#49: Time Flies

Well I think it's clear I'm not the best blogger! I have thought about trying to do better this year, but I'm not sure if that's realistic. So much has happened since my last post!

*Nathan and I celebrated our first anniversary. It was a wonderful first year of marriage. Far greater than I could have imagined.

*My little brother came home safely from Afghanistan. The Lord clearly watched over him and we could have easily lost him. He is likely to return in July, an idea which my big sister heart can hardly take, but the Lord is faithful and just.

*I finished all of the classes for my license. If I successfully pass my upcoming internship for teaching, I will earn my license with a 4.0. In light of my health issues, that's basically a miracle.

*I had a long term sub job at my favorite school. I got to be there for 9 weeks, made great friends, and was invited to do the elementary school portion of my student teaching there. I am very grateful!

*We celebrated a fun and busy Christmas! 10 Christmas celebrations and parties in all. It was so much fun to celebrate Christmas in our new home.

The Lord greatly blessed us in 2010. We are very aware of His kindness to us. Some things I am looking forward to in 2011:

*One of my best friends is getting married! I am incredibly proud of her and her fiance and the way their relationship has glorified God. They have waited for their day, and it will be absolutely beautiful. I cannot express the joy I feel when I think about standing next to her on her day!

*Finishing my ESOL teaching license and Lord willing, getting a teaching job. I will have 3 classes yet to get my Master's, but after 6 years of higher education, I am going to take a year off from school. Huzzah!

*We have a Poe baby due in February and my sister is having a little girl in April. I can't wait to meet these little ones!

*We are going on a missions trip to Haiti with our dear friends Jewel and Jason Peach and a few others from our church. Nathan and I have wanted to go on a missions trip together since we started dating and we are eager to go to Haiti and serve. Prayers for the planning of this trip are coveted!

*Our 2nd anniversary. I adore my husband. You're probably sick of hearing it, but I can't say it enough :)

Today we are spending a quiet day at home and I am busy in the kitchen. Tonight's dinner is homemade chicken noodle soup. I use my dad's recipe and just substitute gluten free noodles. I like to put broccoli, potatoes, and carrots in ours. Right now my gluten free granola is in the oven. I am particularly fond of this recipe. It is the result of bits and pieces of other recipes and a few experiment batches. For me, it has a great sweet and nutty taste and is a nice alternative to Corn Flakes and Rice Chex. To end today, I would like to share it with you:

4 cups of oats (I use Bob's Red Mill's Gluten Free Old Fashioned Rolled Oats)

1/2 cup of walnuts

1/4 cup of sunflower seeds

1/4 cup of brown sugar

2 tsp. of cinnamon

1 tsp. of salt (I use Kosher)

1 tsp. of vanilla

1/3 cup of olive oil

1/3 cup of honey (I use agave nectar because it has a lower glycemic index than honey)

1/2 cup of peanut butter

1 cup dried cranberries

*Preheat the oven to 325 and lightly grease a large baking sheet

*Mix first six ingredients together until thoroughly combined. Then add the vanilla, olive oil, honey, and peanut butter. Stir until the peanut butter is evenly mixed in.

*Spread the mixture on the lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes.

*Let the mixture cool before adding in the cranberries. Store in a tightly sealed container.

Enjoy!

#47: Oh Ikea!

About a month ago my love and I ventured out to Ikea. Neither of us had been before, but we had seen some things online that we wanted to get. We took a Saturday morning for our adventure :) It was very overwhelming at first! We ended up just walking around through all of the sections. We had fun just looking at things and we are also able to find a lot of things that we needed. Here is what we found:

Our house doesn't have a closet on the main level for coats and such, so we looked on ikea and saw a coat rack and shoe rack that we liked. We found them and put them to good use!

At our apartment we had a really big walk-in closet. REALLY big. It doubled as our storage room and clothes closet. We had kept Nathan's dresser in there as well. Our closet in our bedroom now is too small for his dresser and we didn't want to take up more wall space. We looked on Ikea and saw a closet clothes organizer that we thought might work. We checked it out, bought it, and I'm so happy that it was just what we needed :) His dresser is now in the guest room waiting to be painted.

