I've gotten so behind on my blogging! But I was catching up on reading some today and ran across this video on Sanya's. I couldn't resist posting it too. Watch it to the end and you will most definitely be blessed. After I watched it, the song "Rescue" that we sing at church kept going through my mind..."I need you Jesus, to come to my rescue...Where else can I go? No other name by which I am saved. Capture me with Grace. I will follow you..."
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
Where One Door Closes...
Last night I shut the door on a pretty big part of my life. Literally. I closed my office door at ISU and walked away from a cleared out, empty office. I took my name plate from the door, put it in my “take home” box, and turned in my keys in the secretary’s drop box. Wow. I’d closed that office door behind me and walked down that hallway so many times through the years, often hauling a book bag full of papers to grade. Despite teaching English composition all those years, on my way out I began to get a little mathematical in my thinking…
Ten full years is twenty semesters. Each semester I had four sections, each with an enrollment of right around 25. One hundred students per semester is 200 per year, times 10 years is 2000 students. It varied a bit from course to course, but usually within a semester, my students would write five papers a piece. With each of my students doing that, it means that I graded around 10,000 papers during my time at ISU!!! I really don’t even want to convert that to hours because it might be too painful, plus some papers were a fast grade, as opposed to the research paper which usually took between 30-45 minutes per paper!
But aside from all that grading, I really did enjoy being in the classroom with those students. It will seem really weird next week to know that classes are starting and I won’t be there to welcome in a whole new crop of freshman comp students. And while I know in my heart of hearts that it was time for me to leave, and making the decision to get out of my comfort zone and switch careers was exactly what God showed me he wanted me to do, at least for now, I’m still a bit sentimental about the whole thing. So yes, I’ll close that chapter of the book, but I won’t completely close the door on what that chapter has been grooming me for: the possibility of continuing to impact people from the front of the room, whether indirectly or (prayer of prayers!) quite directly, striving to show them Jesus.
Ten full years is twenty semesters. Each semester I had four sections, each with an enrollment of right around 25. One hundred students per semester is 200 per year, times 10 years is 2000 students. It varied a bit from course to course, but usually within a semester, my students would write five papers a piece. With each of my students doing that, it means that I graded around 10,000 papers during my time at ISU!!! I really don’t even want to convert that to hours because it might be too painful, plus some papers were a fast grade, as opposed to the research paper which usually took between 30-45 minutes per paper!
But aside from all that grading, I really did enjoy being in the classroom with those students. It will seem really weird next week to know that classes are starting and I won’t be there to welcome in a whole new crop of freshman comp students. And while I know in my heart of hearts that it was time for me to leave, and making the decision to get out of my comfort zone and switch careers was exactly what God showed me he wanted me to do, at least for now, I’m still a bit sentimental about the whole thing. So yes, I’ll close that chapter of the book, but I won’t completely close the door on what that chapter has been grooming me for: the possibility of continuing to impact people from the front of the room, whether indirectly or (prayer of prayers!) quite directly, striving to show them Jesus.
Friday, August 3, 2007
Bird Update
I'm afraid I have a very sad update to the last post. Our little cage-dwelling tweeter has flown on home to Glory. Rest in peace, little Buddy.
But on a positive note, the hummers are thriving as much as ever. Check out these snapshots and see if you can find them all...
We'll start out easy. This first one only shows three. :-)
These next two show six in each. Can you see them all? If not look for blurry spots where only a wing may be showing.
These next two show six in each. Can you see them all? If not look for blurry spots where only a wing may be showing.
Pretty cool, huh? Fascinating creatures. I could wax philosophic here about how like hummingbirds we are, buzzing around with our "buzzy" lives, but requiring constant nourishment from the well-spring of life, the sweet nectar of our Saviour, but I won't. :-)
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Eat Like a What?!
You know that saying “She eats like a bird?” As in, “No wonder she’s so skinny. She eats like a bird, ya know.” Well I’m here to tell you it’s a LIE. Birds eat like pigs!
Our household has turned into quite an aviary lately and it’s all I can do to keep up with the appetites of these feathered “friends” of ours. First of all, the hummingbirds are already on their fourth bag (and I mean, the largest-sized sugar bag that Walmart carries) of sugar for the summer. We have a pretty big glass feeder and even though I fill it with sugar water in the morning, it’s empty by the time I get home from work. It’s not unusual to see seven or eight hummers swarming the feeder at once. I’ve been dive-bombed many times as I’m filling the feeder, too. Patience is not a hummingbird virtue.
And now there’s a little tweeter that Maisie found at the bottom of a bush. We bought a cheap bird cage for it because it looks like it’s on the cusp of beginner flight school. Man, is he cute! Still has some of the fluff hanging on, but lots of feathers too. Good ‘ol Pop went and bought crickets so the kids could feed it. It’s also been feasting on blackberries, bananas, and the occasional earthworm or moth. This bird does NOT “eat like a bird” and when hunger pains hit, even in the wee hours of the morning, his not-so-cute “cheep cheeping” lets us know loud and clear.
So the next time you see a slim figure and decide to comment on said figure’s eating habits, say she must eat like a fish, squirrel, or whatever, but definitely not a bird. :-)
Our household has turned into quite an aviary lately and it’s all I can do to keep up with the appetites of these feathered “friends” of ours. First of all, the hummingbirds are already on their fourth bag (and I mean, the largest-sized sugar bag that Walmart carries) of sugar for the summer. We have a pretty big glass feeder and even though I fill it with sugar water in the morning, it’s empty by the time I get home from work. It’s not unusual to see seven or eight hummers swarming the feeder at once. I’ve been dive-bombed many times as I’m filling the feeder, too. Patience is not a hummingbird virtue.
And now there’s a little tweeter that Maisie found at the bottom of a bush. We bought a cheap bird cage for it because it looks like it’s on the cusp of beginner flight school. Man, is he cute! Still has some of the fluff hanging on, but lots of feathers too. Good ‘ol Pop went and bought crickets so the kids could feed it. It’s also been feasting on blackberries, bananas, and the occasional earthworm or moth. This bird does NOT “eat like a bird” and when hunger pains hit, even in the wee hours of the morning, his not-so-cute “cheep cheeping” lets us know loud and clear.
So the next time you see a slim figure and decide to comment on said figure’s eating habits, say she must eat like a fish, squirrel, or whatever, but definitely not a bird. :-)
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