The month of February felt like a year long, but March is steaming full speed ahead! We’ve begun spring sports, had revival services at church, survived with about half of the school being sick, began spring yard work, and are enjoying some warmer temperatures this week!
Wyatt and Chandler are both on the golf team, and they are enjoying that immensely. The boys had their first match yesterday and while it wasn’t their best game for either of them, their team placed fourth out of seven. So it wasn’t terrible! Both boys are relatively new to the game of golf, and I know about nil! I didn’t know what a “boogie” was or if it was a good or bad thing- I still don’t completely know! I’ve decided that I need to learn to play golf as all the boys seem to enjoy it, but I’m a fair weather golfer. It can’t be too hot, too cold, too buggy, too muggy, basically I guess I’ll learn when I feel like it! Haha! I’ll learn eventually! My friend, Laura, and her daughter, Ava, went to watch the boys play their golf game yesterday, so I’m glad that she was able to go and take some pictures. With both boys playing, I think I’d need a golf cart to get around the course. I gather that it’s a shot gun start with different players at different holes on the course. The teams are all split amongst each other and keep track of another players score. Since Wyatt and Chandler can’t keep track of each other’s score as their on the same team, they were at different holes on the course yesterday. I’m sure I’ll learn a lot about golf over the next six weeks!
Garett is playing baseball this spring. He likes golf too, but he decided to play baseball this year. He likes baseball, but his mama doesn’t like the long practices! Wyatt and Chandler are generally done with golf practice around 5:00pm, and Garett isn’t done til about 6:30pm, so it makes getting everyone home a wee bit interesting! We are working on figuring it all out, and hopefully Garett will be getting his license in the next couple of weeks. Garett’s first game will be on Friday, and the weather looks like it will be beautiful, I also like watching baseball when it’s warm and sunny! I guess I’m a fair weather fan! :)
Travis is anxiously waiting his turn to play spring sports, and that should start happening at the end of the month. He will be playing youth soccer, and he is very excited about that. Emma is happy to have warmer weather, and more time outside. Spring is a fun time of year!
We’ve survived a week of feeling like everyone was either getting sick or getting over being sick! Last week, I took Wyatt to the walk-in clinic as he was running a fever and his throat was hurting really badly. I’m not one to run off to the doctors, but there have been several cases of strep throat going around! He had the flu, but not strep. He missed a few days of school, and Emma was sick for a day or two, but so far the rest of us have remained relatively healthy! We praise the Lord for that! I’ve felt very tired, but daylight savings time also has that effect on me.
Two weeks ago, we had grandparents day at school. This event is for the elementary students, and they sing or say a poem for the grandparents that attend. We host a book fair where the grandparents can buy a book for the library. They purchase the book in honor of their grandchild, and the library gets a few new books! My friend, Jennifer, and I host the book fair for the library. This year we set out 59 books to sell, and at the end of two hours we had five books left over! It creates a lot of work to get the new books barcoded and labeled into the library, but it also helps bring in new books for the library. We live in an era where kids are not reading nearly enough, so we try to incorporate ways for the students to enjoy reading. I enjoy reading, but I find it hard to engage a lot of students in books these days. If you have any suggestions about great books for young readers, we are always open to ideas!
We are still waiting to hear back about the opportunity scholarship for our children. Originally we were supposed to receive word in March about whether or not we would get any scholarship help, but now that date has been moved into April. Please continue to pray with us about this scholarship. It would be a huge blessing to our family. God has always provided, and we are so very thankful for that!
Garett and Chandler have the unique opportunity to go on a missions trip to the Dominican Republic in just a little over a week! We are so excited about this opportunity for them. Garett has been to Haiti a few times on missions trip, but that is a very unsafe country currently. God opened the doors for the boys to go with my sister, Jen, as well as my Dad on this trip to the Dominican Republic. We are praying fervently that God will work in their hearts. The boys are praying that they’ll be able to host a little soccer clinic down in the D.R., and our athletic director from school gave the boys some old uniforms to take with them. It would be an exciting opportunity to incorporate sports and the Good News of the Gospel, so we are praying that God will make a way for this to happen. They will also be helping with work on various projects, helping with Vacation Bible school, and whatever else needs doing. If you feel led to help them financially, I am including a link in this post. This link is for Chandler, but the money will go towards both boys. We appreciate your prayers for our sons as they travel, serve, and bless others during this week in the D.R. The link below is the donation link for the boys trip.
https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/0a8c5c8a-10ea-418a-8f8e-ed635f6b3e3a
We are also looking forward to spring break! We have about two and half weeks til break, and I am very much looking forward to having a break from school. I always have a lengthy list of things I think I’m going to accomplish over break, and I never complete the list! However, it’s good to dream big!
In art classes, we are doing lots of spring art! Since tulips are one of my favorite flowers, we are doing a lot of “tulip” art. I have a great art assistant, Kaycee, who willingly helps me with whatever messes we are creating in art. I’ve been blessed to work with her this year, and God knew it would be good for both of us. We are also trying to drive home to our students the importance of loving God with all our hearts, glorifying Him with our lives, and being intentional. It’s a big job to teach young hearts and minds, and I don’t take the opportunity lightly.
Recently, I needed to write out my philosophy of “Christian Education” for something I’m working on. I reflected back on what I had written in college, and while I’ve taken some of that through the years, I was very young. :) I believe that the importance of Christian Education is to glorify God. If we were created for His glory, shouldn’t that reflect in our teachings to our students? As a Christian educator, my calling is to point my students to Jesus as well as to educate them to the best of my ability in their academics. This should be done whether I’m teaching art, library or anything else. Because we live in this world, I also need to prepare my students to reach certain academic standards, but Christlikeness should be seen in both my educational teaching and my interactions of with my students. Both should reflect a desire to glorify God as that is why I was created and so were my students! There are certainly a lot of educators doing “Christian education” in our public school systems, and we need that. We need teachers to pray for their students in those classrooms, point them to Jesus through their actions, and disciple them. I’m thankful that I can pray out loud with each of my classes, correct them with what the Bible says, point them to the Scriptures, and pour into their lives. I don’t know how long God has for me in Christian education, but if ever I lose that passion and desire, it’s time to be done. For now, I’ll do my best to teach intentionally and glorify God. Obviously, my Christian education philosophy is much longer than those few sentences mentioned, but the gist is there. I learned so much about “Christian Education” from being mentored by a fabulous older and wiser teacher. Garett and Chandler both had the privilege of being taught by Mrs. Becky Martz in their junior high years. She taught them academics, but she taught them so, so much more than that. Through her example, I learned so much about how I wanted to have my approach to my students when the opportunity presented itself. Oh, teaching kindergarten is different than junior high, but loving Jesus and pointing kids to Jesus is the same. I’m so thankful for her investment in the lives of all our children, but especially Chandler and Garett.
As Resurrection Sunday approaches, I hope and pray that you take some time to reflect on what Jesus has done for you. God loved you so much that He sent his son, Jesus, to die on the cross for your sin and mine. But- praise the Lord- Jesus rose again! The invitation to accept Him into your heart is open for all of us, and I hope that you’ve taken the time to accept the free gift of salvation. We certainly cannot get into Heaven on our own, and our only hope is in Jesus. Praise the Lord for salvation!
