AMAZING!!!

Every Saturday I can be found here...it is something I look forward to every week. I know getting up early on Saturday? To be with kids? After being with kids all week? But seriously once you go...you get addicted and the kids mean too much to me NOT to go...regulars get it everyone else...well that's ok :)

So two Saturdays ago we had the annual backpack day where kids from grades pre-k to 12th grade get backpacks full of school supplies. My church had donated 600 backpacks. But it wasn't enough. There were around 900 kids there that day. I am also a bus monitor on my bus that hold 58 there were 92 people. Usually I have around 20-35 boys in my pre-k/k class and there were over 70. It was a hot, sticky, chaotic and exhausting day. We had to do two bus routes on the way home so everyone could ride more safely. I left feeling discouraged and overwhelmed but at the same time amazed at what God could do. 300 kids going away empty handed, most of them regulars BROKE my heart at its core. But seeing how many kids got to experience the LOVE that is OCC left me AMAZED at God.

This past Saturday we had backpacks round 2. I am happy to say as far as I know EVERY kid walked away with a backpack. It was HOT, STICKY, and a little chaotic still (but not as much). I saw how God just has his own timing and how He will meet all of our needs. Maybe not how we want but how He sees fit. After all He is ALL knowing, NOT us. Sometimes, He says look at my power I can bring 900 kids out to hear about my love. Then, He follows that up with LEAN into me and I will provide for all of those kids.

And look at those smiles, these are regulars that got backpacks the second time around...don't think they'll remember that they didn't get the 1st time but they WILL remember how people provided for them...how GOD provided for them

Back to life...back to reality

Back to school means back to bentos...which I haven't done in forever...here's a quick and easy one...pasta salad and salad...just lacking some protein...but one step at a time :)

Not Me Monday

I've always loved reading "Not Me Mondays" at My Charming Kids. So here it goes my first not me post:

I most certainly did not eat steal granola off of the lunch plate of one of my preschoolers because I was STARVING and my lunch break was not for another 1.5 hours and I didn't bring any food to school. I would NEVER take food from a small child, even if she wasn't eating it.

I would never volunteer to get refill the water pitcher for my class just so I could get some left over pastry in the kitchen and leave my assistant on the playground while I enjoyed some peace inside.

I would never eat almost a half of bag of challah bread...I would certainly show some restraint, especially since the loaf of bread is our morning snack.

I would never hope that the beta fish I inherited in my class would die. I love all of God's creatures and would never want to even hurt a house fly. Even if he is almost half dead and the kids don't even notice him...no I consider him a valuable part of God's creation.

Right now they are all about school because it has been a rough start but thankful things are getting better! I know it's not where I am going to be forever but I am SO thankful I am not back at my old school and to be working with children.

Wonderful Wednesday

So somethings in my life are less than ideal:

1. I'm in transition
2. My new job is ROUGH...I've never worked with this age group and they are really young and just not my ideal.
3. I'm working more hours for less money...not fun :)
4. I don't have a camera or a computer of my own.
5. I've had a lot of struggles with people in the church...but I believe that the church is a hospital...everyone there is sick in their own way...and I am choosing to think what faith lesson can I learn and move on...life's too short to live wounded

But I've come to believe lately that 95% of happiness is your state of mind. And in this phase of my life I am choosing to be happy and a lot of times that means listing my blessings because sometimes it can be hard to see the light through all of the stuff going on. That's why I want to do Wonderful Wednesday....

I wish I could make a header for this but I can't no computer= no photoshop so here is my very ghetto header



1. I have some WONDERFUL friends who are so sweet to me :)
2. I have a job when other people don't
3. I spend my Saturdays at the best possible place ... these kids saved me spiritually in a way that they'll NEVER know
4. I have this girl in my class, Hope and she adores me. She loves to hug me and hold my hand and walk around the playground. I love making her smile :)
5. I have a REALLY sweet family :)
6. I love that NCIS marathons are on all the time...it sucks me in like a vortex :)
7. I get a FREE gym membership at my new job... SWEET :)
8. I am reading this AMAZING book. I've wanted to read this book for 2 years and finally bought it with a gift card I got for my birthday. It has also sucked me in like a vortex :)
9. I love the generosity of my church...they are people who truly live like Jesus...they collect 600 backpacks for OCC in just two weeks.
10. This less than ideal job has put a fire under my butt to get where I need to belong...in the classroom :)

So what's wonderful about your life now?

