Chronicles of Narnia

Check out the desiringGod blog and the entry, "C.S. Lewis on Loving Aslan More Than Jesus". Also, be sure to read the ensuing comments by readers (of course, not all of them as that would take too long, but it's an interesting discussion.)

Christmas 2.0

Thanks to the bunches of people who sent me the link to this video.

Inspiration

La plus juste comparaison que l'on puisse faire de l'amour, c'est celle de la fièvre.

François de La Rochefoucauld

Does the opposite apply also? So if I have a fever, am I then in love? :)

DaVinci Code in Nantes?

A coded manuscript by Leonardo da Vinci has been discovered in a public library in the French city of Nantes.

Cliché : France vue de l’étranger

Version française :

Version anglaise :

James

Studying James has always been a particularly favorite pastime of mine - I love reading this book of the Bible so much! It's so practical and every time I read through it, God reveals something new to me; and this time is no exception, especially since I'm not studying it alone. Another person's perspective can really help influence things, eh?

After reading James 2:1-13, I have been challenged (and challenged myself) to apply the charge of not showing favoritism in the way I can right now - with my students. I tend to think I'm a somewhat unbiased person and generally a fair teacher, but still being pretty green, I know I have my shortcomings.

"Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?... Love your neighbor as yourself." James 2:5, 8

Reading that yesterday, I was so excited to start this week off on a fresh outlook but of course, as soon as I set this goal in mind, it becomes not so simple - this was a challenging day for me heart-wise with my kids. It was tough, but good because it helped me realize how much I really do care for them! Now the challenge is keeping it going!

Randomness

And here's a list of wonderful random thoughts of the day (most in the past half hour):

1. It is 80 degrees. It is 5000% humidity. It is also almost November. Whhaaat?

2. I didn't think the world was ending until I saw a "Gone Groomin': Mobile Pet Spa" truck on the road today.

3. I heart cottage cheese. So much.

4. I do not like humidity.

5. A big bug just up and died in the middle of my bathroom floor. Seriously big - about half the size of a dollar bill.

6. The bug was in fact, not a bug at all; nor was it or ever had been living. It was a massive lint ball from Texas apparently.

7. I love wearing sweaters - can it be less than 80 degrees out soon? Pleeeeeeaase?

8. I also love strange, techno European dance music.

9. And I love quiche! I'm making one for my upper-level French classes tomorrow. I make a mean quiche.

10. I'm almost planned for all my classes through Thanksgiving! And Turkey Day will be spent with a great part of the family this year, y'all!

11. Phew! I made it an even ten - didn't think I had enough random thoughts in me... uh oh... do I keep going.....?

Siesta Fiesta

A jobless security worker has won a competition billed as Spain's inaugural siesta championship, napping for 17 minutes in a busy shopping centre.

Students are Expendable

Shattered

No, not shattered dreams, shattered car window! The fear every teacher had this year when we found out we had to park in the student parking lot has been realized... unfortunately, by me. :(

The good thing is the car window got smashed after all the rain we had and will be fixed tomorrow!

I can haz bootyful voice?

Skillz

Check it out, amazing dance skillz:

Fuzzy

Happy day was seeing a cat taking a nap stretched out on the top of my neighbor's car.

Cute.

Klingon?

World's first Klingon opera in production in The Hague, Netherlands.

Interesting, no?

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day has come and gone - but not without a lot of fun and lack of sleep!

Friday, I left right from work to head up to Indiana, PA to visit the lovely Mary. Then, Saturday, we drove up to western New York state to attend Amanda (and Mark's) wedding. It was gorgeous and God really helped the rain clear up just in time for the outdoor wedding; and he kept it away until the indoor reception started! :)

Mary and I waited for the "cutting of the cake" and headed out. It was a somewhat adventurous drive home without street signs in some places and without any lights in most. We did find a really cute coffee shop though (and were subsequently jealous that this coffee shop was not in our towns); but we did make it home in one piece, albeit very early in the morning.

The rest of the weekend I spent with Mary - going to church on Sunday: going to a funny Sunday school class together, listening to a great sermon on God being our Master (check it out: http://www.wgfellowship.org/sermons), and going back for a foundations class in the evening.

We also took an unexpectedly long nap in the afternoon - why is it always that seeing someone napping makes you want to nap too? Is it because they're so relaxed? Or is napping contagious like yawns?

It was so great to be able to be there for Amanda's wedding (I'll put a picture or two up when I get them!) and to be able to spend time catching up with Mary, sharing serious stories, and sharing lots of laughter ("I know that which you speak of exact. Talk me more you!").

