Funnies, family, kids and teaching

Need a laugh at my expense?

Even though the wife who blogged about her decision to no longer wear yoga pants and leggings in public received countless insults and painful backlash, I appreciate her courage to note how the entire community benefits when instead of only considering our own selfish comforts and tastes when making clothing choices, we take a collective view that considers how our clothing choices could negatively affect other men, boys, and impressionable young women who look to us as role models. But I will admit that I love my ultra soft yoga pants. And since they are so homely, frumpy, and baggy, I assumed they certainly must be modest enough. But then...I went for a run today in those wonderful yoga pants which are so comfy that I can't even tell when they are on or when I have jogged right out of them. When they slid almost to my knees almost tripping me, I realized that even my baggy yoga pants are not modest enough. I'm so thankful for the long shirt that saved the day and that no one else was on the trail at the time.  (Gift #960)  ‪#‎NoMorePantsontheGround‬

I also got a chuckle out of this little meme and felt grateful and tad big guilty for my friend Teri who passed notes with me throughout our 6th through 10th grade years.

Access Ministry
I will admit that I tend to dread my biweekly service at church in our special needs ministry because it means I have to miss our life class with it's relevant teaching, small group fellowship, and heart felt prayers.  But every single week I serve ends up being such a great blessing to me personally, probably far more than the blessing I try to give to the special needs families.  As I left church today, I recounted how thankful I was for the wonderful gifts I had received that morning.

• Over an hour of cuddle time with sweet Zoe, who has cerebral palsy and was adopted from East Asia by her parents who have adopted 4 children thus far from foreign countries who had conditions that rendered them unlikely to be adopted by anyone else (Gift #961)
•  Enjoying the kaleidoscope of beautiful colors created when the 2-year-olds mixed up all the play-doh colors, which would normally drive this left brained mama wacko, but today brought me pleasure (Gift #962)
• Friendly little 2-year-old Georgia, who kept rubbing my soft sweater while gently holding Zoe's hand (Gift #963)
• The way little ones slow me down and help me focus on the wonder & awe of so many simple treasures in life I normally miss  (Gift #964)
• Getting to see a beloved, faithful Egyptian college friend at church today who has an amazing testimony which God has used to lead countless others to walk away from Islam and into a personal relationship with Christ  (Gift #965)
• The temperatures climbed over 30 degrees from the past week's highs today helping to alleviate some of the SAD symptoms I have been battling. (Gift #966)

It was a very good day indeed!

More Thoughts on Teaching
I am convinced that teachers love more sacrificially than most anyone.  As if we needed any further proof, our kids were greeted with big smiles and warm hugs on Friday at the carpool line by those wonderful teachers who stood outside with the temperature around 12 degrees and negative wind chills. Thank you for all your sacrifices, carpool servants/heroes. (Gift #967)

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I've been very busy putting together a team of parents to help me kick-off an after school STEM enrichment program at our classical school.  I don't want to discount the wonderful emphasis at our school on liberal arts and the way in which these students excel in those disciplines, but I am passionate as well about building critical thinking, creative problem solving skills needed for STEM majors.  No doubt the demand for STEM majors far exceeds those for liberal arts degrees, and the pay difference reflects that high demand, but the point of this great article is that a STEM major alone is no where near as beneficial as a STEM major with a liberal arts background. Case in point: I was once hired as a liasion between the the science/engineering/finance departments and the more liberal arts oriented jobs in a growing company because the STEM folks could not communicate effectively, work cross functionally or think much outside of their box while the liberal arts only majors could not think critically or understand the logical limits of the business. My job should have never been necessary, yet it worked me harder than most any other job (before teaching) and I always felt an enormous unnecessary weight on my shoulders because neither group had a holistic, integrated, educational background. I felt like pivot point or joint holding them all together. I realize I am  completely biased given that we spend lots of money to send our kids to a classical school when at least one is strongly STEM oriented, but we chose classical because we truly believe in a liberal arts background, particularly before college specialization takes place.

Family
My mother celebrated her 74th birthday last week.  So I did a little reminiscing and posted this picture and message on Facebook.  I'm so thankful for all the people who liked the post and commented words of affirmation to my sweet mom. (Gift #968)

Dear Mom,

Not only do you lovingly give of yourself to a degree that puts all others to shame, you also manage to accumulate years upon years while still looking exactly the same. So, instead of counting how many more wrinkles I have than you, I will praise the Lord for a mother whose love is forever true.
Happy Birthday, Mom! We're thankful for the birthday gift that you are to us and to countless others.