I've moved!!!

I've moved my blog to another location. It's part of my attempt to do a little simplification in my life.

Please come visit me here at my new location.

I'm Back!!!!

I made it safely to and from Germany, and I had a great two weeks there. I promised a few people a full report of the trip, and I want to assure you that I will post more details, and perhaps even a few pictures soon. For today, I'm just too tired. It took all the patience and time that I had available to load the picture I took onto CDs so that my parents can see their adorable granddaughter. Everything else will just have to wait. Please, don't take it personally.

Because I thought it's about time for an update.....

Life is breezing by at an unbelievable rate. I was just reminded that I haven't posted anything in almost two whole months. Then, I looked at the last post and realized how much has happened in the last two months. I'll try my best to keep this brief and catch you up on all the excitement. I should probably warn you ahead of time that the last couple of months' activities will probably make this post a little more serious than my norm.

First, thank you for praying for my administrator. He and his wife are doing well. They lost their little dog, and the house is not livable, but they are in the process of rebuilding. Thankfully, they have a furnished place to live in the meantime. A missionary family in their church was looking for renters, and the insurance company pays rent, so it works out beautifully for everyone. The way the timing and plan of all of this came together is a beautiful reminder of God' sovereignty.

The afternoon of the last post was drama-filled for me. I was on my way home when I saw the dreaded flashing police lights in my rear-view mirror. I pulled over to get out of the way, because I hadn't been speeding, but I was shocked to discover he was pulling me over. It turns out that my tags were expired. Those of you who live in states that require inspections should be thankful that you have a sticker in your windshield to constantly remind you of when your registration is due. For eight years, I drove in states that had that. My current state of residence has no such convenient reminder. They also don't have front license plates. So, unless you regularly check the stickers on the back plate of your car, you will mis the renewal time, your car will be impounded, and you will owe a late fee on the registration as well as impounding and towing fees, and a hefty fine for the citation. Two months later, it is all settled and paid, but I am not yet able to laugh about it. Give me another month or two on that. I had to remind myself several times that it was only a car. I knew people who had just lost their house!!!!

School has been busy, too. We had a visiting team here to critique us for accreditation renewal. That was busy and nerve-wracking, but it went well. Then, my students finished their spring concert. The original date had to be postponed due to sickness. Before this year of school, I never had to postpone any concerts. This year, I had to postpone two. Next week is the performance week for our sixth grade musical. I enjoy musical season, but it definitely will take over my life for the next week.

I made a short trip to western NY state last weekend. My grandfather's wife of 19 years passed away. She was 87 and had struggled for years with heart issues. Still, it was hard. My grandfather is unsaved and took a bad fall about a week after she died. The fall has made it impossible for him to put weight on his leg. In fact, if he didn't already have two artificial hips, he probably would have a broken one. So, he was in a wheelchair at the memorial service. His 90th birthday is coming up in September, so being in a wheelchair isn't that uncommon, but he's been an active care-taker his whole life. Now, he can't even take care of himself without help. All 5 of his children (my mom and her siblings) were able to get to the memorial service, and they haven't all been together in about 15 years. Only my mom and one other sibling are saved, so the visits tend to be a little draining. I'm very thankful, again, though, for God's amazing timing. The way this all fell in between craziness at school allowed me to spend some time with the extended family. I'm very thankful for that--especially with my grandfather. He was doing poorly enough that I don't feel very confident that I'll ever see him alive again.

In short, my life over the last two months has had a little more than usual of the ups and downs. Still, I'm constantly being reminded of God' sovereignty. In every instance, even the case of my expired tags, I've seen how lovingly God arranged the timing to make it more manageable. One of the most precious reminders came from a dear friend the other day. She knew I had gone to the memorial service, and she asked me how my grandfather was doing. I told her the update, and she reminded me that during a time like this my grandfather will be looking for a purpose to keep living. She said, "God keeps giving him more time to accept salvation." It was a beautiful shift in perspective. I'm so thankful for that friend and the reminder. I'm so blessed to serve such a loving God--a God who cares about all the details.

Urgent prayer request!

I just got a message from the school secretary. The administrator of our school just got a call that his house is on fire. The neighbor called and reported that it seems to be a total loss. Please lift this family up in prayer!!

Another sporadic update

The winter has been dragging on and on this year. I'm ready for warm weather, consistent sunshine, and the end of snow for at least a little while. Life has been rolling along as usual. This week is a little extra crazy. Tuesday night was Open House at school. Tomorrow night is a special missionary guest speaker at church. I'm looking forward to hearing the speaker, but the timing is really hectic. Tomorrow is also my dad's birthday. He's 60 this year, which is really hard for me to believe. We had plans of doing something big for him, but I don't think big is gonna happen. Then, Friday night is the spring concert at school. Yes, I realize that it's not spring yet, but our other options for scheduling put us into spring break, or Easter, or testing week, or just too close to the 6th grade musical (which I also direct.) Anyway, I'll be glad to have that checked off my to-do list. Right now, I'm just praying that enough of the students are healthy enough for us to do the concert. On Monday, about a third of my choir was out sick. About a quarter of my band missed school yesterday. Today, I saw a few more choir students leave to go home. It's crazy! Hopefully, though, they can get it flushed out of their system by Friday. In the meantime, I'm loading up on extra vitamins.

