A New Look for the Back Yard & A Tour Through the Garden

The drought of 2011 took its toll on our old willow tree in the back yard.  Brian and I made the tough decision to have it cut down a couple of weeks ago.  In its place, Brian planted two new trees--both are Texas natives, and will add beauty and shade to the yard.  None of us have quite gotten over the loss of the beautiful willow, though.  Lily says that our yard "looks nekkid."  She says the tree was our back yard's "dress". 

Brian planted a Shumard Oak (foreground) and a Bald Cypress.  You can see in the corner where the willow tree once stood.  Willow trees are beautiful and magical with their long fronds swaying in the wind.  Unfortunately, beauty doesn't last long, and willows are known to be short lived.

The Bald Cypress is situated close to the spot where the willow was, but we are leaving that spot open so that we can get a small storage shed to put our mower in. 

Saturday was so lovely that we decided to have a picnic out here under the new oak.  Lily got to fly her new kite at the neighborhood park.

So far this year, we have planted four trees.  We planted two apple trees in January, and they are doing well.

It has rained a lot here in North Texas.  The lakes are full and the roadways are green and full of bluebonnets.  We have our own little trail of bluebonnets leading up to the front door.  The large Oakleaf Hydrangeas to the left of the front path will be full of white blooms in a month or so.  My garden beds are full of mint. 

 My roses have started blooming.  This little miniature beauty was a gift to me from one of my students several years ago.  Isn't it lovely?

Brian and I stood on the back porch last night and enjoyed the fragrance from this lovely pink rose.  I can't remember the name of it, unfortunately.  I ordered it from the Antique Rose Emporium years ago.

It stormed on Easter Sunday, so the kids had an Easter egg hunt indoors.  However, the rain had ceased long before we held our first-ever night-time Easter egg hunt.  I got the idea from Pinterest.  Next year, I'll be sure and buy larger eggs to hold the glow bracelets, and I'll drag the tripod out to take pictures of the glowing eggs!  I couldn't hold the camera still enough to get a really good shot, but here's a picture that gives a sense of how magical the glowing eggs looked amongst the flowers in the yard:



The kids had fun, and Jesse and Lily took all of the glow bracelets and made two ginormous necklaces for themselves.  It was a wonderful day. 

Late that night, Brian and I stood on the porch listening to a mockingbird sing.  A mist had formed in the damp air behind the house, and we were watching the wind move through the trees.  We agreed that we feel very blessed.  At Easter, we celebrate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It is a time of rebirth, when we remember that we are dead to our sin and old way of life and are made new in Christ.  Nature reminds us of that rebirth, as well.  Drought scorched the earth here in Texas last year, but God has sent the rain to refresh and replenish.  We are doubly, triply, infinitely blessed by God.  His ways are mysterious, but His ways are good.  My life before Christ was very much like the drought-stricken land: Dead and without hope.  In Christ, I am like the flowers that bloom with new rain.  I feel alive and full of purpose. 

Many blessings,

Jennifer

P. S. While I am participating in Susan's Metamorphosis Monday at www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com, it is important to remember that in Christ, we are all made new--we have all metamorphosized!

Why I Love My Job (And How I Know I'm Doing the Right Thing)

It was springtime in 2010 when I made the decision to pursue a career in Special Education.  Little did I know how much my life would change in the course of two years.  Believe it or not, lots of people tried to discourage me from pursuing this vocation.  I heard numerous times that Special Education is "too hard", "it takes a special person to do that kind of work", "it's too much paperwork", you name it.  I was surprised by how many times I was told me how bad it would be, even though the persons telling me this had not worked in Special Education.  For myself, I knew that God had called me to work with children.  More to the point, God had called me to work with children with special needs.  I took a break from my profession to be a stay-at-home mom, but not from my calling. 

Has it been easy?  No, of course not.  It's been tough.  Some days are harder than others.  But every day, I love my job.  Every single day.  Even when I'm challenged by it. Even when I'm unsure where I'll be next year--whether or not I'll be a lead teacher with my own classroom.  Days like today make me glad that I stepped out in faith and took chances.  I'm glad I didn't let the discouragement of others deter me.

