It's Already June!

In my quest to read the Bible by the end of 2012 (remember, I only started in April), I am now up to having completed 30 of the 66 books! Almost half-way there!  I have no order in which I'm reading the Bible, but I was focusing on the shorter/smaller books first - mostly due to being busy with work and wanting to see progress on this endeavour (I'm an instant gratification sort of girl).

In other news, I've decided to try another church. The one I've been "attending" since I moved here really isn't doing it for me. I just haven't felt connected and still feel like such an outsider. And, because I never felt connected, I didn't go every week.

About three weeks ago, I went to another church. It's one that one of my co-workers goes to, and she suggested a few months ago that I should give them a try. So, I finally did. I must say that I felt a different atmosphere there - friendlier.  That particular day, four of us were there and sitting together (maybe that helped me feel a little more included), and at the end of the service, one of the families from our school came up to A (my colleague) and invited her over to their place for a BBQ (A also teaches their youngest son, and I'll be teaching him next year). They told her she could bring her friends along as well, but I was the only one who went with her. It was very lovely and I enjoyed it. 

I didn't go the next week as I hadn't got much sleep the night before and overslept in the morning, but I did go again last week, and I'll be going tomorrow as well. I am going to inquire about Bible studies/home groups as well, but where it is now June, I would imagine that most will be ending for the summer. Besides, I'm heading back home for the summer so I won't be here then anyway. I would like to join a Bible study/home group in the fall though, so hopefully there will be some that aren't focusing on marriage, raising kids, for seniors, or young adults.

In school news, we have 8 more school days left (not counting weekends). I feel so ready for a break right now, and have lots to do once school ends. I may be moving classrooms, and if that is so, then I'll have to pack up grade 3 related things and move them to a new room (I'm not doing a split class next year, so I won't be taking any of the grade 4 items...unless they are things that I bought or created myself (I'll just store them for the future if I end up with grade 4 in the future).  I also need to organize my things, organize the class, create some lesson plans, and I want to prepare as much as I can before I head out for the summer, since I won't be here until towards the end of August so I wouldn't be able to pop in during vacation to set things up. I'll have about a little more than a week to prepare once I get back, and I don't know if that would be enough time to do it or not. So, since we are supposed to stay until the end of June (according to our contracts), I should be able to get some things accomplished in that time.

What's new in your life? Do you have plans for the summer? Let me know!

I Am Thankful For...

This week, I am thankful for:

1. Friends.

Friday evening I got together with three co-workers and we had an enjoyable evening playing Dutch Blitz. I am getting better at this game, and came in second place, and wasn't too far off from the winner. We had a lot of laughs, talked and ate some snacks.

Saturday, three different co-workers and I got together for supper. We had good food (I had the chicken teryaki (sp?) rice bowl, which was delicious), good conversation and more laughs.

2. The Northern Lights.

Normally when my co-workers and I get together, we don't stay out too late. However, Friday night we left M's place shortly after midnight. I happened to glance out into the distance (we were on the outskirts of the city) and saw what I thought was just the glow from the city lights. I kept looking as I didn't think they were the lights. I asked A if I was seeing the Northern Lights or not, and she said it was. A, D and I stood there a few moments watching. They weren't spectacular and bright, just kind of pale green - almost white. They did dance in the sky a little, shifting and changing.

I've been living here for eight months now, and this was my first time seeing the Northern Lights! I'm able to cross that off my bucket list - sort of. I did re-add it and tweak it a little to now read that I want to see a spectacular display of them.

3. Rain.

I'm thankful for the rain, because it wasn't snow. And, we also need it (the rain that is, not the snow).

Of course there is a lot more I'm thankful for, but it's late and I'm just going to keep this post short. I've had a cold these past few days, though it feels like it may be going away now (hopefully). Wednesday evening my nose got quite stuffy - the way it does when I get a cold; but I didn't feel sick, didn't feel like I had a cold. I felt fine the next day (my nose wasn't stuffy either), but by the end of the day my throat was getting sore. So, I ended up getting a cold afterall. The sore throat is gone now, thankfully, and I'm taking some cold pills and they are helping. Hopefully this cold doesn't last much longer.

What are you thankful for this week?

Not That Anyone Is Reading

For a short work week, it seemed to drag on. Tuesday and Wednesday flew by, but most of Thursday and all of Friday was slower than cold molasses going up the hill backwards. And I don't know why.

I'm thankful this week that my class was pretty well behaved - no problems or anything. I hope it keeps up!

I've been quite disciplined with my goal of reading the entire Bible in the rest of 2012. I've got 22 books completed now, and I'm just about half way through Proverbs. I may have said before that I'm focusing more on reading the shorter books first, that way it will (hopefully) give me the motivation by looking at my list and seeing so many check marks for what I've read. It might help me to keep on going - especially when I muddle through the longer books in the Old Testament.

I'm also keeping disciplined fairly well in other areas in my life, which is also a positive step forward. I'll talk about those things another time, however.

