Real Post

It's been long in coming... but understandably so. ;D For starters, I haven't had a chance to unpack yet, or even read much of anything or journal!, much less blog, since I left the quietness of my Kentucky summer, and hit the ground running full speed-- literally straight down the mountains and into a student teacher meeting. Back in the saddle. Back on campus.

Then, too, my thoughts, emotions, and experiences were so quick and layered one upon the other that it's taken this long to sift through them somewhat-- I've needed the two weeks of hindsight, just to be able to see the vague shape of the forest for all the trees! God is always at work...and sometimes to do His work justice I've learned that I have to wait (and pray!) a little, watching, before I can see enough to begin to think about it, and then I have to wait, with more prayer, before I've thought enough to begin to put it into words. I'm a muller-- gotta run 'em through the old mill a few times before things start to coalesce. Ryan's been witness to this, lol-- thoughts surface again and again, becoming veritable themes...but it takes a while for them to come out in coherent thoughts anyway.

Tomorrow, though, is Saturday. And I relish the thought of being able to sleep in, READ, pray, write a little, and sit down with my Tosha in my lap (that's my Apple computer's name) and post about the past 3 weeks-- the transition from Kentuckiana Summer to Greenville School Year...and I hope to post on the Lord's Day an even more "looking back" sort of reflection on the summer as a whole. God taught me so much-- it's a joy to sift through it all and see His fingerprints all the better-- they're just all over the sunshine, the Ohio River, and the songs...

But for now, I must sleep. I think my head will explode if I keep my eyes open one more second. Good night-- but Lord willing, I will return!!
--Christina
PS- there's also another List Posting to follow...about the 10 Best Love Songs Ever Written (prompted [mostly, hehehe] by all the love songs I've heard in the past 2 weeks of being in a music classroom! ...nothing to do whatsover with personal experience, no no... ;D)

Lessons Learned... --Ongoing & Edited!!

In case you hadn't noticed, I am a classic "List Person." Especially when things start being pretty unstructured (which, life usually is...especially MY life, it would seem), my journals take the form of lists, more or less. Not the boring kind, for the most part-- just a way I organize my thoughts, try to find themes, or just get the clutter of things I'm trying to remember OUT onto paper, so I can free up some diskspace up there. Hehehe, I crack myself up with all my lists.

Anyway, this is one that makes a lot of sense, and that I'm sure many of my readers can identify with and add to.

Things I've Learned as a First-Year Teacher...

- all solemn men in paintings are presidents. Most likely George Washington.

- glue guns and Post-it Notes are your friends

- the floors in primary classrooms are tile for a reason: summed up in one word, "moppable"

- the inventor of the laminating machine is worthy of a Nobel Prize

- they're always watching. Always.

- they always copy you. Especially when you hope they WEREN'T watching

- love the secretary and janitor. They are very important Friends to have.

- your first name is "Miss"
- Squidward plays the clarinet
- explosions and natural disasters are the best motivators for boys starting in 4th grade. maybe before...

------------------------

**Edit**

This is from my friend & classmate Mary Margaret Hart, who worked as a preschool teacher at the Smithsonian over the summer. She said that in the "teacher bathroom" (aka the one with a big potty) there was a little tackboard with funny quotes and such, and this list appeared last week.

Requirements for Teachers (1915)

Teachers May Not:

Be in the company of men

Get married durring contract

Be out between the hours of 8pm and 7am

Go on more than one date per week (unless you attend church, in which case you can go on 2)

Partake in questionable behavior

Loiter in downtown icecream shops

WEAR BRIGHTLY COLORED CLOTHING!!!!

Teachers Must:

Sweep the floors every day

Wash the floors once a week

Wear hair up in a tight bun

Wear at least 2 petticoats

For Real Now, Y'all

I just saw a picture of my friend Tara's which reminded me of a vow I made. Ok, not a vow per se... more of an item on my "to do before I die" list. I want to hike the entire AT-- Appalachian Trail. Yep. From top to bottom, north to south, start to finish. Inspired by my friend the crazy mountain-man, Jack (Patrick), I've been dreaming of it since December...and over Spring Break several of us worked out how it could be done in a summer (which is all I'll ever have off as a teacher or student). However, in Louisville, both in the mountains and away from them, I forgot... driving back through them, seeing the apple and peach stands all the way down the mountain (25 towards Furman) last week... smelling the wood-burning that hails the approach of Fall... remembering the Blue Ridge Autumn in all her resplendant glory... yeah. I'm gonna do the Trail one day.

