Tortoises and trepidations

My new job is pretty fun. Preschoolers are awesome fun in general, but when you get to work with them every day, you get to really bond with them. The teacher I am an assistant to is a hoot. She is from England, so everything is said with that English accent and sounds more interesting somehow. She has me doing the craft project in the mornings usually, which I don't mind, except for the burnt hot glue fingertips, paint stains on my hands and arms and more brain power than I usually have in figuring out how to do the craft efficiently!

One day last week, she gave me styrofoam rings, all kinds of plastic leaves and red flowers with plastic coated wire stems, little drums, pine cones, ribbons and garlands. She told me to have the children make Christmas wreaths. I said, "Okay, and how are they supposed to attach all of this to the styrofoam?" With a twinkle in her eye, she said, "I don't know! That's your problem!"

You see how it goes. But I follow orders and try to put in my 3 hours a day enthusiastically. I found out on Friday though, that I do have a breaking point.

Our school principal brought her desert tortoise to school on Friday. When she got it, it fit in the palm of her hand. Five years later, it is somewhere close to 35 pounds. It was carried to our classroom by an assisting teacher whose class was at PE. So our teacher had all the children sit on the floor in a circle and the tortoise was put in the middle of the circle and walked around inspecting the children and munching pieces of apple she had for it. The principal told us all about the tortoise and it's personality and habits and care. Meanwhile, the teacher who had carried the tortoise had to leave to get her class to another place. And after a while the principal said she had to get back to the office, but she didn't know when that teacher would be back to carry it for her. (she had a bad arm and was not supposed to carry heavy things) So MY teacher, without so much as glancing at me, says, "OH, Mrs. L will carry it for you!"

My eyes bugged out and I felt like I was choking and a huge "NO" came out of my mouth. Eh heh heh, embarrassing! She looked at me kind of amused and said, "Why NOT, Mrs. L?" I just mouthed the words I'M SCARED OF IT and of course the children read my lips and were then amused too.

I was saved in the end because the other teacher came in (in the NICK of time!) to carry the dreadful thing back.

I'm sure I'll hear about this again some day, but for now I'm just laughing at myself and a little trepidacious about other 'visitors' this teacher may have during the coming semester. (there is a chinchilla in the room in a cage, but she only lets the kids play with it in the afternoons when I'm not there....this is good because it looks like a very large mouse.

My hope for you

When I was pregnant with my second child, Bethany, apparently I had a lot of time on my hands. I painted this whole ceramic Bethlehem town and glazed it. It took a long time to paint and I remember just being obsessed with finishing it.


Unfortunately the misfits from the Island of Misfit Toys got loose in Bethlehem this year.


We now have 6+ nativity sets, including one from Israel, Mozambique and Ukraine, but the homemade ones are still my favorites. This is one Charles made from me with lumber scraps from a neighbor's home being built on one of our first Christmases together.


We usually have a good old celebration around here. We love to shop, make things, bake things, give things, surprise each other and laugh. We eat special food and do special things together. After the busyness of this next week, I am hoping the season celebrations of the week before Christmas and having all of my children home will sweep away these persistent blues and turn me towards the Focus of the season.

I hope your Christmas season is full of

love


family


gingerbread men


and gingerbread houses....


but most of all hope. Jesus came to bring us great hope.


This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance (and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.
1 Timothy 4:9-11

Meanness

The days are seemingly sliding by, making me feel like I can't keep up.

Mean days. Mean clock.

Christmas gift suggestions

I swiped this from Alida today! Thinking of the conspiracy I joined, this is a good adjustment in rethinking what gifts truly are, eh?

“Christmas gift suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.”

Oren Arnold

Finishing well and winning kinda badly

Last night we had a storm come through and almost all of Phoenix was hit with strong winds, the news called it a microburst. Huge trees fell over, roots still attached. It was weird, lots of noise, big areas of the city were without power. We only lost one cactus, but it was a significant loss.

When we moved in here, I was nervous about having a jumping cactus (it's real name is a cholla "choya" cactus) because they are so horrible if anyone gets too close to it. It is called "jumping cactus" because the tips of the prickles are nearly invisible so you don't realize you are too close until it gets you, painfully, as if it jumped at you. Over the almost 4 years we've lived here no one has been prickled by it, but we have found several birds (who died really painful deaths) stuck in it. Charles never wanted to cut it down because it was so pretty. And it was pretty, all whitish and fuzzy looking (another nickname for this plant is "teddy bear cholla"), kind of the showcase of our front yard. But the storm knocked it over from the roots and I've been declared the winner of this episode. =) It was almost a "nanny nanny boo boo" moment, but I resisted.


The biscotti is all done, the first wave anyway. I give it as gifts so it's like a factory around here in December. It's an easy, yet really fancy looking cookie. The recipe is here.


Tonight's project has been grating little crayons into tiny bits so our preschoolers can make 'stained glass' ornaments with waxed paper tomorrow. It's not as simple as it sounds and I have crayon bits everywhere. Somehow they get static electricity when being grated and then they jump like popcorn out of the container or out of your hand, leaving a ring of colorful debris around the container.....and on my floor and clothing. I still have 3 colors to go and I finally got smart and melted the piles of jumbo crayons into muffin tin cups so they are easier to handle. Just wish I knew how to make the static more manageable.

Rain

***I have just rewritten this post to correct some false information. I am not a stupid motorist, but if they had laws incriminating stupid bloggers, I would be in deep doo doo. I haphazardly wrote about the roads in Arizona, mentioning our Department of Transportation, but did not realize they are not responsible for the roads I mentioned....the ones going through dry creek beds. I apologize to ADOT and hope my name is not mud there, as it took a long time for me to remember to rewrite this!! I do appreciate ADOT and love their nice freeways! ***

(In case you are wondering what I'm talking about, please refer to the comments section. I was (very kindly, thank you Tim) informed and humbled.)

