not at my school...

i've heard stories before of teachers that send home teddy bears or the equivalent with one student each week and they have to write about the bear's adventures at their homes in a notebook, share with the class, pass it on.  cute.

not at my school.  at my school, a plastic statue of our lady of fatima goes home with the 2nd graders and goes on all kinds of adventures with the little ones...they think it's the greatest thing ever, and so do i!  it's amazing how sacred she is to all of them- i hope they can hold onto that reverence forever!

no problem, God.

i should preface this by warning that my attitude in this post is purely satirical.  i totally get that i had nothing to do with this, but it cracks me up, nonetheless.  God works in mysterious ways...

for those of you who don't know, i made a major faux pas during the first month of school by replacing the chocolate milk with white milk.  here i went, thinking i was making one tiny little change on the path to health for my kids, not realizing that i was going to really make some people mad.  the teachers were the first to complain.  the kids were still kind of shy and getting to know me, so they didn't really say anything...they just wasted their milk everyday rather than drinking it.  eventually i decided this wasn't a battle i was ready to fight- at least not in this way- and gave in and ordered chocolate milk.

a dad told me the other day that he and his daughters pray everyday before they get out of the car to come into the building.  on one particular day, his daughter prayed that i would change my mind and order chocolate milk again, "realizing that it was better than no milk at all!"  apparently she was so adamant that even after the prayer was over, she looked up at the sky and said, "do you hear me, God?  i hope you're listening!"

well, timing sure is funny...that very day was the first day i had ordered the chocolate milk.  apparently the girl got in the car that afternoon with a huge grin on her face, beaming with a renewed faith in her loving Lord and savior.

no problem, God.  glad i could help you out on this one :)

grace in young minds

sorry i've been MIA lately.  we had our accreditation visit at school and i have been doing nothing other than that for the last few weeks.  i'm happy to announce that it is now over and i am back to my regularly-scheduled day-to-day insanity!

i've had several occasions lately on which to chat with little ones about God, faith, heaven, etc.  just had to share...

upon reading a book called If Jesus Came to My House..., 2nd graders wrote their own pages.  excerpts include:

• If Jesus came to my house, I would make him tea and cookies.  Then we could read a story.
• If Jesus came to my house, I hope he could swim, because I would want to take him in my pool.  (Shouldn't be a problem...he can walk on water!)
• If Jesus came to my house, I would tell him we had to go to Applebee's, because it tastes better than what my mom makes.

sooooo cute!  and not a single mention of tv, nintendo ds, or any other electronic device!

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i happened to walk in the other day when 7th grade was discussing the gospel writers.  they took some time to tell me what they had learned about each one.  i asked them if they ever wondered what it must have been like to have lived when Jesus did- to have actually eaten with him and talked with him and hung out like friends.  they thought for a minute and then one replied, "as sad as it is, i bet the people who did live with him didn't fully appreciate him at the time.  they probably had no idea how good they had it."  to which another replied, "kind of like us today."

these kids...so deep!

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a particularly feisty 1st grader was running around the church during choir practice the other day, rather than sitting in the pew with her peers singing.  she ran up on the altar and it looked like she was playing with the flowers around the statue of Mary.  i walked up to her and explained that they are only for looking, not for touching.  to which she responded, "but miss k, i was just smelling them.  they smell so good.  i think they must be what heaven smells like."  

sigh.  what do you say to that?

out of the mouths of babes...