"Readicide" and Other Teaching Thoughts

Merry Christmas, all!

Today I finally read the book Readicide by Kelly Gallagher (highly recommend it for all educators!). It was recommended to me by a fellow Lang. Arts teacher with whom I had some excellent discussions about the purpose of teaching and what's going on in our schools today. Basically the premise of the book is that the hyper-focus on testing and test preparation now prevalent in our schools is not only ineffective but is actually killing budding potential readers (hence the read-icide). I found myself frequently "amen"-ing throughout this book.

The main reason I wanted to write about it here is that I really felt affirmed in my instincts as a teacher after reading this book. As those of you who have been reading along with me this year may have noticed, I've been struggling a lot with feeling uncertain and discouraged about teaching. This whole test-prep thing is disheartening for me, since what I really love is books and learning, so it feels really encouraging and affirming to see suggested in an excellent book the very same framework and ideas for teaching books/reading/learning that I have been wanting to do all year long! Examples include spending almost as much time on "leisure reading" as academic reading, having reading time in class (even though we have SSR during our advisory) and having kids read as much and many types of reading material as is humanly possible.

Feeling reenergized for the new semester. I WILL make this work; I WILL teach in a way that embodies my love of books and learning; and I WILL ensure that my kids leave my classroom knowing more than just how to pick a theme off a four-item list.

~Rebekah

Life Update

Wow, it's been a long time since we put anything on here! Well, here's what's been going on lately:

• Yesterday (Saturday), Daniel and I rearranged our house! It's still in process (aka we have some cleaning to do...), but we will post some pictures soon. =)
• Today church was just really fun. We both continue to enjoy and feel nurtured and loved by our awesome church family at Central Christian. I especially enjoyed our "post-church church" today -- we almost always eat together after the service. We are looking forward to hopefully being able to host "post-church church" at our place sometime soon!
• Teaching is... well, teaching. I would say that overall I've been feeling better about how teaching is going... I had kind of a hard, negative stretch around Thanksgiving there... but I'd say December has gone a bit better. However, I'm still continuing to struggle with discerning whether this is something I'm called to long-term. I know there are a million variables -- it being my first year, there being lots of new initiatives and such, yada yada -- but I still wonder, even though there's no way for me to actually know right now. Questions that I would appreciate the answer to: How fulfilling is your job supposed to feel/be? Is it possible to be both an introvert and a successful middle school teacher? (If so, how do you do it??) How can you tell the difference between God challenging you with hard things to overcome and God making something hard/gross as a message for you to stop it and look elsewhere?
• In slightly less existentially confusing teaching news, I'm excited about opportunities for more awesome collaboration and teamwork with my fellow Language Arts (and other) teachers! There have been a lot of exciting ideas and plans floating around, so I'm looking forward to continued discussions and seeing some of these helpful collaborative ideas come to fruition!
• Daniel and I have been doing pretty well just in terms of ourselves also, I think. We've been continuing to work on things (individually and together), and we're hoping our new furniture arrangement will help us to spend more time together while we're working (moved my "grading couch" up to the office). We are totally also looking forward to being able to spend time with both sides of the S-J family this Christmas! Yayyyyyy! Recently we were really moved by a cool article where a 5-year-old asked why, on Jesus' birthday, we give everyone but Him presents, so we're looking into how we can make this holiday more about doing things for Jesus (via "the least of these") and less about what material things we want for ourselves. (see our "Christmas list" here.)

So that's the round-up, more or less! Plotting Christmas travel and counting down the school days (but only for my kids' benefit, of course...). Hope you and yours are well and wishing you all a fantabulous Christmas!

~Rebekah

My Face Feels A Little Better

Today went well. I was pretty nervous before my "block of doom" (ok... more like my "block of truth"... lol), but in the end things went well today. I didn't even have to be a mean old hag like I've been building up in my brain! Just had to be firm and willing to stop over and over when folks were talking. (Plus it helped that we had plenty for the kids to work on today.)

THEN when I got home... surprise! My fantabulous husband had a candlelit home-made pineapple pizza dinner -- complete with love letter -- waiting for me. Can't beat that. =)

Just wanted to update on how things went. Feeling pretty good, looking forward to Friday.

PEACE OUT!!

Rebekah


p.s. Birthday shout-out to my Momma! Her birthday is tomorrow -- 11/11/11! How cool is that?!?

My Face Hurts

Rough day at school today. I have one class with which I was just struggling today (though this definitely isn't the first time). It did not go well. Now, in my "defense", this is a particularly un-helpful mix of students -- a lot of borderline distractable folks, so once one goes down a rabbit-trail they sort of all go along -- but I've gotta say, when you get evaluations from your students telling you to take control of your class, it's not a good day. And something needs to be done.

So please just be praying for me this week (slash indefinitely...) that I can really be firm in my holding all my kids to a high behavioral standard. I just need to remember that letting them get out of hand teaches them bad habits for their future, so it DOES matter if I let something slide just this once because the bell is about to ring or whatever.

Anyways. Hope you all are well... just wanted to publicly state my struggle and intentions. Witnesses, you know.

Thanks,
Rebekah

In Which Rebekah Devises A Cheaper Method of Earring Obtenation.

I've been getting a little itchy for a new pair of earrings lately. After perusing the jewelry rack at Penney's (no more Target clearance earrings for me here!), I realized that buying earrings gets pretty pricey... so when I was at Wally-Mart today I hopped over to the craft section and picked up some beads, wire, and hooks. I've been contemplating the idea of making my own earrings ever since a couple of my friends in college gave it a try... but today I decided to just go for it! Here are my first attempts! =)

Earrings #1! I figured I'd better start out simple. =)

Earrings #2! Still pretty simple, but less flimsy.

Earrings #2 close-up.

That's all she wrote for now -- tune in next time for more earring escapades! (Actually probably some other sort of escapades... but alliteration is fun.)

