Read - Learn- Live

This week is Read Across America week.  In honor of that, I hope to write multiple posts supporting and promoting reading.

As a young child, I was an avid reader.  I was reading on my own before kindergarten.  I remember in first grade receiving our reading textbook.  The teacher assigned a few stories as homework.  I came back the next day and told her I had read the entire book.  At first, she didn't believe me.  She asked me questions about random stories and I answered them.  Fortunately, she went next door and asked the second grade teacher for her reading textbook and pushed me ahead.  I am forever grateful for that.  I read voraciously. 

My mother, my grandmother and great-aunt all supported this habit.  For birthdays and Christmas gifts I would receive books.  As a young child, I had the little red record player with a case.  All the books came with a small record and the bell would ding when it was time to turn the page.  I would sit for hours in my room listening to the different fairy tales and Disney stories as I read along with the books. 

My mom enrolled me in a Weekly Reader (anyone remember those?) books of the month club.  Each month I would receive a package with 4-5 books in it.  I devoured classics like titles by Louisa May Alcott and Jesse Stuart.  I remember loving Black Beauty, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, The Secret Garden, The Little Princess and Heidi.  I devoured the entire set of Little House on the Prairie Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Then it was all the Beverly Cleary titles - Ramona, Dear Mr. Henshaw, Ramona and Beezus and more.  I read Judy Blume, Choose Your Own Adventure titles and The Babysitter's Club. 

One of my most favorite series of books was Anne of Green Gables.  Once I read through the entire series, I was in love with Anne, the red-headed girl and her bosom friend, Diana.  I could just picture Gilbert and the Cuthberts.  P.E. Island was an enchanting place in my mind.  I read through that series many times as a child and young adult.  In sixth grade, I read it again as part of my class and we watched the movies.  Megan Follows was the perfect Anne!

I remember my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Kuster, doing a contest to encourage reading.  For every book we read, we added an ice cream scoop to our cone.  I remember reading every spare minute to add as many scoops as I could.  In fifth grade, Mr. Hopkins was my teacher.  He did a whole focus on Newbery Award books.  I read Anpao, Island of the Blue Dolphin, Julie of the Wolves, Bridge to Terabithia, My Brother Sam is Dead, and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

In high school, I had Mrs.Price for English I and II.  We read novels, short stories, essays, poetry and wrote a great deal of our own.  She read with emphasis and voice and inflection.  She opened our eyes to so many ideas and encouraged us to truly dig deep and think for ourselves.  I devoured Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (still a favorite), Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, The Fountainhead, Cat's Cradle, The Great Gatsby, Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, Fahrenheit 451, The Red Badge of Courage, and A Separate Peace.  We read Shakespeare, Browning, Dunne, Keats, Tennyson and more.  We argued, dissected, and debated opinions.  We wrote poetry, read our short stories and she read us her own writing. 

In college, I had two English Literature courses as well as several History courses.  We read books I liked and some I hated.  One of my favorite courses was Recent America, taught by Dr. Apple.  We read Going After Cacciato (Vietnam), The Feminie Mystique (Feminisim), books about World War II and the Korean conflict.  We used literature to examine America's history since the 1940s.

Through my entire life, I have enjoyed reading as an escape.  I love immersing myself in the setting of the book, feeling the emotion of the characters, exploring new ideas and understanding past events.  I love reading God's word and knowing it is alive and applicable today as it was thousands of years ago.

Books are powerful.

Books are life-changing.

Reading transforms lives.

I am so thankful so many in my life pointed me to books.  It truly has shaped and molded who I am today.  If you can read - thank your teachers, parents and librarians.  Pass a love of reading onto your children!

Bouncy Ball Obsession

All of my boys have gone through different obsessions. 

Blake loved Bob the Builder, matchbox cars, Geotrax trains  and legos. Noah LOVED Veggie Tales, little people and Toy Story. Andy played with trains and loved Thomas the Train megabloks sets. 

Jake currently loves cars, Geotrax trains and lately-- bouncy balls. 

One of his Valentine treats for his preschool classmates were bouncy balls. 

He has a basket he has been walking around with a basket full of bouncy balls. He always knows how many are in the basket. He knows what colors he has. Blake had a stash for a long time and gave Jake all of them (sweet big brother

moment!).

It is really cute. He has a stash at my office at school to play with also. Every time we have left the house in the past couple of weeks, he wants a ball to take in his pocket. 

I love this boy and all of his quirky habits!

Chapel Day

Anyone who attended Georgetown College knows that Chapel Day was/is a big deal!  At Georgetown, they have deferred recruitment for sororities and fraternities.  That means instead of coming to school a few weeks before the fall semester of your freshman year, going through recruitment and jumping in headfirst to a group, you have an entire semester to get to know people. You see them interact in the caf, in classes, at parties and see how they treat you. They had informal rush parties where they did skits and some groups hosted weekly devotions in their lobby. 

When I left for Christmas break after the first semester, I had no intention of going through Rush. I had met several nice girls, in several sororities. My RA was a Sigma Kappa and I had tried out for a singing group through the Baptist Student Unioncalled Manna and been selected to join that group. The other girls in that group were also Sigmas. 