(also on my List is learning to pour concrete, fly a plane, wire a house, horseback ride across Iceland, learn Greek & Hebrew, write a children's story, and visit all the countries that start with I, among other things. I already did check off "learning to drive a manual transmission," as Kaje, D-Sapp, and Nicole can attest. Tollbooths+ MackTrucks +rolling backwards+badly-tossed-change + Mom on the phone+ Minnesota...ahh the memories...)

Doesn't anyone else have such lists?? What are some items on y'alls? There is so MUCH we can do in our lives! Retirement with shell collections and golfing just seems so... tame! We are God's Image- Bearers!! There is dominion to be won! There is a Kingdom to advance, a whole world to explore! May all be done to God for glory!

Good Ol' Sandra...

Springtime Indiana
You are starting to wake
And I am laden with the thoughts
Of everything I mean to say
I wish I could tell you,
But I just can't find the words...

I got tagged!

Mrs. Emily O'Neal, of Louisville, KY, informed me that she herself had "tagged" me across the recess field or nether-reaches of blogworld. Which would mean, apparantly, that I have to answer questions, post them on my blog, and in turn "tag" others. I think I've been tagged before, when the tendrils of my mind unfurled in the soil of xanga-land...but I didn't react. So Em, you should feel special. =D

1. One book that changed your life: Seeing & Savoring Jesus Christ, by John Piper

2. One book that you’ve read more than once: The Horse & His Boy, by C. S. Lewis

3. One book I’d want on a desert island: my Bible...with colored pencils with which to mark it all up!

4. One book that made me laugh: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (...and The Half-Blood Prince), both by J. K. Rowling-- Anna & I were literally rolling on the floor at passages in both of those books...still do every time I read them!

5. One book that made me cry: La Jeunesse d'Une Petite Reine (that was the first book to do that-- I was in fifth grade in France, reading about Mary, Queen of Scots, who grew up in the Royal Court of France, with Catherine de Medici as a mother-in-law. I'll never forget her story! It made me love history forever.)

6. One book that you wish you had written: A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeleine L'Engle

7. One book you wish had never been written: A Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez-- uggh. biggest waste of summer reading ever.

8. One book that you are currently reading: just one? ok, fine, I'll go with the one actually in my backpack-- Your God is Too Safe, by Mark Buchanon

9. One book that you’ve been meaning to read: The Silmarillion (Tolkien)....The Fairie Queen (Spenser)...Eragon (Paolini)...Miracles (Lewis)

And TAG... Ryan, Ashlea, and hmmm....Amy Y'all are "IT"! =D

One of my favorites... on another favorite!

Hey friends--
I promise I'll really update soon. This is from Andrew Peterson's journal (he's one of my favorite artists), on poetry! (one of my favorite arts!). I thought it was a good word-- the whole three-read-through rule. Y'all can check out his actual poem at his website. =D
I'm off to Brushy Creek Elementary for "Marsha Tate Workshop," whatever that means, after a morning of computer-nerdiness (yay for being the computer-girl) and washing whiteboards and dusting keyboards.
--THE Sue Cleveland Elementary Teaching Intern


A Poem on a Plane
Aug 7, 2006

Well, folks, this one may be a little strange to you.

I've never posted any poetry before (except for all the limericks on the MySpace blog). Poetry intimidates me, and whenever I read it I spend most of the time feeling dumb.

Someone (can't remember who) bought me an antique book called The Works of Tennyson, and I loved it, mainly because it rhymed. Call me simple, but being a songwriter, that's the poetry I like the most--stuff that rolls off the tongue in a way that just feels right. (Tolkien was a genius at that.) I'm also partial to Shel Silverstein's children's books. I practically memorized Where the Sidewalk Ends when I was a kid.


