Children

I had three small children visiting today. The oldest has just turned 5, the next one is 3, and the youngest is not quite 2. There's also a baby, but he stayed home with Mama while I cared for the big kids. It was a lot of fun. They came for the morning, I fed them lunch, then Dad picked them up to take them home for nap time. 

We played with a multitude of toys; sometimes I joined them, sometimes I watched, and sometimes I was busy with other things, although always willing to be interrupted to answer a question or admire something they had found or built.

They liked going on my balcony and watering the plants. Then we went outside for a while. We were going to play on the grassy part between the apartment buildings, but it mosquito central, so we ended up mostly on in front of the building and in the parking lot. I tried to teach the older ones how to throw a frisbee and jump rope with varying degrees of success. They ran some races and played with balls and worked off some energy. They we went back inside to play and have lunch. After lunch we cleaned up, and then it was time for them to go.

Various highlights:

• Convincing the little one that no matter what her brothers said, she still wasn't supposed to eat grass, and the getting it all out of her mouth.
• Convincing them all not to yell in the hallway after they discovered that it echoed.
• Spending half an hour keeping them on track with clean up (but not minding that it took that long because it kept them occupied).
• Admiring the Lego man with all the heads stacked up on his head.
• Taking pictures to send to their mom so she knew that we were doing well and having fun.
• Wondering what my neighbours though about the noise in my usually quiet apartment and the yelling outside as they played.
• The little one constantly shoving more veggies into her mouth despite me saying "Chew and swallow before putting anything else in your mouth," and then having her cough bits of carrots and cucumbers on me because her mouth was too full.
• Realizing that she only did that with the veggies; she ate grilled cheese, bananas, and blueberries perfectly well.
• The laughter and the fun and the busy-ness that filled my apartment for a few hours.

Honestly, it was a bit crazy and not what I'm used to, but also so much fun! I'm looking forward to the next time they come to play.

Colombia Earthquake

There was an earthquake in Colombia this week, and one of the cities most impacted was Pereira. That may not mean much to a lot of people, but it is the city where our missionaries live and work. I was there a few years ago, I know some of the people, I know a bit of the city itself.

I am thankful that our missionaries are okay. One couple is still in the U.S. on furlough, and the other couple was not affected. They've been able to contact everyone from the church, and they are all okay. Some of them cannot go home yet as they live in apartment buildings that may not be safe, so other church members are taking care of them.

My heart aches, though, for those who were injured, left homeless, lost family members, or were otherwise hugely impacted. I am praying for them, for the first responders on the scene, and for their very new president.

It is interesting how knowing a tiny bit of the country/area and a very few people can make affect my response. It's not that I don't pray for people and are concerned for people when I hear about disasters and such, but this one is more. My prayers are more urgent, my heart aches more, and I am more eager to learn how I can give to help the people. These are my people.

I can't help in every disaster, just as I can't help every cause or concern in the world, and it's okay that this one is closest to my heart. I wonder, though, if there's a way to become more aware of people in other places, to have the same passion and urgency in my prayers for them. After all, all believers everywhere are also my people. It's something for me to think about, anyway.

Reading Lists

I keep lists of what I've read; I have for years. Lately, I've been going through some of the lists, trying to compile a list of the best ones for The Book of Books for Kids and Youth. I have a new notebook just for the job!

Some thoughts as I go through the lists:

1. Oh, yeah, that was a good book!

2. Not that one!

3. What was that book. I don't even recognize the title!

4. Oh, that's why that book that I read last month seemed familiar! I read it (checks date) 12 years ago. Okay, I guess it's okay that I forgot about it!

5. Hey, I just checked that one out of the library; I thought it sounded good. I was right!

My book lists date back to 2012 (although a few years are missing because they ended tracked elsewhere), so there are a lot of books! I generally just note the title and author, and I sort them by fiction, nonfiction, children/youth, and picture books.

The Book of Books for Kids and Youth is a new project and a work-in-progress. I anticipate it going on for years, since there are always new books to read. Also, in my going through, I skipped the pages and pages of picture books I've read over the past few years. That's a project of its own!

More Books for Children

July was full of reading books recommended by children and families, and I'm almost done the list. I have a few on hold at the library; once they're in and read, that goal is complete. Until I start meetings again in the fall and get a new list!

