Short & Sweet

Enjoy! :)

October 23: The result of leaving an anxiety-ridden dog in a crate with a bed for several hours. Oh, Precious.

October 24: No picture.

October 25: Building volcanoes with my students.

October 26: Such a bummer! I had about 1/3 of this drink left when I got home and was so looking forward to drinking the rest after I reheated it!

October 27: Dinner date with Mom! :)

October 28: No picture.

October 29: The best parallel parking job I've ever seen! Notice the space left behind us - it took us about 5 minutes to get into this spot! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time...

October 30: Women's conference at my church. Lauren Chandler walked us through Psalm 107, reminding us of the Lord's steadfast love in all seasons...in loneliness, in bondage, in folly, and in trials. The Lord is good to His children, and it was refreshing to have our focus brought back to the love of the One who sustains us.

"Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!"

~Psalm 107:1

Randomness

Feeling kind of "bleh" about pictures this week, but enjoy the ones I have! :)

October 17: Cousin Ashley made this little guy for me. Isn't he cute? It was a craft she did with some younger cousins of ours - made out of socks, stuffing, and buttons. I love it!

October 18: These leaves I picked up while on a walk, and I was so excited! Red, brown, and yellow are colors you don't see very often in Texas. During a Texas fall, you really only see...well, brown. So like a nerd, I carried these leaves another mile until I got to my camera.

October 19: We celebrate a national holiday each day in Miss Cunningham's 3rd grade classroom. Some days there just aren't any good holidays to celebrate, so I usually make one up. On this day a student came up with one for us - "National There's a Pencil Stuck in the Sharpener Day". There WAS a pencil stuck in the sharpener. So we celebrated accordingly. I like the way this kid thinks! :)

October 20: Evidence that I haven't dusted in a very long time. Gross.

October 21: No picture.

October 22: The poem I wrote about here. :)

October 23: Rachel had some coupons/gift cards for a fancy restaurant called "The Place" in Uptown (great name, I might add...). So we had a bonding night! We got all dressed up and enjoyed a meal and fellowship, ending the night by renting "Night at the Museum 2" from Redbox. It is currently one of my favorite movies.

Cinquains

The assignment: Write a cinquain on a topic related to autumn.

The format:

Title

2 Adjectives

3 Verbs ending in -ing

4 word sentence describing your feelings

Synonym for title

The results:

Turkey

obese, ugly

running, jumping, cooking

You are so repugnant.

Dinner

My response: Speechless

This from a 9-year-old with a phenomenal vocabulary! :)

The Main Thing

One of the many gifts my school gives its teachers is a spiritual renewal day. We have two of these that we are required to "use or lose" before the end of the year. The day is to be one of rest, during which we can spend extended time with the Lord that we wouldn't normally have on a weekday.

Today was mine. And oh, how I love these days.

Aside from a 3-mile walk on a beautiful morning, a cup of coffee and some time in Scripture, I spent the afternoon reading this book:

Julie gave me this book several years ago, and I finally got around to reading it! I'm a little slow...

Usually when I read a new book, I expect to learn something new. This book was exactly what I needed to read today, because its message was one that isn't new but is too often forgotten.

C.J. Mahaney exhorts his readers to come back to the gospel. To make it the "main thing". To remember daily that Jesus Christ died so that sinners would be reconciled to God and forgiven by God. To remember that the holy God of the universe gave Himself up for us because we could never know Him on our own. To remember that it is because of Jesus alone that I am forgiven, accepted, and righteous in God's sight.

I was challenged by this book today. I'm distracted by too many things in this life. Busy schedules, responsibilities, commitments, and worries consume my thoughts. If I truly had the gospel at the center of my life, in the center of my thoughts, how much more could I focus on what truly matters? How much more would my day be governed by this one defining truth? Jesus died for me. He loves me. Because of Him I have hope.

Lord, help me live a cross-centered life.

A Gift

This week I was able to spend time with some people I love dearly. I'm grateful to God for the good gifts He gives His children, including relationships that spur us on toward Him. They are just further evidence of His grace!

Enjoy the pictures! :)

October 9: My sister-in-law, Elise, was in town visiting a friend for the weekend. So fun to spend a day with her!

October 10: Notes from Sunday's sermon.

October 11: Huge boxes of math manipulatives were delivered to our school last week, so naturally - pranking must commence. This is Melissa. While she was out of the room, three teachers on my team (including me, I must admit) stacked about 10 boxes inside the door to her room. And we locked her out. And we hung the bathroom sign on one of the boxes because...well...we found it on the ground in the hallway, so why not?

You can tell Melissa is very angry.

October 12: Some GOOD cousin bonding time on Tuesday evening. Becca and I haven't had a time to sit and chat in awhile, so we went on a coffee date together. It was refreshing to sit and talk about life with her.

October 13: Mom is home from Colorado! Woo hoo!

October 13: Sorry, another one from the 13th. My brother and Abi stopped in Dallas on their move from Austin to Colorado, and it was such a treat to see them!

October 14: Pumpkin day in Miss Cunningham's 3rd grade classroom! We measured, weighed, and counted seeds in class this week, and it was a blast. It also wore me out.

October 15: Decorating mini-pumpkins with our Kindergarten friends.

October 16: Cousin Ashley, who I saw this weekend for a few short hours. Isn't she just beautiful?

Flan and an Oven Fire

Enjoy!

October 2: Sisters? Or cousins? It's so hard to tell! Cousin Catherine came into town last weekend for the OU game. She's a freshman there and is so grown up! She used to be 7...I'm getting old.

October 3: Jamie, one of my roommates, made a flan for a coworker's birthday celebration on Sunday. All was well until the flan spilled over the edges and the oven caught on fire. From upstairs, I hear "Erin? Erin!! Come help me!!!". This is not a normal request from Jamie, so I flew downstairs immediately, where I found her extinguishing the fire like a pro. Things get rather exciting 'round here.

October 4: Things to do while sitting in traffic:

1. Take pictures of other people sitting in traffic.

2. If you have any other ideas, let me know. That's all I've got.

October 5: Sharon and I were sneaky and left school to grab a Sonic drink. We thought the kids could handle themselves. :) Not really, they were in Music class.

October 6: Summer gave me this book for my birthday, and I've just started reading it. I love it already!

October 7: Lesson planning.

October 8: These apples were part of a baked apple crisp I made tonight. It turned out to be delicious, but after peeling, coring, and slicing each apple, I decided this might be on my Christmas list this year:

91 Days & Counting

It's hard to believe there are only 91 days left in the year. It feels like Project 360 just started!

Enjoy the pictures!

September 25: Cousin Becca and I went to the Greek festival with friends from home group, but I did not come away from that with a single (good) picture.

September 26: Sunday afternoon nap. What is it that makes those so amazing?

September 27: I know this is my foot and that's gross. I apologize. This is the first day I wore close-toed shoes (since the weather was cool and beautiful!), but it didn't go well for my feet.

September 28: It was homecoming week at Rachel's school, and to celebrate, they had the opportunity to dress up from any decade in the past. She modeled her outfit for Jamie and me, and I must say she looked pretty rad. Is that what they said in the 80s?

September 28: We got a little carried away with the costume items.

September 29: One of my favorite moments of the week! I allow my kids to sit anywhere for their silent reading time...on Wednesday I looked over and saw this. These boys were smashed between the table and the wall, and they were completely on task (these three boys are rarely on task when they sit together). :) I couldn't help but laugh, and - of course - break out the camera.

September 30: Roses my coworker Sharon gave me. :)

October 1: Enjoying the beautiful day with Precious.