Goodbye to Joanna and Fun things we found in Portland!

On Sunday we said goodbye to a dear friend moving to Texas to attend Trinity Christian University.  She is an amazing woman who is pursuing her dream after a very long time of waiting and the Lord has totally opened amazing doors for her.  I can't wait to hear about her adventures- but onto our journey.

 After church we headed to the unknown world of Gresham...we found very interesting things on our way- things we had no idea were even in Portland!

A bomber plane...a real one, on top of some sort of structure.  You can park under it, in fact many people did when we were there.

It's actually a restaurant and you can go...we thought it was drive-in type place with milkshakes, which is why we pulled in- but it's actually an old school cafe/diner, they had the following on their sign:

I think we're going to try and come back some day!  Only lovely type people frequent restaurants like this!

In the same parking lots was this:

No idea why!

Hearkening back to my elementary school days I was able to point out the beaver and the raven in this totem pole- meaning of course that it had to be the Northwest Coastal Indians that this was made either for or in model of...I wonder what I could do with that brain capacity that holds all this random information!

Then it was onto the party and Joanna's mother made the most delicious cookies to represent Texas and Oregon...In honor of Rach I took a picture of the food!

Texas TCU cookies, cowboys (some with handlebar mustaches and some without...so you can take what you like), and umbrellas for the great state of Oregon!

Joanna- we miss you already!  I can only imagine how much you will be loved in Texas- they are gaining quite the woman and you have left a huge hole here!  Can't wait to see you at Christmas!

Homemade Dinner!

Tonight dinner was from the land!

Watermelon-Peach-Lemonade...all from the market, made with Josh's famous juicer..yum!  Tomorrow we're going to add champagne to the extra and have it for breakfast with blueberry pancakes- yum!

 Salad made with Lettuce and Kale from the market, feta, pine nuts and the amazing Ceaser Salad Dressing made from the Joy of Cooking recipe that my mom has made for years!

Corn from the market (yellow and white kernals, and it's DELICIOUSLY sweet!)  Carlton lamb burgers on yummy rolls left over from the wedding (no worries they were in the freezer!) with local goat cheese...only on mine because Josh hates goats...and an exquisite garlic aioli from the amazing greekish market over by where my mom works!

Good dinner!  Finished off with some cookie dough...yes just the dough!  The cookies have been hidden from me for 2 reasons. 

1.  I have NO willpower (thanks for passing that down mom! :))

2.  They look like this:

Yep, really big and broken to pieces.  Note to cooks out there: just because you have new cookie sheets from your wedding presents and you think they are beautiful and shiny and you want them to stay that way DOES NOT mean you should spray them with a light mist of olive oil...even if it was sprayed out of your new oil mister that you couldn't wait to use...something weird happens to the cookies and they look ridiculous!  But they still taste good!  I was happy with my cookie dough!

I swear I did not eat all of this...I put half of it back for later!

Back in Business!

It has been awhile since I even looked at this blog...or remembered that I had one...but as this is the first summer I have had off since before college I believe, I have quite a bit of time on my hands.  Time to get back to work on this thing!

Hmm...since 2010...

that's a very long and detailed story that in hindsight now I wish I had written about somewhere...like maybe the stack of journals sitting about 5 feet away from me, all brand new, bought with the intention of recording great happenings in my life...all still in the same stack-blank!

We have now been frequenting Farmer's Markets, and our favorite is on the PSU campus on Saturdays.  We nearly missed it today based on a very lazy person who would not get ready for the day (sadly this was me, not Josh!)  In the nick of time however we made it and got some yummy things for the week.  

On a whim we thought..."Why not get some blueberries and raspberries!".  So out to Scholls we went where there are plentiful U-picks of berries for only $1.25/pound...a steal!

Oh...Josh gets to carry they, yay!

I'm so good at picking berries!

See!  I have so many!

So here we are picking berries...as you can see we picked many.  Correct my math if I'm wrong, but the woman told us we had picked 5 pounds of each, which should according to Josh and I's math skills (his are better than mine, but I can do the basics) we should have paid  $12.50...well we paid $8.75, even after we said, "Are you sure?"  So I guess we made out with a steal!  And now I have blueberries for blueberry pancakes tomorrow and raspberries for freezer jam on Tuesday, yay! :)  

This whole picking experience hearkened me back to the days of the Honcoop's raspberry field.  Every summer my mom and I went to pick raspberries with Leslie and Caitlin...sometimes Jess when we were little.  Caitlin, Jess and I would play house for hours on tend while my mom and Leslie did the actual work.  But we used raspberries for everything...the food, the water, the desserts, etc.  So by the end of our house playing we were all ridiculously sick from eating massive amounts of raspberries.  I had forgotten how wonderful they smell in the hot sun, how careful you have to be when picking them, and that amazingly sweet but tart at the same time taste when you put the first one in your mouth!  Yum!!!!!!!!!!