Funny

And the funny for today was listening to my upstairs neighbors trying to give their two hyper, adorable pit bulls baths.

"Are you ready?"

"Yeah..."

"Are you sure?!"

"Yeah. Mostly.... yes, yes, I'm ready."

"Okaaayyyy, here she comes"

[insert thunderous running here; running suddenly stops along with all human sound]

[a beat]

[another beat]

"You okay out there?"

[a beat]

"Yeah, I got her, I'm bringing her in..."

The best part was after all this, hearing them try to track down the second dog (who by now had the smarts to know what was going on and was doing everything in her power to escape.

Europe Photos

Here's some pictures from my trip to Germany, Belgium, and France this summer...

Dusty's Den (authorized personnel only) in the Atlanta airport

Hanging out in Bremen

Along the Elbe River near Hamburg.

Ducks In Action! in Brugge, Belgium.

And we visited Jill in Kandern, Germany right before leaving - here we are creeping on butt soccer in the gym at the Black Forest Academy.

It's been awhile...

Whoops. So it's been a while... sadly it may take me a few days to completely update on my summer, but it pretty much went like this:

- it was short
- it was fun
- I lived out of my suitcase

Also, today is the first day of school aaaaand I am anxiously awaiting the delivery of my very own brand new computer! My GCC computer has been slowly dying over the past six months or so and I'm very excited to have a computer that will start up in less than 10 minutes and will actually run programs when it is asked to! Woot! It will probably be after then that I will do most of my updates and such as it will be much easier, faster, and I'll have pictures to include! Yays!

Found this quote today and laughed because it is true: I am teaching....It's kind of like having a love affair with a rhinoceros.

Biblical Times Day 9

Could psychiatric therapy have helped Darth Vader?

The only way to find out is to read the following article on Mr. Vader's psychological diagnosis.

I'm Under Arrest for What?

I came across a list of strange laws from each state in the U.S. By no means is this list comprehensive, but it is highly entertaining.

And my personal favorite comes from South Dakota: It is illegal to lie down and fall asleep in a cheese factory.

Submission or Settling?

I wrote this a while back in March/April in an email and was cleaning out my email today, stumbled upon it, and thought it was may hap good enough to share with my general reading audience of... well... the 4 or 5 people that I know of. :)

What is the role of women in the church? Post-feminism, it has been talked about so much, and not a whole lot in healthy ways for Christian women. We are told by society we are men's equal. We are to have a career and be loving mothers/wives/sisters/friends - especially friends with other women - to uphold "the sisterhood". We are expected to break through the glass ceiling and "go where no woman has gone before." We are looked down upon and judged - ironically more harshly by other women than men - when we choose a profession that is seemingly iconically "female" - like teaching or even (gasp!) being stay-at-home-moms. "It's like the women's revolution never even happened," say some. Others, especially in my mom's generation, become vehement, "We didn't fight so hard for you to end up taking care of your kids and cooking dinner like the mom from Leave it to Beaver!!!"

So how does all this reconcile itself with the submission expected of women in the Bible without just settling for what we are told is right? A perplexing question to say the least. Especially in the oft-quoted passages from Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3, women are commanded to submit; not suggested, the word "submit" is in the imperative here. I myself have cringed (probably visibly) when I have heard this. Some of the trepidation women feel is concerning the fact that as you said, many men have taken the benefits of their authority (in the church as well as the household) without serving and following the example that Christ set. Slowly but surely, my own mind and heart have been opened (mostly after I went through my tiny feminist phase in middle school) to see the beauty in the example of the Christ and the Church and the roles men and women are called to individually fulfill. There is a huge discrepancy between that and being told, "you and men are equals," because that implies we are the same, which is definitely not true in any sense. What an identity crisis! Submission for women isn't being a wilting flower blowing where the wind wills, but rather finding their identity in Christ and above all, taking direction from him. I found a really great quote on submission (not necessarily just for women):

"Submission is the key concept to understand, for everyone is called upon to submit to God (James 4:7-10; Hebrews 12:9), and all at one time or another must submit to human authority. Believers who cannot submit to human authority do not know how to submit to God, for it is God who demands submission within human relationships. Conversely, believers will be ineffective leaders, incapable of fulfilling human authority roles until they learn to submit to others. Submission is for everyone." - Mary Kassian

Great quote, huh? Actually it got me very excited about my devotions today! So there's some deep thinking straight to you from the mind of Abby with no alterations except in the case of spelling corrections. Hopefully it's not as mixed-up as it felt coming out of my mind and fingers.