Today, remarkable things happened at school.  Little things.  Special things.  I mentor a little girl who is lacking in confidence.  She was so shy when I first met her, but I bought a journal and some glitter pens and I write to her a few times a week.  I leave the journal on her desk when she arrives at school, and she writes back to me.  I saw her after school as she was preparing to leave with friends.  Her friend's arm is in a cast, and my young mentee saw that it was beginning to rain.  She quickly took off her own jacket to cover her friend's cast so it wouldn't get wet.  What a sweet child!  I wrote to her today that I think she is very kind, and that I'm happy to know her.  It is the little things that a person does that say a lot about their character.  My young friend has a sweet spirit.  She saw a friend's need and sought to help.  I hope to build her up so that she can have confidence in the years ahead.  Life can be tough, and we all need encouragement.  Maybe she'll remember the teacher who told her that she is special because she is a kind person.  I like that I get to be her mentor.  I like that this is something that I get to do--not because I have to as part of my job--but because my taking this job puts me in an environment where I get to help children who need my help.

Sometimes, amidst the challenges of working with children with profound disabilities, I ask the Lord for some encouragement that what I am teaching my students is effective.  Just a small sign that my efforts are not in vain, or that I'm on the right track.  Today, I got that small glimpse.  I can't share details, but suffice it to say that it was one of those small things that revealed that one of our students was fully present and participating in class.  If you work with children with autism, or know someone with autism, then you know what I'm talking about.  Oftentimes, the "scripting" from tv shows and movies, the self-stimulatory behaviors--the quirks that make these kids seem far away--can make it seem like learning is not taking place. Trying to educate a child who may not appear to be benefitting can seem like an exercise in frustration.  I know it's not, but we all have our moments when we just need to know that we are making a difference.  Today, it happened.  And so today, my spirit soared.

I shared this moment with my principal, and she grinned and told me, "Jennifer, hold out for a Special Ed. job.  You're meant to do this."  I just smiled and told her, "Thank you."  I don't know what tomorrow holds.  I do know that right now, in this moment--tired though I may be!--I am happy and satisfied that I am doing the right thing.  God holds the future, and He will continue to guide my path.

Thank You, Lord.

Many blessings,

Jennifer

Easy Weeknight Dinner

Even though I'm working full-time, I still want to provide my family as many home-cooked meals as I can muster.  Tonight, I made one of Brian's favorite meals:  Sausage and potatoes.  It is not low-fat, but it is very satisfying and tastes great. 

Start with Idaho gold potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced.  Sprinkle with seasoned salt and black pepper, and saute' in butter or oil on medium high heat for about 10 minutes.  Stir occasionally to cook evenly.

Slice one pound of your favorite sausage and add to the skillet.  Cover and cook for another 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender, stirring occasionally. 

I didn't take a picture of the finished product--Sorry!  It was delicious, though, and a quick and easy meal.  I like quick and easy--especially when I'm tired after work.  The good thing about this recipe is that it fills us up, and I nearly always have leftovers to take for my lunch the next day. 

Many blessings,

Jennifer

Laundry room redo, part I

 

My laundry room, or the tiny space that serves as my laundry room, has been in dire need of a spruce-up.  Brian and Jacob spent a few hours Saturday installing a counter above my washer and dryer.  Brian picked up a piece of melamine to install, since it would not require painting or sanding and would be durable.  He placed the counter a few inches above the appliances and installed supports under it with a brace in the middle. 

As you can see, it has given me quite a lot of workspace.  The small room needs to be painted.  I started out painting the room a neutral beige color, but I am not really a fan of the color.  Brian is suggesting that I use a bright color or a variety of colors.  I’m thinking that I would like to use a color that coordinates with a lovely picture I picked up in Savannah a few years ago.  The picture is of “The Bird Girl” statue made famous by the movie and book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.  My friend, Michele Green, and I went to Savannah several years ago and had such a ball.  I’d like to put the picture in the laundry room and decorate with touches of ivy green.  I love the color green, but I don’t want the room to be overwhelmed by it.

Photo courtesy of www.gazebonews.com

The room already feels larger, and I am finding that I am enjoying laundry a tiny bit more.  Hopefully, once it’s painted and decorated, I’ll enjoy laundry even more!

Many blessings,

Jennifer

P.S. I’m linking up with Susan’s Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch.

 

Catching up!

