Big Change of Plans

Um, okay. Change of plans. I am now officially a kindergarten teacher! It's been super super crazy because school had already been going on for 2 weeks when they hired me. I interviewed at 9 on this past Friday morning, was offered the job at 11:45, and basically started working right away. I moved into a completely empty classroom and had to have it ready for a Meet the Teacher night on Tuesday. Can you say... insane??


I'll go into the rest of the details later, when my head isn't spinning quite so much. But for now, I'll leave you with a picture of my favorite part of my classroom - the library. I could just snuggle up here all day. Too bad these five year olds don't let me do that.

My Sponsor Story

I’m not sure when or where I first heard of Compassion, but I do know it’s something I’ve been familiar with for quite a while now. I decided a long time ago that when I started teaching, I would sponsor a child through Compassion. Looking back on it now, I’m sure I could have managed to pay the $38 a month with the various part time jobs I’ve had. But I knew that when I started getting a set income, it was definitely something I wanted to do.

The day I got my first paycheck, I started browsing the Compassion website looking for a child to sponsor. And then I had a slight panic attack. Have you ever browsed through the pages of children looking for a sponsor? It’s overwhelming. I knew my cousins Curt and Amanda sponsor children through Compassion, and I spent a couple days looking through the kids before I sent an email to Amanda that basically said “HOW AM I SUPPOSE TO CHOOSE?” Except my email was a lot spazzier than that. But then, I didn’t even wait for her to reply back before I chose my sponsor child. (Sorry Amanda.) I think I just needed to get all of those worries out of my head, and then I was ready to go.

As I was looking through the children, I found a little girl named Jhannoly. She looked as sweet as can be, and I was drawn to her. I mulled it over for a while, and when I finally decided to move forward to be her sponsor, the website said “I’m sorry. While you were on the site, this child was sponsored by someone else.” (Or something to that affect.) I knew I should be really happy that this little girl now had a sponsor, but I couldn’t help being bummed that it wasn’t me.

The next day, I started looking through the children again. And after clicking through about 12 pages of kids, I spotted Jhannoly’s face. I clicked on her picture, and all of her information was right there again. It must have been a fluke.

Well, that decided it for me. I knew that Jhannoly was meant to be my sponsor child. I know this was just a simple little story of what happened, but I really believe God worked this way to affirm my choice. I was so indecisive about who to choose, and I was worried that I might wonder if I picked the right child or not. (Which is silly, because they all need help just the same.) I am so thankful for the way things worked out. I was so excited to tell Jhannoly in my first letter that God picked her out just for me.

So this is my sweet little Jhannoly.


She lives in the Dominican Republic, and she is 9 years old. She lives with her father and mother, and she is one of 7 children. Her father is employed as a laborer, and her mother maintains the home. Jhannoly’s family duties consist of running errands, making beds, and carrying water. I love her already, and I absolutely cannot wait to learn more about her as I receive letters from her!

Sometimes

Sometimes it's just fun to have your own little mini photo session. Anyone else? Bueller? Bueller?

Some Quality Cookie Time

I so appreciate that his first words in this video are, "Stop Auntie. Just leave me alone!"

My Big Girl Job

Well, it's official. I'm a teacher! I am working at an elementary school as an Intervention Instructor, which is basically a Title I reading teacher. I work with struggling readers individually or in small groups. This is our third week of school already (I know!) and I'm loving it.

For the most part, I will be pushing into the classroom to work with small reading groups instead of bringing kids back to my classroom. So I didn't need to go crazy with room decorations, since kids won't be in there very often. But come on. I'm an elementary teacher. I have to at least decorate a little.

This is my desk. I loooove how those bright colors turned out against the black desk.

I could not be more proud of this bulletin board. All of those fishies were hand made with love!




Every teacher was given an "all about me" poster to hang outside of their classroom. I have way too much fun making things like this.




And now we have come to the best part of this post. These books are my pride and joy.

The thing I was most excited about when getting my own classroom was the fact that I could FINALLY dig all of those children's books out of closets and out from under beds. Few things make me happier than children's books. When you're a teacher, you pretty much have to provide your own classroom library. I've known this all along, so for years I've been stocking up on books.

Have we discussed how anal and organized I like to be? The books are divided into categories, and I made labels for each book that correspond with the label on the tub. That way, when I have a classroom teaching job, the kids can match the labels and be responsible for putting the book back in the tub they got it from. Yay!

Compassion

I could not be more excited to tell you that I started sponsoring a little girl through Compassion last week! Later, I'm going to tell you all about sweet little Jhannoly and how I came to be her sponsor. But today, I wanted to tell you about Compassion.