~Rebekah

p.s. No, "obtenation" is not a word that I know of. But it follows the general rule of English noun endings and it's fun, darn it, so I'm going to keep it up there! =)

Birthday Camping at Meade Lake

Today (Sunday) is Daniel's birthday, and for his birthday weekend we decided to go camping out at Meade Lake.  It was SO BEAUTIFUL -- it's just this little people-made lake out in the middle of nowhere. It's surrounded by gorgeous trees in fall colors, and it's basically like a tiny piece of Minnesota lurking in the middle of all this corn and cattle. Awesomeness.

We got out there around lunchtime yesterday. Daniel fired up the little stove and I set about figuring out our tent (I still remember how to assemble one!). It was super windy -- nearly blew away the tent once I put it together and before I staked it down! But once we got settled, it was SOOOOO NICE. It was great just to be able to relax and enjoy each other's company with nothing pressing to worry about except whether to nap or go on a walk. (Pressure's on! haha.)

Then some funny things happened. We had planned to arrive in time for a late breakfast, so we brought WAY too much food... and we ended up just having pigs in a blanket for supper instead of our fancy (and healthier) fish-and-veggie-kabobs dinner that we had planned. Then we sat by the fire and chatted and prayed and sang until dark... at which point we realized that it was getting a bit cold and we still hadn't really packed up the food or anything. So we started on that (in the dark, with flashlights) and when we were almost finished we heard some rustling nearby. We shined our lights in that direction and saw -- AN ARMADILLO!!! It was SO FUNNY -- at first I thought it was a possum, but then I saw its little accordion body. I named it Artie. It was just tromping through the leaves, munching on I don't even know what, like it hadn't a care in the world. We started to sort of follow it around, and it ducked through a little culvert tunnel. We got close enough for me to see its cute little ears, and then we took one step too many and it BOLTED! Those things are like little BULLETS, they run so fast! Anyway, we finally got stuff packed up and we decided we wanted to try wrapping potatoes in aluminum foil and cooking them in the coals overnight. So we buried them and went to sleep, setting our alarm for 6:00 so we'd have time to cook breakfast and pack up before church.

It was pretty cold last night -- mid-thirties, I think -- and we discovered that our tent is a much better summer tent than a winter tent, although we combated the cold sufficiently with our blankets, extra socks, and lots of hugs. We finally fell into a good sleep (after some sleep and tossing and turning) at about 2:30am... only to wake up to sunshine and the realization that the alarm had not gone off and it was 7:50 (we needed to be at church, more than a half hour drive, by 9:00). AHHHHHHHH!! So we rolled right out of bed and immediately started breaking camp and stuffing things in the car (which, I forgot to mention, was half-full with compressed cardboard boxes that we've been meaning to take down to recycling but haven't yet). We pretty much got things ready to go when I remembered about the potatoes. I went to dig them out... and I noticed three funny impressions in the ashes... and when I poked a stick around, there was nothing there... and when I walked back towards the tent to tell Daniel, I saw some crumpled aluminum foil. Whoops. Well, I guess Artie at least got a nice hot meal out of our chasing adventures!

Yum, yum, yum... thanks for breakfast!

We booked it back home, ate pop-tarts in the car, and ended up making it to church exactly on time (we almost beat the pianist!). Overall, it was a super fun (and occasionally horribly funny) little outing at the lake. We are excited to go back for attempt number two! =)

Hope you all have had a lovely weekend, and hope you are enjoying the fall colors where you are, whatever stage they're at! (Feel free to call and sing to Daniel -- he loves the happy birthday song!)

Peace out!
~Rebekah

The Long Weekend

Hi there, guys and gals!

It's been a bit since I've written... so a quick update!

• Parent-Teacher conferences were held at my school on Thursday and Friday (hence the long weekend). I was pretty nervous... but in the end, everything went really well, I thought. I got a lot of much-needed Spanish practice, too, as about 75% of my parents were primarily Spanish-speaking. Good times!
• Daniel's parents have been down to visit since Wednesday (and mine were here at the start of the month, don't remember if we mentioned that earlier). It's been super great to have both of them come be a part of our new little establishment here. 
• This morning (while the Jacksons were still with us) we had a really good conversation about "mawwiage" and serving each other. That combined with the other part of the conversation (about my class/school and social contracts) inspired Daniel and me to make a social contract for how we will treat each other! Here's a picture:
  We had so much fun making it together! We're hoping and praying that it will help us to remember to be each other's spouses first before we try to go be teachers and preachers and all those other things we do.

Anyway, just wanted to share a little update. School is going pretty well -- I can't believe we're already more than 1/4 done, and Thanksgiving will soon be upon us. Then it'll be Christmas before we know it, and then spring assessments, and then... it'll be done, and I bet I won't believe it went so fast! But until then, we just keep pluggin' away. =)

Hope you all are well -- drop us a line sometime! We love catching up. =)

~Rebekah

Studiedness and Disagreement

Daniel here.

It's amazing how scholarly most people expect you to be IF you try to disagree with them.

It's funny, but I never have heard somebody with whose position I agree call me out for the insufficiency of the studying and discerning I have done to reach said position. And frankly, I don't think I have done so to others. I only call people to do more more "homework" if A) I have done more "homework" than them, and B) they disagree with me.

It's funny. How powerful are our biases and surety, and our desire that others would see our what we see, how we see it.

It's a funny dynamic, but it sure makes it be really useful to be around people who disagree with you.

Perhaps I should try and encourage even those who agree with me to do better homework, to question the things they agree with me on. It's hard, though, when those things are so near and dear to me. How could I encourage my church friends to question their belief in the Jesus I love?

I can definitely resolve, though, to stay in thorough communication with those ORNERY, LOVING people who disagree with me and tell me to do my homework better!

Autumn

The fall chill is WONDERFUL. I definitely am a Minnesotan -- feeling a slight chill, then pulling on a warm flannel shirt is quite a lovely feeling. Riding bike in the cool air in sweatpants and a t-shirt... where a little sweat, a little chill, and a little heat are all dancing around each other... mixing to form an all around sense of peace, enjoyment, and well being.

Yesterday was awesome, and exemplified what's awesome about being "stuck" down here in Kansas with Rebekah teaching... having the time to be learning and growing, independently and in community, through study and conversation.

