hello monday: back to the basics

I'm having a hard time getting back into a blogging routine, so I've decided to revive some of my old favorites to get the juices flowing again. What better way to begin than with a fresh Hello Monday post?

Hello Monday. Somehow you always seem to come at me too soon. Despite this being my seventh year of full-time teaching, it feels like my first all over again because I am new at ECA. Spending the majority of my weekend lesson planning is not necessarily restful nor particularly enjoyable, but I do like walking into school on Monday mornings (mostly) ready to roll.

Hello Pumpkin Spice Latte. I recently learned that this is the first year Spain has ever made you available. I'm not one of those crazy PSL-obsessed girls, but I enjoy a warm fall-themed beverage as much as the next person. Recently I have been getting into the habit of spending Sunday afternoons at Starbucks reading or working on lesson plans since I am already in the city for church. When you don't have a car it's easy to sometimes feel "trapped" in Camarma, so I've come to enjoy going into Madrid once a week for Spanish church, Starbucks, and other adventures.

Hello last week of October. Where did you come from? The last time I checked, it was August and the daily highs were in the 90s. I am not ready for winter yet, and living in Spain this year has afforded me some extra summer weather, for which I am grateful. I am also significantly tanner than I usually am at this time of year. I'm sure it will fade soon enough.

Hello quarter two. You and October must be in cahoots. Again, how did you get here so fast? I am still a "tourist" according to the government and yet I have already completed one quarter of my service here at ECA. At this rate we will be celebrating Christmas next week!

Hello legs. You are definitely feeling the burn as I pedal up hill all the way to school each morning (and then climb two flight of stairs to get to my classroom), but it's worth it because after school I can just coast home. I literally don't have to pedal at all and it's beautiful.

What are you saying hello to today?

fall in the black forest

Over the last few weeks I have loved enjoying the sights, smells, and traditions of fall here in the Black Forest. From handcrafted pottery to freshly-pressed apple juice to tip-toeing through the pumpkin patches, I have found myself savoring every moment of this season. Something about this fall has captivated my senses. Perhaps it's the uncertainty of not truly knowing whether this is my last fall in Germany, but regardless of the reason, right now I am content to simply soak up the warm autumn colors and the memories that go along with them.

Annual pottery market in Kandern

Fresh pumpkin soup and apple juice at the Holzen (neighboring town) festival

The makings for pumpkin soup!

A beautiful fall day with my best friend Megan

hello Monday

Hello Monday. You are the first Monday of the 2013 school year and aside from making me scrape my windshield this morning, you have been kind to me!

Hello strange cravings for healthy food. You are something I've never experienced before. You are the reason I have eaten a huge salad every day since Wednesday and why this weekend I bought brand new colorful plastic boxes for packing healthy lunches.

Hello Freiburg marathon. I signed up to run in you with my friends, but don't get too excited. I won't be running you in your entirety, I will run a 14K leg of a team relay marathon. Oddly enough, my biggest fear right now is not running the actual race, but of ruining my perfect toenails during the training process.

Hello new winter tires. I had so much fun going to the shop this weekend with our head maintenance guy Kurt. He showed me how to grease you up, mount you to my old rims, balance you, and reattach you to my car. I feel much safer driving around on slippery roads now that you're in my life.

small group Christmas

A few weeks ago my small group gathered to decorate Christmas cookies. Yummy!

While we decorated cookies, my white cocoa boiled over... oops!

For our last small group of the year, we gathered early for dinner and a Christmas party. We couldn't decide between pizza or raclette for dinner, so we compromised and made raclette pizzas! They turned out so perfect and oh so yummy.

The girls brought funny gifts for a white elephant gift exchange, and we also had a meaningful "Secret Santa" gift exchange. It was such a blessing to see my girls give each other, me, and Sue (my co-leader) thoughtful, meaningful, and even handmade gifts! There is so much love in my small group and it makes my heart happy.

I made my famous crispy Christmas wreath for dessert

A few of the meaningful gifts I received!

Love these ladies!!

Christmas Banquet 2012

step into my classroom: gummy bear DNA

This week my seventh graders began the big genetics unit. Between now and the end of the quarter we will cover everything from DNA to cell division to heredity to genetic engineering... it's probably the life science unit that I enjoy the most!

