‘Tis the Season
If you have been following me on one of five social websites, here is another medium to let you know I'm doing well this year. I considered sending a photo of me alone by the Christmas tree, but that doesn’t sum up what God has done this year.
Instead I have included a photo with my two roommates who both teach elementary, Shelley fifth grade and Alison first. They look and act similarly as you can see. Both are the third child with two much older brothers, and both love the Hallmark Channel, which I am still getting used to*. We moved in to Shelley's house in August. She's the real adult who organizes bills and makes lists of chores to do, I'm an adult by way of being twenty-seven, and Alison is the baby at twenty-two and definitely the loudest. We enjoy watching New Girl and eating delicious Sunday dinners with Shelley's parents.
Only a few days after New Years the storms began, propelling snow days and time to pick up old hobbies. Consider my hands equity. I crocheted Cabbage Patch Kid wigs, mittens of equal size, headbands, scarves, flippy mittens, bearded hats, etc. You name it, I could at least attempt to make it. I also baked for neighbors in my apartment complex to be more social and to clarify that we were all still alive. Just as Thoreau learned much while he traversed alone by a pond, I feel it important to share lessons that I have learned through the year. Lesson: seek whatever motivates you to change out of sweatpants.
Enthused to retreat from the long winter, I spent spring break with Jim and Cherie Rozendal in Florida, which included quiet mornings on the beach and visiting Jim at his new school. For those who don't know, I lived with them for three years in DeMotte. I think I cried when my flight took off for home again but was appeased by an elderly woman wearing a unicolor jumpsuit and satin scarf: her favorite literature were horror novels. “When you’re eighty,” she said, “something has to thrill you.” Lesson: become an 80-year-old woman who shocks people.
I chaperoned the juniors from Covenant on a service week to Kentucky. There we cleaned and repainted a house among a gamut of other services. This is an interesting time for teachers and students because we all wear jeans and we learn how each other operate, like which people have a tough work ethic and which are street savvy. For instance, I’m a clumsy person, but that never hurt anyone else until I nearly backed five students off a cliff in a fifteen passenger van. All were silent until one casually warned me we were six inches from our death. Lesson for students: if a teacher trips over desks in the classroom, she likely stumbles upon adventure elsewhere.
In May my first freshmen class graduated, which means I have begun my years of feeling old. After a series of sentimental quiet moments and after my co-worker Andrew Dunham* expressed how he had also once "had a moment," I realized that I'll always have to say goodbye to them. An optimist would say “I’ll always get to say hello.” Or would an optimist say the former? Lesson: “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices...If a man’s gift is teaching, let him teach.”
My apartment lease came up in May, so Irv and Liz Dorn invited me to live with them for the summer before I moved in with Shelley. That wasn't a hard choice. Great company, a beautiful sunroom, AND a pool? I did not refuse. Liz and I sipped coffee and conversed mid-mornings, and Irv invited me to ride on their motorcycles twice, which is the most thrilling thing. When they vacated I took care of the house and their cat BK, whom I love*. Lesson: God uses people as pillars of service.
Tyrel and Kearsen flew to Indiana in July. Set to prove it has attractions, I drove them to Lake Michigan and we spent an evening touring Chicago, eating Pop Rocks, and looking out from the Willis Tower at night. Lesson: in the midst of good company, one could enjoy any place.
In August Kearsen, my niece Brinley, and I hiked at Palisades. B and I also spent mornings playing wedding with her Disney dolls. Cinderella and Belle were wed multiple times. On that same vacation, my friends Elizabeth and Josh married. As part of the bridal party I feel it my duty to remain a keen observer of this union. Happily I report that since being married, her Twitter has barely changed proving that one does remain witty in marriage. Lesson: in the best moments, time eludes us.
I did not coach volleyball this Fall, and that is fine because teaching English is busy enough. I did, however, have time to prepare a sectional for the Christian Educators Association about blogging in the classroom. Recently, I have resumed crocheting. Two days ago I made a sweater for a snake named Monty for Covenant's annual ugly Christmas sweater day. All my family have requested crocheted things this year, so arthritis may kick in early. Lesson: “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! Let your affairs be as two or three” (Thoreau).
I look onward to Christmas with the Boman family and am thankful they will be there at the close of this year. I pray that you and your kin are well and that you serve God right where you are. Christ’s blessings are profound, so reflect on your year with thanksgiving in your hearts and praise to Him who was and is and is to come. Lesson: If you can, turn a Christmas tree selfie into an 'ussie'.
With love,
Laurissa
“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”
-Luke 2:11
_____________________________________________________________________________________
*Hallmark - ...except that one is indistinguishable from the next.
*Dunham - co-worker - a few years my senior. He claims to be an effective mentor. I'll be kicking myself for proving him right this time. Beware. His ego is bound to nearly triple.
*BK - ...selectively
“I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what it had to teach and not, when I come to die, discover that I had not lived.”