I have not been terribly faithful in keeping up with this blog in 2012! The funny thing is that so much is going on in our lives that I can scarcely take the time to write it all down.  The last couple of weeks have been busy.  We travelled down to Waco to help my parents at their new place last weekend.  Brian and the boys repaired the roof and worked on a fence, and Jesse and I and my nephews planted trees and flowers with my mom and dad.  My brother did a little of everything, and my sister-in-law graciously carried us all to the store in her big pick-up truck and bought the kids candy and soda.  She is making great gains in being the kids favorite aunt! :)

Brian and Jacob repairing the roof on my parents' home.  I have a generous and godly husband and Jacob is growing into a fine young man.

Unfortunately, Brian over-exerted himself and wound up getting sick.  He ended up with an upper respiratory infection and had to take a couple of days off.  I didn't feel well this week, but mostly this was due to allergies.  Everything is blooming here in North Texas.  Winter is over. This is good news, but for those of us with seasonal allergies, we suffer.  Friday, I took the day off and drove into Dallas to take my English as a Second Language (ESL) supplemental exam.  Provided I have passed the exam, I will be certified to teach ESL, in addition to General Ed. and Special Ed.  In the district in which I work, it is highly desirable for teachers to be ESL certified, so I am essentially trying to 'hedge my bets' by getting this certification so that I can be hired.

It's been a fast and furious year already.  I can scarcely believe that Spring Break is next week!  I've always thought that school seems to shoot by after Spring Break.  Before I know it, school will be over!  I try not to think too much about what lies ahead.  I am certainly planning lessons and am making plans to do things over the break, but I am finding that if I think too much about the upcoming school year, I get frustrated and anxious.  I am trusting the Lord to guide my path.  I am certain that my hard work will not have been in vain.  I think part of relying on God for His provision with regard to a lead teacher job in the coming school year is not trying to anticipate what's to come. I've always been such a control freak that it's hard not to try to figure out what I'm supposed to do next.  Right now, frankly, there is only so much I can do.

One of the things I've been doing to cope with the new direction my life has taken is to listen to the career change stories of others.  I've been blessed in that I have a lot of colleagues who have made the plunge from one career to another.  Just as one person leaves one profession, another comes to take his or her place.  The encouraging thing about hearing these 'leap-of-faith' stories is that in each one, the person is happier after having taken the plunge.  I have met very few people who were dissatisfied after pursuing a new career.  What I have found is that the people who are unhappy with their profession were generally unhappy with life before their career change.  In those cases, changing careers won't fix your outlook on life; we have to look to the Lord for our joy. 

I have always been drawn to the success stories of others; of inspirational men and women who changed courses in order to find fulfillment in their career or who wanted to make a new life for themselves and their children.  It's nice to know that life can begin anew for some of us in our forties.  I anticipate that if I can go through all of the hard work and the challenges of the last two years, I might have yet another course change in the future.  The possibilities exist....

Many blessings,

Jennifer

Communication-Enriched Classroom Environment

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I currently work in a Special Ed. Communications classroom at an elementary school in the city where I live.  A Communications class is a highly structured classroom for children who have Autism Spectrum Disorder or another type of diagnosis that requires high structure and intense coaching in communication.  Now that I have been working in the classroom for six months, I feel like I have a pretty good handle on things.  I have learned so much about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), specifically about ways to enhance communication and conversation.

Years ago, when I worked in Early Childhood Intervention, a speech therapist colleague of mine taught me about the concept of a language-enriched environment.  Essentially, children with speech/language delays need an environment that encourages and elicits language reception and production.  She used the example of providing food choices in such a way as to elicit a verbal response.  Parents and caregivers are encouraged to think about ways to help their child produce language.  In the Comm. class, we are challenged to think of ways to encourage our students to carry on conversations with others.  Children with ASD carry on a great deal of internal conversation that consists of scripts from movies and television shows.  While this seems like a neat party trick--remembering hundreds of lines from movies and shows seemed cool in the movie Rain Man--in real life, this type of behavior is isolating and counterproductive to forming relationships.  We work to encourage our students to 'script' less and to talk with others more. 

