Learning at Lunch

Being a teacher is a wonderful job, especially if you enjoy people watching. Children have this ability to completely ignore the fact that someone else (someone who may be judging them) is around. For example, 7 seconds after the kids walk in the door, I become invisible as they talk to friends, gather books for the day, and use the restroom. When I break into their conversations to correct one of them or say Good Morning, its as if I have interrupted. When this talent of ignoring is playing out, I get to see them in their bare form of being. They drop the "please the teacher" charade when they forget I'm there. Watching them interact with no filter is a sometimes shocking, and always hilarious adventure.

Last Thursday, three of my students had earned enough pennies to eat lunch with me in the classroom if they so chose. They told me they were very excited to get to eat in our classroom because the cafeteria is too loud. I asked them if they wanted to sit at their own desks, or if we should sit all together. I don't want to force my company on them if they would rather not talk to me, but they are six and I am still a friend in their mind, so they eagerly clamor to all sit together!

We sit down and eat our lunches, comparing each others. The children have ice cream bars which they cannot open, so I do the honors. One girl eats her ice cream first. I ask her if she is going to eat the rest of her food, and she nods yes as if I am crazy. I forget how physically hungry my students are. They eat anything! And tell me multiple times during the day they are hungry. Some of them don't eat much at home, and don't bring a snack to school. Our school cafeteria does a good job of feeding them a delicious, filling lunch each day!

As we eat, I let the kids talk freely, not commenting much so they can be themselves. It is funny the personalities that come out. One talks the entire time. I know she is a talker already, but today she's going full blast. The talking is so persistent, the the boy next to me has to interrupt to get a word in edgewise! When he speaks up, he tells me about his family. He tells me sad and worrying things about his family, but the way he describes them is more factual than despairing. It saddens me to see the potential in this child, and hear about his family's troubles. I hope that despite their hardships, they focus on him and help him become all he can be.

The third child does not speak up much. She is generally quiet, and I have assumed it is because she does not speak much English. After lunch, I learn my assumptions is incorrect. She sits quietly as the other two children vie for my attention. When they get tired of me they talk to each other about things I don't know about (iCarly and Hannah Montana). While discussing Hannah Montana's house, my quiet girl loudly and confidently chimes in about the color of Hannah's bedroom. I look at her a bit shocked. She simply smiles at me and eats the rest of her food without a word. Whether or not she speaks much English, that is not holding her back. She is just one of those people who is quiet until they have something to say, much like my husband.

Some teachers don't like to let kids eat in their rooms, and I understand why. They are messy and clingy, and when I can take 25 minutes to myself during the day, I am happy to do it. But, I am glad my kids ate with me on Thursday. I need to see more into their lives. All it takes is 25 minutes with a child, and in that time, a world of information comes out.

Political Thoughts

Shane Claiborne's book Irristible Revolution is one of my favorite books! He pretty much sums up thoughts I have had since childhood. At every page I was nodding, thinking- Finally, someone who understands my feelings! So I found a website with some of his quotations from the book. This is great, because I didn't want to type it all up, but I did want to share some things he said on the ole blog.



"There are some things to die for but none to kill for. "

"Today the logic goes something like this: 'Calling a ruler Son of God is out of style. No one really does that nowadays. We can support a president while also worshiping Jesus as the Son of God.' But how is this possible? For one says that we must love our enemies, and the other says we must kill them; one promotes the economics of competition, while the other admonishes the forgiveness of debts. To which do we pledge allegiance?"

"One thing that's clear in the Scriptures is that the nations do not lead people to peace; rather, people lead the nations to peace."

"And that’s when things get messy. When people begin moving beyond charity and toward justice and solidarity with the poor and oppressed, as Jesus did, they get in trouble. Once we are actually friends with the folks in struggle, we start to ask why people are poor, which is never as popular as giving to charity. One of my friends has a shirt marked with the words of late Catholic bishop Dom Helder Camara: “When I fed the hungry, they called me a saint. When I asked why people are hungry, they called me a communist.” Charity wins awards and applause but joining the poor gets you killed. People do not get crucified for living out of love that disrupts the social order that calls forth a new world. People are not crucified for helping poor people. People are crucified for joining them."

"When we truly discover how to love our neighbor as our self, Capitalism will not be possible and Marxism will not be necessary."

"Biological family is too small of a vision. Patriotism is far too myopic. A love for our own relatives and a love for the people of our own country are not bad things, but our love does not stop at the border."

"We are faithful not to the triumphant golden eagle (ironically, also an imperial symbol of power in Rome) but to the slaughtered Lamb."


In summation: un-nationalist, pacifist, alternatively economical, and radically loving. These ideas make my heart comfy.

Stolen from Donald Miller's Dog

One of my favorite authors, Donald Miller, has a blog. He is letting his dog write on it this week. Funny, and inspired! These are some words that touched me.

