getting ready for Easter

Easter is a very special celebration for me.  Our mom has always made it so special and it just really stayed with me all these years.  And every year at this time I get a little angry because all the kids talk about from school is Easter bunnies and eggs.  I know it's up to us the parents to teach our kids what we believe but I feel like it's even more important to do it while they're being bombarded with all the secular things, especially during the Lent season.

We read a big chunk of the Luke's gospel yesterday and every day we're reading more about what happened in Jesus' life and what it was leading up to on Good Friday.  Today I finally have a morning off because I'm only subbing in the afternoon and it is so nice to get some stuff done.  Kids don't have school on Friday and since it's the Good Friday I am planning out all our Easter crafts/activities that will be all about Jesus.  I am so excited to take a whole day to learn and talk about the real reason for Easter with our kids and it's a lot more fun too as they're getting a bit older so we can have deeper conversations about it. 

The kids are growing up way too fast and just yesterday I was thinking I'd like to slow down the time so I can have them longer. :) It seems as if Kade is maturing overnight, not always in a good way. :) I didn't think 10 year old boys cared much about dating and stuff but he's starting to be curious and is asking a lot of questions, mostly because some of his peers are "dating" already.  So we are starting to have conversations about that and it's not easy.  You want to just shelter your little boy or girl from all that stuff but you can't.  The only thing we can do is to talk to them about everything and turn their eyes to God.  I'm so glad that for the most part Kade tells us and asks us about everything so we can see what he's wrestling with.  Parenting is so hard and we're getting a glimpse of how with age it only gets harder and we can't do it alone.

    

Spring fever

Two days in special ed. this week, this time I'm at the High school.  Most of the kids are super sweet and don't cause any trouble so that makes it nice but there just isn't much for me to do.  So I'm glad they let me borrow a laptop so I can get my e-mails done, maybe write a blog entry :) and kill some time.  Almost makes me feel guilty for getting paid for this. :)

It is kind of funny but even though it's not even the middle of April, the kids in all the schools are checking out, having a Spring Fever and I can even see it as a sub.  Maybe it has to do with our forever long winter but now that the snow is melting and we have longer day light it's almost like kids had enough and they're done.  Even our kids, when they get home from school they just want to play outside until dark and it's getting harder keeping them on track, sticking with the bedtime routine and stuff.  And as the school days are slowing down, my subbing days are getting busier :) and I'm working every day.  Really, I just keep reminding myself that it's less than 2 months and we're all done with school so I can do it for that long.  It helps that I have a fun summer to look forward to.

In June Ehren and I are going to California for a week to celebrate our 15th anniversary and we're both so excited.  It is probably the first time since having kids that we're going somewhere fun just the 2 of us.  Ehren and I have both wanted to go there for a visit some day and last year our good friends from Thief River moved there so we thought it would be the perfect place to go.  For us it's always more fun going somewhere when you can visit with friends, old or new.  So it will be a great start to our summer and I can't wait.

Last week I also found out that I won't be watching my niece Emily during the day this summer.  She'll go to a daycare with her sister Aveah and they can't just pull them both out or else they will lose a spot when the Fall comes which is so hard to come by in our town.  So I understand but it is a bit sad to not see Emily much because our kids love playing with her.  When I told the kids Anika started crying and wrote a letter to Emily about how much she'll miss her this summer.  It was sweet and I love it that the two of them are so close.  Whenever Emily is at our house her and Anika play so well together and I could count on one hand how many times they argued or fought over the last few years.  I told Ani that we'll still have Emily and Aveah over a lot, we just won't see them every day like we used to.  And for me, now that it has sunk in a little that it will be just me and my kids at home I am getting really excited about it and can't hardly wait.  For years my summers have been spent watching the daycare kids and not being able to leave the house until after dinner.  Now I'm going to be able to go places any time of the day, getting together with friends, maybe going to visit family for a few days at a time and just enjoying the summer.  I know that Kade will be begging for going to friends' houses or them coming over every day because he's already doing that now but I guess it is part of them growing up and I'm glad he has a couple close friends that are very nice boys.

But 3 months off of school is a long time I think for anybody and so I'm already looking for Math workbooks for Kason and Anika and we'll have to do a bit of "homeschooling" at least for reading, writing and math so they don't forget everything they learned.  It actually helps to have a little bit of a schedule during the week when we do school stuff because it helps break up the day and the kids are bored less.  So I hope we can all stick with it and just enjoy our warm (or at least warmER) weather. :)


 

reading a book day

Today I spent my day in Special Ed at the Middle School.  It is always very hard knowing what to do as the special ed substitute.  There are very few directions or notes and most of the 7 periods were pretty much "help the kids with any assignments".  But most of the kids do not want my help, push me away, and they have a helper with them called a para who goes to all their classes and if they want help with anything, they ask her.  She seemed a bit annoyed that I was even there since they didn't need me, but it's not my fault. :) 

Anyway, one good thing happened that in 2 of the classes I was supposed to read a novel out loud to the kids while they followed along.  They just started this book so I got to read the beginning.  By the time we got to it though we only had about 10-15 minutes of reading so I only read a couple chapters to them but the book intrigued me so much I kept reading it (since I wasn't really doing anything the other periods anyway) and then I took the book home so I could finish it. :)  It was a quick read, a scifi but just very thought provoking ideas about society and our culture and I could not put it down.  So what started as a pretty boring day turned into a "finish-that-book day" and now the house is a mess.  This is exactly why I try my best to stay away from any good books.  The reason is simple: I can't put them down and forget about the kids, the house, meals, sleep or anything. :)  But since I was forced into starting this book, I had no choice but to finish it. 