Biblical Times Day 8

Biblical Times Day 7

Biblical Times Day 6

Biblical Times Day 5

Biblical Times Day 4

We interrupt your daily cartoon...

...to bring you this thought-provoking video...

Biblical Times Day 3

Biblical Times Day 2

Biblical Times Day 1

Tough Questions Answered

Check it out: Life's 25 Toughest Questions Answered

Do you have any questions you would have answered differently?

A World Less Modern Conveniences

After reading an article titled, A World Without Planes, I began to think, how would I be different minus the modern conveniences I take for granted? No airplanes, no cars, no washing machine, no computer, no Internet, no cell phone? Would I make it? I can safely say I would be fine without a washing machine, having survived two summers at camp by washing all my clothes by hand; but the others, I have a sad feeling, have become so intertwined into my life that it is almost impossible to separate them indefinitely. Sure, I could make it two weeks without checking my email, but not much longer.

Alain de Botton, the writer of the aforementioned article, sums up that now often yearned-for slower pace of life our grandparents and great-grandparents experienced,

"In a future world without aeroplanes, children would gather at the feet of old men, and hear extraordinary tales of a mythic time when vast and complicated machines the size of several houses used to take to the skies and fly high over the Himalayas and the Tasman Sea.

The wise elders would explain that inside the aircraft, passengers, who had only paid the price of a few books for the privilege, would impatiently and ungratefully shut their window blinds to the views, would sit in silence next to strangers while watching films about love and friendship - and would complain that the food in miniature plastic beakers before them was not quite as tasty as the sort they could prepare in their own kitchens."

No, I don't think I'm going to turn Amish anytime soon, but I am discovering the joys of taking a day each week not turning on the TV or the computer, walking down to the beach, and reading a book or just observing nature (frogs living on my screen door, birds and loud squirrels in the trees near my house, and two rambunctious dogs in the backyard). Thus I try to distance my dependence on the technology I can't seem to live without.

If guys were like girls

Spending my days with high school students makes this clip so much funnier. And even though I'm a girl, I don't understand why girls are so ridiculous sometimes....

Ribbit

TGIF! I came home today after a looooong week of being sick, decided it would be good to vacuum - to get rid of dust - and do laundry. Nothing is better when you've been awfully sick than clean pajamas and sheets! Yays!

Whist vacuuming, I found this little guy to keep me company! Now I have an itty-bitty frog friend! That makes me talk all cutesy-like...

Love

While driving up to meet with my accountant today, I was listening to the radio and was just feeling a little discouraged due to a tough day at school when the following song came on. "Oh. Of course, I have all the reasons in the world to be overflowing with joy!" It's a song I've heard tons, but the message is still there. Check it out.

I was made to love you, I was made to find you,
I was made just for you, Made to adore you,
I was made to love, And be loved by you

This is why I'm here - to love, praise, and glorify God, yet not on my own; He is the one who gives me the power to do so! "But if anyone loves God, he is known by God." - 1 Corinithians 8:3. Also, check out 1 John 4:7-21, it's pretty much awesome.

Side note: Yay! Taxes are done and done! Check and double-check!

Les bonnes nouvelles

And today I officially have a career on some sort of track. I had my final summative evaluation with the principal, vice-principal, and my supervisor from the Board of Education. On the evaluation itself, the box labeled "re-employ" was checked! Yay!

After talking about next year a bit, I have been guaranteed at least a .83 position (what I have now) along with the fact that I will have TWO, read it, TWO French I classes! That means I won't be teaching Earth Science next year but I will have at least one class out of content area - I requested English both on my form for classes next year and in the meeting (and gave my reasons), so hopefully I will get 9th grade English. This way, even if I have to teach outside content area, at least I have other teachers to collaborate with!

So pretty much this week has turned around - yesterday I was getting ready to label it a bad day (which almost never happens) but I refrained and today's meeting has definitely turned things around for this week and also next year! Woohoo! And this obviously has nothing to do with the fact that spring break starts tomorrow... hahaha. :)

Links of the Day!

And following reading some cool news stories online, I thought I'd post links to my favorites/the ones I thought were most interesting.

The Animal that can live forever!