We've been  getting good weather lately, however Friday night and yesterday we got snow! It wasn't really a lot, but any amount in April is too much in my opinion. Today only reached +3C, but it was enough to melt a good portion of the white stuff.

Well, I'm just going to keep this short for now. Hopefully I can update with a much better post next time. I don't have a lot of news, and I haven't read or been inspired lately to write a good post. But, I did want to update my blog - not that anyone is reading, but that's OK.

Have a Christ-filled day!

Thirteen Down, Fifty Three To Go

The night before last I had a difficult time sleeping. I fell asleep around eleven, but woke up about an hour and a half later and couldn't get back to sleep. Thankfully, it's still Spring Break and I don't have to worry about having to get up early to go into work.

After lying there a few minutes, I decided to get up and read to see if that would help me become tired again (like it seems to do lately; I think I need my glasses changed/strengthened, but that's a story for another time). I chose to read my Bible, praying for God to speak to me through His words.

I don't think anything specifically spoke to me, but what I did decide/choose to do was to begin reading the Bible with the goal of finishing reading the whole thing by the end of 2012. Sure, I've missed the entire first three months of the year, but there is still plenty of time. And besides, just within the last month or two I finished reading a few of the shorter books (like 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Philippians, Colossians) as well as just finishing the book of Deuteronomy the other day. So, those will count as well since I finished reading them in 2012!

This is definitely a challenge in which one needs to be disciplined. Some of the books in the Bible aren't all that exciting - at least I don't think they are. I struggle to make it through the genealogies (even though genealogy is one of my hobbies), the book of Numbers, Lamentations, Hebrews...but I try to remember some advice my BFF told me she was given by her aunt one time. She said, "When you struggle to get through reading some of those books, remember that God is in the details."

That's pretty good advice - and so very true.

I should note that this attempt at reading the entire Bible is not one of meditation. It's reading. Yes, there will be times when I sit and meditate on something I read, but the exercise is to read it through. I've done this once before, in my early years as a Christian, and I know I can do it again. I've actually probably read the entire Bible more than once over the years, but I've not kept track or done it on purpose. This is a time that I want to read with the purpose of reading the whole thing from Genesis to Revelation.

Thirteen down (as of this post), 53 to go!

Have you ever read the entire Bible through? How long did it take you? Will you do it again?

Spring Break - Day 7

I have enjoyed these last few days, and I'm looking forward to the coming week as well - we have that off too. I found out today that the public schools also have 2 weeks off at this time, so it's not just our school (which is private).

Cross pattern on a chicken egg

Thursday was pretty much spent doing pysanky (Ukrainian egg dying). I did two eggs, and those took the better part of the day, because it is a long process - depending on how detailed the egg is.

I just learned how to do this amazing craft last fall. It's a process of putting beeswax on the egg, dying it, covering the parts you want in that colour in wax and dipping it in a different colour, and repeating the process until you are done.

Here is the end result of the first egg I did yesterday. I got the pattern off the internet, and it was from a colouring page. I used purple (which looks blue here), green, and black. The white is the egg shell.  It's not the best, but remember, I am still learning this art.

My own design on a chicken egg

The second egg is a design I created myself. I used only yellow and black (again, the white is the shell). I'm not really satisfied with this one as it is still looking like a kid did it, lol. But, in order to improve, I have to keep practicing and learning. I eventually want to get really good and be able to do intricate designs, etc.

Right now, I only have a medium sized kyska - the tool used to put the wax on the egg. It doesn't allow me to make smaller lines, so everything looks "big". I plan to eventually get a smaller kyska, but for now, I'll keep using this one. I will have to get more beeswax soon though as the "block" that came with the kit I ordered was small. I thought it was going to be bigger than it was, or else I would have ordered another one or two when I got the kit.

When Christianity came to the Ukraine, they began to incorporate Christian symbols in their work. This is one way I would like to be able to glorify and worship God through, but again, I need lots of practice.

Friday was spent with some co-workers. We went out to the principal's home and had a BBQ and played games with him and his wife. One of the other teachers, R, was babysitting and brought the boy along to play with the principal's son. There were five adults, and the two kids, and we had a very nice afternoon.

Today, I went and finally got my hair cut - it was desperately needing a cut! I also decided to treat myself and get my nails done (gel) as I haven't had them done since 2002. I am satisfied with how both my hair and nails turned out.

***********

Last night as I was reading my Bible, the passage that stood out to me was 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  I first memorized this verse when I was a part of a Bible study in my first or second year as a Christian.

This was a good reminder that God does forgive our sins, but we must confess them to him first.  I think sometimes I "forget" that my sins our forgiven  - mostly because the enemy likes to keep reminding us of them and of our failures, etc. So, every once in awhile, it's nice to get the reminder from the Word, from God, that our sins our forgiven if we ask.

Thank You Lord for forgiving my sins!