• Church:
• Church was powerful and has me really thinking about how I can do the Great Commission (i.e. spreading the Gospel) even in the presence of my substantial aforementioned questions/doubts/unresolved things.
• Got to pray for Neighbor Friend who for the first time in 10 years, by coming to church, is now able to be open about a deep longing for and belief in God that she has felt ridiculed for by others. 
• Had lunch with a few Church folks, got to talking deeply about the state of the church, the hearts of its members, God's work therein, etc.
• Went to the Church's budget meeting, learned more about its workings.
• Got to continue a discussion with Molly, a friend of mine from Southwest Christian HS, about what the Bible has to say about money and possessions and what the goal of life and action is.
• Got to continue studying Quantitative Methods in Economics.
• I want to tell readerfolks about something I just found: It's called Open Course Ware. (OCW)  There's a page called ocwconsortium.org, where you can search for and link to courses from 62 universities, including MIT and Notre Dame. Also, Yale does OCW also, but not through the "consortium". OCW is pretty cool for those of us who want to keep studying but not currently through a university. No credit, just learning, but still cool.
• Got to talk to Bethany and Brendan, along with Rebekah and I, are in a "Homework Club". We miss the homework and feedback of college, so we've created a shared DropBox folder where we put documents that we want feedback on. So last night Bethany and Brendan went through their comments to me on a paper/sermonette I am writing, and then Brendan (an agnostic) wanted to learn about why I believe in God, so we started talking about it. The Homework Club is starting to do its thing, which is pretty fun.

So I realized the other day that we had been (even including this post) blogging with a significant selective bias, notably, a positive one. For me at least, this is partially with the semi-conscious goal of allaying the worries of loved ones who were concerned that going to a tiny town in Kansas with "no job" would wreck me, that I'd be miserable.

And the fact is, sometimes it indeed feels really sucky.

• Like those moments where I ask myself, "what am I even doing right now in life?" 
• Or when I'm sick and tired of washing dishes and doing laundry and setting up bank accounts and auto-payments. 
• Or the 40% of Sunday nights when Rebekah's crying, overwhelmed by her first year of teaching, wondering if this is what she should be doing, wishing for the awesomeness of Church-land to be all week for her. 
• Or when she's working 7am-11pm with only time for meals and other occasional quality time. 
• Or when I'm having to try to explain to people "what I'm doing"... i.e. what's my "job". 
• Or how I'm not able to really do anything about Peru other than check in with Adolfo. 
• Or when I feel like I'm starting over from scratch with the photography business, and don't even want to bother, but know that I should to help us get ahead financially faster. 
• Or when I'm just plain old missing people. 
• Or when I feel like I wish I was spending more time with Rebekah, doing a better job of housekeeping, doing more to earn money, and doing better/more research/study/discussions... but knowing that I can't do MORE of everything if I have nothing I want to cut back on.

So yeah, sometimes it really stinks.

And I realized that I hadn't been sharing that on the blog, I'd been blogging with a semi-deceptive agenda... somewhat treating the blog as if its purpose was to reassure people I'm doing well. And that makes me/us spend a lot of text patting ourselves on the back for things. And that's not really valid, healthy, or helpful.

So, that is not to say that the positive things we've said are fabricated. It's more just like that they are selected, and the negative things are left out. I suppose another factor in this selection is that in a public medium, it's hard to address some of the "negative" things while being sensitive to others. But we can definitely try to be more balanced and honest and representative of our whole reality in our blogging. So that's the new plan.


And autumn truly is a lovely thing, that's no lie.


UPDATE: (from TODAY) I am really not cut out for doing laundry. Forgetting to start one of the two washers I had filled, misplacing my keys and wallet that I needed to finish (it's a laundromat) part way through, forgetting to go pick up loads. I am really not cut out for doing laundry.

Bible, Etc.

My God, My Bible... What kind of truth?
Daniel here. I discovered within the last week that I get a lot more out of listening to the Bible than I do reading it. When I read a passage I've read before, or that's "non-exciting", my eyes just skim faster, and I don't really take it in very thoroughly. But putting on headphones and listening, I am currently finding, is a much more powerful experience. When you think about it, the idea of the texts is that Jesus said all those words, out loud. So it's cool to hear them out loud. I have been finding myself to be somewhat "blown away" by the words of Jesus within the last week. Sermon on the mount? Mind blowing!!! Crazy faith healings? WHA!!???? Jesus is so OUT THERE!


Like I have said before, I know I have a road ahead of me right now of determining my beliefs about the Bible. But I still think it is valid practice to think and live biblically, even if I am not necessarily believing totally biblically. Two reasons why:

1. To work on "thinking and acting" biblically is the most involved way of testing the internal consistency of the Bible. If I am trying to "live and think biblically", then I'm more likely to discover consitency or contradiction within the Bible's teachings on -- for example -- sin, heaven and hell, money, gender, etc. I'm less likely to discover those things if I am "disinterestedly studying".
2. I know I believe in YHWH, Yeshua, and Parakletos. That is the image of God that I have, that has been etched in my soul from my life's story that I will not elaborate here. But is that the only image by which God reveals God's self? I don't know. I'll probably never know absolutely. I want to develop my view on how exclusive and objective my understanding of God is, and not just sit complacently on my comfortable "I don't know". But what I DO know is that one way or another, YHWH is my Creator, Yeshua is my Savior, and Parakletos is my Comforter. Because that image of God more-or-less has the Bible as its source, then seeking to live and think biblically makes quite a bit of sense, even if I am not (yet?) convinced that the Bible has a total corner on theistic truth.

"Work hard and cheerfully as though for the Lord"

In other news, the details of setting up life are proving slightly more annoying as time goes on. I keep telling Rebekah, "it feels like whenever I try to get something done, there's something that happens that means I can't finish until later." But I've been saying (or singing) to myself "work hard and cheerfully as though for the Lord." a Vacation Bible School version of Colossians 3:23.  If I'm doing work I should be doing, then there's no reason, or at least no value, to getting cranky about it.