Randomly, over break, several events occurred that led me to change my mind. I decided I might not pledge, but I would consider going through rush. I had a very vivid dream over break and several girls were in it. I was going through rush and met this girl I had not really met before. Her name was Monica. 

When I came back from break, several of my friends and hall mates all decided to go through rush together. We had so much fun!!  Each night we were divided into rush groups. We went from house to house meeting girls, watching skits, learning about their philanthropies and more. The first night was Open House. The second night was Philanthropy night and the last night was Prefence party. 

I had become close to a girl that was in a different sorority and she had taken me around at her house. Then I got to the Sigma house and I knew I wanted to be there. I told my friends I needed to take a walk and went around the quad and across campus by myself. I didn't want to hurt my friend's feelings. She had even mentioned wanting to make me her little sis. I remember praying and asking God to show me what to do. 

I went back to my room and my roommate and friends were all ready to make our sweatshirts for running out of the chapel. The next day, we all got notes in our mailboxes saying our bid had been matched. None of us went "suicide", so we didn't know which sorority we had been matched to exactly. 

We went back to our room and waited anxiously for the time to go to the chapel. We met in the room with our rush group. One by one, she passed out our bid cards. The next few minutes were a huge blur. I remember seeing Sigma Kappa and squealing with friends. We put on our homemade sweatshirts. We got with our hall mates to go out together. When they threw open the chapel doors, we ran out and there was just a sea of girls. Each sorority was chanting and cheering and squealing!!  We walked out backwards and then turned around and everyone was jumping up and down and screaming. We ran down the steps into the mob of Sigma girls!  They gave us the famous "red sweatshirt" that I still love and wear. 

After everyone ran out of the chapel, we did circle up and then pictures on the steps of Giddings Hall. They took us back to the sorority house for pizza and fun. We found out who our big sis was and crazy enough, it was Monica!!  She was so sweet to me. 

I had 38 other girls in my pledge class. They were from different places, different backgrounds and we didn't all do everything together. There were cliques and groups within the larger group, but I LOVED every single minute of my time as a Sigma Kappa. Some of my dearest and most treasured friends are still those girls. 

Last night, I went to dinner with 10 of them. We realized that it was the 20th anniversary of our Chapel Day for most of us -- how in the world???  It seems like yesterday. I can hear the sounds of people laughing on the hallway. I remember pranks and phone calls, late night pizza orders, watching Friends every Thursday night, going out on weekends, pledge parties, Watermelon Bust, Greek Games, Grub fest, formals, rush week, Initiation and SongFest. 

Those truly were some of the best days of my life. Those girls got me through some of the worst times. I will never forget that or them. 

1 Heart 1 Way!!!

Commiting to Memory

I am participating in a challenge on Beth Moore's blog where you memorize two scriptures per month for the next year. 

Here is my first one:

The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” (Exodus 14:14 NKJV)

It is my hope that each verse will speak wisdom and truth into where I am and where God wants me to be this year. 

If you are interested in participating, check out the blog here:

http://blog.lproof.org/2015/01/siesta-scripture-memory-team-2015-verse-1.html/comment-page-135#comments

Teaching STEM and Robotics

It is so exciting to see kids learn and explore new ideas. Each week, I get to teach the 6th grade Step Up class at school. We have been learning the engineering process, exploring STEM projects and pushing kids to think out of the box. 

We took the 6-8th grade students to the Science Center for a Robotics workshop right before Christmas and it was so much fun. 

They used Robotix materials complete with motors and tried to complete four different challenges. They had to work in teams and then would move to the next challenge and try to build upon what the other group did to improve the product. 

The students really enjoyed the class!

We also explored the exhibits in the science center and had a great time doing that. 

Christmas Programs

We were blessed with two different Christmas programs this year. The first one was the k-5th grade one at school. Andy's class played the bells and our PE teacher, Mr. Weldy, accompanied them on the trumpet. 

Andy was excited to play his song. 

Noah's class did skits/commercials in between each other act. They were pretending to be reporters/anchormen telling about the Christmas story. Noah and his pal, Ethan, were actually meteorologists. They interviewed Mary and Joseph. 

They were really cute and funny!

Jake's program was for all the preschool students. He was a cow and he was adorable!

He knew all the words. His motions to the songs were always a second or two delayed, but it was cute!

They rang bells when they sang their last two song and Jake rang with gusto!

What a blessing to hear my kids sing about Jesus and his birth!

A little shoebox goes a long way

Today we did our shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. I love doing these with the kids. 

We went and purchased several items to fill three boxes. Blake has already done one with his homeroom class. 

Andy and Jake helped cram stuff in their boxes. We did two for boys and one for a girl. 

They were packed to the brim and we go them shut with the rubber bands around them holding them closed. 

I paid for our shipping and got a label we can track online. We've done this before and it is exciting for the boys to know where our boxes end up in the world. I pray whatever child receives them will feel our prayers and love for them. 

Noah asked me tonight why we do this for people we don't even know. My reply-- "God asks us to love everyone and this is one way we show that". 

Thank you, Samaritan's Purse for all you do around the world!