A call to all parents

This plea goes to all the parents out there. If you love your children at all (which I know that you do), don't let them get past middle school without understanding fractions. It will make their lives and the lives of so many math teachers out there more pleasant and productive . Thank you!

(sorry -- this comes after a long day of students asking questions about things that they aught to know.)

Forgive Me, please...

Time has been getting away from me these days. If you know me well, you know that I feel guilty about everything. Today, I feel retched about not posting for almost 2 weeks! It's amazing how little things can make me feel guilty... but that's a conversation for another day.

Joel and I some friends from college come visit this weekend. It was fun to get to hang out with them and catch up on their lives and give them a picture of ours. I love those friendships that are so solid that even when you don't talk for quite sometime, then you see each other you can pick right back up where you left off.

Today is such a good day for a nap, but lesson plans and overheads must be created for this week. Unfortunately no nap is in sight for me. I guess i better get back to work.

Lots of Little Encouragement

The past few days have been full of little encouraging bits of life, so I thought I'd share them with you.

1. This weekend I was able to spend a lot of time planning for my classes. So besides writing a test, I'm good for the next two weeks (copies made and all!).

2. Saturday night RivKids was a sucess! We had forty kids who all seemed to really enjoy Kidmo, the vidoe series we're doing! (thanks Susan for all your hard work).

3. I talked with a mom of a fourth grade boy who came to riverview once this sunday. The boy was so impressed with the little postcard that we sent to him thanking him for his visit. He thought we were cool!

4. I heard tons of cool stories from parents about how their children sacrificed their earned money to give to the Hurricane Katrina relief instead of keeping it for themselves. How cool are are RivKids! I just love them.

5. I worked registration this Sunday for RivKids. Because I was standing at the front I was able to talk to several new MSU students who were at Riverview for their first time. It was cool to get to meet them because I usually don't have much contact with them.

6. Joel's dad has an interview for a job in Hastings, MI. We've been praying that he'd get a job up here so they could be close to both Molly & Myron and Joel & me.

So even though life is crazy teaching four classes and driving back and forth from LCC to MSU, God is doing some cool things. I'm just glad that I get to step back every so often and take a look at them!

Labor Day

Joel, Stokley and I had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. On Saturday we were able to meet our new niece, Besty, who is a wonderful little girl, covered with lots of dark brown hair. Stokley spent some fun time playing with Gideon. On Sunday we went to my parents and had such a relaxing visit. They have a huge back porch that overlooks the golf course. We spent most of our time hanging out there watching the golfers go by. Stokley loved being outside all day -- not to mention that he got to play with my aunt's newfoundland and my cousins black lab. However, he did get stung by a bee on his tongue, so Joel had to perform surgery to get the stinger out. Stokley was really good and didn't swell at all! I haven't relaxed that much since our Mackinaw Island trip!

On the serious side, I realized that by taking on this fourth class, I'm working full time. Wow-- I've never worked full time before (as an adult). I think this semester is going to teach me a lot about priorities and how to say no to things (because I really don't have the time). It'll be interesting to see how I've changed at the end of this semester!

One last note --- if you know Tricia, please pray for her and her family. Her aunt who has been struggling with cancer passed away this morning. The funeral is on Monday in Tennessee. I'm sure they would appreciate your prayers.