Here are the ones I really liked:

• Britfield and the Lost Crown; Britfield and the Rise of the Lion by C.R. Stewart
• The first Britfield book is all adventure, escape, and running from bad guys through England; the second one is all adventure, escape, and running from more and worse bad guys through France! There's intrigue, danger, and (in the second book) a major, world-wide conspiracy headed by some very, very bad guys with amazing tech. The fighting gets more intense and there are more casualties, but it's never gory or excessive. 
• An added bonus: The author includes history and other information about the areas the kids are traveling through.
• There are two more books out (and another one coming), but the library doesn't have them, so I haven't read them. I know that one takes place in Italy, and I think the next in Austria.

• The Restorationists trilogy by Carolyn Leiloglou
• The job of restorationists is to restore paintings, especially after the distortionists have damaged them. The best part is how they do it: by traveling into and through paintings! Of course, there's adventure, confusion, and danger, but also a lot of fun and some facts about artists and artwork.
• The stories are interesting in that they each focus on a different young restorationist and his or her specific challenges (anger, jealousy, fear), while telling the story of the battle between good and evil. It's very well done. I wish there were more books!

• The Complete Brambly Hedge by Jill Barklem
• The stories are fun, simple, and entertaining. The main attraction, for me at least, is the artwork. It's so wonderful and detailed! 

• Mac Undercover by Mac Barnett and Mike Lowry
• The story is okay, silly, and will be enjoyed by children. I do not like that the author claims that the book (and the series) are true, and that when he was a kid, he was a spy. I don't like that sort of dishonesty in books; let's not confuse children about real and make-believe. Yes, the story is so far-fetched that it's unbelievable, but some children may believe it. Aside from that, the story was fine and the illustrations are good.

• Pax by Sara Penny Packer
• The story contains war, violence (against humans and animals), and an adult's PTSD from a previous war, including her telling a child about killing a man. I would absolutely not give it to younger children, nor to many in the preteen or early teen age.
• It's also very much pro-nature and anti-human.
• It's officially recommended for 8-12 year olds, with some upping the age to 10-14. I would say that the reading level is accurate for the younger age, but the content level is better for older children (maybe even older than 14).
• If you want to have your child read it anyway, read it first. Then you'll be ready for hard conversations and potential nightmares.

That's the list for now. It's been a fun month of reading!

July

Happy August! Summer is racing past; it's hard to believe that July is done.

July was a mix of rain, rain, rain, and hot, hot, hot! My garden is thriving. The petunias are growing taller and brighter than any I've had, and the tomato plants have many, many tiny tomatoes. Even some of the flowers I planted from seeds are getting ready to bloom.

The month was mostly quiet. I had friends for dinner one evening; we talked about books and told the baby how wonderful and adorable she is. I was out more this past week. Our missionaries from Colombia were in town, and on Sunday there a group of the Latino families and the Colombia STM team had a potluck dinner with them. On Monday, one of the couples from the church invited me over to have Indian food with them, the missionaries, and another friend. I found out that this young couple (and their two and soon-to-be-three young daughters) have just move to a new house very close to me, so that was nice.

Last night, I went to see The Odyssey with a couple friends. It's been many years since I've been to a movie theatre, and I forgot how intense the experience can be! It was a pretty good movie and fun to get together with the ladies.

The biggest thing this month was packing up the Sunday School rooms and dealing with a pile of books that had been donated to the church library and left in the office. Both jobs had to be done in preparation for the upcoming renovations (and the elders probably wanted the books out of the office!). It made is pretty clear that there would be no Sunday School or Wednesday morning homeschool rooms this year. I'm sure that will feel strange in the fall.

Overall, it was a good month. I read a lot and am almost through the list of children's books, at least as many as I could get from the library. I'll change up my reading habits a bit in August, although I still have the last 2 books on hold. I'll start preparing for back to work, and focus on a couple more projects I want to get done this month (a baby blanket and some sewing). And I'll look forward to the cooler weather in September!

Memories

Three years ago, I spent 10 days on a STM in Colombia. The church supports a missionary family there, and we went to help with a some preaching, teaching, and a conference. I mostly worked with the children, both in Sunday School and at the conference. We also spent time visiting with the missionaries, their family, and friends, and getting to know their part of Colombia.