I'm Back :)

A lot of things have changed in my life since I stopped posting.

1. I got a NEW job! I no longer work at the crazy school. I am still teaching preschool but in a MUCH better environment. Although I REALLY miss kindergarten.

2.My brother did get married :)

3. I have added one nephew and one niece to my family :) I haven't met my nephew yet but I can't wait :) I saw my niece when she was born and it was AMAZING :)

4. Defected from my old book club because we just have different taste in books...so me and some girls started our own book club and now we have a nice size :)

5. Cut my hair short...I've had long hair for at least 7 years...can't wait to get it reshaped on Saturday...I'll post a picture then because now it is just gross.

My Brother's Wedding (part one)

So tomorrow is my baby brother's wedding. Tonight was the rehearsal dinner. My brother is one very blessed boy. (Actually, we were all born into an awesome family) But tonight was all about Andrew and Erin. My mom graciously opened up her house to 85 people. Yup, 85 people! And most of them were from Erin's side of the family. We ate outside and it was beautiful. Here's my photomentary.

Getting ready

Look at all of the homemade rolls...YUMMY!

Some of the yummy homemade pies

This is my parent's garage that was transformed into the serving area

This is the driveway where we all ate (see the 1st picture)

Cousins Isabella and Gracie Jane meet for the 1st time

My dad giving a speech

Cutest baby ever!
All of the people
The happy couple
A.I. +E.B. (it looked better in person)

The Human Spirit

I am often amazed by the power of the human spirit and how people overcome tragedy or withstand adversities that come their way. Many of you know about Ellie the strength of Ellie during her fight and her family today amazes me. Now there are some more people who are in need of prayer. Watching ER I was brought to tears once again as Angela Basset said

"When your parents are gone you're an orphan.
Spouse dies you're a widow or widower.
But when you lose your baby there's no words for that"

Wow! What an amazing statement. Losing a child is so unnatural. Parents should go first.
Melanie and Nick went through an awful struggle only to lose their precious Anna. Please go before God on their behalf and ask him to comfort them. Melanie was such a warrior for her little girl.

A lot of people have heard about Nie Nie. I love Stephanie's appreciation of the small things and how happy she was in her life. Please pray for Stephanie, Christian, and their 3 children. Stephanie's sisters have been awesome warriors on her behalf, stepping in to care for their nieces/nephew as their own.

I am not a big fan of religion or religious people. I truly believe with all my heart that the truly religious follow this verse:

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father
means caring for orphans and widows in their distress
and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
James 1:27

Have a great weekend!

Some quickies

I love quickies :)....quick lunches that is...since I'm a working girl who has to get up o so early I LOVE food that is healthy and quick. So here are some quickies.

Egg roll (baked, no MSG) strawberry and raspberry salad(organic)
and snap peas.

Chicken salad (veganaise, chicken, celery, and LOTS of dill)
on whole wheat with organic pears.

Organic peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat
with organic kiwi and tangerine. (sorry about the flash)

Gratitudes

I try to do this every week in my journal so I thought I would start sharing my gratitudes here. It's also part of my quest to be a more authentic person :)

1. A great church where I have heard God speak to me volumes. It's not perfect.But neither am I. And I'm learning to listen to God's voice and obey and let go of what I want.

2. Even though times are tough and even though my boss is crazy I have a job. And its an awesome job. I have the sweetest classes and I love every single minute (of working with the kids) That's me being brave an holding a baby chick. (I'm scared of birds)


3. Spending every Thursday with my sister, Nick, and the cutest baby ever.

4. Having a best friend who keeps it real.

5. Realizing that no matter what I do and who I am I matter to God and He cares about me.

6. Cheap new shiny shoes. My little girls love these shoes too :)

One word meme

For some reason I like these things...a lot...maybe too much...especially reading other people's

