me that she thought that was a good idea, but thankfully for me, she was only joking. : )

Sadly, tomorrow is our last day. In the evening we will have the final program, in which the boosters show off the things they have learned and get their awards.