The missionaries are visiting this week, and I was invited to join the Latino community at our church for a lunch yesterday to get to know the missionaries. Or, in the case of the original team, to catch up and visit with them.

It is amazing, the memories that flooded back, just being with them. Not just the events, but the little things: making piles of photocopies for the children (many of which they are still using), watching our missionary show the children how to run through the city square so the birds flew off, breakfasts together at the hotel, card games, playing "find the sheep" with the kids, being awakened one night by fireworks going off, buying huge bottles of water for a small amount of money....there are so many little memories that made up that time.

With the memories, came all the emotions of those days. It was exciting, tiring, confusing, fun, joyful, concerning.... I loved the children and taught them as well as I could, but I felt so overwhelmed so much of the time, I'm not sure how well I managed to teach them. There were moments of "I want to stay forever" and moments of "I would like to go home right now, please," and everything in between. 

And the question came again: Would I go back, or on another STM? Maybe. I want to serve, but it was hard, being so far from home, with everything different and noisy, and without enough time to properly rest and adjust. If they really needed me, though, I think I would go and trust God to use me how He will.

Clearing Stuff Out

We are planning to do renovations at the church this fall, which means no Sunday School. This week, in preparation for whenever the renos start, we cleared out the Sunday School rooms. It only took one morning, and was faster than we thought to get everything sorted, packed, and hauled out to the van. One of the teachers is going to store it all at her house.

In the process, we found:

• curriculum that had never been used
• other curriculum books that we do use
• still more curriculum that belongs to another ministry
• many pencil crayons
• so many erasers
• a very nice pen
• another assortment of pens
• crayons
• crayon bits
• more pencil crayons
• registration forms from 2014
• several pack of goggly eyes
• a VBS kit that came from who-knows-where and included a VHS tape
• piles of photocopies for worksheets that we no longer use
• seriously, where do all these pencil crayons come from?
• multiple pairs of scissors

In short, I am never listening to teachers again when they insist that they need more materials. What we need is to look closely at what we already have!

I told the elder who does the shopping for me to check if I ever again order pencil crayons, crayons, or erasers.

Anyway, that's done. Fall will be strange without Sunday School, but I'm thankful for the renos because they mean more room for Sunday School. I'm also thankful for a year to rest and revamp our program. It's good, but with the influx of children over the past few years, we need to make sure we're serving them well. We also need to go over all the curriculum, making adjustments and making sure we're ready to start strong next fall.

Quick Recommendations

I don't know how many of the books written by my former Sunday School children I've recommended, but here is the list, in order of publication date:

A Vessel in the King's Hand: A Story of the Filles du Roi by Abigail Froese

A Parched Land by Elizabeth Russell

A War Within by Maddison Ford

Difficult Decisions in Difficult Days by Elizabeth Russell

When All Isn't Right With the World: Letters from Golden West Farm by A. Frose

That's the list, for now. I'm looking forward to more from the children, especially the sequel to A War Within. I think they're all wonderful, so go and read them.

How much rain?

I didn't quite understand how much rain we have had this summer until I looked up the stats. In June, the city shattered a 212 year record, with 269.1mm of rain (10.5 inches); it was the second rainiest month in our history (July, 1901 was a bit wetter). We usually get around 78mm of rain in June, so it was very, very wet. So far we've had around 95mm of rain this month. Our average is 91.7mm for the month, so we are ahead of schedule.

The rain has stopped, at least for now. It's hot, hot, hot outside now. It's supposed to cool down a bit on Sunday and then start going back up to so very hot, maybe with thunder storms. I have the fans going and I'm giving the plants -- especially the tomatoes -- plenty of water. I'm also making sure I drink plenty of water!

The rain was good, for all that it seemed excessive. For the first time in several years, my part of the country is not overwhelmed with forest fires; we're down to 17 active fires (compared to the over 1000 each year for the past few years). The city is not full of smoke for a change; it makes breathing much easier and my throat is not as bothered. Of course, now we're getting hot, dry weather, so the fire risk is there again.

The gardens are doing well, both from insane amounts of rain and now sunshine and heat. My tomatoes are getting many, many flowers. My flowers are thriving, getting taller, and blooming wonderfully.

I am very thankful for the rain that we got this year.

