Words for Monday Morning

Hello there! Sorry the blogging hiatus there; things have been pretty crazy leading up to the first week of school. But finally, at long last, it is here. Tonight is our Open House, and Thursday is the first day of school. And because this promises to be an exciting yet probably challenging week, I thought I'd share some of the words that are giving me comfort today, just in case you need to hear them too.

My God is the rock where I take refuge;

my shield, my mighty help, my stronghold.

~ Ps 18:3

He lifts us up, and in Him we can do anything! Join me in making this a great week??

A gorgeous Catholic shrine near my house in Wisconsin

Book 2: The Secret Garden

Back to the books! At this rate, it'll take me a year to tell you all about those ten books I'd like on my bookshelf. But, I hope you don't mind?

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out this Tuesday Teatime: Ten Books.

I don't actually have that much to say about The Secret Garden because it was circumstance rather than the story that really made it a memorable book for me. 

When I was five, I started playing 'school' outside, using a tree as a 'chalkboard' and a little twig as a pointer. My parents saw how much I loved it, so by the time I was seven, they had helped me set up a little school room in the house, complete with a chalkboard and easel, a globe, a little yellow student's desk that I used as a teacher's desk, and a plethora of accessories like chalk, a clipboard, and fake passes to the bathroom and the nurse. I would set up my dolls, or when I was luckier my sister and neighbors, and begin teaching whatever I had learned in school that day.

For whatever reason, The Secret Garden somehow ended up in this school room. Most of the rest of our books were kept in bookshelves in our bedrooms, and while I very easily could have gone and grabbed one, I opted for the path of least resistance and used the book that had somehow ended up in the room with me. So the children's abridged and illustrated version of The Secret Garden was the first book I ever 'taught.' I read it aloud to my 'class' and asked them questions about it; I dreamt up projects that they could do on the characters and plot; I made up spelling and vocabulary lists from it. And now, almost seventeen years later, I am a real English teacher. I'm not teaching The Secret Garden this year, but I know I'll get just as much joy from teaching this year's books as I did seventeen long years ago teaching The Secret Garden to my dolls.

I've come a long way from that little makeshift school room. Finally out in Wisconsin about to embark on my first real teaching job (no longer a student teacher or assistant teacher as I have been the past two years,) I had the true joy of seeing my classroom for the first time the other day. There's no little yellow teacher's desk, but I think I'll make do ;)

Tuesday Teatime: What are you learning?

Hi everybody! In honor of the upcoming school year, today I'm reflecting on what I've been learning lately and wondering what you've been learning.

To New Beginnings

Well, it's a new week, friends, and I'm in an entirely new and unknown part of the country. Would you pray for me as I take this leap of faith? And I, as always, will be praying for you - especially for any new beginnings you may be undertaking.

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly,

and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

2 Corinthians 9:6

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

Goethe

Boldness, be my friend.

Shakespeare - Cymbeline

There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.

C.S. Lewis

Massachusetts to Connecticut to New York to Pennsylvania to Ohio to Indiana to Illinois to....Wisconsin!!

Favorite Things (and places!)

Brown paper packages tied up with string - these are a few of my favorite things! (Actually, this was a graduation gift for my friend. But I couldn't get the song out of my head...)

Long time no see, everybody! Sorry - that was my fault. Things have been a bit chaotic over here as I've been getting ready to move from Massachusetts to Wisconsin. The big moving day is finally upon me, and before I go, I want to share a few photos from the last few weeks that capture some of what I love about New England.

The pond by my childhood house that I mentioned in my last Tuesday Teatime video. Please kindly notice the upside down sign warning against feeding ducks on the tree. I feel like that sort of encapsulates the atmosphere of this pond.

A photo I snapped while I was in the center of town yesterday. There's something about the sprawling old cemeteries, stone walls and whitewashed gates, and centuries-old congregational churches that makes New England one of my favorite places in the world. I think a scene like this will always make me feel at home.

Also in the center of town yesterday. Gosh, it's nice to be back in America.

And without further ado, on to Wisconsin. I hope you're all doing well, friends :)