Butterflies, Pickles, and Light Blue

      “Miss Miller, Miss Miller! This is for you!” The first grader hands me a beautiful pink pedaled flower from the flowering bushes that line the outdoor walls of our school. She giggles and dashes off to play ten steps with the others.     I’ve made a friend in an avid car guy. He understands the car lingo and it feels like a chat with an Ohio home boy. On that topic, this is “home” and Ohio is “ home home” with emphasis on the first word.     A walk along 21 st Avenue is a balm for the soul. “The Singing Civics” which directly translates to my cos and I, watch the beautiful sunset and jabber about all the latest interesting news we’ve heard. We wave at almost every car as it is probably a fellow traveler in this earthly sojourn. A youth boy zips by on a side by side and loses his hat precisely two feet in front of us. He says it was an accident and we laugh and tell him that worked out perfectly if he was wanting to chat with us!    ...

Kansas Things: 1. Volleyball is a big thing. People can get pretty fired up and competitive. It is quite fun! 2. Hardee’s is criminally offensive according to some people and heavily disagreed with by others. 3. Don’t wear ball clothes to abandoned missile silos after it has been pouring rain as you may ruin your lulus and ball shoes:) 4. The dry heat feels so much better than the humidity I am used to at home. The weather has been absolutely delightful.  5. Mustaches and bangs. Yes or no? Big topics lately! 6. According to one youth guy, my co’s car is hedgehog blue. 7. A frequent saying is “That’s crazy.” 8. Wichita is actually quite a fun town. There is an adorable little coffee shop called Coffee Daze. It has good vibes and delicious drinks and it seems to be a favorite for everyone. Scheels is such a joy for water bottles in hundreds of colors and occasionally a paddle board. You might meet a handful of people that you share a religion with and occasionally more than a handful...

      Growing up is so bittersweet. Recently two friends are starting on their mission journeys. Miss K left for sunny Mexico. I will miss her sunshiny spirit and her giggles. Dearest 2 for $5 is headed to Mozambique for a two year term. I’ll miss the late night heart-to-hearts and her willing ear to hear all my troubles. I hope that this is the best chapter of their life books so far!      Another friend is engaged! Fingers crossed that I am able to fly home for that. We shall see how everything pans out.      I attended my last Kidron church service for the time being. It felt surreal. I looked around at all the peoples who have been in my life all these years. They will very likely change in the time I’m gone and I am sure the kids I taught will be so much more grown. As I told someone, it simply feels like the right time to make this life change.      How have I accumulated so many material things? Who knew one person could...

     Well, well. The abundance of life has kept me occupied enough that I haven’t posted in too long. Please excuse! In a recent sermon, the minister mentioned it’s all in perspective. Change the “busyness of life” to the “abundance of life”. Sometimes you just need to see things through different eyes!      As I type this, I am sitting on a picnic table at a park with my chai tea and the noise of cars on a distant highway. This morning is the Saturday before the wedding of a childhood friend whose parents are my bonus uncle and aunt. The night before, our family had hosted the family supper. Alexa and I had set up the tables under the string lights in the back patio area. We decorated with old books, candle sticks, and vases and vases of white hydrangeas, snapdragons, and daisies. We ate family style around the three lifetime tables to the soft wind blowing and the sound of the birds singing merrily in the trees. It was a pleasant evening due to the many p...

      Since a friend is to be wed, a farewell youth deal was held. We ate hamburgers and sat around the fire. HJ and I were in charge of getting something around that the bride-to-be would find entertaining. We had decided upon fairy tale charades. We created a list of fairy tales and grouped people together that we thought would be of interest. The charades were as follows:      1. Little Red Riding Hood (all boys)     2. The Pied Piper (mixed & kids)     3. The Three Little Pigs (all girls)     4. Goldilocks and the Three Bears (all girls)     5. The Three Billy Goats Gruff (all girls)     6. Hansel and Gretel (mixed)     7. The Gingerbread Man (mixed)     8. The Princess and the Pea (all boys)     All in all it was highly entertaining for everyone. The youth did so well and we all had some good laughs. The children helped with The Pied Piper and it was quite cute to see t...

      Another friend is to be married which means another bridal shower to plan. Planning went quite well and I think it will turn out beautifully. Since it is summer, we can start having bridal showers outside. That is only if the weather decides to cooperate and not make that a thunderstorm evening. In the coarse of the planning, J brought up that her friend was marrying a “Border Collie Boyfriend.” She meant to say “Golden Retriever Boyfriend” and we all got a laugh.     Just one of my favorite things in the summer is a good old lemonade. Or maybe it is a blackberry, lime, and mint refresher. Summer drinks are just my favorite!      Along with that, how much I have enjoyed paddling in the pond and laying out on my paddle board on sunny days. It was a very good birthday gift and I recommend getting yourself one if you live near a body of water.      Which leads into my next fun topic! My coworker owns a pool. That means that after...

  The school program went off with only a laughing spell after a mic malfunction. The kids did an amazing job. Since our song leader is leaving us to give of time in the mission, we surprised him with a song at the end of the program. I’m not sure how it sounded given there were few dry eyes among us. and with that, my time as part of the ROA faculty has come to a close.    Life is expensive so I got myself a summer job at a bakery. It is a small place with a drive thru window and very good company. I work with the M&M’s, Marthee and Miss Molly. We have a party making brownies and muffins and serving customers and celebrating every time we get a tip. We have serious conversations around the big table as we feast on Arby’s or other delicacies during our lunch hour or joke about random things. Some days after a dramatic washing episode, the floor gets mopped extra. A blueberry muffin occasionally has a random chocolate chip in it on total accident and the frosting on th...