TNIV: Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Part of me suspects that I'm creating extra work for myself by doing "too good" of a job of certain things, mostly keeping track of finances. But then I reply to myself that it won't always be this bad: once the systems and automated things are set up, the majority of the work I am doing now will disappear. And I have some people in my life whose meticulousness with which they track their money is something I really respect, and have seen the fruits of that borne out in their lives and even into my own. 

More and more community all the time

Both at church and in our "neighborhood", I/we ve been growing closer to the people around me/us. 

We've been hanging with the neighbors a bunch... we've got four metal chairs for "setting" out on our front sidewalk. (People don't "sit" in the South. They "set".) We greet and talk and go on with our days. Rebekah and I have been visiting the neighbor ladies to watch "The Sing Off" (even though we'd probably get better sound on our computers), and we've had some interesting chats about life, finances, food, church, everything. Luchia came and visited church with us, and said she'd never felt so welcomed by a church in her life! 

We are really feeling right at home in that church. We've got 5 weekly things we do with our church: 2 short music practices, 2 bible studies, and 1 Sunday service. The sermons and lessons keep us challenged and squirming -- if you want to squirm too, you can watch some of the Francis Chan videos pastor has played for us, especially "Lukewarm and Loving It". On top of all that there's the usual Sunday group lunch, and the occasional hangout with Pastor Chuck and his wife Debbie, like this week when they called me up to help deliver a bed to somebody out in the countryside, and then we grabbed some fried mushrooms, talking about faith, sin, holiness, personalities, marriage, etc.. It's really crazy and cool to be part of a community, nay, family, so soon in our time here in Liberal.

After delivering the bed, we were all talking so much that Rebekah decided she wanted in on the action, so we invited them in to continue the chat in the living room. During that conversation, Chuck introduced me to a perspective about sin and "being a sinner" that I had not ever heard before, but that seems so far to be defensible within a Biblical worldview (whatever that is, exactly). A paraphrase of that part of the living room conversation:

• Chuck: 80% of the denominational churches will say 'we are sinners, saved by grace', 
• Rebekah: Yeah, like how the LCMS and ELCA say "I, a poor, miserable sinner"
• Chuck: But in all my reading of scripture, I have never found followers of Jesus referred to as sinners. They are called saints. Paul doesn't say "to the sinners at so-and-so", he says "to the saints at so-and-so". Sure, in Romans 7 Paul says "the evil that I don't want to do, I do," but in Romans 8, he says "you were formerly slaves to sin, now you are slaves to righteousness."
• Daniel: Okay, but then what do you call it when Christians do what's wrong?
• Chuck: It's called faults. Mistakes. Sin is a rejection of salvation, it's much more serious, and it's pretty much reserved for those outside of Christ. When we have sin in our lives, we're not right with God.

It was crazy sounding, and totally contrary to how I've always thought and talked. But then again, if the foundational assumption you're working from is that the Bible is authoritative, then he may very well have a case, and I told him so. So I searched the New Testament for "Sinner", and started looking through verse by verse, and I'm not even through one Gospel, so I can't say much yet, but I haven't seen him disproven anyway.

It's crazy to be down here in Bible land for the period of my life in which I had already planned to be inspecting my views of scripture, because like I mentioned earlier, I feel like it is so much more rich and honest to question scripture "from the inside", by attempting to think and live by it, than to question with a telescope from a disinterested distance.

Crazy.

I'm realizing that I'm saying things are "crazy" a lot. And that's true. And you know what, I'm alright with that. Because my primary worry about coming to a small town in THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE was NOT that it would be CRAZY. I'll take crazy any day.

Other News.

In relation to our interesting quest with lifestyle/resource choices, I can think of two notable developments: 

1. Alternative transportation ambitions: delayed/modified. We have discovered that Rebekah is notably more "wobbly" than we had previously estimated. We were noticing that she didn't like taking her hands off the bars, and then one night when she was tired, she got up on the bike, wobbled a bit, and plopped into a bush. After that I just wanted her off the road. So we're thinking that we'll have to put the thing on hold until we can test ride one of those terratrike three wheeled bikes. And depending on how that goes, we may not have any Rebekah-related "alternative transportation" in our near future. Overall, I think this learning experience was a positive one; she appreciated my willingness to drop my energy and daydreams about biking once some convincing evidence was in, and I appreciated her willingness to explore the possibility of becoming "the weird lady on the reverse-trike" in the future.
2. Health insurance: cool! I have been talking to the people at MediShare and applying to participate in their program. It's quite awesome. It's not technically insurance, it's a sharing network. Basically it's Christians paying each others' medical bills. Instead of "premiums", it's a "share amount" that you pay each month. It's a nonprofit, so the money goes to 20% administration costs, and 80% to pay people's bills--no owners or shareholders to take dividends. That fact helps the costs stay down, along with the fact that everyone signs a Christian belief and lifestyle covenant, which contains stipulations (no smoking, no drunkenness, etc.) that lower the overall health costs incurred by the members. And I think it's a cool manifestation of the body of Christ acting as a body. 
• NOTE: The "letter of the law" of MediShare's belief covenant was a bit more than I could swallow outright:  I believe that the Bible is God's written revelation to man and that it is verbally inspired, authoritative, and without error in the original manuscripts. I don't really know what "authoritative" would mean here, and if I don't understand the meaning of what I'm affirming, is it honest for me to affirm it? "Verbally inspired", i.e. that God chose individual words for the authors, I have no particular belief about. "Without error", in my opinion, is either subject to MAJOR interpretation, or is not something I can affirm. 
• I often think about the two very different accounts about Judas' death and the "Field of Blood".  In Mat. 27, Judas hangs himself from guilt, after returning the betrayal reward money to the Pharisees. The Pharisees buy a field with it, and because the money was "blood money" from the betrayal, they call it the "Field of Blood." In Acts 1, however, Judas keeps the reward money, buys a field with it, and then his bowels burst over it, his blood making it the "Field of Blood". Now. I have looked into this some, and have read explanations that he could have hung himself AND had his bowels burst. That's how the workarounds usually go... apologists take two different stories and show how they could be representing parts of the same historical event... But reading up on this event, I have seen nothing resolving the following issues: 1) Did he keep or return the money? 2) Did he or the Pharisees buy the field? 3) Why was it called the field of blood? I'm of course open to input, but the point of my example is to show how the historical inerrancy of all Biblical text is not something I can actively affirm.
• Before enrolling in Southwest Christian High School for 9th grade, I had come up against a similar issue to the one I am now facing with the MediShare belief covenant: Southwest's covenant stated "I will honor God with all my actions", or something to that effect... something I knew was unrealistic in its literal letter of the law. I knew I couldn't honor God with ALL my actions, no matter how hard I could ever try. So before enrolling, I had a meeting with the principal and talked through the stuff, and he said it was okay for me to sign on despite my concerns with the wording. That's basically what I'm doing now, with the MediShare people. The representative said that when HE signed onto the MediShare program some years back, he had understood that the most important thing about the covenant is that a) you accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, and that b) you live a Christian lifestyle. With both of those things, I'm majorly on board.
• My final thought was: I may not be able to say the Bible is verbally-inspired and inerrant, but I sure do drill its contents into my brain and life quite a bit. It is possible that in the future, something in my understanding or application of scripture could change such that integrity would require me to withdraw from the MediShare program. But for now at least, I can say that I'm on board. I'll hold off on submitting the application for now, though, to be sure I'm reflective, prayerful, and conscientious, not casual or just doing what's convenient.

