Happy Thanksgiving to All

Happy Thanksgiving everybody out there!
I thank God for all of the good that comes out of this cyberspace-world. I thank God for being able to see pictures of my grand babies and hear from family and friends. And for all my many readers- both real and imaginary. ( only kidding, no really)
And for my daughter setting me up on this. And for food and health and a new dryer. And vehicles and a JOB!
I thank God that my grandchildren have such caring and competent parents, so that I don't have to worry as so many do.
And I thank God for my and for their health- such a precious gift. I thank God for my family, for the beautiful climate I enjoy, and so much more.
And I thank God for God. A God who is there with His comfort and love even when some of these other blessings are taken away. For a God who so related with our pain and failures that He became flesh and dwelt among us. I thank Him that as I worship Him, I too behold His Glory, and receive grace upon grace. And it makes me fall in love with Him more!

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
V. 16-17 And of His fulness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

We went to the zoo!

I loved it! This video was a favorite of Selah's. We all agreed that it was, "A very unpleasant sound." ( for the best effect, imagine Selah's little pixie voice saying that slowly and distinctly.)
I went a little crazy with the photos, but am taking more time than I can afford to download this one pathetic little scene. I hope that their noise comes out- it was so strange. At one point they were carrying on with constant shrieks. Turns out it was only their lunchtime cries of anticipation. Talk about overreacting!!!
It was great to be with Rosie and the 2 little ones!. I LOVE THEM!

November's Journey.

Well, in an attempt to not become totally obsolete, I am forcing myself to inform anyone who might care and has not been swallowed up by that newfangled invention- FACE BOOK- about my current journey.

I went from my best class in 18 years in 4th grade to the "Kindergarten from Hell," (spoken by one with 9 previous years of Kinder experience in a very hard area) in a month.

And yet, I felt like God had ordained it for something really good for me. Well, it was good for my seeing some personal progress. Even though I didn't do it perfectly, as I did put in some time for groaning and complaining, I was able to be gentle and kind in lowering the boom on the little, wild, um, how-do-you-say, monkeys. I swear, God makes them so darn cute for a reason. It's so that they survive.

After many parent communications, new, creative forms of time outs and multiple compliments and rewards when they were caught LISTENING, walking, and staying where they were supposed to be- my little class began to emerge as teachable.

I have to say that I was blessed with an amazing assistant for almost 1/2 of the day, and the teacher whose class I was given was there as a "floater," and was also constantly involved in the clay forming process as she was able.

So, after 2 and 1/2 weeks, the higher powers said,"Okay, we can re-open first grade.

And they did. And I took it. I took it, leaving the former teacher with a smaller and better class.

( The extra kids from the Kinder they closed were sent back to their jungle- oops, I mean other class with a teacher with different standards....)

And I ended up with that which God had promised, A REALLY GOOD first grade class.

I am in awe. I don't know how I could get 2 such classes in 1 year.

The transition was exhausting and wore me out, but the light is shining already.

And I carry a deeper sense of His working in all things, forming something of His character in us- forging something in the dark to be used for the Light.