Delicious Blueberries from our bucket!

Raspberries from MY bucket!

A light hearted break...

I am attempting to scour my apartment...and I am beginning to hate everything I own...clothes, etc. there's just too much of it!

So I was cleaning out a box, and I found this article that I had ripped out of a Real Simple, who knows how long ago it was...it's called "my year in haiku" by Kathryn Higgins. Here are some highlights...I shall attempt my own later today, perhaps cleaning will inspire me!

Daylight saving time.
Oblivious, I go to
church an hour late.

The spring comes again;
it's time to file taxes-
lots of money gone.

Frozen food again.
No time to cook a good meal-
no complaining please!

Fall is here at last!
My neighbors' leaf blowers roar
while I rake and rake.

A soccer mom bends
to tie her son's shoelaces.
What's that? A thong? Ugh!

Decorate the tree.
Cook and bake and clean a lot,
then take down the tree.

I awaken with
clear head; unfortunately
it's also empty.


Creative little idea don't you think? I think I shall try to write a haiku for each month and keep it somewhere, or maybe have my students write haiku's each month and put them in a book...can 2nd graders write haiku's?? We'll see!

Summer is here!

I shall start with a hearkening to the summer days of yore...the yore of 2009: here's to many more reenacting sculptures, beach trips, and sinfully delicious apple muffins!

I am sitting in my living room...watching Gilmore Girls...reading my Real Simple...drinking very strong coffee with unsweetened soy milk, the amount I like...and eating a very chocolaty chip cookie (thanks Dad!)...And I'm also perusing online...what a lovely past time. All this to say yes...I am done! My 4th and 5th graders happily walked (read ran so fast some got stuck in the doorway) out the door, and down the hall to their summer (obviously someone hadn't told the weather). Then Thursday we did our final meetings and the Crystal Apple Awards...which is exactly like the Oscars for teachers, entertaining only if you know and love the people present, which I do. Then onto the meetings, oh the never-ending meetings, though I was allowed to traipse my way to Mabel Rush and rejoin my lovely family for some final meetings and planning for next year. Where we ironically were quite productive...K-3rd met together (a feat in itself) and not only managed to stay on topic, but got through an entire science curriculum planning K through 3rd...I'm completely shocked that we were actually productive, and excited that we have some thought behind what we're doing. Novel concept, having a plan, based on the standards, and then actually teaching it...shocking! :) Then onto boxing up the stuff. My wonderful and very studly significant other brought me many boxes and helped pack things up. Then Friday I was complete! Checked out, move request in (little known fact: the district will move your boxes for you, you don't have to do it yourself. They only make you think you do so that they don't have to move them, but I have caught onto their plan...made a very large mountain of boxes and will now sit back and enjoy my summer NOT moving boxes...really it's the least they can do for me after the disaster of budget cuts from last year...I don't ask for much, but this is one less thing on my plate!) And now I am free...until July 14th (summer school). I have a list a million miles long...but for today I am going to eat the cookie, drink the coffee, and watch the Gilmore Girls. There is a large part of me that feels bad for not being productive...but I took that part hostage and offered it cookies and coffee to shut up. Then while gallivanting through stranger's blogs (not like stalking...like window shopping) I found a challenge...and well I am most definitely up for a challenge, it is summer after all...and it is a GREAT challenge...a FABULOUS challenge...a Narnia Challenge! And in the spirit of summer and the fact that I not only adore Narnia, but truly believe that perhaps CS Lewis really is my long lost great grandfather, I shall take this challenge! What a lovely way to spend July...getting lost in Narnia...

Thoughts on our world...

I often try to live in a bubble. I appear not to, but I try to live in a place where I don't have to think about all the crap that is happening in our world. If I truly take the time to think about all of this my heart begins to break...but thanks to the new car :) I've been listening to the radio. There's only so much of 105.1 I can take and so I have switched to NPR...I know it makes me sound like a Portlandite, but it's good news! And so my eyes have been reopened to something other than the MAX hitting people in downtown Portland.