Books, Books, Books

I have started my plan to read all the recommended books, or at least all the books I can get from the public library. I'm a little disappointed at the number that aren't available.

So far, the books have mostly been good, although not without some problems here and there.

There is one I won't recommend because there's a bit that I suspect the parents don't know about. It's rather subtle and may go over the heads of children, but it's there anyway.

I'm also a little hesitant about The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series by MaryRose Wood. I read book 1, The Mysterious Howling. As I read it, I thought "She was definitely influenced by Lemony Snicket and A Series of Unfortunate Events." After the first book, I looked up the series to see what the rest were about, and many of the reviews and websites mentioned A Series of Unfortunate Events! It's not in the storyline, but the writing style.

The book started out well. Someone found three wild children (they had been raised by wolves) on his estate and claimed them. Penelope comes to be their governess and she tames them just as she would an animal. The taming is pretty quick in many ways, but it makes for a good story. It's only later that I began to be concerned about giving it to children. There is a party, and some of the men talk about hunting the children. The lady of the house also gets very drunk at the party. There are themes that many children aren't ready for. The story ends on a cliffhanger: What is really going on at the house? (That's when I looked it up online so I didn't have to read the rest!)

It's probably okay for some children and a bit much for others. As I said, I'm hesitant, not refusing. It's down for readers aged 8-12.

On the list of fun books that I will definitely recommend (the grade levels are approximate and will change by child; they can also be read alouds for younger students):

• Appleblossom the Possum by Holly Goldberg Sloan (around grades 3-5)
• Young Appleblossom gets stuck in a people house. At first it's fun, but then she misses her family and outside. Happily, her brother are planning a rescue! It's a fun story and children can learn a little bit about possums.

• The Wild Robot by Peter Brown (around grades 3-5)
• Roz the robot washes up on the shores of an island inhabited by a plethora of wildlife. She learns to communicate with them and to enjoy being wild. In the end, she has to head back to civilization for repairs, but that it not the end. There are 2 more books in the series, and a picture book for younger children.

• Sunny the Shark by Remy Lai (around grades 1-3)
•  This is a simple story about a shark, some fish friends, and the dangers of pollution.

• Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library; Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics; and Mrs. Pennypickle's Puzzle Quest by Chris Grabenstein (around grades 3-7)
• The title of the first one won me over fairly quickly! The Mr. Lemoncello stories are fun and full of puzzles and quizzes. There are two more that I haven't read. I enjoyed them more than the Mrs. Pennypickle book; while it was an okay story, parts of it felt forced, and I didn't really enjoy the ending.

There are still more books that I'm reading, and more waiting for me at the library! It's a very fun way to spend summer afternoons.

June

I missed doing an end-of-June post!

June is the beginning of things quieting down, but it was still somewhat busy!

The start of the month was the last work meeting of the year. It was just the group of Edmonton area facilitators, and I was quick enough to volunteer my house for the meeting! We talked about our professional growth plans and what we had learned that year. We also talked about families, summer plans, and books!

There was a birthday party for a friend and a lunch for the Women's Ministry leaders. There was a lot of laughter and some very good food.

Sunday School ended for the year. We're on break now, and waiting to hear what the plans are for next year. Will there be renovations at the church? Will we take a year off? Will we have time to recharge, make plans, and make Sunday School better?

I had parties for my Sunday School kids. The girls came one week and the boys the next. There were crafts for the girls and park time for the boys. There was pizza, pop, candy, and chips for everyone. There was Lego and games and fun.

The saddest part was a funeral for a friend. We've been going to church together for many years -- his son was in my Junior Church class and is now in university, so at least 15 years. He's had health problems forever, and things got really bad this year. We weren't so close -- I knew his wife better -- but he was funny, smart, and a good guy.

Finally, there was church grad. Another flock of kids are done high school and ready for the next part of life, wherever that takes them.

In all, it was a good month. It rained a lot, I was busy, but had time to rest, and it was a good start to summer. July is still very quiet and I'm enjoying the rest.

Happy News!

Very early Saturday morning, a wee baby girl made her appearance, much to everyone's surprise. 

It's not that she wasn't expected; it's just that she wasn't expected for another 3 1/2 weeks. She definitely wasn't expected the weekend that her parents were moving into their new house!