Where is your mobile phone?purse
Your hair colour? brown
Your mother? caring
Your father? kind
Your favourite thing? fries
Your dream last night? never remember them
Your dream goal? authenticity
The room you're in? comfy
Your hobby? reading
Your fear? the unknown
Where do you want to be in 6 years? house
Where were you last night? bed
What you're not? materialistic
One of your wish-list items? community
Where you grew up? safe
The last thing you did? facebook
What are you wearing? favorite dress
Your TV? addicted
Your pets? sick :(
Your computer? apple
Your mood? stressed
Missing someone? katie
Your car? blessed (to have one)
Something you're not wearing? shoes
Favourite shop? target
Your summer? birthday
Love someone? really
Your favourite colour? green
When is the last time you laughed? today
When is the last time you cried? yesterday

Young Amercians

Yesterday I was so excited on my almost hour commute I saw the longest lines to vote as the polls opened. I feel like apathy is disappearing. I was excited all day long because people were voting, even if they didn't vote for my guy. In kindergarten, we have been working on elections for over a week. Learning about the candidates, how voting works, and learning to be young Americans. We also had our own "heated" election.

The candidates : The Velveteen Rabbit: sweet, caring, and "real"
Paddington Bear: loves marmalade , lots of worldly experience

Campaign Posters and necklaces were made


Each child had a state and different electoral votes...the ballots were cast





and the winner is....





The Velveteen Rabbit...which was not my candidate but the people have spoken :)

The preschool had a less involved election...we just made posters
It was duck vs dog (see them in the background)...dog won :)

Off the farm today:)

I'm sad :(

I am sad that we live in a great country and people are so ugly. It makes me more sad that a lot of the ugliness comes from Christians. Who said we had to agree on everything?

"Respect everyone, and love your
Christian brothers and sisters. Fear God, and respect the king."
1 Peter 2:17

Respect and love goes a long way. I heard the best message at church yesterday. What if Christian republicans/democrats said, " You know I know Susie and she's a (insert political party) and she's not so bad. In fact, she's a nice person" And we as Christians REFUSED to talk smack about the party. Disagreement is fine, being ugly goes against our core values. It goes against who Jesus is. When Jesus walked this earth he loved everyone. He sat, dined, and made friends with those were the least worthy. Today, he does the same. I am one of those...who does not deserve his love but his mercy is poured down on me. So what can I do in return... LOVE ALL

John 14:34 &35-Words from my master

"A new command I give you: Love one another.
As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

I LOVE Halloween!

Kindergarten theme is always "When I Grow Up" I don't like the theme but my hands are tied :( Once I changed it to "Fairytale" which I think is more creative and fun and I got in "trouble". The bad thing about my school is the principal/owner is all about tradition. I had a train engineer, business man, teacher (doesn't she look like Sarah Palin), author/ballerina (cute!), bat (I think her mom forgot...oh well) and a taxi cab driver. I was the tooth fairy. Heather do you recognize the dress? We had a lot of fun.

This is my costume for preschool dress up. The theme was Time Machine so I used a leftover Fiona costume sans ears and was a Medieval (or as the preschoolers said a mean and evil) princess!

This girl HATES costumes so she'll never get a new one. Oh how I wish she did!

My kindergartners sewed these owls. I think they are SO adorable! I think we'll be doing a lot more sewing projects. We all had a lot of fun making these!

These kids are the sweetest!

I hope everyone had a great Halloween!

So I really wanted to go to the Obama rally today which was held like 7 minutes from my work. I don't want to talk politics or debate with anyone, but he's my boy and I wanted to see him. Sadly, work doesn't get done until 4 and shuttle service started at 1 and by the time I got off it was way TOO crowded. This is Florida and even if we are having beautiful "fall" weather my idea of fun is not standing smooshed with a bunch of sweating people who have been standing in the hot sun since 1 and didn't wear deorderant. So I did what I do every Monday and Wednesday I went to Zumba! And I got all sweaty, but I burned calories too :)

Zumba is high cardio Latin dance workout and it is SO much fun! I've done the DVDs off and on for years, but the instructor, Sharon at the Y is SO awesome! The hour goes by so quick!

Since we are learning about careers we had to make cookies in Kindergarten. Baker...career...yummiest job EVER! I found this great sugar cookie recipe. I'm not even a huge fan of sugar cookies and these were really good! Hence, another reason why I had to go to Zumba instead of Obama is I ate 3 cookies (YIKES!)

