I'm Back!

Here I am again, only a few months delayed. Life happens, and in the middle of it all, I somehow lost track of this blog thing. But here I am, back again. Ready for a new start, I think. Life has gone through many changes for me since I last wrote, and while I gave thought to updating, some things are hard to put into words. The really short story is my mom was diagnosed with stage IV Melanoma. She’s currently in chemo having gone through brain surgery and radiation. We’re hopeful for the meds she on.

For now though, I’m back at SVIS. I am currently teaching a 4^th and 5^th class, and spent the first five weeks of school living in the younger girl’s dorm. With 12 students in two grades, and 14 in the dorm, my life is more than a little crazy.

This is my nice calm looking classroom... I would like to note that this was taken after the custodians had cleaned for the day, and the students were not present. It rarely looks this pretty and calm!

I moved out of the dorm on Friday and am slowing learning to enjoy my free evening, quiet meals, and living with just one person, instead of 14 girls. After a year of living with the young ones, I’m so ready to not be responsible for making people shower every night, line up for meals on time, and keep the dorm clean. I will miss the crazy girls, but it’s not like I will never see them. (I do have 7 of them in my class!)

Note the difference between my classroom, and my desk. I like to claim it represents my chaotic life.

Note the left-over graham crackers from this morning’s snack and coffee cup to get me through the long afternoon of attempting to grade papers.

Last year, I was blessed with 3 lovely girls in my fifth grade class. This year, I have 8 fifth graders (2 boys, 6 girls), and 4 fourth graders (2 boys and 2 girls), meaning I have the largest class on campus. In fact, my fifth graders alone are bigger than most of the other classes here! That said, I love having a big group. They are always full of energy, and never fail to make me laugh at least once (or 20 times) a day. For a few days we even had a pet salamander, but since I was afraid it would starve to death, we let him go today. He was fun for a few days though!

I’m thankful to be here serving God. I know he has a calling for my life, and for now, its right here! God is faithful. This year our school theme is trust. Trusting God seems like a simple thing, although life proves it is anything but. As we walk life with our trust in God, my prayer is that these kids will see the hope that we have in Him.