- Thoreau
- Thoreau
If you have been following me on one of five social websites, here is another medium to let you know I'm doing well this year. I considered sending a photo of me alone by the Christmas tree, but that doesn’t sum up what God has done this year.
Instead I have included a photo with my two roommates who both teach elementary, Shelley fifth grade and Alison first. They look and act similarly as you can see. Both are the third child with two much older brothers, and both love the Hallmark Channel, which I am still getting used to*. We moved in to Shelley's house in August. She's the real adult who organizes bills and makes lists of chores to do, I'm an adult by way of being twenty-seven, and Alison is the baby at twenty-two and definitely the loudest. We enjoy watching New Girl and eating delicious Sunday dinners with Shelley's parents.
Only a few days after New Years the storms began, propelling snow days and time to pick up old hobbies. Consider my hands equity. I crocheted Cabbage Patch Kid wigs, mittens of equal size, headbands, scarves, flippy mittens, bearded hats, etc. You name it, I could at least attempt to make it. I also baked for neighbors in my apartment complex to be more social and to clarify that we were all still alive. Just as Thoreau learned much while he traversed alone by a pond, I feel it important to share lessons that I have learned through the year. Lesson: seek whatever motivates you to change out of sweatpants.
Enthused to retreat from the long winter, I spent spring break with Jim and Cherie Rozendal in Florida, which included quiet mornings on the beach and visiting Jim at his new school. For those who don't know, I lived with them for three years in DeMotte. I think I cried when my flight took off for home again but was appeased by an elderly woman wearing a unicolor jumpsuit and satin scarf: her favorite literature were horror novels. “When you’re eighty,” she said, “something has to thrill you.” Lesson: become an 80-year-old woman who shocks people.
I chaperoned the juniors from Covenant on a service week to Kentucky. There we cleaned and repainted a house among a gamut of other services. This is an interesting time for teachers and students because we all wear jeans and we learn how each other operate, like which people have a tough work ethic and which are street savvy. For instance, I’m a clumsy person, but that never hurt anyone else until I nearly backed five students off a cliff in a fifteen passenger van. All were silent until one casually warned me we were six inches from our death. Lesson for students: if a teacher trips over desks in the classroom, she likely stumbles upon adventure elsewhere.
In May my first freshmen class graduated, which means I have begun my years of feeling old. After a series of sentimental quiet moments and after my co-worker Andrew Dunham* expressed how he had also once "had a moment," I realized that I'll always have to say goodbye to them. An optimist would say “I’ll always get to say hello.” Or would an optimist say the former? Lesson: “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices...If a man’s gift is teaching, let him teach.”
My apartment lease came up in May, so Irv and Liz Dorn invited me to live with them for the summer before I moved in with Shelley. That wasn't a hard choice. Great company, a beautiful sunroom, AND a pool? I did not refuse. Liz and I sipped coffee and conversed mid-mornings, and Irv invited me to ride on their motorcycles twice, which is the most thrilling thing. When they vacated I took care of the house and their cat BK, whom I love*. Lesson: God uses people as pillars of service.
Tyrel and Kearsen flew to Indiana in July. Set to prove it has attractions, I drove them to Lake Michigan and we spent an evening touring Chicago, eating Pop Rocks, and looking out from the Willis Tower at night. Lesson: in the midst of good company, one could enjoy any place.
In August Kearsen, my niece Brinley, and I hiked at Palisades. B and I also spent mornings playing wedding with her Disney dolls. Cinderella and Belle were wed multiple times. On that same vacation, my friends Elizabeth and Josh married. As part of the bridal party I feel it my duty to remain a keen observer of this union. Happily I report that since being married, her Twitter has barely changed proving that one does remain witty in marriage. Lesson: in the best moments, time eludes us.
I did not coach volleyball this Fall, and that is fine because teaching English is busy enough. I did, however, have time to prepare a sectional for the Christian Educators Association about blogging in the classroom. Recently, I have resumed crocheting. Two days ago I made a sweater for a snake named Monty for Covenant's annual ugly Christmas sweater day. All my family have requested crocheted things this year, so arthritis may kick in early. Lesson: “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! Let your affairs be as two or three” (Thoreau).
I look onward to Christmas with the Boman family and am thankful they will be there at the close of this year. I pray that you and your kin are well and that you serve God right where you are. Christ’s blessings are profound, so reflect on your year with thanksgiving in your hearts and praise to Him who was and is and is to come. Lesson: If you can, turn a Christmas tree selfie into an 'ussie'.
With love,
Laurissa
“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”
-Luke 2:11
_____________________________________________________________________________________
*Hallmark - ...except that one is indistinguishable from the next.
*Dunham - co-worker - a few years my senior. He claims to be an effective mentor. I'll be kicking myself for proving him right this time. Beware. His ego is bound to nearly triple.
*BK - ...selectively
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