What if there are robbers?

On Friday I asked my students if they thought an author was going to sneak into our classroom this weekend and paint another character onto the desk. They threw out quite a few guesses as to who might appear, but then a student asked how the artist will get in if the door is locked.

Me: Well, I can leave the front door unlocked so that an author can sneak in and paint.
Student: But what about robbers? We don't want any robbers to steal our stuff.
Me: I know what to do. I will write a note that says if you're a robber, don't come in. If you want to paint something onto our desk, please come in.
Student: That's a great idea. 

I'm glad we made a plan. Who's it gonna be?

Our Debt Story- God at Work!

I have always used this forum to share things that I am doing in my classroom or great children's literature that I am reading, however, today I am going to use it to share our story for the glory of God. It includes lessons I've learned through the process of paying down our debt.

I have learned so much since turning 20 about money and God's amazing ability to provide it. I truly know the King of the Universe, the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills. 

I am starting my debt story when I was twenty because it was at this time that God provided my first semester of funds to attend Emmaus Bible College. I found myself led to this place, even though it was a 15 hour drive from where I grew up in Pennsylvania, and I couldn't possibly figure out how I was going to pay for four years of a private college education. God gave me all that I needed to attend my first semester there, and laid it on my heart to seek part-time employment and earn any scholarship that I could to provide for this education for the next 3 1/2 years. My part time employment allowed me to earn about $12,000 a year, But GOD provided the rest through so many avenues. I wouldn't have finished my fourth year in 2011 without various provisions from the body of Christ, and ultimately from the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills. I learned quite a bit through this experience including lessons in trust and reliance upon the Lord. 

Shortly after I graduated from college, I married my best friend, Colin MacLeod. God had convicted both of us about how to handle the money that God was providing for us. This included a conviction about the principle in Proverbs 22:7 that states that "the borrower is slave to the lender". We knew that we were enslaved to our debtors. Colin's debt became my debt when we married, and my debt became his debt as well. We made a plan, and I know that God honored that plan, but he also wanted to teach us a few things along the way. 

During the course of paying down our debt, we had a few expensive incidents occur. We had a big hospital bill from when I got sick one spring, we had various car expenses, and another bill came from a time when Colin had been employed in Iowa. It was easy to allow discouragement from unplanned bills to get us down when our plan was to have our debt paid off quickly, but early on we noticed how God provided the extra that we needed to pay these bills so that we could continue to pay down our debt at the same rate. We gained greater faith through this. I remember thinking that if I did my part, I needed to leave the rest of it in God's hands, and he would honor what we did to get this debt out of our house. 

Last fall I was going through our toiletries while making a grocery list, and I asked Colin how he was on his shampoo supply. He was still into a first bottle of two that I had gotten on a special buy one, get one free deal. Men use much less shampoo than women, for sure! I felt relieved that I didn't have to worry about his shampoo supply for a while because he had a second bottle under the sink. He told me, "I'm going to use the rest of the bottle I'm using until we're debt free." I knew it was more than a year away, so I laughed because we were fine, we had another bottle under the sink. God is in the details, however, because Colin used the last of this shampoo the day before we became debt free. It's not about me, and my ability to provide even shampoo; it's about God and his great faithfulness!

Through this time God also started to produce in my a generous spirit. I was able to give out of what I thought I needed, and He always provided the extra when that conviction came to give. God opened my hands which before had been closed around my money. He thoughtfully pried them open so that I would be willing to yield to his plan for my money.

About two months ago, we were praying one night, and I prayed for the faith of David for both Colin and myself. David is such a great example of someone that faced unbelievable opposition, but did not waver in his trust in the Lord. I knew at this point that our debt would be paid off in a few months, so I expected testing, but I wanted David's faith. Well, the very next morning we were awakened with a text from my neighbor telling me part of the tree in our front yard had fallen on my car. I knew before we went out there we must proclaim God's goodness to us. After I said, "God is faithful!" I just felt like a peace from the Lord wrapped around my heart. Then we went outside to survey the damage, and as we picked each branch off of the car, there appeared to be only a few scratches on the hood, no real damage. God was teaching me trust! Big time!!!

As we paid our final bill last Saturday, I felt such relief, and there is so much praise in my heart for what God has shown and taught to me through this time. I am writing this story to share with you in case you are not sure what God can truly do with the debts in your life. He is a redeemer! 