Parents are coming!

Within two weeks of each other, both of our sets of parents will be visiting us in October! Daddy Jimmy and Danny Jimmy will be going hunting some, which he has been looking forward to ever since he learned I'd be moving near some of the best pheasant grasslands in the country. The summer was a tough one and we don't have a dog, so picking might be slim, but it will be fun anyway. Dad and Mom Schulz will be around for Sunday church, and the J's will be around for Wednesday night Bible study. I imagine we'll all tour Rebekah's now-established classroom.

Non-conclusion

I have no witty way to conclude, or pull everything together through common themes, given that I've talked about some pretty random stuff. I talked about the Bible a lot, so maybe a good concluding paragraph would involve the Bible somehow, but I haven't currently the Bible-related conclusivness to pull such a thing off. So for now I'll just say,

Bye!

~Daniel


P.S. I heard that some people were having trouble subscribing via the normal method, so I added a fairly simple email subscription widget on the top right of the page.

Happy Birthday To Me...

Sooooooo today is my 24th birthday. Since it's my first year of teaching (and therefore teaching is my WHOLE LIFE) I didn't really plan much (read: I totally forgot it was my birthday until I was planning school work for this weekend and saw the date), but I was still happily surprised by a few little birthday sweetnesses from folks. For example, this morning when our worship leader read my prayer request (thanks for another year of life), he took one look at me and then started singing happy birthday (thus leading the entire congregation along too). It was funny and happy. =)

Here's another one: Daniel realized he hadn't gotten anything for my birthday (since I forgot about it, it's not surprising that he did too!), so then he went to the grocery store and got stuff to make me a special dinner!

We had tasty breadsticks with hot marinara and garlic chicken, and he got me some dark chocolate pomegranate seeds for a special treat. Yum! Then after dinner he said our neighbors wanted to show me their new candlesticks they got, so we went over there and they had made me a carrot cake for my birthday -- candles and everything!

Laura (left) and Luchia (right) with me, my birthday cake, and my balloons!

Then to finish off the evening I called back my sister and my parents to chat with them for a bit. Good to catch up, and totally worth not finishing my grading. =)

Anyways, just wanted to share my little birthday surprises, so now I'm going to go finish my lesson plans and go to bed. The end!

~Rebekah

Busy Busy Busy!

Busiest week ever! (Except not really, because I bet there will be lots more coming.) I really feel like I've been lesson planning my face off (and grading other things off...) lately. Bad news is that I'm a leeetle short-slept. Good news is that our review "centers" (or stations, as I usually call them) went well for the most part today.

More good news is that Bible study tonight was FANTASTIC. I would tell you all about it, but it's late, so for now I'll just leave you with that emphatic-but-vague descriptor until I have time (or Daniel does) to fill you in. =)  Also tonight was great because the lady on worship team with us this week has a good strong soprano voice, so the three of us (plus Scott, the lead/leader) were making some beautiful harmonies! It felt really good to sing again. =)

Goal: A *real* blog update soon... like with anecdotes and paragraphs and stuff.
Goal: Bed ON TIME tomorrow. Let's do it.

Daniel´s Homework

As we´ve STARTED to get on top of the moving in / becoming grownups logistics, I´ve started to move into doing "homework". One of the important things for me to be doing while we´re down here is to research and study some areas of passion/interest/calling of mine that my biochem regimen did not allow me to study much in college. Of course, my time of self-guided study in the next year or so will greatly influence what kind of study/work I´ll want to move toward next in life.

So, to do that, I have to make myself homework, and deadlines. Here is some homework I assigned myself a week and a half ago, including indications of whether I actually did it. I kind of fell off the horse after the long weekend, missing my "simple living" homework deadlines. But I am crawling back onto the horse. I´m realizing that I can´t just be all-or-nothing, housework or homework. It has to be a blend, or I get dreadfully behind on one, and then over correct... etc.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS / ASSIGNMENTS:

Ø  THU, SEP 1: (DONE.) What is our current financial reality, and how does it project into the future?

Ø  IF I CAN SNEAK IT IN: (DONE) A general assessment of room for improvement of our lifestyle in relation to resource usage.

Ø  FRI, SEP 2: (DONE) How would owning vs. liquidating our car affect our financial reality over time?

Ø  MON, SEP 5: (NOT DONE) Give a BRIEF overview of types of simple living communities.

Ø  TUE, SEP 6: (NOT DONE) Assess (preliminarily) what communities and in what ways I/we would like to visit to learn about, and explain choices. Include summaries and thoughts about selected communities.