Well, One more day in Middle school tomorrow and hopefully I won't start a new book.  It is a huge change from subbing in Anika's 1st grade class 3 days in a row.  Some people like the older grades because it's low-key and there's not too much to do but I have to say I prefer staying busy with the kids even though you are pretty tired by the end of the day.  By the end of the 3rd day, my voice was going hoarse and I was very thankful for the microphone. :)  Who knew that using a microphone, you can use a gentle and calm voice and the kids listen better than when you try to speak over them talking. 

Spring is here too, the snow is melting everywhere, kids are wearing shorts to school (it is barely above freezing in the morning) and we are all more than excited about the warmer weather.  It is the first Spring with our new deck too and we are just loving it in the afternoons/evenings.  On Sunday I put our big blanket out there and the kids and I just camped out there, lying in the warm sunshine.  You can never truly appreciate Spring if you haven't survived our Northern MN winter. :) It sure gives you the new appreciation for every sunshine, every warm day, every blossom.

 

back at it...

Well, no time to waste and I'm back in the swing of things.  I am finding out that Spring is the season for subbing :) because I'm getting called in every day, sometimes multiple times a day and I have to tell them I'm already heading to the other school.  Last week I was teaching English at the High school for two days which is usually a breeze.  Other than pretending I knew what I was talking about as we were reading Romeo and Juliet, it went really well though.  I sure was thankful for the modern version we didn't have when I was in school because it was a lot easier to understand. :)

Today was such a great day.  I was subbing for Anika's class so she was all excited about it.  I will be there for 2 more days and I'm really glad because they are probably the best 1st grade class in the whole school.  They are all very polite, listen and really don't have any trouble makers like the other classes do. :)  We were talking about the water cycle all day, reading different books about it and making our own booklet about the cycle.  There is a little boy in the class who has family in Liberia (there are a few refugees in our area from there) and he's just about to go on a trip there and stay for a couple of months.  So he was beyond excited when I talked about my trip there and I was able to hook up the laptop to their smart board so I could show them all the pictures I posted from Liberia.  All the kids loved the pictures and how different people live there.  At the same time, it just hit me how we still have something to be thankful for in our school system, no matter how bad it is getting.  As I was showing the pictures to the kids, we came to some pictures from a church service in Liberia, people praying and singing.  A few kids asked about it right away and I could tell they were surprised people in Africa even had church like we have.  It just made me smile today that I was able to freely talk about God and not feel like I can't talk about it in a public school. 

I think it was God's little reminder to me because of my concerns over this "anti-bullying" bill that was just passed for Minnesota.  It is awful and we are going to have to be very much aware of what exactly they're telling and showing our kids at school.  Right now I'm thankful for living in a small town where the teachers are pretty open with the parents and a lot of them are believers who I trust.  We still have to be proactive and ready but it gives me some peace about it for now.

In the meantime, just as satan is opening the doors to our schools, so can we as Christians.  I may not be the teacher who has much impact on kids like the regular teachers do, but I will not shy away from a conversation about God.  The other day when I was helping a teacher that had to go home sick, her class was in the hallway waiting for their turn to do something and the kids had the cutest debate over who is bigger God or Jesus and I was able to join right in.  I love little opportunities like that and maybe just because I am only a substitute teacher I'm able to say a lot more than the teachers are able to but I'll take that. You just never know when a tiny seed is planted that could save a child's life some day.  I pray I can be more in tune with those opportunities when they are right in front of me and to take them without a second thought.

    

what we did in Liberia

Some people have asked me what exactly we did in Liberia so I will try to explain our trip.  There is so much to talk about but I'll do my best to summarize.  Our church has started a friendship with a church in Monrovia just a few years ago.  It started as more of a friendship between our pastor and theirs and as our church has sent a few teams over there we just wanted to help the church and school there in any way.  This pastor and his wife started a church and a school from nursery to 9th grade and our church just wants to come along side of them and try to help them move ahead in any way we can.  They have so many needs and sometimes it seems impossible to know where do we even start but at the same time every time someone from our church goes there our relationship with them grows, we understand each other better and they are so grateful for everything we do.

This particular short-term mission was to do health screenings for all the kids that go to their school.  A couple nurses from our church already did the screenings like this over there 2 years ago and this time we did it at the clinic that is very close to the school.  The nurses there and the teachers helped us with checking the kids' temperature, blood pressure, height, weight and vision.  Stacy is an RN from our church and she has been there before and my job was to help her in any way.  It was such a great experience and just getting to know the kids there a little bit was great.  We ended up screening about 340 kids in 3 days.  Some kids didn't show up because their parents didn't think they needed it.  It was not very surprising though because most of the kids we've seen have never been to a clinic or anywhere.  They don't seek medical help until they are very sick, most of the times when it's too late.  Our hope is that now that we've done the screening with them and brought all the supplies and forms for them, they can do it on their own once or twice a year.