Lately, I have fallen a little behind in my disciplined behaviour of reading my devotions and Bible, and praying. I'm not beating myself up for that though, but I am making a more conscious effort to make sure that every day I do my readings and spend time in the Word. I also find that I tend to say a lot of little prayers throughout the day (like if I'm on facebook and see that someone has requested prayer for a person or situation, I will stop and say a prayer at that moment), rather than keep everything for the end of the day and forget something.

I don't think there is any right or wrong way to pray - we just need to do it. And, even though God knows our prayers long before we put them into words, we still need that communication with Him. He wants us to spend time with Him and talk with Him - and it's also important to not just pray, but to listen for His still small voice. I am working more at making prayer a two-way conversation with God, and not just me speaking/praying a monologue. I haven't mastered this yet, but I'm working at improving!

This has turned into a far longer post than I had intended, so I will sign off for now. Have a Christ-filled day!

Spring Break - Day 4

I didn't do a whole lot today, but that's OK. I wanted to lay low because of my sciatic. I took some muscle relaxers last night and they helped, but I'm still feeling the stiffness/soreness in my leg. I'll take more meds later tonight.

I did do a couple of crafterly things I had planned on doing during the break - using things I bought in GP.

The first photo shows an acrylic painting I did. It was sort of cheating, because the outline of the flower was pre-printed on the canvas. There is a colour picture of what it looks like in the kit, and I just followed that. All the painting (blending, etc.) was done by me - no cheating.

The second photo (to the right) is of a Pinterest creation. In other words, that's where I found the idea for this craft.

I bought a small canvas (which came with the display stand) at the dollar store in GP, affixed some crayons (also from the dollar store) to the top and melted them down the canvas. There wasn't a lot of room, so the wax didn't have much room to run. Also, after looking at it a little later on, I probably should have put more lighter colours in the middle so it wouldn't be quite so dark. That could alter the look of it as well, I think. At some point, I plan on doing this again with a bigger canvas and maybe only using certain colours...kind of like the ones done that I've seen on Pinterest.

I plan on taking this crayon art to school and put in my classroom (on one of the shelves). The kids might like this. I'd be interested to see if they try it on their own (with help from parents, of course) and see how theirs turn out.

While surfing around Pinterest, I came across a verse of Scripture that I long to be used to describe me:

"Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future. She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue." Proverbs 31:25-26

Mind you, I also long for Proverbs 31:10-31 to describe me...though most of it describes a wife and mother. My greatest desire is to be a wife and mother, and I want to be the type of woman described in the Proverbs. I'm still praying about this :o).

Spring Break - Day 3

I arrived home from my two days of "vacation" in GP late this afternoon.

We ended up leaving later than originally planned, but that wasn't any big deal. We also took the scenic route at one point. L wanted to shave a little time off our route, so she took a new way that she'd only travelled once before with her son - while he was doing the driving. Instead of going on the highway, we went down some back roads. L said that as long as we keep going east and turn south at some point, we'd end up back at the highway. And, since we weren't in any hurry or had to be in GP at a certain time, we just enjoyed the trip. And yes, we did keep going east and south and ended up back on the highway just outside of GP - so it all worked out well.

Since we didn't want to spend a whole lot on a place to stay, we opted for a motel instead of hotel. After checking in, we decided this place would not be on a list of "must stay here" places, at least for us. The guy behind the desk seemed rather "hippie-ish" (in looks), which wasn't a big deal. While we checked in, he became more and more unprofessional by talking about parties, drinking, and "ordering" visitors. He started swearing, every other word - not at us but just littered in his conversation - and was extremely unprofessional in my mind. I don't know if this was the owner or if he just worked there, but I definitely didn't feel like he was the type of person they should have at the counter.

When we got to the room and opened the door, we were greeted by an overpowering odor of smoke. Great, they allowed smoking in the rooms! It was disgusting! I didn't think they allowed smoking in rooms now, but apparently in this place they do. It sure didn't help my allergies any!

We made sure to keep the deadbolt on the door, and thankfully we didn't have any problems or worries. I don't think it was a "bad" section of town or anything, but you never can tell. And besides, even if we had been in a hotel, the deadbolt would have been locked anyway.

I got lots of shopping done - 3 tops, a couple of necklaces (not expensive) and some other general things. We also ate supper yesterday at The Keg - the first time I've ever eaten in that restaurant. It was good, but it was a little more than I would have liked to pay for my meal.

So, this evening, my back is lame. I think it's from the sneakers I was wearing. I left the ones I usually wear at school so I brought my running shoes - definitely not made for walking. I'll probably take a couple of muscle relaxers in awhile, and pray they work. I really don't want my back to get like it was a few years ago!

Going to head to bed in the not too distant future since I'm feeling tired from the last couple of days, and once I take the muscle relaxers and they kick in, I'll be even more tired. At least I don't have to worry about getting up early for work in the morning!

It's been a good start to Spring Break. Hopefully the rest will go well, too!