Sketching All of NYC

Warren Buffet: Born to Rock

I particularly liked the second one. I feel that while some might think it's a pointless project, I think today we spend too much time on the internet and not enough time interacting with people. Well, someone could argue, "How is drawing them interacting? He [the artist] doesn't know them; he's never talked to them. This isn't a picture into their life." But I think that taking a step away from the TV, the computer, and one's thoughts and instead stopping to "smell the roses," or in this case, notice others is a step in the right direction. Maybe we all shouldn't draw everyone we meet, but stopping to notice the tired-looking mom at the grocery store and opening the door for her or even paying for the person behind you in the drive-through will help spread the love and care we are commanded to show others:

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." - 1 Peter 4:8

"Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves." Romans 12:10

A Plethoughtra

.... or as it can also be called: a deluge, a flood, glut, many, much, an overabundance, an overflow, overkill, overmuch, plenty, profusion, superabundance, superfluity, surfeit, surplus... Yep, that's right, I haven't updated in a while and as a result find myself torn between many subjects for today. So, I thought I'd just do a mix of things and we could have a fiesta of different thoughts! Ooo fiesta - a good word and also a fun word.

First, I had my last observation of the year today! This is very exciting news as I will soon find out if I will be rehired for next year! I wasn't expecting to be observed so soon after the last one (about a week and a half ago), but now it's over and done with. Phew!

Second, I have about 40 students convinced that I am the cousin of one of my other students. Discovered this fun trick while subbing this afternoon - one kid (a loud but funny one) mentioned I looked a lot like another student in the class who I have for French III. I remembered her family is originally from IL so I said, "Right, because we're cousins." Immediately, he checked with aforementioned French student, who, glancing at me, confirmed the tale. Even her close friends in the class believed. And talking about it after class, we think we'll try and keep it up the whole year. :)

Third, and probably last, I'm starting to really really look forward to this summer. Now that the weather is almost in the 70s I'm getting so excited about being able to go out hiking and walk down to the beach (not that I'll be going swimming anytime soon, mind you).

My mind is much like a sieve - I have lost the many, many thoughts that were vying for my typing attention at the beginning of this post.

Doggie Dentures

Hahahahaaa! I thought this commercial was so funny - definitely made me do at least two double-takes.

Reconciliation

"We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves." - Francois de la Rochefoucauld

So how do we resolve our true selves with our presented selves (whether presented in a false fashion or unconsciously)?

The best way I have found is to devote yourself to God and be, above all, His. Then not only are you reconciled to yourself but more importantly, the Lord.

"Yet if you devote your heart to him
and stretch out your hands to him,
if you put away the sin that is in your hand
and allow no evil to dwell in your tent,
then you will lift up your face without shame;
you will stand firm and without fear."
- Job 11: 13-15

Lists

After crossing off one more item from my to-do list (visit my accountant to get booking on my tax return), I stumbled upon this great article called The Art of List-Making, literally chronicling famous artists and their to-do lists. Adolf Konrad drew (and colored) his packing list for a trip, drawing himself in nothing but his underwear and illustrating his clothes and possible combinations of outfits while Finnish architect Eero Saarinen made a list of his wife's most desirable attributes and Italian designer Harry Bertoia wrote a self-assessment and rated himself "poor" on quickness of thought and courage. Interesting, no?

What's on your list?

Smile

Acck! It's been so long since my last post and I was doing so well... sigh. Part of it is because we're back to school now and last week (being the first time in two weeks we've been at school) was pretty crazy.

So here's a short update:

I've been busy. I am now not as busy. I got a tip today that I will be observed in the next week or so. Good tip.

I just smiled a lot because of this.

I am ahead in planning/photocopying for my earth science class but not my French classes - strange. I might, might get separate French III and IV classes next year. I may also have one student in French V. And I've been watching lots and lots of Olympics.

Promises

Today I spent my devo time reflecting on all that is good and right in my life - all the blessings that God has bestowed on small, undeserving me. God has given us so many amazing promises of his love that we forget when things get tough or when we are focused on other things. It is so unbelievably true that when we finally look to God and focus on Him that all other things fall into place.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

And I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don't fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands and my side
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world's sin
So I could carry you in
And give you life
I want to give you life

See the promises that the Lord has given us and be encouraged! We are so precious to him and he holds us tightly in his hands - nothing can separate us from that love. (See Isaiah 43) I could write so much more, but the point is - be strengthend, encouraged, and loved. With Valentine's Day approaching, this is so appropriate - who is a better example of love than He who loves us so much that he would sacrifice himself?