Ø  WED, SEP 7: (INVITED) Invite pastor Chuck to coffee. At coffee, ask about many things:

o   Simple living: what have you seen, what would you want to see?

o   What is CCC like? (staff, volunteers, hierarchy, affiliation, belief and action statements, comparisons, etc.)

o   Hispanic outreach: What aspects have you considered? (TALK ABOUT THIS W/ RSJ FIRST)

o   Various ministries: How to get involved? (youth, music, spanish)

Ø  FRI, SEP 9: (STARTED) An introductory summary of “where I´m at and what´s next with worldview” with questions of epistemology, faith, scripture, value, etc. Make references to previous papers I have written. (This will include organizing some old archives into a more permanent storage system.) Make brief reference to authors already read, but do not attempt to “further develop” views through additional reading. Evaluate strengths and weaknesses, and suggest next learning needed.

Ø  WED, SEP 14: (Assuming that “where I´m at”, as expected, leads imminently to questions of scriptural authority) “Where i´m at and what´s next with belief in scriptural authority” Describe my current view of scriptural authority, including explaining and then evaluating my various lines of evidence and reasoning.

So, I wanted to share my self-homework with you all. In the absence of a professor, the accountability of having to write (honestly) DONE or NOT DONE on my assignments on the blog is good motivator. It actually helped me finish one assignment and start another just tonight. So thanks all for your accountability help, just by being interested enough to read up!

Peace,

Daniel

A Short List of Things

First -- Sometimes blogging is weird. Why? Because it's sort of like a journal... but anyone who finds the website can read it. That's weird.

Second -- Funny story from school today. So my kids are writing stories (about whatever they want), and one is writing "West Middle School from a rat's perspective". He got to where he had finished his plot outline and was starting his rough draft, and his start was that his "owner" took him (as the rat) to school and it was horrible. So I told him, "Why don't you put in some more description of WHY it was terrible? Like they pull your tail or pet you or something and it stinks." His eyes lit up -- "Oh! Yeah, I can put how they pull me out of the cage and pull my tail and touch me all weird..." SO FUNNY. I couldn't resist, so I said, "Just be careful to be very specific and precise when you describe that part..." And then he realized what he said and just started laughing. Like crying laughing. HILARIOUS. ilovemykids.

Third -- GOOGLE PHONES! Don't worry, you can still call us at our regular phone numbers, but the cool news for us is that now our phone bill will be wayyyyyy cheaper! We're transitioning at the moment, so if things are funny that's why, but we're super excited to have a nicer phone bill and still keep our numbers. =)

Fourth -- My Committed CD came in the mail today!!!!! In case you haven't heard about my latest music love, click this link and prepare to be AMAZED. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5LHVnGD4wQ  They were on the TV show "The Sing Off" this past season, and I just fell in love with their amazing voices and their commitment to God and to each other. They are truly amazing musicians, and it seems like they have the hearts to back it up as well. I highly suggest you check them out if you have any liking for a cappella music. They rock!

Fifth -- I'm gonna go write a lesson plan for a figurative language jigsaw activity now. (If you know what that means, then you must be a teacher!)

PEACE OUT!

~Rebekah


EDITED to add that if you're interested, you can preview Committed's new album here!

Respawesome Labor Day Weekend

First, you should know that "respawesome" is a combination of "respect" and "awesome" that my kids made up to write on their social contract. I rather liked it, so I'm stealing it. =)

Second, this past weekend has been FABULOUS! I will now proceed to tell you why.

ROUND ONE: RESPAWESOME KIDS

This past Friday was really exciting because I finally got to put up some of the posters that my kids have been working so hard on. I was SO STOKED to see the fantastic work some of them did! And I can't wait to see the faces of the kids whose posters made the bulletin board! Here's what it looks like:

The elements of plot, by my awesome 8th graders! (You can't really see, but on the third one over the climax of the story is taking place in the form of an epic ninja fight on top of a volcano as a meteor is about to strike. And yes, one of the examples for conflict is a picture of Jesus armwrestling the Devil. I LOVE MY KIDS!!!)

ROUND TWO: RESPAWESOME DISCUSSIONS

Bad News: This weekend I found out that a friend of mine who has been married less than a year is getting a divorce. Sad day! And it made me get kinda scared, because yeah everyone and their mother is getting married right now... but then this was a reminder that just because they're happy now doesn't mean it will last. Not all the unions are solid ones. Sad/scary/aughhhhhhh!

Good News: Talking about that realization was really good for us. In true Daniel And Rebekah Fashion, we actually talked about what would cause us to get a divorce if we ever got to that point. It was fantastic and connective (as many of our hard discussions are) to be able to be so open about what is hard for us to deal with in our marriage. In the end, we mainly just decided that we really really like each other, but we also had some good discussion about a few other things, which fed into some of my later realizations (see below).


ROUND THREE: RESPAWESOME CHURCH

Heard a fantastic sermon (and participated in a fantastic Bible study) on Sunday about urgency -- like who knows how many days we have on this earth, and what would we do differently if we knew the number of our days? That sort of thing. We also talked about our "inside (the body of Christ)" and "outside (the body of Christ)" callings. This basically led me to two further realizations: One, life is too short to leave things unsaid (so I wrote a letter to apologize for some things that have been weighing on my heart for a long time). Two, life is too short to keep putting off changes until tomorrow.

To expound on that second point, I realized that I share Daniel's call to simplify -- including potentially going auto-less, pending much deliberation, research, and bicycle-training (and some weather data-gathering about Liberal winters!). I really like the idea that we could do so much more in terms of tithing and ministry support with the money we currently spend on a vehicle. Plus I'd actually be exercising -- something I don't really do but have been meaning to pick up ever since I stopped playing volleyball in high school. (FYI, in case you're wondering "But how will you GO anywhere?????", the answer is, from near to far, "bikommuting" aka bike commuting but I like my word better, "hire a ride from our awesome neighbors who have already expressed willingness to chauffeur a bit", or "take the Greyhound from Garden City". Or, in the case of emergencies, "fly from Liberal via Denver".) Basically this weekend I just had the "perfect storm" of Daniel's poking, great thinking/reflection time, and a "holy 2-by-4" sermon to make me realize that simplicity isn't just Daniel's crazy deal -- it's part of our shared calling together.