To save floor space in our closet, we had thought about buying vertical laundry hampers. We saw these at Ikea and have really liked them so far! Our washer and dryer are on the bottom floor so the handles are really nice for carrying the hampers up and down the stairs. For such a low price they are pretty sturdy and have proven to be a great deal so far!

I had been thinking about buying small Bell jars to keep some of my little craft supplies in. I saw these as we were walking around and thought they would do just as well! And for about a 1/3 of the price too!

I get to have a little section of our basement as my craft area and I am very much looking forward to it! I can't wait to have a desk with these little jars filled :) I am also planning on making 2 small chalkboards and 2 small bulletin boards to put over the desk.

I also bought these to organize my magazines and my craft paper. I am planning on covering them with some paper once I figure out my color scheme for the space. Whatever I choose, it has to match my beautiful Roman Holiday poster :)

Slowly but surely our home is coming together :) I'm really looking forward to working on it this summer!

#46: Freedom!

...at least for 2 weeks :)

Last night I finished my 5 Day Lesson Plan for my methods class! I did it for VA Standards of Learning for 3rd grade Social Studies. I chose to do the explorers and I learned a lot about Columbus, Ponce de Leon, Cartier, and Newport! My lesson plan totaled 20 pages without accompanying worksheets. I was so relieved to print it out and be done! With a day to spare :) Today I turn it in and on Thursday I get back a final I turned in last week. My summer classes start on May 17th. I have a lot of fun things to look forward too! Today I have spent time relaxing and doing things around the home. Completely regular stuff...and I love it! Things I'm looking forward to this week:

Today: Turning in my paper and stopping by the Peaches at their lovely new home :) I am also going to plan out my Mother's Day Brunch menu for when my family comes on Sunday.

Tomorrow: Lunch with Kevin and meeting with my advisor. I've got lots of questions!

Thursday & Friday: I get to sub in one of my favorite classes at CES. I will be working with special education for 1st grade. These kids are so much fun! I will also have my last class of this semester. Huzzah!

Saturday: GPC 30th Anniversary Banquet and getting ready for Mother's Day

Sunday: Mother's Day Brunch at my home. I am grateful to have a wonderful mommy and a lovely mommy-in-law :)

God is good and life is beautiful :)

#45: What the Dr. Ordered

Today I am at home due to being sick last night and from bad back pain. I was supposed to work, but my husband lovingly made me cancel my job so that I could go to the chiropractor. He worked from home this morning just so he could drive me all the way out to Tyson's and back for my appointment. Thank you my love! My headache has been pretty bad the past few days, so I've been trying to keep myself distracted. Today, I feel like my brain won't function enough to work on my final project, so I'm going to blog instead :) I don't have to think too much and it distracts me from the pain. It's a two-fer ;)

Next week is my last week of this semester. Huzzah! I am turning in a final project tomorrow. On Tuesday I have a 5 day lesson plan due. Very time consuming! I'm plodding my way through it and hope it all goes well. Last night my group did a teaching demonstration and our teacher liked it :) So after tomorrow, I just have my lesson plan and then I get a week break until summer classes start.

The past few months my health hasn't been good. I've definitely been backsliding in my progress. Stressors really affect my body. It could be allergies, physical stress, or emotional. Life has been crazy lately so I guess it all correlates. Nathan and I decided that I will take the summer off from working in order to give myself a season to rest a little bit. I will be taking two summer classes from May - July, but not working will free up a lot of my time! Last summer I worked 50 hours a week...this summer will be a lot different! I am also currently cutting back on my sub hours as well.

I am so grateful that we are able to have me take off the summer. I am really looking forward to being able to do things around our home and to work on all of my house projects :) I am praying that the time off will help my body to relax and re-group. Almost there!

#44: Busy Busy Busy!