We always begin the whole shebang in a sweet way, using gummies and toothpicks to make DNA models. In our simulation, the four colors of gummy bears represented the four bases Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, and Cytosine. The little licorice whips formed the sugar phosphate backbone of the double helix, and we held it all together with toothpicks! Next we use the models to walk through the process of DNA replication, in which the DNA strand copies itself. This is the first step in cell division.

Ok, I won't bore you with any more nerdy science talk. You and I both know you're just here for the pictures.

Word, yo. Science is hip.

A special thanks to my dear friend Megan, who gave up her prep period to take these pictures for me!

thankful thursday

Today I'm thankful for:

• The fact that East and West Germany reunited in 1989. Thanks to this reconciliation, Germany celebrates a national holiday and we get the day off from school. This week it fell on Wednesday, breaking up our five-day week into two pleasantly short 2-day chunks. I eased into the day with some pumpkin oatmeal, a pumpkin spice latte, and a few chapters of Les Mis. Then, I went to school and enjoyed seven hours of blissfully quiet, undisturbed and uninterrupted work time. It feels great to finally be on top of a few of my classes in terms of lesson prep!

• Heitzmann's bakery. As I've mentioned before, I live a few doors down from this bakery and they open at 7:30. Since I catch a carpool at 8:00, this means that in a pinch I can pop in for a croissant or chocolate milk on my way to school, like I did this morning. Chocolate milk tastes SO much better in Germany, FYI.
• Aleve. The marvels of modern medicine never cease to amaze - or comfort me when I need it!
• German Class. After the confusion and frustration of my experience in German class last year, I am really thankful for the class I'm taking this year. Granted, some of the beginning lessons were repeats but I am really excited to be making more strides in learning German and not feeling like a total doofus.

 

five things friday

I know I have totally slacked off on blogging this week, but I have a good excuse!! All this week I have spent the mornings in meetings with other BFA staff, and the afternoons I have spent at the middle school working on lesson plans and classroom set up. There is still a LOT to do before school begins on Tuesday, but I am trying not to stress too much. The stuff that needs to get done will get done, and the stuff that doesn't will just have to wait! I'm planning to do a reveal of my new classroom set up as well as my awesome new science closet which I have been working very hard to organize. If you are OCD like me, you will drool over my closet. :)

So since it's Friday, here are five things that are on my mind!!

{1} Physical science.

This is the last class I have to plan - I've already finished the first unit plans for both earth and life science. I really have no clue what I am doing with this new class. It doesn't help that I don't know anything about the subject. Thankfully, the previous teacher left me loads of manipulatives and resources to plan my lessons and I am excited for all the "toys" I've inherited along with this class. Pinterest has also been a fun source of inspiration. This may be my most fun class of all!

{2} Swedish Meatballs. From the happiest place on earth, IKEA.

Last night my roommate Lexi and I drove to Freiburg to pick up a few things for our apartment and for our classrooms. It was an adventure getting there and coming back, but we had a blast and were 99% successful in getting everything we needed! And of course, the trip wouldn't be complete without meatballs.

{3} Pastries. I already talked about German bakeries and pastries, but I just have to rave again at how delicious they are, and how dangerous it is to be living across the street from Heitzmann's. So very dangerous. Must.use.self.control.

{4} Pinterest. There was a day when I swore I would never get it. Now, I'm kind of in love with it. I've turned into that obnoxious person who starts every sentence with, "I found this thing on Pinterest..." (I kind of hate that part!) But I can't lie, I am loving the ideas and resources I've been able to find for my three science classes and for general classroom and teaching ideas. Follow me!

{5} The iPad - iWant, or iNeed? BFA has recently announced a new initiative in encouraging us teachers to implement iPads in the classroom. The school is offering a reimbursement to all staff members who purchase an iPad in 2012 - with the intention of using it in the classroom. While it's not a 100% reimbursement, it would cover a majority of the cost. I've had mixed feelings about this from the beginning. On the one hand, it would be really nice to have this piece of technology available to me and my students, and I'm sure I could find loads of cool apps and programs that would be useful in teaching my three science classes. The fact that I could get it almost for free is an added bonus, and also the recent release of the iPad 3 makes the 2nd generation a lot more affordable. On the other hand, I really cannot see how having an iPad is different from the computer that I already use in class each day. I already implement PowerPoint, YouTube, interactive websites, etc. and I don't need an iPad for any of those things. Not to mention the fact that I struggled all summer to raise the support to simply return to Germany for another year of service. It is a legitimate ministry tool, but is it a need?

five things on friday the fifteenth

{1}

Black Forest Academy: At A Glance from Black Forest Academy Videos on Vimeo.