At the same time, pastor Bruce came with us and his focus was to do a pastoral training for church leaders.  People there have such little resources available to them and they are really hungry for teaching, seminars, anything where they can learn more.  They are always so thankful when pastor Bruce is able to come and they appreciate him very much.

Another thing we were hoping to achieve in our short time there was to assess the school situation the best we could, just seeing the real needs and how we could help in the near future.  Their school seems very organized and runs well in comparison to many other schools in Liberia and their kids get some of the highest scores in tests, yet even that is not enough and they are trying to improve so the kids that graduate are able to go to a university.   To be honest, at first I thought it would be almost impossible to assess their situation in such a short time, not really seeing how they do school.  But God really showed us the needs and weaknesses of their school.

Our first day there we toured the school, all the classes and even got to be substitute teachers for 6th graders. :)  That was fun, we played some games, kids sang some songs to us and we wrote down assignments for them on the black board.  It was interesting to me that no matter where you're from, kids act the same.  Preteens act exactly like ours.  Some of them are more shy at first because they don't see very many white people but they are just as much curious, playful and eager to learn as our kids. And they can figure out electronics in minutes just like our kids. :)  Stacy let some girls play with her phone for a bit and they figured out a lot of stuff right away.  A funny thing was that when I told any kids my name they were so excited and kept saying "Hi Ester" to me everywhere because Ester is a very common name over there.  Of course they say it like "Estaaar" with their Liberian accent.  Sometimes it was very hard to understand them, especially when they turned to each other and talked really fast I had to focus really hard to get just a few words out.  It actually doesn't even sound like English at all, especially when they are singing unless it's a song you know and then you can decode the words to our pronunciation. :)

One really cool thing that happened was that at the guest house we stayed at we met a lady that is from the US, she is an educator with a doctoral degree, has her own school in Monrovia and helps a lot of different schools in Liberia.  It was like God brought her there just so we can talk to her about our concerns and to help us understand the mentality and the way Liberians are taught.  The number one thing is that they are taught to repeat everything after the teacher, memorize sentences on the black board which results in not being able to think critically or creatively.  We saw this right away when we toured the classrooms because every one of them was copying sentences off the black board.  For their homework, they had do copy sentences down from the black board and just fill some words in the blank.  And that is how every subject is done, they memorize and if they come across a different word or sentence they don't know what to do.  Another part is working on phonics at an early age.  They don't do much with phonics at all and pretty much just memorize each word they read so if they see a word they haven't read before they can't sound it out.  One immediate need this school has is to set up their library.  Right now they have a room that is full of books, just sitting in piles.  They have wonderful kids books, encyclopedias, textbooks and workbooks just sitting there locked up but they don't do anything with them at the moment.  It would be really wonderful if a team from our church could come and help them set the library up efficiently and with that train the teachers on ways to use it most effectively and creatively.  So in a nutshell, there is a lot to be done but if the teachers there can be given some teaching tools, ideas and specific things they can do to improve the kids' learning it could be huge.  There obviously isn't an overnight solution and it would take time to see any changes but little by little I think something can be done.

So, that is what our trip was about.  Our church is planning on sending another team of people this summer and we're hoping to send some teachers along and do some training for the Liberian teachers, maybe some day camp activities for the kids since they will have a break from school then.  At the same time we hope to ship some newer books over to them, maybe some dealing with phonics.                 
Well, that is about the whole trip in a nut shell. :)  We also had 2 days of no work.  Friday we went to visit and tour another small school these same people are supporting.  It was far away, 3 hours one way from where we stayed at and it was in a mostly muslim community so running a school for their children is a big ministry, teaching the Gospel to those kids.  Then on Saturday there was a youth leaders' seminar that we went to, on Sunday pastor Bruce preached at their church and after that it was time to get to the airport and back home.   

It is interesting when you meet other white people there, most of the times it is missionaries, doctors, nurses, or teachers.  It is very interesting talking to them about what their project is and how it's going, what their challenges are, etc.  The needs in Liberia are very great and it almost feels like the work we do is a tiny drop in the ocean, yet I know God is calling us to do work there and just establishing those friendships is so huge because a lot of the people there have no hope of getting ahead and feel alone in their poverty.  All the people we have met are so thankful and excited that we are there, it means a world to them when to us sometimes it seems like not enough.

Here are a bunch of pictures of the kids and people we've worked with.  It was an amazing experience for me and I really hope some day our kids are able to go somewhere like that.

LUNCH TIME

PACKING IN TOGETHER AS THEY WAIT FOR THE SCREENING TO BEGIN

AT THE CLINIC

THAT WHITE BOY IS BLACK BUT HAS SOME STRANGE SKIN CONDITION WE DIDN'T UNDERSTAND

PASTORAL TRAINING

2 ESTERS

THE SCHOOL'S RICE AND PEAS FOR A MONTH

JAYNE

OUR DEAR TAXI DRIVER JOSHUA