Compassion's motto sums them up perfectly. "Releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name." They are an organization focused on helping children break free of poverty. The wonderful thing about Compassion is that they focus holistically on the child's needs. They don't just provide food for the children, they focus on every aspect of poverty.

When you pay $38 a month to sponsor a child, your money goes to helping that child spiritually, physically, socially, and economically. Compassion's website states, "Poverty sends a defeating, painful message into the heart of a child: a message that says, 'You don't matter.' Introducing children to their loving Heavenly Father is the most powerful way of reversing this message." The money you send helps these children grow into responsible, Christian adults.

After I signed up to sponsor Jhannoly, I sat and read things on the Compassion website for hours. I read about the organization, I read their blog, I read people's comments, I read discussion boards. I just couldn't get enough. The one thing I saw over and over was people stressing how important it is to write letters to your sponsor child. I'm going to be honest with you - I am practically giddy over this. I've been making lists like crazy of all the things I want to write to her about. I absolutely cannot wait to receive her full packet of information and get started!

Since I am going to be talking about Compassion and my sponsor child from time to time, I have created a Compassion tab at the top of my blog. Partly just so I can document and remember things I've sent and said to my sponsor child, and partly as a resource to other sponsors. I saw so many people on discussion boards struggling with what to write their child or what to send, and I hope I might be able to spark people's imaginations a little.

I will leave you with the picture of my sweet little Jhannoly. Be prepared. She will melt your heart into pieces.

Hello, Old Friends

Okay. Let's revive this dead ole blog.

Well, the summer has disappeared, and it's officially time for school again! The difference is, this year I'm the teacher. But that's going to have its own post altogether. We've been in school for 7 days already, and I'm still breathing. Hallelujah!

This summer went by in a blur of children's books and libraries. And I LOVED it. Seriously, you've never had a great job until you've worked at our public library.

And in other news, Project 365 has died. And sorry, but I'm not reviving that. Unless you want to find me walking around in a daze shouting "TOO MUCH" over and over. And we don't want that, do we?

But if you keep your fingers crossed, Thursday 13 might live to see another day.

(Okay, is this post feeling morbid to anyone else? Maybe I should stop talking about bloggy things living and dieing.)

I feel like this post is getting out of control, so let's wrap things up. In conclusion - I'm back, summer was great, and I missed you!

And just for bonus - Another perk of this summer? My hair seemed to magically grow a lot longer.

Sweet Little Niece

I am ashamed to crawl back on here and type anything. It's been too long! But I recently became an auntie to a little niece, and I needed to share her sweet pictures with you!

My brother and sister-in-law welcomed Eleda Mae Ward on June 13, and she is the sweetest little thing you've ever seen. Even her big brother seems to think so. Listening to Eli ask if he can hold "Eweeeda" is about the cutest thing I've ever heard.

Oh, How I Love Pizza

Pizza is one of my all time favorite foods. Is that pathetic?

If you have a bread machine, you need to make this pizza. Pronto.

It was a great day when I stumbled across this recipe.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup lukewarm water (100° F)
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp minced garlic cloves
2 cups bread flour
1 tsp white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp active dry yeast


Directions:
Place the ingredients into the pan of a bread machine in the order listed. Select dough cycle, and press start. When finished, remove the dough and knead into a tight ball on a lightly floured surface. Let rest for about 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 400°. Stretch the dough out to fit your pizza pan. (13 inch pan works great.) Let rise for about 20 minutes. Top with sauce, cheese, and desired toppings. Bake around 20 minutes, or until crust is lightly browned on the bottom. (I think it works best to bake the crust and sauce for around 8 minutes, then add cheese and toppings.)

I knew the dentist wasn't fun.

I had a dentist appointment this morning, and it was going surprisingly well. When the assistant was cleaning my teeth, she said, "Now, you had braces didn't you?" She just couldn't believe it when I said no. I've been tremendously lucky, and my teeth are pretty straight on their own.

Then the dentist came in and said, "What brand of whitening strips do you use?" And he couldn't believe it when I said I hadn't bleached my teeth. Score two for Erin.

Then, he pulled out the x-rays and said, "So, how are those wisdom teeth feeling?"

Um, excuse me? What? This dentist appointment just got a whole lot less fun.

Apparently it's normal for them to show up any time before you're 25. Great. They're just showing up on the x-ray. I have something to look forward to.

But for now, I'll just take comfort in the fact that I was blessed by the tooth fairy in at least one aspect.