ROUND FOUR: RESPAWESOME HOUSE-OLDIFYING

This weekend we also finally got around to putting up all our wall decorations. It's funny, because it looks really good and all... but having nice framed photos and paintings in our bedroom definitely makes me feel old! My brain is like, "What? Where are the Legos and taped-up posters? What about all my cool drawings? How about the notecards and picture collages from college? Where did they go?? WHY IS MY ROOM SO ADULT-Y????"

So that's a little weird, haha. But we'll get used to it. It does look nice... I'm just not used to having my bedroom be "nice"!


Anyways, that's about all I've got. But man, was it a great weekend! =D

Off to go on a sunset bike ride -- hope you all are well, and do please drop us a line sometime!

~Rebekah

Daniel´s blog post that you might want to read not all at once because it is long.

So here's why I’m bad at blogging: I have a serious authenticity fetish, or perhaps TMI complex. It's not always a bad thing -- it helps Rebekah and I be totally open with each other -- but it makes it really hard to blog. Because once I start writing, I want to say EVERYTHING, which causes 2 issues: 

         1. It’s the internet, and no matter how much one loves authenticity, not EVERYTHING should be placed where anybody can read it.

         2. I realize that to write enough to satisfy me will be a HUGE endeavor, and that becomes an overwhelming thought that prevents me from starting.

But I will nonetheless commence. It will be a long post, so I have divided it up into the following segments for your reading convenience. You may want to stop after a section and come back:

1.     Our apartment is now a home.

2.     Our church home we have found

3.     My first day of subbing

4.     Potential for photography work

5.     Our half-year anniversary weekend

6.     Spending less money on stuff

7.     Dinner with the neighbors

8.     Upcoming transition out of Crazy-Rebekah’s-Start-Of-School

1.     Our apartment is now a home.

Living room

happy.

(notice pretty plant given to us by neighbor ladies)

 

Living room and some kitchen/dining room

viewed from the entry way.

The bike garage!

Some special wedding things

in the top of the armoire in the living room 

Office and Workshop/Craft table. 

Tabletops are finished plywood, leveled on crates, file cabinets, etc. Fun project!

Finally some shelf space!

Cute little bathroom.

Little bedside reading corner.

Closet: Organized.

We love our kitchen. 

My favorite shelf is on top of the cupboards, 

where all our appliances and bulk foods go for quick access

Note the food pyramid I cut out from a cereal box! 

Also the vitamins on the stove. We want to stay healthy!

"Dining room" (i.e. eating corner)

Fun centerpiece 

It´s nice to feel like it´s a home.

2.     Our church home we have found:

Happy and eerily fitting. It's Central Christian Church, we liked the non-denominationally specific name, and the website that appeared to represent a desire for contemporary relevance, so we went and visited. We found a church home where we feel we can be fed, and where we can feed.

Why we like this Church:

-         They get that if the Bible is entirely “telling the truth”, that´s a big deal. They take sin and salvation seriously. They are excited about God's victory and their place in it.

-         They challenge each other a lot. In “Sunday School” (basically a Bible study and book group blend) people were bringing really tough questions about what it means to be believers, and disagreeing vocally and healthily.

-         They are keen to the needs of their community. They support a local domestic abuse and rape crisis center, and they´re going to learn Spanish as a church (well, those who sign up anyway) because the pastor and the board are convicted about needing to be open to and reach out to the Hispanic community.

-         Our role in the church feels clear, even eerily (divinely?) so. We arrived the Sunday the pastor shared in the sermon about his conviction that the church needed to learn Spanish. (The day before, a Spanish speaking man had come to the church asking for help and the pastor had floundered, barely getting the man what he needed by drawing pictures.) The church is buying the Rosetta stone software, which will work well for the large group EXCEPT that congregants won´t be able to speak into and be corrected by the computer. That´s where I (and Rebekah) fit in, helping correct pronunciation and accent, which have always been strong-suits of mine. Of course there will be other forms of teaching that we can do, but that's a critical one. In other news, they are looking for young adults, people to sing, people to youth minister. I have long thought I would want to help out with youth ministry, and choir is a given.

So basically, not only do we feel like we can be fed here, we feel like we can feed. And both are critical components of being in the Body of Christ. It´s not that we feel that the church is perfect -- we have some pointed concerns here and there -- but we do feel like it´s where we´re “supposed to be” (whatever that means exactly…)

P.S. Especially since one of my major looming questions right now is what kind of truth do I believe is in the Bible, I really like that here´s a church that believes it´s really really inspired, and thus will continue to force the question for me. It was easy to get lazy about that question at Gustavus, where not a lot of people believe in the “authority of scripture”.

3.     My first day of subbing:

Fun, lively, a little draining, precious. To get some high-level people-interaction time, I decided to sign up for substitute teaching. The kids were the helpful-est, sweetest bunch of little third graders EVER. The first half hour of class was filled with their exuberance as they explained everything I would need to know for the day, with a high level of honesty (which I could test by asking other kids). Once class got started, they would get chatty quickly, and like Rebekah, I found myself too permissive on the front end. But after finally giving a kid some recess detention I had the 1-on-1 chance to ask him about classroom management. He said it was louder than usual, and that he liked it quieter. (Funny, coming from the one kid loud enough to get detention!)  I asked him what I was doing wrong. He told me a couple of the teacher’s tricks. When I got back to the class I gave my version of “the talk”, which for me mostly included asking the kids the same things I asked “Detention Boy”: Was it louder than usual? Which way do you prefer it? I found that we were all on the same team, so we figured out some strategies we could all do to get it quieter. My job was to be tougher. “Do you understand why I’m going to mark you for a warning?” The kids were compliant and helpful even when receiving discipline.

Overall, I found that it worked best to recognize those little humans as humans, enlist their opinions and support, and create solutions together with them, and hold up my disciplinary end of the bargain. All in all I had a great time. At the end of the day, one of the boys, who was wearing a “tough guy” shirt, asked me, “hey, before you go, can I, like, hug you?” I got a couple nice notes from students, and it was quite sad to see them go.