Evelyn Louisa, weighing in a 5lbs, 2oz, is tiny, sweet, adorable, and completely wonderful. She is also my fourth granddaughter, and I already love her.

She reminded me, when I got the text Saturday morning, that I have been so very, very blessed. Despite not getting to be a mother, I somehow still get to be Grandma Dorothy.

Sometimes I think of the things I gave up by remaining single and I'm sad. Then God reminds me that He's taking care of me and I didn't really give up anything. I just came at it all from a different angle.

I have been given family. Not through marriage and motherhood, but through God's grace and love in putting me in families.

I am so very happy and so very blessed.

Daily Walk

I should be going for a daily walk. Sometimes I do not. It's a combination of mosquitoes and rain, lately, and also that I don't want to go outside some days. I need to keep up with my daily walks, for both mental and physical health. I'm really, really going to get on track with that!

I have five regular walks. 

The pond one is the longest and has the fun of watching birds, both in trees and water. There are ducks, geese, coots, and one day a great egret; there are also a vast number of red-winged blackbirds and many, many songbirds. It also has the most mosquitoes right now. 

The other long walk is along the path above the creek. It has a bench part way along to sit and think, and if I go long enough, I can go down to the part beside the creek. It's also very mosquito filled right now!

The third walk is up to the start of the creek path. It takes me across the creek (and if I want, there's a little "look-out" spot to sit for a bit), and I like to stop and watch the water on both sides as I come and go. 

The fourth walk is through my neighbourhood. I can make it a bit longer or shorter, depending on how I feel that day. It's a shorter walk in general (even the long version), and I take it when I want to stretch but don't want a long walk.

Finally, there is the "I really need to walk but it's probably going to rain soon" walk. It's pretty much across the road, then either down the alley or the side street; either one will easily lead back to my street. It gets me out of the house just enough to feel better and avoid the coming rain.

Today I took the third walk. It's sunny and warm, and it was a nice break from the rain. The creek is high, but lower than it was last week. I watched two ducks rush along until they reached a quite bit near the bank, just before the log and white water. They seemed to be getting up the nerve for the next bit, and then launched themselves into the rapids and shot out past the wild water. I'm pretty sure they were having fun!

Thoughts at Grad

Saturday was Church Grad. It used to be Homeschool Grad because we've always had several homeschool families (more than several now), but for some years now it's been open to every grad, regardless of how they were educated.

There's always a mix of children I know well and children I hardly know. The later are usually families who started when one or more of their children were junior high or older, so I maybe know the younger children but did not spend much time with the older ones. Last year was different; almost the entire group had been in my history class one year. This year, of the 13 grads, I had only taught three of them.

One in particular I had taught for 3 years and tutored on and off for more. I had also been involved with his family when he was in the younger classes and needed more help with focus and behaviour. He's much less trouble now!

I was thinking, as I watched my boy (and the others) get their diplomas, as I listened to their parents talk about them, and we all got a bit teary at points: I have so little time with them. I know that their parents feel the same, but I have even less time. I get them for a year or two in Sunday School (the three years was an anomaly and back when there were fewer students and I could keep some for an extra year); I maybe see them in the homeschool room; I talk with them on Sundays; I may have their families over. Taken altogether, it's a very short amount of time. If I add up the hours, it results in days, maybe weeks in total. 

The questions I was asking myself: What am I doing with that time? Am I doing all I can to help prepare them for adulthood? More importantly, am I doing my best to point them towards Christ?

It merged with my plans for Sunday School going forward. I've always tried to find the best materials, good teachers, everything to make Sunday School enjoyable, yes, but more importantly, to point them towards Christ. Many of my plans and desires for this take time that I don't always have, but that I need to keep finding and using well. 

And absolutely, the biggest responsibility is with the parents. It's their job to teach them, raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord, daily point them to the cross and the biggest, most important truths. Still, while my responsibility is much smaller, it's still there. God has given me a place to serve the church family and the church families and the parents have entrusted their children to me. 

This coming year will (I pray) be a planning year, a time to make sure Sunday School is all that it should be. We have so little time with them; my pray is that we will use it wisely and well.

July Plan

Summer is definitely upon us. We have had so much rain, with more to come. On the other hand, the sunny days are getting hotter. My garden is growing nicely. The little pot of perennials from last summer has flowers just starting to bud, the tomatoes and growing well, I've already harvested some green onions, and the other flowers are bright and cheerful.