Earthquake

This morning, there was an earthquake in Chicago. Chicago?! You may say, but yes, Chicago. I got a call from my mom early this morning all excited about the 3.8 magnitude earthquake that she slept through. :)

Here's the map that shows where the epicenter was - quite close to our house!

Nerd

So the nerd in me was very excited to wake up this morning and see the news about the Hadron Collider in Switzerland sharing its first (or second?) results! The amazing atom-smashing machine (which is much bigger, newer, and more sensitive than FermiLab's, sorry blokes in Batavia), broke an atom into many more pieces than anticipated! This is very exciting seeing as they are currently searching for the Higgs boson, but are finding more levels of sub-particles will make the search that much more exciting (and frustrating, I'm sure).

Check it out!

Blizzard

And here's some pictures from this afternoon of the blizzard that hit the East Coast today. It kept snowing for about 5 more hours after these pictures were taken!

Looking outside my door at the frosting on the trees.

And those little white blobs are actually bushes that are usually a little taller than the fence behind them. Plus you get the added benefit of seeing the huge snowdrift - about 2 ft. deep.

The Linguists

Sweeeeet. Apparently there was a film out two years ago all about linguistics and saving lost languages. After reading about the last speaker of Bo dying yesterday, I was inspired wander more online and found out lots of interesting information about saving dying languages, many of which are found in southeast Asian islands and Native American tongues in the United States.

Here's a great citation from an article called The Tragedy of Dying Languages that describes how important languages are:

We imagine eureka moments taking place in modern laboratories or classical civilizations. But key insights of biology, pharmacology, genetics, and navigation arose and persisted solely by word of mouth, in small, unwritten tongues. Finally, this web of knowledge contains feats of human ingenuity -epics, myths, rituals - that celebrate and interpret our existence.

Pundits argue that linguistic differences are little more than random drift, minor variations in meaning and pronunciation that emerge over time (the British say 'lorry', Americans 'truck'; Tuesday is CHEWS-day, for Brits, TOOZ-day for Americans).

These reveal nothing interestingly different about our souls or minds, some claim. But that's like saying that the Pyramid of Cheops differs from Notre Dame Cathedral only by stone-cutting techniques that evolved randomly in different times and places; revealing nothing unique in the ancient Egyptian or Medieval French imagination.

All cultures encode their genius in verbal monuments, while considerably fewer do so in stone edifices. We might as well proclaim human history banal, and human genius of no value to our survival.

The fate of languages is interlinked with that of species, as they undergo parallel extinctions. Scientific knowledge is comparable for both domains, with an estimated 80% of plant and animal species unknown to science, and 80% of languages yet to be documented.

Sweet! Languages are sooo important. I have often been on the receiving end of looks that scream, "You majored in French? That's not very useful." But the study of languages, how people learn them, how to teach them, and how they integrate into history, literature, and culture is immeasurably important.

On a completely unrelated side note, we are supposed to get 4 inches of snow today, 14 tonight, and 8 tomorrow. I'm guessing I won't be at school for much of next week...

Ancient Times

In ancient times....

- There was a lot of snow. = Ice Ages
- There were cool languages. = Tower of Babel.
- There was no school. = Low level of literacy

In modern times...

- There is a lot of snow. = Southern Maryland has turned into an ice age.
- There are less cool languages. = Click on the link and read, linguists!
- There is lots of school + Lots of snow = I will be teaching until July. Maybe.

The Bleu Plate Special

Desperately needing some humor after taking yesterday off to go to a foreign language teaching symposium in Baltimore (meaning I had to get up really early, did not get home until about 12 hours later, and sat in a chair allllll day), I looked up a few Dave Barry columns and found one about France and silly French people in general.

However, despite sitting around all day (which made me very sleepy), the speaker at the symposium was very excellent and I have lots of new ideas to try out - some of which I will be starting this week, others of which will wait until next year when two of my classes have only had me as a French teacher and I won't hear, "Well, Ms. So-and-So never did it this way," every other breath.

And today with my upper-level classes, we talked about Haiti both from colonial times and its connection to France (and now possibly Senegal) and the government, etc. of recent years. It was actually a good discussion and some of my students were really interested in the situation there. Also, we started brainstorming a master plan to get more students to take French (possibly t-shirts for the 8th grade open-house??) If you have ideas on how I can get more kids to want to take French, please let me know!

And read the column, it's very funny.

Bulwer-Lytton Contest

For all lovers of good writing, here are this year's winners of the Bulwer-Lytton contest, (aka "It Was a dark and Stormy Night" Contest) run by the English Department of San Jose State University, wherein one writes only the first line of a bad novel.

