Today's List

1. Our friend Steve stopped by last week to help push my car out of the carport. He popped the hood, looked around, and put it down. The car started! I wouldn't have thought of doing that. Now, if I could just get rid of that pesky "check engine" light. Thanks Steve!

2. I'm totally winning at care packages this deployment. A box of books, dvds, and honey mustard pretzels was VERY well recieved. Hilary: 1, Deployment: 0. I hope Adam has time to shop for my birthday on this first port call. I like care packages too!

3. I keep telling myself I just need to hold on until the end of this school year. I just need to make it the last few weeks. Finish up with the kids, pack up my room, make it to PA for a Summer retreat. I am plodding on through, miserably. I just am so looking forward to having time. Time to sleep, time to enjoy being home without working on school, time to enjoy life. I want to sweep off the porch and sip lemonade. I want to take walks on cool evenings. I want to sit down and read a book. Cover to cover. And I want it to take less than 8 months to finish. Mostly, I want to sit down and take some time to myself without feeling guilty. Without feeling like I should be making a flipchart, or writing some plans, or researching for lessons, or grading papers, or....I just want to be done. I just want testing to be over, and grades to be final, and my room to be packed, and to have just one second to breathe. I just also want to finish strong, to finish as a professional, with a good attitude, and leave this school and leave the classroom on good terms. I don't want it to be that "I quit", but that "I am moving forward". I'm just over it. I'm done. Done with behavior, and paperwork, and...all of it.  And then I realize it. "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it". I need to rejoice in each day. If I gloss over the parts that are hard, I'll miss something good. I might miss the lesson. I will not get any of those days back. Rejoice. Breathe. The days won't go by any faster by wishing them away. This is the day that the Lord has ordained for us, let us rejoice that He has given us a day to do good, to produce fruit, to glorify Him. Let us take every opportunity to it's fullest extent. Let us be content and recieve God's joy. Perspective.

4. I'm in a love triangle between me, my microwave, and my DVR. If there was a fire in my house and I could save only one item, I'd die of smoke inhalation before I could decide which one to take. The stove is getting a bit jealous though, I think it's in cahoots with the empty refrigerator.

List 5-15-11

1. The annual air show has been taking place this weekend. My neighbor Paige and I decided to go on over. There was a pretty specific reason we wanted to be there. Because today we rode in a Huey. It was Awesome with a capital A. I got a little taste of what my husband gets to do. The pilots even banked and rolled a bit for us. It wasn't exactly as cool as a cobra, but they weren't giving any rides in those. Thanks Paige for making me come with you!

2. My flowers are blooming, my herbs are growing, and some animal keeps digging in my pepper plants! Everything is in containers now except the hydrangea, ready to be taken to the new house (still on base), whenever that may be. Now I'm just wondering how I can get that hydrangea bush to the new house too. I really do love it's color and blooms.

3. The next five weeks are going to be extra challenging as I wrap up the school year with my students. Testing, conferences, packing up the room....I'm very unmotivated and not looking forward to dealing with most of it. The school year is completely consuming of all my time and energy. But I won't be at it much longer. 5 more weeks as a classroom teacher and I am DONE.

4. I am DONE because.....I have a new job at a different elementary school as a Technology Facilitator! If I could invent my ideal job, this would be it. Supporting staff, teaching them how to use technology, making technology tools for them, and working PART TIME. Out of challenging circumstances this opportunity arose and only because of certain circumstances did my principal put me up for the position. One answer to a prayer of many months and to the question "Why?"

" 'For I know the plans I have for you', declares the Lord, "Plans to prosper you and NOT to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future."" Jeremiah 29:11

5. That verse is currently written on my bathroom mirror. I've needed it.

6. I've been driving Adam's X-Earth since he left. A. Because I like it, and B. Because my "check engine" light is on in the Sentra and I haven't wanted to deal with it. Things have been so crazy around here, I forgot to start my car. For a month. Now it's dead. Luckily, a friend is coming tomorrow to push it out of the car port and jump it for me. Oops?

A Slightly Different Kind of List

1. I know it's been a while. Over the last two months I've started blog entries, but haven't been able to really find the words to say what has really been happening around here. So much has gone on. Good and bad. Blessings, all of it, no matter how hard.

2. How amazing to be in a community of wives who serve each other in the smallest and biggest of ways! I am so glad for my friends.

3. I miss my husband SO much. I don't know if I've ever missed someone in such a way before. And how amazing is he? So amazing as to be lifting me up and encouraging me from half a world away. He's practicing his spiritual leadership and I am so glad for a husband who can pick up where I leave off.

4. In all of this, I've seen how God is answering prayers and teaching me. Things had to happen this way. I've felt many emotions, but I've always felt a sense of peace too.

5. Last week I visited my brother, Greg, and his wife, Kim, in Rhode Island. We went to Boston, Cape Cod, and of course, around where they live, Newport. It was so nice to be in civilization. (I needed a break from Jacksonville) and see New England. The one downside is that Spring is fog season up there. So even though we drove down the coast of Cape Cod and walked the shore of the bay by the Newport Bridge, I couldn't see a thing. I knew it was supposed to be beautiful. The bridges, the cape, all of it. But I couldn't see past the fog. As we drove over the bridge, I could only see the part of the bridge we were on. Not behind us, not ahead of us. That's how I feel right now. In a fog. I can't go backwards. I can only go forwards. But I can only see the part of the bridge I'm on. I have to Trust God to help me to the next step, because when the fog lifts it will be beautiful. I know He's made it that way. I know He wants me to depend more on Him. To be fully dependent on Him. And I know that's why He's made things happen this way.

6. Adam is deployed, so he couldn't enjoy Boston with me. Greg insisted that I bring Adam with me next time.

7. I might consider becoming a Sox fan after an amazing tour of Fenway Park.

8. I'm saving the tour for when Adam is with me, but I did see the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock.



9. I threw responsibilities to the wayside and tried to enjoy the end of Spring Break by visiting Beaufort, NC. It just so happened that the wild horses and dolphins were enjoying a day there too.

10. I've always loved the ocean. So vast and deep and blue. It always puts things in perspective. I'm but a powerless speck of a human when compared to the power of the sea. It reminds me of God's omniscience, omnipresence, power, and peace. It puts me in my place and I relinquish the control I never really had. Oh, how happy I am to live near the sea.