Oh, and I can't believe I almost forgot this. I should have my newly renewed passport in a few weeks. That makes my plans official to go visit my sister in Germany. I'm planning to travel with her best friend. I'm so excited I can hardly wait!

School cancellations, wierd weather, and other random drama

A friend just sent me an email asking me to update my blog, because apparently she's been checking regularly while I haven't been posting at all. My first thought was, "Oh good, someone actually reads my blog." The follow-up thought that came a few seconds later was, "Hmm, it's been about six weeks since I posted anything. My friend must be the only person who reads my blog." Kinda depressing, but I can't complain too much because I have admittedly put very little effort into writing anything interesting for a while now.

Anyway, there are some explanations for my lack of bloggage:

1. There are only so many times that I can tell you about how the weather has been too cold, wet, foggy, icy, or snowy for school. Normally, I'm a huge fan of a weather cancellation, but we haven't had a full uninterrupted week of school since November. Now that it's extending the school year, and the students schedules are all out of sorts, I'm not such a huge fan.

2. Sickness, like weather, makes for very dull blog fodder. The rounds of sickness have been fierce this year, but I feel that I am far too young to focus my conversations on health and weather.

3. Sadly, once I've passed up health and weather, my life is just not that exciting.

I feel it best for me to not go into detail on why I am saying this next thing. Still, I feel I must say it. I feel very strongly that people should say what they mean and mean what they say. I also have a great distaste for patronizing speech and behavior. I could rant about that for a while longer, but it would not be beneficial for anyone involved.

My sister is in the area for a little while along with her husband and daughter. It has been fun to see them. My niece turned 7 months old on Sunday. And, while I know I must be a little biased, I really do believe that she may be the most intelligent 7-month-old I have ever met. She's also amazingly laid-back. All babies are adorable, and I love them, but I don't usually find them fun until they are about 9-10 months old. This one, though, is fun, and she loves me. The loving me part would be a little more special if she didn't love EVERYONE, but I'll take it, anyway.

The last few days of the year.....

I have a hard time with the New Year. It's hard to explain just why it bothers me, but it does. Every year at this time, I reflect on the passing year. This year, that reflection is a little tough. The year has been a very challenging one. If you aren't sure what I mean by that, see this post or this one. It's not the challenges of the year that make this time difficult, though.

And the difficulty has nothing to do with resolutions. As a rule, I don't make resolutions. My personal philosophy on resolutions is that if it's worth resolving to do something, I should begin doing it right away.

No, this holiday is just one that gets me stepping back to look at the big picture of my life. I think it's that simple process that bothers me. Another year has passed, and my vision of where I thought I'd be by this age and the reality of where I actually am still don't line up any better than they did last year. When I don't focus on that, I'm pretty content with my life. I have a great job, a wonderful family, and good friends. I serve a loving God who knows my future, and He has better plans for my future than I can even imagine. My life is not my own, and remembering that keeps me content. So, if it's alright with you all, (actually, even if it's not) I'm going to go through the next couple of days as if no transition is happening. When I focus on the transition, my selfish mind goes to a really bad place. I prefer to take this walk of life one step at a time. For those of you who celebrate, I'd like to wish you a "Happy New Year." As for me, I'm going to think of it as another ordinary day, and I'm going to try really hard to remember to write the correct year on my checks.

--That just reminded me.....I don't write checks very often, and I always have to think twice before writing the date. The other day, I was writing a check, and I realized I had written '98 as the year on the date line. I don't know where my head was on that one. Oh well....it did give everyone a good chuckle at my expense.

On the verge of wishing for a green Christmas

Over the weekend, we were hit with a whopping 17 inches of snow. Like most people, I enjoy a good snow day now and then. After spending nearly seven hours shoveling my car and sidewalk yesterday, though, I'm becoming less of a fan. Then, the authorities deemed the roads unsafe today, too, so school is canceled. Again, these days are welcomed when they hit occasionally, but this is the third school cancellation in the last couple of weeks, and I'm supposed to be directing the Christmas concert tomorrow night. The weathermen are predicting that the roads might be clear enough by tomorrow night, but the whole prospect of directing small children (as young as 3) in a program for which they've missed about a third of their practices for the month is a very scary prospect. Also, snow has begun to lose its appeal for me. I used to love playing in it when I was younger, but after lifting roughly three tons of it yesterday, I'm becoming a much less enthusiastic fan.