1. God transcends unplanned bills.
2. God is in the details, even the provision of shampoo.
3. You can't out-give the Lord!
4. God is faithful! 

He was faithful when we couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel, and he was still faithful when I was worried about shampoo. He was faithful when a tree fell onto the car, and he was faithful when we clicked "Make payment" last Saturday morning! He will always be faithful! That's who He is! 

My Wink Gave Me Away

I have an antique desk that I found this summer through a friend from college. I had been looking for an inexpensive one for a few months to pursue an idea that I saw back in April that another first grade teacher had in her classroom. 

She had an old desk that she allowed her "Student of the Day" to sit in, and it was covered with hand-painted Dr. Seuss characters. I fell in love with it and began to dream big, but all of the desks that I found were over $100. When I saw a $10 old desk at a friend's garage sale, I knew that this was the one.

In August, my husband and I worked on sanding it and repainted it with a white primer. The plan for the year was to paint on book characters each Friday, and allow the students to discover the new characters each week. I started two weeks ago.

I am including pictures of my first book character. 

We read a book called Al Pha's Bet by Amy Krouse Rosenthal during the second week of school as we were reviewing our letters and sounds. This is a made-up story about the man that put the alphabet letters in order, as we know it. His name was Al Pha, and he made a bet with himself that he could please the King with the sequence of the letters that, at that time, did not have any particular order. The king loved his sequence that he created, and therefore named it the Alphabet because Al Pha made a bet with himself. It was a cute story full of puns and wonderful illustrations. 

I decided to make Al Pha our first character. I started by roughly sketching him onto the front of the desk. 

And then I painted him. I chose an easy first character to make myself feel more confident. I am not an artist, by any means! But I was very pleased with how he turned out.

Here he is compared to the copy of himself that I pulled
from the book.

On Monday morning, I could hardly contain my excitement. I was hoping the students would notice him quickly, so that I wouldn't have to keep his existence a secret for very long. They did not let me down. It was less than a minute before they were proclaiming that Al Pha was on our "Student of the Day" desk. I feigned surprise, and proclaimed that Amy Krouse Rosenthal must have come in our classroom over the weekend and painted him onto the desk. They laughed and smiled with excitement. I did not trick them however, they knew that I must have painted him. I proclaimed that I wasn't an artist, so how could I have done that?! I proceeded to wink at a particular student as I said this fact. To which he replied, "Mrs. MacLeod, I know what this (he winked at me) means!" I smiled.

It's going to be a rather fun year, as the characters on this desk continue to appear. 

AGAIN! AGAIN!

When my students like a book, they demand, "AGAIN!" "AGAIN!" the moment I close it. I usually give in and reread it. They laugh more than the first time, and my teacher's heart goes pitter-patter.

Below are two favorites from this week that I highly recommend you read with your child. These books go hand-in-hand.

I recommend reading this one first.

You'll have to read them to find out how they go together! You'll decide very quickly these are two books that you want to add to your child's home collection. Great stories! Great laughs!
Enjoy!

Our Class

Last year I had a job bulletin board, and a class bulletin board. I decided to combine these two needs into one board this year. So I wrote my jobs on little stars, and I decided I am going to hang the jobs beside each student's self-portrait when it is their turn to work on that job.

That meant that I needed each student to make a self-portrait... so I started by making my own and hanging it up on the board. My job is teacher, and that's kind of permanent, so I wrote it across the bottom of my picture.

This is what the board looked like when the students came
in on the first day of school.

Here I am eagerly awaiting 21 little people to arrive.

Then I gave the students the supplies to create their own self-portraits. Some understood that a self-portrait should share a likeness with the artist creating it.

Notice the green headband she was wearing, and her
glasses actually look like that. 

This boy had written "I Love" and the name of a student on his
shirt, but I had to cut that for the blog. So sweet! Love the top hat.
Those are not allowed as part of the school uniform in case you're wondering.

This child really wanted to give himself crazy colored eyes.
I talked him into giving himself the brown eyes that he actually possesses.

This is a true likeness of this child. She did a fabulous job!

Unnatural colored hair is also not a part of the uniform.
I just love this one! It speaks volumes about this child.

You can see that my class is full of personality and zest. I am excited for a new year with new kiddos!

Below is our final product, save two students that have not completed theirs yet.