      A list of little happys: . a drawing from a student with the words: You’re a good teacher! . pieces of candy from a fourth grader . paddle boarding while the littlest brother paddled beside in the canoe . cooking a new recipe and getting it to turn out. I am actually starting to enjoy cooking for bigger groups of people. Never thought I would say that;) . a chocolate chip cookie during a ball game . a volley ball game after school board supper. How fun it is to play with middle aged people:) . completing all my bulletins for next year . seeing a project come together just like I’d imagined . a heart to heart with a friend home from the mission . a Pride & Prejudice meme sent to a friend who shares my love for Jane Austen . a FaceTime call from big sister . a ball game with some company . the 70° weather . the fact that school is almost over . a complement from a fifth grader     Teacher Appreciation Week was quite a fun time. The ROA faculty was treate...

    Field trip days are fun days for me. When the middle class took themselves away to COSI, I was left with two classes with the fourth graders and no books to check bar theirs. I was able to leave early and get some shopping done and still get home in time to soak up the glorious sunshine. When the grade three and four students were away enjoying a field day, I had enough time to make all my little name tags for the coming school year. What joy it is to relax at school as it is not often that happens!     Another wedding weekend has come and gone for the Kidron congregation. The youth visiting were the pleasant type and they came with all their neighbors and friends. The ball games were quite lively and the three nets were filled for the entirety of Saturday. One thing I will mention: the women noticed how the menfolk at this wedding were quite the gentlemen. If you gave a set, you got it back and complements were thrown around with gusto. Oh, and they held open do...

    What a scary thing it is to make decisions about the future! It is that time of the year when contracts are handed back and school boards realize that they need new teachers. The calls from school boards trickled in slowly, yet nothing really seemed to feel right. It was a little discouraging to turn down place after place. Would any place feel right? It was in the middle of a school day when I got a voice message that made my heart practically leap out of my chest. At first I thought that there was no way this place could be right. I never dreamed of living in this specific area. Somehow a deep peace settled over me and after sending many prayers skyward, I accepted the position. Lo and behold, Shanelle is going to be a Kansas girl this coming school year and will call United Center home. How scary but how exciting!      "When I left Queen's my future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milest...

    A power outage at school created chaos among my charges. The candle lit room was quite cozy, but it got too warm all too soon and no fans were to be had. The first class I had in was calm and the spelling words went off without a hitch. Enter fourth grade math class. The hooligans tried everything they could do out of the ordinary and their teacher was ready to send them outside to run off their energy. I have decided that I quite like order and schedule! Order and schedule create stability in the fourth grade children, or shall I say as much stability as is entirely possible!      A McDonald’s M&M McFlurry and a late night drive with the windows down is something I appreciate. How good it is to feel the breeze through your hair and listen to it whistle through the vehicle. It gets me excited for summertime! A few days later the temperature dropped below freezing and it snowed, IN APRIL! How nice it would be to live somewhere with weather that wasn’t as ...

     “The wonder of teaching is watching caterpillars become butterflies.”     The season of love is upon us and soon the arrangements for bridal showers are coming together. Planning evenings for these such events can be rather awkward and time consuming, the problem being that everyone has ideas and are worried about sharing them. However, when the time was right, a few of the females that partake in youth activities gathered at C’s house to plan an evening of bridal showering. It was quite the illustrious affair with cucumbers and spread on rye bread and specialty coffee drinks. For the first time in my rather “lengthy” bridal shower planning career, the whole thing was thought through and examined in under an hour. The food and decorations and invites and all the in between was decided upon quickly and with much laughter. The rest of the evening was spent gossiping and talking about important life-changing events that are in some of the females futures....

    At a recent youth ball game, someone brought conversation hearts. At some point in the evening, we were trying to arrange shapes like hearts and smileys. After someone had just completed a heart with the candies, Mr. Sir stole one and ate it. “You’re breaking my heart!” Then again he stole one as seemingly someone had the best flavored hearts. “Stop breaking my heart!” Not even a preplanned joke but we laughed uproariously over it.          A fun day is breakfast with the girls and thrifting and antiquing to boot. We found some jewels and ate some good food. Also, the older folks who man the checkout counters are so friendly! It is refreshing to have someone actually conversate with you as they scan and bag your items. If you are in need of china sets, try your local antique shop. The amount of beautiful sets of china dishes we saw was amazing. Why do the dolls in antique stores look so creepy? Long ago they were someone’s favorite play thing ...

    Prepare yourself. This blog post might be the lengthiest I’ve ever written and it just might give you the itch to travel to the glorious City that Never Sleeps. And if you have been there before, it might nudge you to plan a return trip to experience the sights and sounds of the dear place again! Please excuse the fact that this is mostly about food. We truly just ate all the time! And now that you’ve been warned, welcome to this chaotic New York City trip report!    Spring break! What a glorious thought to a teacher! For weeks, my sister and I had schemed places to go. Definitely not Florida where the flocks were headed. Not Washington D.C. and neither of us had the bank balance for anything Europe related. The one place that really seemed to bring a joy to our hearts was “The Big Apple”. It had been a year since my sister had been and even longer for me. Sister had a co-teacher that had never been and my bestie had never been either. Perfect match, am I right? ...