10. As a scientist, Throckmorton knew that if he were ever to break wind in the echo chamber, he would never hear the end of it.

9. Just beyond the Narrows , the river widens.

8. With a curvaceous figure that Venus would have envied, a tanned unblemished oval face framed with lustrous thick brown hair, deep azure-blue eyes fringed with long black lashes, perfect teeth that vied for competition, and a small straight nose, Marilee had a beauty that defied description.

7. Andre, a simple peasant, had only one thing on his mind as he crept along the East wall: "Andre creep... Andre creep...Andre creep."

6. Stanislaus Smedley, a man always on the cutting edge of narcissism, was about to give his body and soul to a back alley sex-change surgeon to become the woman he loved..

5. Although Sarah had an abnormal fear of mice, it did not keep her from eking out a living at a local pet store.

4. Stanley looked quite bored and somewhat detached, but then penguins often do.

3. Like an over-ripe beefsteak tomato rimmed with cottage cheese, the corpulent remains of Santa Claus lay dead on the hotel floor.

2. Mike Hardware was the kind of private eye who didn't know the meaning of the word "fear"'; a man who could laugh in the face of danger and spit in the eye of death -- in short, a moron with suicidal tendencies.

AND THE WINNER IS...

1. The sun oozed over the horizon, shoved aside darkness, crept along the greensward, and, with sickly fingers, pushed through the castle window, revealing the pillaged princess, hand at throat, crown asunder, gaping in frenzied horror at the sated, sodden amphibian lying beside her, disbelieving the magnitude of the frog's deception, screaming madly, "You lied!"

Why?

While catching up on my current events (following a very productive (and expensive) day grocery shopping, wal-marting, etc.) I found this very interesting and well-written article, "Why does God allow natural disasters?"

Check it out.

Encouragement

After watching CNN and BBC for hours and hearing all that is going on in Haiti, I was really in need of some encouragement (and hopefully am passing it on) and came upon Isaiah chapter 41, which is titled, "Fear Not, For I Am with You."

"Fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." - Isaiah 41:10

"When the poor and needy seek water,
and there is none,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them." - Isaiah 41:17

I particularly enjoyed these verses although the whole chapter is great, these two seemed particularly applicable and encouraging. I already was very familiar with verse 10 as it is a verse I often use to encourage myself when I am feeling lonely (it happens when you're not living in a dorm anymore), but verse 17 hit the nail right on the head.

Haiti

I ended up having a great conversation with one of my students today concerning the earthquake in Haiti last night. It was really eye-opening for the student and made me look up history of Haiti. (being a French teacher, I think this is important.) It was also great to talk about something so outside of what most high school students here in the United States are aware of.

My student was appalled by the conditions before the earthquake and even more so by the government and history of the country. I remember one particular moment when she said, "But how can they do that?!?" I looked up pictures of the shanty towns and before/after pictures of the cities (especially Port-au-Prince and Petionville) and the expression on this student's face made me think - why aren't we all always this offended by inhumane conditions all over the world and willing to contribute? Why do we seemingly have to wait until there's a disaster? Because we're human. So I pray that God will give me empathy and open my eyes to what I can do every day. And not only that, but give me the confidence and discipline to do what I can!

"Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. " - Job 42:11

What a good example this is of the love we should show others! (Except the part in Job where everyone abandoned him; rather, this part, where we share comfort and supplies for physical needs.) This should not only be for our close friends and family, but others that we may reach out to. For we are commanded, "Love your neighbor as yourself," (Matthew 19:19) and we are given the example of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). How much more in this modern day of convenience, fast travel, and faster communication must I take it upon myself to constantly aid and give up prayers to the best of my abilities?

Well Done!

As a reward for completing a level of a game online today, I was rewarded with the following message:

WELL DONE!

As a reward you will be played some easy listening music followed by some vigorous jazz.

Haha. I got quite a bit of amusement from this message. What a great way to reward arcade game players and expose them to a little bit of culture. Not culture I am very fond of (the easy listening), but culture nonetheless.

Laughter

It's important to laugh.

"La plus perdue de toutes les journées est celle où l'on n'a pas ri." - Sébastien Roch Nicolas, dit CHAMFORT, Maximes et pensées

Roughly translated to: "The most wasted of all days is the one where one did not laugh."

I'm finding more and more that it's important to have a sense of humour especially when dealing daily with teenagers! There are good days and bad days, but at the end of the day, I need to remember how much I care for my kids and the smiles and laughs they give me.