Goals for our classroom look different than traditional classroom goals.  We try to set up an environment in which other students engage our students in conversation.  I also encourage my students to greet their peers and ask them questions.  Socialization begins in small steps.  I play a game with the students in the afternoon in which I have them ask me or one of the other members of the class a simple question ("What is your favorite color?"  "What do you like to eat?") before they can have a small snack.  We do morning and afternoon snacks and try to make these times instructional.  Asking questions of each other is highly prized, particularly if those questions are not coached. 

I am learning so much.  I am enjoying my time in this class, even though it is challenging at times.  God has been good to me, and I know that He has placed me in this classroom for a reason.  I strongly believe that God is preparing me for my next classroom assignment--wherever that may be...

Many blessings,

Jennifer

Discipline Help: Practice Academy

Lately, our daughter, Lily, has been going through a really challenging phase.  It is typical for children between the ages of 7 and 9 to go through a lying phase.  Lily has begun 'stretching the truth' and is also disobeying me on occasion.  Since this is a heart issue, and an issue of character, we have had the same lecture that we gave to our older children regarding telling the truth.  We have always made it a point to teach our children about how our behavior should honor God.  We tell them that God's Word teaches us that lying is a sin.  Practically speaking, being dishonest may put us in danger later, as their daddy and I cannot believe their words when they lie.  While this phase may be typical for her age, it is not a given that she will outgrow lying.  At this stage in her development, we must hold her to the standard of honesty and integrity.  We call her out when she is lying.

Likewise, her disobedience is not just a character issue, but a dangerous liability.  This past summer, our church hosted Pastor Peter Ajemo from Suba, Kenya.  Pastor Peter told the story of how his son was about to enter their chicken coop, unaware that a 9-foot cobra was inside.  Pastor Peter was on his way to deal with the cobra, when he saw his precious child with his hand on the door to the coop.  He called out to him to stop, and he did--immediately. 

While we may not deal with literal cobras here in Texas, we certainly deal with figurative cobras all the time.  There are dangers that are just as deadly to our children.  If we allow our children to disobey us when the coast is clear, then when it is a matter of life or death, their disobedience will be deadly.  Many years ago, I was putting together a safety plan for our family in the event of an emergency like a fire or tornado.  I thought about my sweet children and wondered if they would do as I ask without questioning me in an emergency.  From that point on, I took seriously our roles in teaching our children to be obedient.

This evening, Lily did something I told her not to do.  She has been challenging me all week, and I determined to step up my game.  I decided to give her a practice academy.  I learned about practice academies last year in my Exceptional Students class.  We had a guest lecturer who was a Behavior Interventionist.  She had the most interesting ideas for changing behavior.  I learned so much, and one of the strategies that I've used in the classroom is the practice academy.  The way it works is that you have the child practice following the direction that you desire.  In Lily's case, she needs to say, "Yes, ma'am," and do what I ask.  Brian and I gave her a series of simple commands to follow:  "Go over to the counter and pick up that paper," and "Put those cups into the sink," for example.  If Lily fails to say "yes, ma'am," or "yes, sir", then she has to go back and do it all again until it becomes natural.  I've already done it twice tonight, but it didn't take as long to get the right response this evening when we did it the second time.  I'm not trying to break her spirit; I'm trying to teach her to do the right thing. 

We use a similar technique in special education, when trying to reinforce positive behavior and diminish negative behavior.  I am learning a great deal about this, and attended a day-long training through the school district specifically designed to help paraprofessionals to manage challenging behaviors.  We listened to a lecture and watched videos demonstrating techniques for encouraging our students to wait and to follow directions and that help to diminish problem behaviors like hitting, blurting out, and self-stimulation (these are behaviors that the student does which are pleasing to him or her, like rocking, flapping, chewing on things, etc.).  There is so much to learn, and the behavior interventionists that help us in the school district are so full of vital information.  I have to say that they also deal with a lot of challenging situations with grace and perseverance.  It was fascinating to me.

Next week, I begin what I hope will be my last night class for a while:  Teaching English Language Learners.  It has been strongly suggested to me that I should get my certification in English as a Second Language (ESL).  So, God willing, I will be ESL certified, as well as Special Ed. and General Ed. EC-6th grade.  It has been a lot of work so far, and while I pray that I am closer to my goal of being a full-fledged Special Education teacher, it still seems like I have a lot more to do.  I keep reminding myself that God is in control and that He has called me to this path for a purpose. 

Many blessings,

Jennifer