Mixing is always their favorite part :) That and
I let them taste the batter :)

And a nice end to my day was 2 great parents doing career presentations. I wish I had offspring just to put in Monica's drama class. She is so kid-friendly and high energy. And a dad who brings Universal swag isn't so bad either :)

Now I'm going to end my day with one of the funniest shows on tv....The Big Bang Theory. Seriously, this show is so great and keeps getting better. It's these nerdy scientists who live across the hall from a cute waitress wannabe actress. The interaction between the two worlds is REALLY funny! The actor who plays Sheldon is SO great that if I saw him in real life I'd have a hard time believing he wasn't this quirky guy. Tomorrow is bookclub and I'm giving away our book either tomorrow or Wednesday.

Fun! Fun! Fun!

This weekend the weather was GORGEOUS! So I did one of my favorite things...went to Sea World. Clyde and Seamore make me so happy :) The only problem was it was one of the trick or treating weekends so it was a little (well maybe a lot) crowded. But all the kids in their costumes were SO adorable. They also have a new cirque show...still in the Natilus Theater but new show. I liked to the storyline better, but there was too much going on at once.

Then, I spent sometime at IKEA and Super Target. I really wanted to get this lamp but they were out :(

That just means I'll have to go back. Actually, I'm going to do a little room makeover...maybe a $200 IKEA challenge.

Congrats to KatieD she's the winner of the book giveaway. There will be another one this week.

Nights in Rodanthe ****GIVEAWAY****

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love books. Nothing makes me happier than a REALLY good story. A story where you feel for the characters and fall in love with them. Nights in Rodanthe is a REALLY good story. If you are a person with a decent heart you probably cried as much as me in the Notebook. Nights in Rodanthe is written by Nicholas Sparks, the same author of the Notebook.

I'm not going to give too much away, but this is the story of a mother and a daughter, father and a son, father and a daughter, and two lovers. Yeah some of these are the same people. But all of the interesting character dynamics and relationships are AMAZING! Yeah it is some what predictable at times, but it is a story of life, love, loss, and redemption. It's a book that will make you feel warm and happy, sad and tearful all in 200 short pages.

Now for some bad news...the movie is HORRIBLE...it is nothing like the book and I wanted to walk out in the first 10 minutes. But its kinda good news because I just saved you $10.

Now here is AWESOME news...I love this story so much that I want to pass it on so others can share in my love. So if you would love to read this AMAZING story just leave a comment. I'll do a drawing next week. And just for a little side note I'll be doing a book give away like every week or two so keep checking back!

Please Pray

A while ago I told you about my favorite blog...well Nate and Tricia are in need of prayer. She has developed cancer on her transplanted lungs. They tried a "chemo light" and it didn't work. So now she has to go for the big stuff. Please pray for Nate and Tricia and the wisdom of the doctors. Sometimes when stuff like this happens it's hard to see where God is...when that happens I think of this song :

Blessed Be Your Name
by Matt Redman
- - -
Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
Blessed be Your name

When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

Win this quilt

You could be the owner of this beautiful quilt. I really hope I'm the winner, but you can be too. Just go to here to enter.

Love this game

Today on Google there were how to instructions on how to play MASH. I must have played this game for hours, maybe even a day or two, if you add up all the time together. In case, in your childhood years you missed out here are the instructions.

I hope you all get mansions :)

Bad Week :(

So far this week my hard drive on my Mac crashed :( I have a horrible on its last leg PC that I am using. I HATE PCs :( Hopefully, I can get a good deal on a new Mac off ebay. Refrigdgerator was leaking water into the neighbors and I had to deal with my idiot landlord. That meant I couldn't cook my meals for the week when I had planned-so that has been all off. And I've lost my camera. I know its somewhere, but I have no idea where. So I can't take pictures on bentos. But on a happy note...we all thought my grandfather was on the brink of death but he seems to be making a great recovery! He is one VERY tough guy :) Well the oven is blaring at me...I have an old oven-it doesn't beep...it blairs. Hopefully, bentos will be back up next week.

PS-I changed my inspiration to green/healthy living...I'll try to put up more sites...if you have any good ones let me know.