I don't have a lot of work in the summer. The happy life of a homeschool facilitator means that I'm pretty much off until mid-August or thereabouts (whenever parents start filling out program plans). I just need to check email once in a while just in case. I do a bit of tutoring once a week, and I'm doing some tech work for a friend, but that doesn't take much of my time.

My plan for July is to read, read, and read more. Specifically, I plan to read children/young adult books. I get piles of recommendations from families, and I like to read the books before passing the recommendations on. It's not that I don't trust my families, only that different families have different rules for what they want their children to read. 

Which means I get to do a lot of light, easy reading next month! I've already started, and now I'm just waiting to get more books from the library. I'll also mix in some deeper reading; I have some biographies, theology, and history in my summer pile as well. 

The main goal for July, though, is rest. Reading lighter, simpler books has a double benefit: I can recommend things to families and I get to rest. It's a win-win!

In Which I Try A New Genre

I have a high school student who is a Very Reluctant reader. Tutoring him is a challenge, as not only does he not want to read the books for his course, his dad agrees that he doesn't have to read all the books. We ran into trouble when the assignment was directly from To Kill a Mockingbird and he had not (and did not want to) read it.

He had to read something. We couldn't do all the assignments from Tom Sawyer (which I'm pretty sure he read at least most of).

He finally agreed to read Leviathan by Scott Westfeld. It's a steampunk novel, and WWI alternate history, and his parents had given it to him for Christmas, and he had immediately tossed it on a shelf and ignored it until recently. And, lo and behold, he enjoyed it. I mean, really enjoyed it. Enough that his parents got him the sequels and he's reading them.

One of his favourite things is that the book describes how things work. One side has been building mechanical beasts and means of travel, and the other has been playing with biology and coming up with their own contraptions and animals. The book talks a lot about how they work, more than just "it flies because it does". My student is mechanically inclined and that appealed to him.

So.... I read the book. It was not a bad story. The characters are interesting, the story moves fairly quickly, and it wasn't too predictable. The steampunk bits were just like any fantasy book, so not that strange for anyone who has read a lot of fantasy (raises hand). I probably won't read the sequels, but that's nothing about the story and more about being the wrong age with the wrong interests. I like my historical fiction a bit more realistic.

I'd definitely recommend it for teen boys who like reading about adventure, war, close escapes, and mechanics and the like. 

On Slowing Down a Bit

Yesterday I had my Sunday School boys over. There were 5 boys and the young man who helps in my class. It was noisy (boys are loud), chaotic, and fun. They devoured pizza, chips, and junk food. They played with Lego and a remote controlled truck. We had planned to go to the park, but there was a storm moving in, so we decided against that. We discussed which of the Torchlighter videos to watch later that evening, but put it aside until a bit later. I prefer movies as a "wind down" time.

Much to my joy, the storm blew over with little rain and the sky started to clear up. They boys were playing happily. Some of them were building a castle and dungeon out of Lego and the rest were playing a board game. I was hesitant to disrupt the peace, but I also didn't know how long it would last, so I finally gave them the option: stay, or head out to the park. The boys voted 4-1 to go to the park, so we headed out. The park is a short walk away; the boys alternated between running ahead and having pinecone fights.

At the park, they grabbed the basketball and all the males headed over to the court. I stayed at a picnic table (happily sheltered so not wet from the rain), taking care of the other sports equipment they had brought, along with water bottles, jackets, and whatever else got tossed my way.

And for half an hour, I just sat. I watched the boys play, I watched the children on the playground, I listened to the sounds of the park. I just sat and enjoyed life. Officially, I was taking care of the boys and keeping an eye on the stuff. Really, I was just enjoying getting to stop and rest.

I'm trying to do that this summer: Slow down, stop working, stop thinking about all the things, enjoy the moment, let the peace settle over me. I've been walking down to the creek to stand and watch the water. I've been sitting in front of the balcony window and watching the rain pound down and the wind whip the trees. I've been standing by the pond, watching the waterfowl and listening to the birds in the trees. I've been getting coffee and sitting outside in open areas and reading or people watching. I've been letting my mind slow down and I've been relaxing.