On a flight coming back from Denmark last year I finished Leif Enger's Peace Like a River and (after I wiped my eyes and blew my nose) I still had four hours of flying left to go. So I borrowed Ben's copy of Wendell Berry's collected poems. I downright revere the guy's writing, so I was excited to see how the poetry hit me. And? It fell flat. Until I read it again. And again. I sat there and made myself read each poem two or three times through, out-loud. (I was on a plane, so I could whisper them to myself and nobody noticed.) I even got out my Moleskine journal and scribbled a few of them down.

Approaching the poems that way completely changed the experience. With the ever-growing list of novels that I have piling up, I doubt I'll ever be a poetry aficionado, but I'm going to start squeezing it in more often. I bought Berry's Sabbath Poems last week, and the ol' triple re-read worked again.


So. I say all that to say that this poem is, by any poetry major's standards, LAME. I was on a plane to Florida (I think), alone, and wanted to use my time wisely. This is what came out, for better or worse. It was just sitting on my hard drive and I don't have time to write a full-on essay tonight (it's 2 am), so I thought I'd share it.


Hoo boy.


Here we go.

Copeland Home, Nolensville TN

Hello my faithful readers! =D

The past few weeks have been so busy; if you hadn't noticed that I haven't posted, lol. Anyway, I just wanted to write real fast and say that I have left Louisville behind... for now. Saturday my family came up-- all 4 crazy Thompsons (ok- 3 crazies, and one Mom; the token laughter of the Thompson comedy routine, as she's been called). We hung around Louisville Saturday evening...let them meet my roomie Ashlea, and Ryan. Then yesterday was a whirlwind of breakfast, Sunday School (as Ryan & Dad disassembled and packed my futon and bike-- a marvel of engineer's packing, getting that in the van!), then corporate worship at Immanuel Baptist, packing my apartment, lunch at the Shuey's (felt just like good ol' times!!), trampoline with ALL of the Thompsons, the Shuey kids, and the Ryan (Morgan & I finally knocked the aforesaid Boy over- yes! triumph!), saying goodbye to Lauren in her NEW apartment, small group in Indiana @ the Marshalls', and then saying goodbye to Ryan at the church...and driving the 3 hours to Nashville. Whew! All that...is it surprising that it all felt surreal? I got to talk to my heart-brother, Ian on the phone as I drove-- VOIP & cellphones are the most AMAZING things ever-- a free call from the road to Argentina. And I got to be the FIRST Americana to "meet" Claudio! I feel special.

Saying goodbye to Ryan wasn't nearly so bad as it could have been...more of a "see you later" than a goodbye, since I'll see him in 2 weeks (yay!). I've gotten so used to goodbyes in my "third-culture-kid" life; they lose some of their sadness, knowing that it's always just a "see you later!" for Christians. But it's also gained some sadness, because the miss-you ache that will come is well-known to me. But then again it's tempered by the knowledge that Love is everywhere where Christ's Name is known-- and His Glory WILL fill the earth as the water fills the sea.

I'm a little more sad now than I was yesterday, feeling the miles, waking up next to my little sister instead of the window overlooking St. James court that's become familiar...and no Ashlea :(. But I'm loving my cousins, my grandpa, my aunt & uncle... looking forward to the drive back with Nicole & CS Lewis, complete with my traveling indulgence of a Green Tea Frap.

More will come later. Many thoughts. But here's "so long" from Nolensville (Nashville suburbia); as Jack Lewis says-- "a Christian NEVER says good-bye!"

Smiles,
--Christina

Happy Birthday, dear Nicole...

I'd like to take this li'l opportunity to give a shout out to my little sister, Lauren Nicole Thompson, who turns 18 today!!!

God is strong in you, and I get so much joy from watching Him work in your life. I'm your biggest fan and always will be-- there isn't anyone with a bigger heart than yours, especially for the lonely. Set your love on Jesus-- there's nothing more exciting than "remembering your Creator in the days when you are young." He is the Great Lover of your soul!! And He really does want your happiness...even when He hurts us, it's to make us laugh later. Keep dancing!

I love you!!
--Christina