“You don’t ever think when you are in extreme pain that you are being saved, chosen, picked for relationship, set aside to be loved. You can never really believe pain. It’s almost always something beautiful transitioning to something better, the whole time masquerading as a tragedy.”

As I am stepping into this new job, I am trying to see the big picture. God took me out of one place and put me in this new one. I was chosen to go. It was incredibly painful to leave, but I must believe beauty and love will come out of this new experience.

Maybe I will let Moe write on here sometime :)

The Tale of How I Got a Job

I know this is my second post today, but hey, lots to say!
So, I lost my job on April 1st. I have been frantically looking ever since. Lots of prayers, applications, emails, and rejection. All I wanted to know was where God wanted me to be. I felt like there was Kingdom work to do somewhere in a school. I was asking God to show me where to go, because I was getting no answers at all. David and I went to Stones River youth group a few weeks ago and they prayed over us that we would find jobs where we could help people. Byron made the comment that when the youth group prays, God listens and responds quickly. He was right!

That week I got three interviews. I was most hopeful about the second one, teaching middle school math. Even though math isn't my favorite, I thought I would like the school. Anyway, I went to the first interview for 5th grade. The school is about 45 minutes away from my house. I was pretty upset when I got there just because I could not imagine driving all that way every day. Anyway, I go inside 10 minutes early, and I can hear the principal interviewing someone else... This candidate sounds very qualified and they are having a great time chatting it up.

...50 minutes later... I am feeling like this job is definitely a no go. She has been interviewing this other woman for for-ev-er and don't want to drive this far. By the way, did I mention I can hear the whole conversation???? I hear the principal telling the interviewee about the high poverty population her school serves. My heart tingles a little. I feel called to poverty. But, its far away, and I don't want this job. Its obvious the other candidate is going to get the job. I text David and tell him I just want to leave. I explain the situation and tell him I don't want the job anyway and it is taking for-ev-er. David asks me not to leave, but to interview anyway.... In my mind I am sighing and saying, why did I tell him... Why didn't I just leave?? Then I start thinking... He is my husband. I have promised to respect him. And I decide to stay and talk with the principal. Only because I love David and want to show him I respect him.

So I stay and interview for about 20 minutes. The interview goes well. I don't get nervous for interviews, so they generally go well. I am not thinking anything is special... She tells me about the kids that go to the school. My heart is tingling again.

I drive home. Fully planning on not accepting the job, IF it is even offered. I talk it over with David and my mom. They agree it is really far away.

I go to my second interview of the week. It goes really well! I am almost positive I will get it. Days later I am told I will not be getting it. My third interview gets cancelled. I'm not too upset...

Then- I get the phone call. She wants me for the job. She had another position open up and she is calling me. My initial reaction is to tell her, you are too far away, thanks but no thanks. Thankfully, I just say I will think about it over the weekend.

We discuss. We pray. We listen. My heart just won't stop tingling. I cannot stop thinking of the kids I could work with. Kids who don't have a lot in their lives. Kids I could show love to... They win me over. I have never met any of them, but I feel like God is sending me to them. And I am going! I accepted the job this morning!

God is faithful. Listening to your husband is a good idea. I'm really excited!

Pancakes de Lauren

I am super impressed with this guy Jim's website dedicated to his creation of pancakes. I decided that I should try it out for myself. I bought the squirt bottles he uses and made a valiant first attempt.

In my mind I wanted some pink heart shaped cakes with chocolate chip polka dots. This was not the end result...
First I used some Blueberry pomegranate juice to color the batter pink. Or at least purple. But it turned out gray. How did that happen? Well, maybe next time I will use some food coloring. The juice did make the pancakes taste super yummy, though!


Next I started my heart pancake. Apparently leaving the lid on the squirt bottle while i smacked the end to get the batter down in the nozzle was a bad idea. Too much pressure made the batter squirt out continuously. I didn't have any control over the batter flow!!! So it ended up a little crazy!

So I filled it all in and let it bake. Then after I flipped it, I had the idea to make a black and white cookie kinda heart. So I put chocolate chips on half of the heart. YUM! It looked kinda... not beautiful...

Also I made a swirl.
Then, inspired by my sweet dog, I made a Moe cake. I did the head first, then the body. I used chocolate chips for eyes.




Looks nice, right?
It was an interesting first try. Totally delicious, but not to the artistic level I anticipated.
Well, there is always tomorrow!

Turtle Rescue

I have enjoyed my time working at the Discovery Center thus far. My favorite part of the job is watching the turtles! We have a pond of red eared sliders. In the other side we have a big snapper. It is divided for the safety of the little turtles. One female just doesn't care. She keeps on crawling up the embankment and falling into the snapper's side! Old Snappy hasn;t eaten her yet though. And four times I have seen her start climbing and stopped her....

A turtle rescuer's job is never done!

Summer Girl

New haircut for summer! Yay! Moe got one too :)






Also- check out this website. It makes me excited! www.missionyear.org

Happy summer to all! Use the time to love on people around you, to read good books, and to be still and know that HE is God!