All that being said, I admittedly returned home quite tired, gaining a useful understanding for when Rebekah comes home pooped and doesn’t want to move.

4.     Potential for photography work:

Two photographers just left town or retired. Nice. I probably won’t be too hard core about photography, but will do just enough to spice up the week and bring in a couple extra bucks.

5.     Our half-year anniversary weekend:

A fun splash of do-overs and grace. Our weekend started out funny. It’s amazing how easy it is to forget some things repeatedly, like the fact that REBEKAH IS AN INTROVERT AND AFTER A WEEK OF HARD WORK IN THE CLASSROOM SHE NEEDS ALONE-TIME AND REST! Friday afternoon and evening contained a futile attempt to celebrate our six-month-a-versary, ending with the 7pm conclusion that Rebekah just needed to rest, and that we’d have a “Do-Over” on Saturday and some of Sunday.

Do-overs are happy. There’s some definite Jesus-ness involved in do-over-ing. “You know what, we messed up, we hurt each others’ feelings, but we can forgive that and start anew.” We went for ice cream Saturday AND Sunday, and we still have more than half of a Billy’s restaurant gift card that Grandma Chris sent down for us so we can have a do-over of our Friday night restaurant excursion too.

6.     Spending less money on stuff:

Air Conditioning - We have continued to use A/C infrequently, despite a long string of 105-degree days. Approx. monthly savings: $80-100

Cell phones - Approx. monthly savings: $125. If you don’t like tech details, skip this paragraph. Or if you want, you can call me, and get an enthusiastic explanation.  We were sick of our $170/mo verizon bill. It gave us two mobile phones with internet that we could use from our computers. Nice for mobility, but not real necessary here. “Did you need your phone to be a cellphone today?... Me neither.” So we're going with landline and internet for $32/mo and an emergency cell (25c/min). Google Voice will let us keep our old phone numbers but have them ring our computers as well as our landline and emergency phone, with dirt cheap calls (free through 2011, prob 1-3 cents per min after that). So basically, it’s like a landline, but that we have whenever we have internet. Since we only pay on the emergency phone if we pick up, it serves as a pager to let us know when our Google Numbers (our main numbers) are being rung, and if someone calls twice, we can pick up.

Food - My guess is that we’re at or just above $2 per day per person while militantly following the food pyramid. Beans, tortillas, rice, potatoes, and occasional chicken form our carb and protein base. Bananas, plums, oranges, apples, carrots, broccoli, green beans, and spinach compose most of our fruits and veggies, and we’re good about taking our vitamins. I don’t know what to compare to in order to get “amount saved”, but let’s say, just to be arbitrary, $120 saved per month.

Transportation - Rebekah and I are starting to reconsider our need for a car. Car ownership is expensive. Like, really expensive:

Long-term financial benefits of biking: http://www.bikesatwork.com/carfree/cost-of-car-ownership.html

Who's paying how much? http://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/08/cost-car-ownership.asp#axzz1WWqDffxe

What about our civic? http://www.edmunds.com/honda/civic/2007/tco.html?style=100804557

We're realizing that Liberal, being about 4 miles in diameter, and only 2 miles to R's school, is quite bike-able in general. I have been exclusively biking, and finding it quite viable, even in the heat. On a bike, there is almost nothing slowing you down but wind, so you get a lot of dry Kansas wind for not a lot of exertion. Dry wind = evaporation = cooling. And for those 6-12 days a year that it’s icy, or when it's too rainy or windy, we could hire a ride from a friend like I did in college. Or perhaps we could get a more stable 3-wheeled reclining bike, perhaps with studded winter tires. 


All of these ideas are in design and early experimentation. Without solid counsel and experience under our belts, we won't be making any decisions. And "getting good experience" will probably entail living through a winter here. Above all, we need to take this decision-making process slow, since Rebekah has a ton on her plate right now, and is not by nature or nurture incredibly predisposed to utility bike riding. For now, we're still just thinking about it and keeping our mind open to a number of possibilities.

7.     Dinner with the neighbors:

FUN! These are such sweet ladies. The same ones who garden the front of our whole quinta-plex townhome building, and who gave us a plant, and gave me some lunches, AND who gave us PILES of veggies from a relative's garden… invited us over for dinner! Meatloaf per R´s request, and stewed veggies. I promise the generosity has not been only one-way: I gave them a small TV that we didn't want, and a bike helmet that we bought before my dad shipped mine down from MN. Very fun friends. They´re kind of “my” friends, while R has her school friends. I'm sure I'll move into some deep relationships at church, but Laura and Luchia have definitely become my first friends here.

8.     Upcoming transition out of Crazy-Rebekah’s-Start-Of-School:

Daniel moves from Hardcore Homemaker to... Research-y Renaissance guy? I told Rebekah that for the first two weeks of her teaching, she wouldn’t have to lift a finger in regards to kitchen and house work. We’re going to move away from that now, given that she's now pretty much getting her feet on the ground, and given that we want to consider that the work I do here is equally important, even though it is not as externally structured or immediately compensated. I guess I would divide the work I’ll be doing here in the coming year as follows:

Individual exploration

• Independent research: economics, simple living, social movements, community organizing, etc.
• Theological / worldview questions: What kind of truth is in the Bible? What matters?
•  Look into grad schools that I might be interested in enrolling for, prepare applications.

Local community

• Substitute teaching
• Volunteer at Church
• Volunteer at UnitedWay and/or other organizations?
• Photography business, perhaps with a "Bottom of the Pyramid" social business model?

Faraway community

• Vice President, Wiñarisum Health Alliance (in formation)
•  Participate in learning circles (for example, sharing and getting feedback on things I’m researching and writing, and vice versa) with people I know from my Minnesota life.

So there. I don´t pretend that this post was edited for flow, style, or even readability, but I decided that I´d rather write a clunky update than no update at all. All in all, I´d say that we're getting our feet on the ground, digging in, and having fun and joy quite nicely these recent weeks.

Peace!


~Daniel