Some Music for Easter

At the Start of the Week

Technically, the week starts on Sunday, so I'm already past the start of the week. The work week starts today, though, so I think this counts as the start of a week!

Although I can go backwards a bit: yesterday was good. I love the church family, I love my Sunday School class, I love singing with the congregation (I love that I can sing loudly and not worry about how my voice is sounding), I love that James is still preaching the resurrection, I love being surrounded by most of my favourite people. Then I was with friends for lunch, I went for a walk in the afternoon (there are geese at the pond), and I had Bible study in the evening.

This week looks busy, so far. There are some long days in it, but not bad days. Tonight and tomorrow I for sure have to work late, Thursday I have evening plans, and Friday is the start of the spring conference at the church. I've been looking forward to the conference since someone first mentioned the possibility of having Dr. Street come up to do a conference on mental illness. It will make for a busy weekend, but one that I will enjoy. I don't often make it to the entire spring conference because of work and stuff, but I booked the weekend off as soon as this one was announced.

The week is starting well: The sun is shining and the current forecast is for sunshine and mild temperatures all week. There are birds singing outside my window. It feels like a good day.

I don't know what will happen this week, or how things will work out with my meetings, appointments, students, teachers, home school room, or anything else. I'm working on focusing on today and right now, and not worrying about later. I'm working on remembering that some things are my responsibility and some things are God's responsibility, and taking care of my stuff and leaving God's stuff up to Him. Sometimes this is more challenging than others, but overall I think I'm getting better at it.

Right now, things are good. I'm going to leave for work soon, and I'm going to enjoy the walk (on nice days, I walk part way to work; I miss that walk when I don't get it), and the rest of everything will take care of itself.

A Hymn for Sunday

What I'm Reading

I just finished Heaven by Randy Alcorn. I mostly enjoyed it, although I found that he repeated himself a lot a points.

I also recently finished 7 Men and the Secret of their Greatness by Eric Metaxas. I liked it a lot; it's basically short biographies and their willingness to sacrifice for something greater than themselves.

Currently, I'm reading Amazing Grace by Eric Metaxas. It's about William Wilberforce, one of my heroes. It's going slowly, though, because I keep getting distracted.

I'm starting Housewife Theologian by Aimee Byrd. I like her writing; she writes for women without being all girly.

I'm also on a Stuart McLean kick; I'm loving the Vinyl Cafe. I'm also reading some Noel Streatfeild; I really loved a couple of her books as a child (Ballet Shoes and White Shoes), and I'm enjoying relaxing with her books.

I'm also reading some of the Trailblazers books that I plan to put in the church library for the kids. It's an excuse to read some simple biographies.

A Hymn for Sunday

Teaching Math

It's math month in the home school room. The first week, we learned about Euclid and some geometry (shapes, perimeter, angles, and symmetry). The second week, we learned about Pythagoras and his theorem, as well as odd/even numbers, triangular numbers, and perfect numbers. Next week, we're learning about Fibonacci so we can see the beauty of the Fibonacci sequence. There's a bit of adding and subtracting thrown in, and basically fun with numbers.

The most fun part is teaching the little kids (grades 1-3) things like the Pythagorean theorem and how to do square numbers and all sort of math that they've never heard about. They have no clue what I'm talking about, and I'm not sure how much they remember (although they could all explain right angles to me a week after I taught it, so there's that), but they just have so much enthusiasm for it, and they're so delighted when they understand something. They haven't reached a point where they think that they can't do it, so they listen eagerly and make the connections and love it!

Seriously, we have this conversation all the time:
One (or more) of them: I don't understand that.
Me: I know, but I'm going to explain it to you, okay?
Them: Okay!

And then I explain it, and they get it (to whatever extent), and we're all happy.

It's a bit more challenging with the bigger kids who already know that some learning is really hard, but even they try learning what I'm teaching. The best part is that they aren't afraid to say when they don't understand, so I can try again. And some of them already know some of what I'm teaching (and most of them can do the basic math behind the concepts), so that helps.

So far, math month has been a lot of fun.

This Week

This week has been a bit much. I'm not adjusting well to the time change, there were some issues at work, and I'm feeling a bit let down by some friends (although I'm trying to think the best in that situation). Overall, I've been a bit down this week.

I've been doing my best to keep going, to just do the next thing. I'm not sure how many times I've recited Psalm 139, remembering that God is with me no matter what, and that He is in control (He had my life planned out from before I was born).

And I've prayed a lot. Sometimes they were longer prayers, and sometimes they were short,
disjointed prayers for help to get through this next thing or the next moment. I've prayed for forgiveness and patience and understanding and help.

I'm trying to be thankful (and I have so much to be thankful for) and to praise God in everything and to find the good things in life.

I want to be like Job in chapter 1. Everything was about as bad as it could get, and he didn't pretend that it was good, but he also didn't give up. He grieved and he worshiped God, and he did not sin.