Good To Me

Hi Friends!!

It has been awhile, hasn’t it. I have been missing my little space in the blogosphere. While I have been making up for my lack of writing by reading blogs (and sitting drinking tea), let’s try again at this little randevu.

Can I just be the first to say it:: (Or maybe, the second, hundredth, thousandth girl)…

I could not be more excited! Dallas has been gorgeous. Right now it is 70 degrees, breezy, and beautiful!

(My view on this gorgeous day so far). There just is something about this time of year that gets me super excited. It could be due to no longer getting long breaks off  (womp womp) so seasons become all the more special in the working world!! Except, when stores begin to jump ahead. While I do love snowmen, it is not even October yet. Let’s enjoy Fall first, pretty please!!

Besides being super excited and loving every possibility of being outside and enjoying this amazing
weather we have had, (and getting to wear scarves, smell cinnamon, and eat pumpkin!!!) here is a semi wrap up of what has been going on since the last time I wrote.

Work has been work to say the least. With anything, there are little struggles that pop up and
sometimes you get to a point that you say “but there is a whole WORLD out there” and I am sitting. In a cube. But, then, there are other days when you feel very good about the work you are doing and things just make sense. It’s all about the pluses and minuses and taking each day for each day. Remember how earlier I said I had been working on this? Progress!

These last weeks...months? (oh wow) have been incredibly blessed though and challenging and exactly what I needed. My life has consisted of tap dancing, yoga, young adults, Mass, prayer time, dinners, exploring, game watching, catching up, picnics, walks, coffee drinking, trying new eateries, meeting new people, and traveling to College Station. It has all been a whirlwind (an exciting one at that) after working hours. But,unfortunately, it can be too easy for me to forget all the good things and to look at very minute details of a job, the things that don’t make me the happiest, and struggling with “Is this really what I am supposed to be doing” . But, when I step back, and see ALL the great and beautiful things in my life all I can think of is Audrey Assad’s new song “Good to Me”. ( We are on an Audrey kick right now aren’t we Miss King?!)

Maybe you haven’t heard the song yet or do not like her music, but please just look at this one line at
least:

“I put all my hope on the truth of Your promise and I steady my heart on the ground of Your goodness”

For me, it can be very difficult to see the goodness of the Lord, as I too often fall into my own
melancholy. (Oh..I could talk about temperaments for DAYS. Next post. I am just about to finish the
book!) But, what a beautiful reminder to remember God is always there to help and not hurt us. To lead us to His heart. Yes, some days it is very easy to see the goodness and trust in God’s promises. But let’s try in those difficult times and days to not focus on the dreary but, instead, focus and see the very great things going on in our lives.

On some days, the only good things going on in the office world can be pretty funny. And I just have to laugh sometimes at Corporate America. So, in trying to see the good things in sometimes difficult days… let’s have a laugh at scenarios I have written down shall we?

1. Getting your own cube!!! (which is actually getting taken away to go back into a “war room” #techie
2. New designs on the Dixie cups?! Exciting! Good day.
3. Going for a walk outside during lunch! Gotta get that Vitamin D, sunshine, and fresh air. Also,
leads me back to the “There is a whole world out there!”
4. Being on someone’s water/coffee/tea cycle. You see them at the kitchen at the same time.
Good day. We are both like clock work.
5. Tea. Tea. Tea. (which explains why number 4 happens)

To good things, God’s goodness, and Fall!!!
And living moment by moment with this girl:

And to being better at this blogger thing.

Thanks for sitting across from me,
Elizabeth

Lead Kindly Light

 “You liberate me from my own noise and my own chaos, from the chains of a lesser law you set me free”- Audrey Assad

Apologies for the extended absence, life gets crazy sometimes. I’ve started life as a real life teacher and it turns out that is pretty time consuming, especially your first year. I’m so thankful for my GRACE community in all this chaos and I sincerely think we need to have our own reality T.V. show just based on our dinner conversations when eleven crazy teachers live together.

 I’ve been assured it gets easier as you go, which is logical and reassuring because I’ve realized that any new experience brings out a lot of challenging questions and requires an amazing amount of energy. Good thing my first graders love questions and energy, I’m still brainstorming ways for them to transfer some of it to me around 1:00pm everyday.

As cliché as it may sound, teaching has already taught me more than I could have imagined.

Here is the short list:

-Patience is good, but understanding is better.

-Our teachers growing up didn’t know as much as we thought they did

-A lot of my teaching is trial and error aka this has to get better with time

-Teaching is probably the hardest thing you could do. Don’t believe me? Lock yourself in a room with a bunch of six years olds for a day.

-Teachers are never finished

-This experience has made me more excited and paranoid to be a parent one day (God willing and in the far, far, far long ways away future)

-Kids really do teach us how to love. They can be mad and hurt and then two minutes later be best friends again. I pray for a heart like that.

-Kids make me pray more. To keep my sanity yes, but also because they teach you so clearly about the heart of God and I desperately hope I am doing what I can to point them to Him.

I have every level and personality in my classroom and little people have a way of teaching you about adults like no adult ever could. Children haven’t learned to put up a mask or a filter like the rest of us have, and that transparency is what makes them so beautiful….and hilarious.

Some think they are tigers, or birds. Some just have the ability to use tiger and bird powers for super speed on the playground. All of them could lift a car if you needed it. One is convinced I am an elf (and found out I have a squishy nose which only confirmed this belief).  Their creativity and imagination is amazing. I’m doing what I can to maintain and encourage that. Often school is the place where wonder is replaced by correctness, but making mistakes is how we discover innovative ideas.

Random class updates:

We’ve planted beans on the window seal and excitedly watched them grow in wonder (myself included). We made turtles out of leaves.

 Addition is coming together, both literally as we combine rubrics cubes and mentally. My class loves singing more than life, so I’m searching for ways to incorporate music into every subject. I am so thankful for donations. That’s what stocks majority of my centers and the generosity of people is inspiring. I asked for carpet squares and received enough for all the kids at our school! 

This week we are mailing our first letters to our Nun pen pals in Ecuador thanks to the beautiful Arianna Olivares who is a missionary to these new friends of ours. http://arianainecuador.blogspot.com/

This post was as random and scattered as my life is right now. But as the beautiful lyrics in the song, which inspired this post proclaims, “here in the dark I do not ask to see, one step ahead enough for me”. When my world is chaotic, stressful, and unsure I am confident that the only security comes in finding the light. Some days is blaring, some days it’s a sliver in the cracks, but it’s always there.

All My Love, 

Carly Rose