I decided to try and knock myself out of this slump I'm in and say aloud and in writing that I am going to try to blog each weekday. Now I may not post it til late at night and it may be something used or copied, but I will go on! (or try....I'm backpedaling already, see?)

Today, after a not so fun morning at work (I had to use a lot of hot glue and nearly took the skin off my fingertips from hot glue), I came home in a sprinkle of rain. The sprinkle turned into a down pour very shortly and it continued to drizzle or pour all day.

I LOVE rainy days. Growing up in Phoenix will do that to you. People who are native Arizonans will rejoice over rain and go out into it to experience it, but they do not know how to drive properly in it and perhaps they are a little too enthusiastic about the rain and they crash a lot. Lots of weather and traffic news on days like this.

Also here in Arizona, there are a lot (LOT, LOT) of dry washes and creek beds. Sometimes they are dry for so long during the year that the people who build roads (and I'm not sure who this is exactly) just build roads right through them. But then they expect people to realize (even though there are usually posted signs I am told) that they should not drive through the flooding waters in the wash during rain storms.

Without fail! people drive through the flooded washes every time it rains and then their car stalls in the middle of the flood and they have to be plucked from their car roofs by rescue helicopters. Even after years of seeing news reports of really ridiculous people being rescued, people look at the flood water and think, "Well I can drive through that!" ehn, nope, you're on the news now! So Arizona now has a stupid motorist law that says people who do stupid things and have to be rescued have to pay big bucks for the helicopter rescue service.

So here in Phoenix rainy days are not only fun and make us hyper, they are also a little entertaining during the news hour.

I am currently making scads of peppermint biscotti. Photo and recipe coming up tomorrow. (that gives me a post for Tuesday. YES!)

Thunderless parenting

My junior high daughter had a ball point pen that leaked all over her pencil pouch and got it on her fingers while driving home from school today. But then she reached over and purposely WIPED THEM ON THE BACK SEAT OF MY CAR!!! Her name was MUD very enthusiastically for a few minutes, then I told her she'd have to clean it off when we got home. I told her how it would take a LONG time because ink stains SO badly, "blah blah blah, rant rant rant". We looked up 'getting ink out of upholstery' on google. So she took my hairspray out to the car and after one spray and a quick scrub it came right up.

I hate it when my thunder goes *pfft*

But apparently hairspray will do the trick. (on ink, but also on humility)

Mother of all crock pots...and her baby

I told e-mom, at Chrysalis that I would post a picture as soon as I got the crock pot that she gave me for pastor's (wife) appreciation month. Thanks again e-mom! I am cooking chicken jambalaya in it tonight. (It has a 6.5 quart capacity....huge!....and it also came with this little baby crock pot, 2 cup capacity for party dips....cute!)

Scavenging for Treasures?

I'm playing in a scavenger hunt for ministry wives. If you are a new visitor from the Treasure hunt, WELCOME to the nest!

The Treasures

1.  First Name
Christie

2.  State and Country of Residence
Arizona

3.  Husband’s Ministry Title

Pastor

4.  Length of time in Current Ministry Location
Three and a half years

5.  Children?  If yes, give gender and ages.
Hannah, 22
Bethany, 19
Emma, 17
Maggie, 12

6.  Number of unique homes in which you’ve lived during your marriage.
Garage apartment
Mobile home
Brick parsonage with scary basement
Ranch style parsonage by a creek
Small home with big mortgage in big city

7.  Cook Sunday lunch or eat out?
Unplanned, usually eat at home

8.  Typically on time for Sunday School or not?
Typically: running by the seat of my pants late; lately: early (I have to set up the coffee pot!)

9.  Favorite TV Show
The Mentalist, House

10.  Something you watch/like/do that you would never tell the church people.
I would love to have a mildly restored VW bus. (but couldn't drive it in traffic here!)

11.  Most annoying church-related pet peeve.
People who tell me things (usually complaints) so that I will tell the pastor about it and he will fix it. People who constantly drain him or hog his attention.

12.  One thing you need to throw away but can’t bring yourself to do it.
I just purged the house, including my closet, so I have no answer!

13.  The one food you can not live without.
Chocolate

14.  Parsonage or have your own home?
We own our first home after 25 years of marriage. (well, the bank lets us think we own it)

15.  Freak when the doorbell rings or always ready for a visitor?
Both! I used to love visitors but nowadays I'm worn out from work and our schedule.

Stuff I like

*I got a job! Since being laid off last May, I have had not a whiff of a job lead until now. My daughter Beth emailed me a job posting (she does the job postings for her office at a college where she works) for a preschool assistant job. It was part time but with the potential of being closer to full time by January. I applied and took in my application, was asked to come back that afternoon for an interview and she hired me on the spot! It turns out that I'll be 8-11am until December when I will be working 8-3pm. Yeah, I thought it was really part timey and it turned into more hours than I had last year, but God knows what we need and hopefully it will really help with 3 girls in college next year!

*One of the blogs I read is Stuff Christians Like. Very funny, kinda snarky and always easy to identify with and makes you laugh at yourself....or your church. Today's blog post almost made me choke when I saw it. SO funny and something that drives me crazy!

*I also got my coupon for my new crockpot and ice cream today! Thank you e-mom for the wonderful gift! (it is for pastor appreciation month) You are a blessing!