I have been trying recently to come to terms with Christianity in this world, how far do I draw the line for myself in what I choose to accept or not accept. My bookgroup has really been delving into these topics a lot, through books like: Things Seen and Unseen by Nora Gallagher and An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor. What should I believe? What do I believe? What am I called to believe? I don't know a lot of the time. Here is something I came across on hulu today and it has stopped me in my tracks: http://www.hulu.com/watch/150328/vanguard-missionaries-of-hate . I have been thinking about this topic a lot recently. I don't remember Jesus condemning people to death all throughout the gospels...yet I still don't understand the stance that Christians should have. I don't even want to be lumped in with Christians most of the time...I want to see as God sees, but so often I don't know what He sees. There is so much out there telling me what to believe, what to think, I would like to just sit down with Jesus and ask him some questions. I do know that this video, this topic goes against the grain of love...don't get me wrong we have a wrathful God, he doesn't just sit back and only love people, but I'm pretty sure it breaks his heart as much as mine when we alienate, imprison and kill those that we don't agree with.

Then on the homefront I got this in our Monday Memo from my superintendent...

BILL CALLS FOR JAILING PARENTS OF TRUANTS

Nathan Roedel sent me a news clipping regarding a new bill in California. The state of California would hold parents responsible if their children regularly skip school, under a bill passed by the state Senate. The measure would let prosecutors charge parents of chronic truants with misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. The measure now goes to the state Assembly.

Our culture is slowly falling apart.

I see it everyday with my students, it's appalling to me what they know, what they have to deal with, and what they believe. I try to give them a picture of what has come before us, to teach them history, the shoulders that we stand upon...but they don't hear me. They believe that war is cool, that it's fun, it should happen all the time, and that killing others is completely acceptable. I knew I was fighting a loosing battle last week when I heard one of my students say: "It was a holocaust...it was awesome dude!". How do you fight that? I've never heard the holocaust used as an adjective, but I can tell you it chills our heart to hear it out of the mouths of 10 year olds. The idea of responsibility of actions is gone, and the student's parents will fight for them time and time again to avoid all responsibility of everything.


This is a grim post, and it's not that I don't have hope. There are bright spots in my class, but I am worried about the generation that is coming behind my own. My generation is sure that they are the informed people, that we will be the ones to change the problems...but my generation is a generation of bandwagons. They care for a time, but we've forgotten the history. Sometimes because we don't know it, and sometimes because we weren't taught it...but it's our responsibility to find out, and it's my responsibility as an educator to teach it. We stand on the shoulders of mistakes and glories of those who have come before us...and they didn't want us to make the same mistakes...knowledge is power- that's what I learned in AP English, that and "absolute power corrupts absolutely"- thank you Mr. Dolmatz for trying to teach us to think for ourselves, and to gain that power of knowledge.

What does the future hold? I don't know.

Relaxing on Sunday

After several months of insanity and go go go on weekends, there was finally a break on the horizon.

There are mornings when you wake up and everything is right. Oh to wake as I did this morning, every morning!

Church= fabulous! I am constantly surprised by the commitment to God, truth and others that this place exudes. I am thankful to have found a place to call a church home.

On the way home from church we have this new tradition that I love...over to the Hawthorne Powell's to either pick up preordered books or to simply browse and revel in the immensity of the written word available to my eager fingers. Then next door to the closest I will come to an Italian market this side of Italy. Josh fell in love with it because he adores pasta, and they have homemade pasta with the most delicious sauces...today's pick was an interesting one: tomatoes, onions, pine nuts, currants, vinegar, chocolate (no really), and some other things. While we browse for lunch I get Italian espresso and on our way home singing loudly seems to be a theme. A glass of wine, pasta, Josh and an episode of FlashForward...perfection!

I did nothing for school this weekend, and after lunch I watched Josh finish the tree at his house, took a nap, ate pizza and literally left the couch maybe 3 times tops...perfection again. I don't often understand life or how it comes to be, but I'm exceptionally thankful.

Thoughts today courtesy of the great mind of Madeline L'Engle:

As we move into Advent we are called to listen, something we seldom take time to
in this frenetic world of over-activity. But waiting for birth, waiting for death-
these are the listening times, when the normal distractions of life have lost their
power to take away from God's call to center in Christ.

Once again, as happened during the past nearly two thousand years, predictions are
being made of the time of this Second Coming, which, Jesus emphasized, "even the
in heaven do not know." But we as human creatures, who are "a little lower than the
angels" too frequently try to set ourselves above them with our predictions and our
arrogant assumption of knowledge with God hid even from the angels.

Advent is not a time to declare, but to listen, to listen
to whatever God may want to tell us through the singing
of the stars, the quickening of a baby, the gallantry
of a dying man.

Listen. Quietly. Humbly. Without arrogance.