Time is flying by! I want to post pictures of the house soon but haven't had the time to upload pictures. Busy busy busy! This is what my calendar looks like:

April 25th: 19th Adoption Anniversary

April 26th: Sub at CES for 3rd Grade

April 27th: Direct Method Formal Teaching Demo

April 28th: Sub at CES for 6th grade

April 29th: Observation Report due

Present on an article

April 30th: Sub at CES for Special Ed.

May 3rd: Dr. Feldman

May 4th: 5 Day Lesson Plan due

May 6th: Last Class :)

May 7th: Bloodwork done

May 8th: GPC 30th Anniversary

May 9th: Family over for Mother's Day Lunch

May 10th: CES 4 Music

May 14th - 15th: 1st Anniversary trip with my love :)

May 17th: Summer classes start!

May 19th: Dr. Duca

May 27th: Birthmom visits

May 29th: 1 Year Anniversary :)

June 4th & 7-11th: Sub for Ginnie

This is what I have so far over the next month. It will only fill up more!

#43: A Phone Call

I got to talk to Jeffrey! I can't express how much joy I felt when I heard his voice on the phone! It took everything within me not to burst into tears. I was sitting at a table with a classmate in the J.C. at Mason. Knowing that Jeffrey would be upset if I started crying and that I was surrounded by strangers helped me to keep it together. I felt such a relief as if a burden had been lifted from me. It was so sweet to know that he is not injured and doing well. He told me some things that he wanted me to send and we talked a little bit about what's been going on there. We also talked about our new house and I told me that I will have a guest room ready for him when he gets home :)

I love my little brother so much. And I am so incredibly proud of him. His company has sacrificed their safety and their comfort... including basic necessities like food and water at times. 2 boys within his company died and Jeffrey was close to one of them. It's incredibly sobering and breaks my heart to think about. It also makes me feel ashamed for how I take for granted our freedom and so often voice my opinions without even thinking about why I have the right to voice them.

I am praying for the families of the two boys who lost their lives. Their families have also sacrificed much for freedom's sake. I hope that you will pray with me.

#42: Swallowed in a Sea

We are moved in to our new home :) There are boxes everywhere, and we have a few things to pick up from some other houses, but we are mostly in our new house :) After last Thursday, we were able to paint the whole living room and kitchen. Thanks to Mom Poe for all of her help! Our living room is now painted a light blue (Tropical Breeze) and cream (Caribbean Walk) while our kitchen is a light green (Summer Rapture). I love the colours! They are so cheerful and a little whimsical.

We had so much help as we moved in on Saturday! Our helpers were very quick. I was amazed at how much stuff we had! We filled up a 17ft. Uhaul to the brim plus the trunks of a few other cars. I never felt crowded in our apartment and I can't figure out where we put all of our things! With things in boxes in various rooms of the house, it feels like it won't all fit, but I'm sure that with patience and diligence everything will have it's own place.

I will now add March 31st to my list of days to remember as the day we bought our first home!

March 30th marked our 3rd year as a couple. 3 years ago I couldn't have imagined that we would be married for almost a year and in our first home. March 29th was our 10 month wedding anniversary too :) "God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame."

We have a lot of projects for the house ahead. It's hard to focus on school when I see boxes to unpack. Over the next 5 weeks of school I have:

*2 group presentations

*1 report of a learning assessment

*a report of my 10 hours of observing ESL classrooms

*observe 5 hrs and write a report

*Create a 5 day lesson plans

Lately I've felt as though I'm struggling in a sea of things to do. The more I fight it, the harder it is to breathe. If I would just relax and rest in the Lord, I know I will eventually float to the surface. Oh Lord, give me strength! I've sort of hit a bump in the road health-wise. I think that all of the stress of moving, work, school and Jeffrey being in Afghanistan have taken it's toll. It feels like I've taken a few steps backward in my progress and as a whole I haven't felt well lately, but God is faithful and has carried me through each day.

Praying for continued grace! And very much looking forward to my vacation!