Lilley of the field

Today was a particularly crazy day at school for many reasons. It is a full moon. It is the day before Halloween. It is 2 days before a field trip. It is 3 days before our fall break. We have not had a break in 2 months. Everyone is at their wits end it seems. I found myself becoming easily angered today. During my planning period I read Psalm 84 and it truly echoed what I was feeling in my soul. The Psalmist describes longing to be with God and continually trusting in Him. The verse that really stuck out to me was 5-6: "Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose heart is set on the pilgrimage . As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs." The idea of setting my heart on the pilgrimage just clung to me and got me through the day. I praise God for taking away my horrible headache in the middle of the day. I got home and I stood outside in the cold and the whipping wind watching the dogs play in the yard. I started praying outside a...

My heart started so heavy this evening after reading an email and thinking on some things I know going on in friend's lives. It just grieved my heart to know there is such pain and suffering in the world. I found myself missing some deep, rich time journaling and reading scripture because I've been working out in the morning or running when I usually spend some quiet time with God. I've still be using that time to listen to songs and worship, but I found myself needing a different quiet time to really come to God and lay my burdens down. Among other things, I had been thinking about the girls coming tomorrow morning to the Potter's Place to do art with myself and 2 other "mentors." I am so excited and so nervous. I don't know what to expect at all. That's probably a good thing. Being a special education teacher means I've become really good at doing things well on the fly. The girls coming are part of a program in which they do community service ...

It was Grandparents Day at school which doesn't usually mean much except that it's somewhat more crazy with the influx of new people in the school and the kids are more hyper than normal- if you can call anything in my class normal :). One of my assistants took the students whose grandparents were coming to the library and I realized I missed meeting one child's grandpa which made me disappointed because one of my goals for the year is to have stronger relationships with the parents and to really support them. At the end of lunch, our occupational therapist brought the child and his grandpa back to the cafeteria so I got to meet him! We talked about all the neat things his child- who has autism and is non-verbal was doing in our class. His grandpa was amazed. So we invited him back to our classroom so I could show him some of those things. I showed him how his child could answer questions using an app on our iPad that speaks what you type into it. I showed him how his c...

Day one of the run. The alarm went off at 5:15. I should back up. Last night when I let the dogs out before I went to bed, I realized how dark it was in the morning and wasn't sure if I wanted to run by myself. So Aaron said he would run in my vicinity, but not next to me. Back to the alarm clock. We arise, put on our running clothes, stretch, and head out the door. I was expecting it to be cold, but it had rained overnight and was quite mild. We only ran a short distance, but it was so wonderful. Then the best thing happened. God had held the rain for us because about 10 minutes into our run it started to sprinkle which was so refreshing and freeing. When we made it back to our house it started pouring and continued to pour for about an hour. I love that. On other great praises of God. He just loves my children. Today I was working with some of my profound students in the side room. I was working with a child to hit a "Big Mac" button which would then play the radi...

In my last post I wrote about learning to breathe with my diaphragm. Well, I am still not really doing it naturally yet, but as I do it, I've been trying not to move my shoulders and so what I end up doing it tightening the muscles in my shoulders and neck. This weekend, I had/ still have a horrible knot in my neck. I am still trying to do the breathing though. That just brings me to my conversation with Aaron's family this weekend about exercise. Here's me and exersize. It's like we're from foreign countries if "working out" is in the sentence. Exercise liking walking, playing tennis, and biking are great. Exercise like lifting weights, going to the gym, or weight bearing activities are like speaking a foreign language. Aaron's brother is studying to be a physical therapist so I picked his brain. I know I should do more core strengthening exercising becuase I use my back a lot at school lifting kids. I am on my feet all day. I often have a sore back...

Learning to breathe. Literally and metaphorically. I love things that are like that. A few blog posts ago I wrote about "Breath Prayers," and how I was remembering that each breath we take can be to serve and praise our Maker. Last night I spent time with Monica and enjoyed myself so much. I don't usually play music with anyone and I've playing with her and sharing stuff I've written and hearing songs she's written and I know it's been so liberating and powerful for both of us. She was helping me with a song and I just couldn't sing as high as her... so she gave me a mini lesson in breathing from the diaphragm, which I have heard about before but not really ever consistently tried. I did some research today and read about how powerful and effective breathing with your diaphragm is for your whole body. It reduces stress and helps reduce straining your vocal cords. After about 7 weeks in school, I've noticed how my throat hurts alot and that worrie...

Yesterday, I went to the Potter's Place to meet the group of arbitrators who work with juvenile delinquents in Pickens County. They send their boys and girls out for community service and hopefully they won't have to go to court. Don, who lives at the Potter's Place, does a woodworking shop for the boys. He had mentioned looking for someone to run an arts and crafts day for the girls. When I heard that it just tugged on my heart until I realized God was calling me to this. It is undeniable. Every time I talk about it, think about it, spend time there, I get so excited. So yesterday, I am surrounded by about 10 people who I don't know and they are all talking about how much they love the Lord and love teens and how God has given them this purpose and passion. It was so incredibly beautiful. Most were a lot older than me... actually everyone except the woman who heads up the whole juveniles program was probably over 40. There was everyone from a retired principal to a hea...

I haven't blogged in a while so it seems. Things have been very busy! Here's a few things about my week. Actually this is just yesterday: -A little mouse hopped about our kitchen in the morning completely unaware of Aaron and myself. Of course, the dogs were completely unaware of the mouse too... unfortunately. -Sent my first child to the ER. She is ok, thank the Lord. A little cut to the lip that required stitches. I will say that I saw God move though as 3 of us held this child down and tried to calm her for 30 minutes before her mom arrived. My assistant said, "I know you're going to be just fine because I said a prayer for you." and then she calmed down and stopped resisting just like that. We sang to her until her grandmother came. -Also  yesterday, I sent a child home who cried for 2 hours and then threw up. -Then I stepped in dog poop when I came home. I am sure I had every possible body fluid on me. BUT the Lord has been so gracious this week! I h...