You should watch this video produced by our communications experts at BFA. It's a great overview of the school; I just wish it included middle schoolers as well. If you are thinking about joining my support team this year, this video should seal the deal. ;) Or maybe this video will make you want to join me in Germany this fall...

{2}

source

Last week I discovered a new flavor of coffee creamer. Being in Germany means no creamer, just milk and sugar. I am suddenly finding all kinds of excuses to drink coffee because of this stuff. It is WAY better than my go-to Peppermint Mocha!

{3}

source

I started running again, though at this point I can only refer to it as "wogging" - that's my word for combination walking/jogging. For some reason I have this sick desire to run a half marathon with my friend Katrina in Switzerland in September. So, I am combining my couch to 10K schedule with a couch to half-marathon schedule that I found online. The C210K has guidelines for how long to run at a time - for example, it starts you out running in only one-minute spurts and eventually builds up to running 15-20 minutes at a time with 1-minute walk breaks in between. The C2HM has guidelines for overall distance and takes you from 3 miles all the way up to 11 miles. So this week I have been covering a distance of three miles, by running one minute and walking two minutes. I know it sounds lame, but I have been working up a sweat so I know I'm doing something right. Plus, I don't want another knee injury so I am trying to be smart about this! Oh, and having my parents' dog along for the ride helps because he tugs on the leash and keeps me going!!

{4}

I've added lots of brand new pieces to the shop this week and will continue to do so next week. My creative juices have been flowing like lava from an active volcano. Now I just need to channel this creativity into my support raising and I'll be set. Click the link above to get your hands on some new bling and support me in the process. :)

{5}

I love this shot I got of the pup today on a drive through town. That is all. :)

last small group

The end of Lugano brought with it the beginning of "the week of lasts." Unrelated to my responsibilities in the middle school was my last small group of the year on Wednesday. For the first time all semester (with the exception of high school retreat) all seven of us were together and I was so happy they could all make it. Schoolwork and other extracurricular activities have made it difficult for some of the girls to attend consistently, and for a good chunk of this past semester I was very discouraged and frustrated by this. I felt like my small group was not thriving like those around me, and I felt like I was failing them because I didn't know how to lead a small group. We finally had some time to talk about it and it turns out I was very wrong. The girls were growing. They were learning. Even though we weren't all together every week, those that were able to come participated fully, shared freely, and made efforts to engage with each other. And when given the opportunity to take turns leading the discussion in our final weeks together, each girls' message applied directly to something I'd been struggling with or thinking about that week! No doubt, God has placed these girls in my group on purpose and I am pleased to share with you that I will continue to lead this group next year when they are sophomores!

For our last time together we gathered early for dinner at the Döner Kebab shop and then hiked up to the Gazebo, a popular lookout perched on the edge of town offering a lovely view of Kandern. Naturally, a photo shoot ensued. We had a time of sharing summer plans and praying over each other as we meditated on Romans 15:13.

my beautiful Kandern



[that awkward moment when you're setting the timer on your camera and
it takes an unflattering picture of you instead]

squinting into the setting sun and waiting for the slow pokies

After treking back down into town we went to the Eis Cafe, the local ice cream shop, where I treated them to ice cream cones using a gütschein (gift certificate) I'd received earlier in the year. There I also gifted them with special matching necklaces that I'd made for them. The necklaces contain a metal washer stamped with the words Faith, Hope, and Love as well as pearls of graduated size for each attribute. It reminded me specifically of a message we'd heard at retreat about these three things, and how Love is the only one that will remain when we get to Heaven. If Faith is the belief in things unseen, we won't need it when we get to Heaven and we can see clearly. If Hope is an expectation for the future, we won't need to wait anymore because in Heaven the future becomes our present. But Love, Love will become perfect because we will be in the presence of the Perfect One. I had never heard it explained that way before (and I really can't do justice what the speaker actually said!!) so it really stuck with me and was the motivation for making these necklaces.

It has been a great year getting to know these ladies outside of the classrom setting, laugh and cry and pray with them, and walk through the first year of high school with them. I can't wait to see what next year holds for us.