There are so projects that I could focus on, but I've been remembering that it's okay to slow down, to stop for a while, to just let things go. Summer is my quiet time, and I'm allowed to enjoy the peace and not think about all the things I could do. There is a time to stop and watch the rain, listen to the birds, enjoy coffee, and then be ready for the next task.

This summer is about slowing down.

The Last Sunday

Yesterday was the last Sunday School for the year. It was a wild year; we had some illnesses go through in February, making things more complicated. Then a wee, sweet, very early baby came in March, leaving us short two teachers as his parents were more focused on him than on the students (go figure!). But we all survived, 33 weeks of teaching, and now we get a break!

This year I taught my kids theology, focusing on Bibliology and Theology Proper, with some Christology and Pneumatology thrown in. We covered everything I could fit into the time we had and looked up piles of Scripture references. We also had 2 missionary weeks, taught by my helpers.

The kids did a good job on their memory work this year. They got a prize for every 10 verses, for a potential total of 3 prizes. Most of my class received at least one prize, and 9/15 received all 3 (and to be fair, 2 of them stopped attending part way through the year, so really it's 9/13). I was very pleased with them.

The last week is always more relaxed. Some teachers do a short lesson, most of us do review or trivia, and everyone has snacks. 

My class of 11 and 12 year olds had some excellent cupcakes and some acceptable juice boxes. There was a rousing game of Bible trivia, followed by ocean trivia because we had time and it was the first box I grabbed. The Bible trivia winners had first choice of a pile of treats; for ocean trivia, answering a question correctly and first meant I threw a candy at you. I did eventually make most of the class stop answering so the quieter students had a chance for prizes! We ended with me throwing the remaining candy at them and the wild scramble. According to one student, that was his favourite part, completely overshadowing the 32 hours and 45 minutes of Sunday School leading up to it!

And now it's summer, and we all get a break. I'm resting for three weeks, and then I'll start to think about next year.

I Might Be Old...

Yesterday the Sunday School girls were over for an end-of-year party. There were crafts to make, pizza and junk food to eat, movies to watch, and things to discuss.

At one point we were talking about books we've read recently. I told them that I'd just finished a autobiography, but they probably wouldn't know the person. It was about Alex Trebek. They didn't know who he was, no problem, but it turns out that they'd never heard of Jeopardy!

They knew the theme song, given that I sing it to them frequently during quizzes and trivia time; in fact, they said that everyone knows that. They had just never heard of the show.

When I was younger, I'm pretty sure everyone had at least hear of Jeopardy! I showed them a short clip of final Jeopardy (teen tournament), but they did not recognize it.

One day I'm going to make them watch a full episode, but an older one with Alex Trebek.

Cooking in Summer

Summer is rapidly approaching, unless that week of very hot was it; in that case, fall is rapidly approaching! I think, though, that we'll get more summer soon enough.

I don't like cooking much in summer because my apartment gets hot quickly and cools off slowly, and turning the oven on is not helpful. I have the stovetop, microwave, toaster oven, and air fryer to help (the air fryer is new; it was a Christmas present). Still, I prefer not cooking much.

The normal plan is to have things cooked and ready to be heated up or added to salads or something simple like that. 

The challenge right now is that the freezer is full. Some of it is for the kids (frozen juice boxes and treats for Sunday School and parties; as a side note, the fridge has a case of pop for the kids as well). Some of it is about 20 cups of rhubarb, several small bags of partly cooked potatoes (to be spiced and thrown in the air fryer), and some of it is just stuff: bread, meat, large bags of frozen fruit, general stuff that can be found in the freezer. Also, I don't have a deep freeze in my apartment, just the fridge freezer.

So cooking ahead, beyond what is already done and in the freezer, is out for now. 

On the other hand, it's still cool enough to cook regularly. Today I made a stir fry for this week's lunches. It was beautiful: yellow bell peppers, orange carrots, red onion, green celery and tomatillos, and white mushrooms and chicken. I've been trying to eat vegetables regularly and I love the variety of taste and colour. Pretty food makes eating even more enjoyable.

For summer....well, we'll see. I tend to rely on salads, anything that can be cooked in the toaster over or air fryer (the benefit of living alone is that I only need to cook one serving at a time), and maybe more stir frys. Basically, easy and not too much extra heat in the apartment.