Ideas and Odes

So I know I haven't been doing much but posting videos and such lately. My head seems to be so full of thoughts lately - I get an idea for a blog post once every 3.2 seconds, I swear! - that it's overwhelming to write it all down! That and I've been busy like a madwoman lately.

Here's some snippets of what's going on in my mind lately. These thoughts are sooo underdeveloped. I wish I had time to chew on them,, write about them, mull them over. For now, they're snippets...

- Mexico. Yeah, yeah, I still haven't written anything about that. It's apalling, really. I find that the farther away in time of the actual event, the more it is impacting me. It certainly gives a new frame of reference for what we have and what we take for granted. And it's made me think a lot about Missions. Doing them, issues surrounding missions, how to continue to contribute in my daily life...

- Rich. Connected to Mexico, I guess, are a whole bunch of thoughts about wealth. We talked about it at Resonate (the young adults meeting at my church) tonight, too. Some thoughts that stick in my mind: We have to be careful not the think that OUR world here in North America reflects THE world. And all those bumper stickers that say "God bless America?" (which could very well say "God bless Canada") We already ARE blessed. Beyond measure. We are blessed so that we can pass that on. How exactly am I doing that in my life? (answer: I'm not - not nearly enough).

- Thanksgiving. For us Canadians, it's coming up this weekend. I spent an hour after school today writing out Thanksgiving songs and poems to work on this week. Thank you for this, thank you for that... and you know, it struck me: just who are we asking these kids to thank? It makes me think of that little poem we used to say at school camp:

Oh the Lord is good to me,
And so I thank the Lord,
For giving me the things I need
The sun and the rain and the appleseed
The Lord is good to me
Johnny Appleseed
Amen.

Who knows when, but they changed it to "Oh the earth is good to me..." It makes me sad. Be thankful, be thankful... Oh how I wish I could point to the Giver of every good gift.

- The voice of Jesus. I went to a seminar given by Gordon T. Smith this weekend on learing to listen to the voice of Jesus. That probably sounds all freaky-deaky to some of you, but it was really down to earth. He talked about basically four ways that God speaks to us. First, he tells us he loves us. Everything hinges on his deep, unconditional love. "Even while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Second, he calls us to turn - away from sin, to confess, to live by who we were created to be. Third, he calls us to truth - to know truth, to speak truth, to teach truth. "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." Finally, he calls us to listen in times of choice. How do you know what God is calling you to do? How do you know it's God?

Man, that is such a pathetic summary for a Friday and Saturday workshop that left me feeling like I was trying to drink from a fire hose. Sooo much stuff there. Overwhelming. I'd highly, highly recommend two of his books (I've heard him speak on both topics and own both books. I'll be reading them shortly) - The Voice of Jesus and Courage and Calling.

- Professional development. Speaking of drinking from a firehose... Part of being new to a grade and a whole program (primary) is that I tend to overload myself with workshops and professinal development. It's good, becuse at this stage of the game, even workshops that seasoned pros go to and are like, "meh, I know all this" I drink up. I'm enrolled in an eight session after-school literacy workshop that meets once a month, and am also one of four staff who will be spending three full days at seminars dealing with "Understanding by Design" and "Differentiated Instruction." Basically it's about how to plan for teaching so that students actually UNDERSTAND what you are teaching, instead of just following some crazy set of rules that they've memorized. Good stuff, but sooo intense. In one sense, I love the learning curve, but in another, it's utterly exhausing. Oh well, at least for that last one I get to go spend one day every few months at a fancy-shmancy golf course with super-nummy catered food.

BLAM!

Sorry. Just trying to wake you up. I got all boring and rambly for a minute there.

Ok, now for the fun stuff which was the actual point of this post, but apparently I needed a brain dump tonight.

This here is an ode to all the mommies out there. You have amazing, amazing jobs, and you also have the incredible capacity to laugh at yourselves. Perhaps through tears at times, but laughing all the same. Hope you enjoy these.




(watch it right to the end credits!!)

Thanks to Jean and Vodkarella for posting these!