Almost Tuesday

"....with my God I can scale a wall...As for God, his way is perfect."

God gives strength-Psalm 18:32 and 39
God gives a perfect way- Psalm 18: 30 and 32
God gives a shield-Psalm 18:30 and 35

Check out Psalm 18:29-39

The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior!-Psalm 18:46

I meant to take a picture but I forgot.

We have an artist at our school this week. Actually he came on Friday and the kids made paper, from paper. I know it sounds kind of interesting but we are into three R's at the moment. Can you name them?

Did you guess them?

Reduce
Reuse
Recycle!

So the artist, his name is Mr. Tom, blended up some paper (added some water) and made pulp. We have also been working on writing How-to paragraphs so we learned "how-to" make paper!

1. Stir up the vat. (use your hand don't forget to roll up your sleeves)
2. Make sure the screen is facing up and the deckle is on top (yes deckle is the name of it! we learned a new word too, don't worry)
3. Then hold it like your driving (thumbs on either side in the middle)
4. scoop up the fish paper (pulp)
4. Do the vatman shake (I know, it sounds like the Batman shake, I wanted to call it that!)
5. Partner takes off the deckle.
6. Flip it over onto felt like a book.
7. Press out the water with a sponge.
8. Pull off the screen.
9. Cover with felt......

Then the assistant and I press them onto the window to dry. I'm pretty sure we put up over 100 sheets of paper. Today we actually made seed paper and I liked these better. The colors were more vibrant and the paper a bit thicker. Apparently you scrape off the paper when its dry with the help of a credit card (like scraping off ice, minus the cold). I meant to take a pic of all the paper drying but by the time the day was over I had forgotten. I'm sorry! Friday we are supposed to make books that will be displayed in an art museum around town?? Something like that, we'll see how it goes! Maybe I can find a picture somewhere in this whole process!

In other news, I rocked one of my first graders' world today by drinking soup out of a can. It was one of those microwaveable Campbelle's cans. He kept asking questions about it, like why did you shake it up when you were drinking it. Then they were interested in sodium because they read that mine had "25% less sodium".

Also, kids know when you are sick. I'm pretty sure five of my kids noticed my voice was a bit off today....
Ms. Schreck, your voice isn't right. It's not yours. Your voice sounds sick.
I learned my lesson. Give me some Vitamin C please!

-Life as an El Ed Major....who's almost done!

This is why we teach.

The world is a hard place. People need someone to show them love. To show them that they can succeed.

It happens

This is just my favorite! I'm not sure where it came from/who created it but thanks Evan for sending it to me!

Start your week off right

Love it!

Interesting

On Bible Characters: The rich young ruler, Sara, Peter, and Paul....."The one who made a name for himself is nameless. But the ones who called on Jesus' name-& his name only-got new names and even more, new life."

-Max Lucado, Cast of Characters: Common People in the Hands of an Uncommon God, copyright 2008, p. 200

Birthday Week

This week three of my friends turned 22! We have had lots of great surprises for them! Kimber met a big group at Berry Berry Good, Katie enjoyed pizza and Quelf, and Kim had a surprise breakfast!
We also survived our first week of student teaching; I only rewarded myself with a mountain dew almost every day ;)! Only about 70 more days!

Words for the Soul

You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless, and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.
-Psalm 10:17-18

For the Lord is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face.
-Psalm 11:7

God is amazing.

God is amazing. Period.
Out of the blue, in the middle of Language Arts small group. a little girl asked a question. She was really trying to figure something out. You could see it on her face and could tell in the way she phrased her question. She was working on connecting the dots. The most amazing part? I was so caught off guard (though I should not have been) that I probably only said about two phrases, if that and the kids just had their own little conversation.....

"Is God tinier than everyone?" to which one student said, and they both agreed, "No! He's bigger!!!" another said, "Ya, He died on the cross." The first little girl said, "You know what! He's coming back but we just don't know when...."

Best part of the whole day!!! God is amazing!

Please Watch This!

"Dress up the outside make it look nice and neat. It's funny that's what they used to do to mummies while the corpse rots underneath."

"When I was an enemy.....Jesus looked down and said I want that man."

"Religion says Do, Jesus says Done."

"Kneeling at the cross saying, 'Come on there's room.' "

can't believe student teaching is almost here! 7:15 is going to come rather early but excited to see all my lovely small group ladies, my fabulous roomies, and of course good ol Jacktown AND today is going to be an extra special day because I get a visitor in GA!!

Um. Speechless.

London knows how to do some Fireworks. Can we PLEASE go??!!!

It's a New Year

Well it's a new year and I have been wanting to blog but not sure what I should write about. As I struggled to untangle a new necklace I got from my uncle for Christmas, I knew this would work.....

I got a new necklace for Christmas. It's quite beautiful. Unfortunately, when I took it out of the box it was all tangled. As I started to unravel it, I realized I was only making it worse. I tried to look at in a different light to see if that would help. Nope, still trying to untangle it. Usually I'm pretty good at untangling them but this one was tough. I went from one position to the next, trying as hard as I could to undo the knot. The harder I tried, the tighter it got. I finally went downstairs and showed mom. Let me just say, mom is always right. She looked at it, said that's a beautiful necklace and with no concern at all told me how to fix it. Just get a sewing needle, stick it through the whole and it'll come loose. So I went back upstairs and tried. It took me a little while. I would almost get it and then lose it. Finally, though I'm not quite sure how, it worked! Mom was right and I had my beautiful necklace back!

Great story, right. Well it gets better because as I sat there SO frustrated I realized that that story sometimes resembles my life.....

Sometimes I can do some damage and get my life all in a knot/tangle/mess. I wonder how often God looks at me as He's trying to make me new and says well, that obviously didn't get her attention, perhaps if I put her in a different situation/a different light she will understand. When I continue to be stubborn, I wonder if he says, I guess I'll have to use a different tool with her.

I'm often blown away by his patience in my life. I worked on that necklace for a mere 15 minutes or so and was about to give up. I even asked for help, got the right tools, and then almost gave up! My transformation will take a lifetime and God still doesn't give up on me. He uses all the right tools, knows all the right people to place in my life, and takes care of me.

I love that He can look at me in my sinful mess and say with complete assurance and calm, this is what she needs, this is what I'm going to do. She'll be beautiful!

Three verses come to mind-Romans 8:38-39 (I will never be separated from Christ), 2 Corinthians 5:17 (He is making me new!), 1 Peter 1:7 (though we go through tough times/fire, God will be glorified!)

Though it will take a lifetime, God sees the beauty, untangles all the knots, and is proud of His kids!