Wow, I missed a whole month

Well, as usual I can say school has been crazy. Last week ended the grading period, so of course I was at school way longer than I thought I would need to be to get all my grades in the computer, and I still didn't get them all in. The last day's work will just have to go on the next grading period.

My throat has really been in bad shape for a couple months. I keep hoping that if I rest it as much as I can on weekends by not talking much and not singing, that it will stop hurting, but it hasn't helped yet. Tomorrow I'm going to go to the doctor. I've been assuming the main problem is just the strain of talking all day as a teacher, but maybe there is some kind of infection or allergy or something that the doctor could help. I really miss being able to sing right now, but even more I hate to imagine damaging my voice permanently.

Anyway, sometimes school gets me down and I get stressed and depressed by how overwhelming things can get (like last week), but more often I feel really good about being at Campus High with the students and co-workers I am with. It's a great place, and I'm really blessed to be able to be there.

I did sing special music this past Sunday at my church. I sang "You Never Let Go," the latest Matt Redman song, accompanied by the worship team guitarist on acoustic and harmony vocals. It went really well, and it was a lot of fun. It's a great song; if you haven't heard it, find an audio clip of it online or something. Well, I need to go; I have much grading to do still, not to mention plenty of unpacking left in my apartment yet. Maybe by Christmas I can get all that done. I won't be holding my breath, though.

Well, whoever is out there, thanks for reading, and God bless you. Peace.

Taking a Breath

Well, it is Friday, and I am not in school. That is a big blessing. The last two nights we (all teachers) have been at the school till 8 or later conducting parent-teacher conferences. So having a day off is a welcome respite.

Last Sunday I sang a special at my church. A great song called "Remembering You," recorded by Steven Curtis Chapman on the Songs inspired by Narnia CD or whatever it's called. It went well, but my actual point is that last week I noticed my voice was feeling really strained a lot of the time. I don't know if it's just from talking so much and talking more loudly as I teach, or if it's a seasonal allergy thing or if it's actually some kind of infection, but my throat feels sore. Not like a sore throat when you are sick, but like sore muscles when you exercise too hard.

It concerns me b/c I want to continue to be able to sing! Last spring I went through a similar deal. I went to an ENT specialist, who seemed to think I had an infection of some sort. He gave me an antibiotic and a steroid to take, and after a couple weeks it did finally get better. I think if three days of resting my voice as much as possible doesn't help any, I will go to the doctor next week or the week after and see what he says. My insurance kicks in on Oct 1, so it will be good timing, at least, if I do have to go that route.

OK, well, I'm going to close now. Hope all is well with everyone out there. I'm glad we had this time to visit. Though it was pretty one-sided. ;)

Wow, pt. II

Well, I'm here, so I thought I'd make a short post while I have a minute. Things at school are as crazy busy as they were a month ago. This week is the end of the six weeks, though. Hard to believe we've been in school that long! Gosh, I've really got to go. Hopefully I'll write more soon.

Wow

I knew I would be busy once school started, but knowing and KNOWING are two different things. Now I am experiencing that incredible busyness. And I'm trying to get ready to move in a week, too. Life has been crazy all around this month. But I actually feel more sane and balanced, now that I'm working again.

Well, the point of all this is mostly that I haven't had time to blog lately and probably won't have a lot of time for it in the next month. I'm pretty behind at work from all the paperwork and stuff I have to have done as a new teacher in the building. I'm just barely keeping my head above water making my lesson plans and grading papers. And I'm sure I'll be settling into my new apartment for a coople weeks at least. I'll email all of you directly sometime w/my updated contact info.

Thanks for reading. Have a great day.

Home Sweet Home (but not for long)

I am back in Wichita. I arrived Monday night after a full day of driving, and went straight to a farewell party for a friend from my church. He is in the Air Force and will be deployed to the Middle East tomorrow. This stay should only be 3 months, however, so that's nice.

I am thinking more and more about the beginning of school. We start meetings next Tuesday, and classes start the following week. They have added at least one new math position this year, so one classroom that was extremely large is being divided into two classrooms. I will be teaching in one of those two. I took some posters and school supplies and other stuff to my room yesterday. They had completed the wall, but that was about it. There were big pieces of extra wall sitting in one corner; everything was covered in the dust of the construction; and almost none of the furniture I'll need for the school year was there- no teacher desk or chair, no filing cabinets, no phone, no projector screen, only one bookshelf that might even belong to another teacher. Also, there were tables in the room instead of the desks that I should have when school starts.

The point being that there was really nothing I could do to start getting the room ready for the year. And tomorrow I leave for Florida w/three friends to visit another friend who is living there. We won't get back till Monday, and meetings start Tuesday. All the teachers I've talked to have said to get the room decorated and organized and everything before inservices start, b/c once they do, things will be totally crazy and I'll have so much other stuff to do on the "classroom workdays" that I won't have any time to actually work in my classroom. Oh, well. It looks like waiting until inservices start will be my only option. It's probably better that I will be out of town until then, b/c if I were here and actually COULD be working in my room, it would probably make me even more mad that the room wasn't ready.

