New Crew

Surprisingly the first week of school was great!  Of course I forget each year how helpless the little Kindergarteners are when they first arrive.  They are everywhere except their seat, they cry when it's time to go home, they try claiming, "You are not my friend!" when someone does something they don't like...  Haha!  And here I go again, trying to make little independent, kind, thoughtful people.  I think I have a great group!  They are all eager to please and are like little sponges already, soaking up the knowledge.  I can't wait to dive into our curriculum because I think they are going to be a very bright crowd!  Good stories to come, I'm sure! :)

Trying my hand at canning!

As we get closer and closer to buying our house, the more and more frugal we are trying to live in order to save up the 20% down payment.  We are right on track to have the amount saved up by October!  Josh has been tutoring in the mornings before our summer camp job.  Since we drive one car, that puts me to work 2 hours early!  Though I was dreading it at the beginning, I've been really enjoying the mornings reading and "pinteresting" :)  I have a new love for pinterest!  I'm learning all kinds of new things from DIY projects to decorate our new house to canning!

God is allowing our garden to produce so much this year!  It's so cool how the produce spread throughout the whole summer.  In the beginning we had tons of lettuce and ate salads almost every day!  Then for the last few weeks we've been overwhelmed with summer squash and zucchini.  Next it will be bell peppers and tomatoes.  Because we will have so many tomatoes (provided the groundhog doesn't chow down) I will try to can them for sauces, salsas, etc.  My mom gave me her old canner (which she said she used when she was my age!).  We've only had a few cucumbers so far but I was able to successfully can a jar of pickles!  The dill smell is super hard to get out of the kitchen.  I made them 3 days ago and the smell is still wafting around!  I figured I would try out the canner with only 2 jars just in case I didn't do it right and ruined them.  I tried one jar of pickles and one jar of berry syrup.  The pickles sealed and can now be stored but I failed on the syrup...  Oh well :)  It's fun to try!   I'm hoping that canning some of these things will save us some money!  We'll see...

At least I have the option of running to Meijer to grab whatever I need, basically whenever I want.  It's probably been only in the last 100 years that people had this convenience!  I'm afraid we might starve if we could only live on what I (successfully) canned or grew! Hah!  There's something that is so interesting though about that simple life.

I found this quote about slowing down and living more simply :
"As we make an effort to slow down we are able to hear God’s message more clearly.  Whether you are at home, in the car or on the football field, act with compassion, be loving and kind, and put others before yourself." Tracy Lynn

We're Buying a House!

A couple months ago we'd started looking for a house and went to get pre-approved and were quite disappointed because they said we should stop looking until we have the full 20% down payment.  With our summer work and Josh's tutoring money it would be October before we had the money saved.  So we stopped looking.

The last week of school, Mary, one of my co-workers was talking to me about our house search and off the cuff said, "My boyfriend rents a house in Allen Park and might be willing to sell..."  Turns out he was willing to sell, but it wouldn't be available to buy until October when he comes back into town from Mackinaw Island. He wanted to do it all without listing the house and by owner to avoid realtor fees.  Both of things were huge signs that this must be the one!

We went and looked at the house a couple of times, one with my mom and dad doing some inspecting.  And we decided that we really wanted it but the price was a bit high for our budget.  The house needs quite a bit of work so we factored that into the price.  We prayed that God would give us a number to offer to him.  We offered a seriously significant number lower than his asking price and just prayed and prayed that God would work on this guy's heart to sell it to us for lower.  He called just yesterday and we got the exact price that fits perfectly in our budget and below our means.  It's so crazy how after we finally stopped looking, God just dumped this house into our laps and the perfect price.  God is so good! 

P.S.  It's only a mile from Josh's work, so he can ride a bike or walk to school when the weather is nice!

Pictures to come ;)

Boy do I feel honored!

The other day one of my students excitedly told me that she was getting a bunny on Friday for a pet!  Of course I asked her all of the usual questions:


"What color?"
"Where will it stay?"
"What will you name it?"


She thought for a second and then exclaimed, "I'm going to name it Mrs. Andrews!!!"  I think that's the first bunny in history with a name like that!


Haahahahahaha!

Let them see you in me (I changed the words to relate to me)

Take away the worksheets
Take away the words I teach
Take away busyness
And all the words You let me "preach"
Does the girl I am today
Say the words You need to say?

Let them see You in me
Let them hear You when I speak
Let them feel You when I teach
Let them see You
Just let them see You in me

Who am I without Your grace?
Another smile, another face
Another breath, a grain of sand
Passing quickly through Your hand
I give my life, an offering
Take it all, take everything

With every breath I breathe
Trying to teach your biblical truth
But I pray they’ll hear more than just a lesson
In me


Let them see You in me
Let them hear You when I speak
Let them feel You when I teach
Let them see You
Just let them see You in me
Just let them see You in me

My Meijer Trip

The other day I went to Meijer and boy was it an experience!  About half way through the shopping trip, they announced that they were not able to take any electronic payments.   Supposedly all Meijer stores' system had gone down and they were only accepting check or cash at that time.  I was hoping that by the time I got done shopping the problem would be fixed.  Well, it wasn't.  I eventually weaved my way up through the extremely crowded store and got to the check out line.  It looked as if they were still only taking cash or check.  I thought, no problem I will just park my cart in an inconspicuous part of the store and walk up to the ATM to get out cash.  I left the cart in the middle of a deserted isle and went to get in line at the ATM.  Everyone else had the same idea so there were about 9 of us in line. There were seriously 8 old people in front of me!  It was taking each one SO long to get their money!  The had to get out their glasses, read over everything twice, push the buttons multiple times, etc.!  All the while, I'm watching the poor costumer service people collecting carts that had been abandoned because of the payment problem.  Good thing I parked my cart far away from the check out!  I got a little nervous after I watched 12 carts being collected.  Thankfully none of them were mine.  I watched carefully as each cart went by with a stressed looking costumer service employee.  They were even starting to put the frozen and refrigerated items away.  FINALLY, I got up to the ATM and withdrew enough money for groceries.  I zoomed back to the place where I had parked the cart and it was.... gone!  They thought I'd abandoned it and they took it to the customer service desk to empty it!  I speed walked over to the desk, picked my cart out of the other 20 some carts.  They had already put away all of my frozen and refrigerated things! :(  So, I went back and had to start all over again making sure everything on my list was actually in my cart.   Haha, what a fiasco!

96 Marshmallows

The other day it was our 100th day of school!  Hard to believe we're already more that half way through this year!  On the 100th day, we celebrate by doing a lot of 100 kind of things.  The students were asked to bring in 100 of a certain item.  It had to be something small enough to fit into a Ziploc baggie.  One student brought in 100 marshmallows.   One of our activities throughout the day was to count the 100 items that they brought in.  I had them put their items into groups of 1, 2, 5, and 10-all different ways to count to 100.  When this boy was getting close to 100 he realized he had a problem.  He came up to me very concerned and told me quite convincingly that he had not brought enough marshmallows.  He only had 96.  I would have believed him if I hadn't seen the white sticky substance all over his lips!  He had brought the right amount, he just ate 4!  When I told him what I thought may have happened to the other 4, he got a guilty "You caught me" grin and went back to sort his now 96 marshmallows.  Haha, can't trick me!