When I was at the school yesterday, I did get a chance to talk w/one of the other math teachers. She was very friendly and offered lots of good advice, like suggesting that I call the principal ASAP and in a friendly way let him know what things I still need in the room before school starts. My friend Jeff was w/me, and he was just full of questions and comments for her. You'd think he was a teacher himself, but he's not. He's just overtalkative. (Sorry, Jeff) BUT, one good thing that did come of that was that he asked about policies on cellphones and other electronic devices in the classroom. The other teacher said students are not to have them out at all in class. If a student has anything like that out during a test, she just assumes they are cheating. She said sometimes they don't like that, but she tells them, "Go complain to the school board if you want. It doesn't matter to me; I have a contract w/them, you don't. So complain all you want." I think that's a good philosophy! Although as far as I've come in the last 10 years, I still don't think I'm quite thick-skinned enough to wholeheartedly take that attitude. Maybe I'll get there by the end of this year.

Well, my other big news is that I'm going to be looking for a new place to live, it looks like. One of our roommates just moved out last week, and another is moving out the end of this month. Since we have no prospects for new roommates, even after looking for a couple months, and since we can't afford to live in that big house w/just two of us, we gave our 30-day notice to move out on Labor Day weekend. That's something I really didn't have time for this month, but when is the next long weekend? And how many months do I want to pay double rent? So it seems like the only logical thing to do. We'll see how it goes looking for a new place.

Goodness, this has been a long entry. And I haven't even said anything about music ministry. Well, I guess that's OK; some weeks are going to be that way. Well, thanks for sticking w/me through all these ramblings. God bless you all.

Random Thoughts from a Barber Shop

On the bulletin board:

Strange how millions of people would like to live to be 110, but they don't know what to do with themselves when it rains on a Sunday afternoon.

And of course I can't resist sharing this one:

If a man speaks in a forest and there's no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?

Who knew you could find such wisdom and humor at a barber shop.

Mapleview Report

Just to keep everyone posted (in case anyone but me is reading this), I sang this morning at Mapleview as planned. I sang a song called "More Like You," which was recorded by Clay Crosse. It went really well, and Greg said it fit into the service nicely. I got lots of compliments from members of the congregation, too. One guy even asked, "Do you sing for a living? You've got a voice that you could; that's why I ask." Affirmation isn't my main motivation for singing in church, but it sure is encouraging to get.

Well, I've been keeping some late nights lately, so I think I'm going to close now and head for bed. One more week in Michigan! Then it's back to reality in Wichita. Talk at y'all later. Take care.

Mapleview Free Methodist

This Sunday I am scheduled to sing a special at Mapleview FMC in Niles, MI. The pastor, Greg Rensberry, is a friend of mine from Spring Arbor College when we were both students there. (We were also co-workers at Covenant Hills Campground one summer.) We had lunch and visited some today.

I've been able to get together with several friends from my college days while up here in Michigan this summer. It had been years since I'd seen or heard from most of them; that's been one of the big blessings of being here. It's nice to renew old friendships. The hard part for me is maintaining them!

Good news!

Today I pulled out all the old notebooks and papers I had ever used for songwriting and found that I had two songs almost finished. One had all the lyrics written and the other was lacking only two lines. And I had written a third to a half of the music for each. So all I had to do was write those two lines, do a little lyrical tweaking and finish the music for both songs. It seems that the lyrics are harder for me to complete than the music. I think that's b/c the lyrics are more important to me; I feel compelled to strive for excellent lyrics, whereas the music seems to me just a vehicle, something that just needs to be functional. That's probably a weakness in my musicianship.

But the point today is that I finished two more songs! They're kind of like rough drafts, though, so I think I will keep reviewing them and possibly making changes. Still, excellent progress for my first day back at songwriting, I think. It was really fun, too. I definitely need to take time to do that every week or so, even after school starts.

Well, it's late, so I'm gonna sign off. Peace, everybody.

An encouraging word

Yesterday my parents saw a concert of Jamey Dennison, a guy I met a couple years ago when I was with the Christian band Heaven 2 Earth. Apparently he had gotten our CD at the time b/c my mom said he asked them to say hello to me, gave a wonderful compliment about my songwriting, and encouraged me to continue writing. This guy has been writing and performing for a long time. This isn't just a hobby for him; he's a professional songwriter. The fact that he had listened to my music and remembered me is encouraging in and of itself. But that he would compliment my songwriting and specifically encourage me to continue is amazing to me!

So that was kind of a kick in the butt that I need to get writing again. It's been years since I have, but I know there are things God's done in my life and taught me that could help others. too. So, like Nike says, "Just do it." I need to stop whining about being busy and do the things that are important. And since I'm not working and on vacation for the summer, I could spend some major time right now. So that's one of my goals for this week and next. I will spend a few hours on songwriting.

It's a good goal. I'll keep you all posted.

Long time coming

Well, for a long time I didn't have time to do any posting on this blog, and then I forgot my password so I didn't do any posting for a long time more. But now I'm back.

Update on Two Mites Ministries: I have resigned my position as worship leader at Christ Community Church. I finally got my Kansas teaching license this past spring and have a new job teaching math at Campus High School in the Haysville, KS school district. The school itself is actually on the south side of Wichita. It's only about a 20 minute drive from my house, so that's not too bad.

Anyway, the point of my story is that I think my music ministry is going to be on hold for a while until I settle into my new job. Having taught in the past, I know being a first-year teacher is a lot of work and can be a lot of stress. I definitely don't want to spread myself too thin at this point in my life.

Well, I don't intend to wait 8 more months before making another posting here, so hopefully this will be more interesting to read in the future. At least to some people. Peace.