My last start of writing on my personal blog didn't get too far. After reading the book, "Something Needs to Change" by David Platt, I know I need to change - so reflecting on this blog will be my goal.
Over the break from school, Perry and I decided to join our friends on their sailboat off the coast of Bonaire. Three weeks ago I didn't know where Bonaire was or anything about the island community. Let me back up....it's been a whirlwind fall semester.....
In September my father's house was flooded yet again - he had not flooded in Harvey when our house went under, but Imelda the tropical storm brought him several inches. Once again we moved furniture, pulled carpet and began renovations. This was number 4 in less than 10 years. Dad is now 89 years old and tired of going through this, however, we started the process and Dad moved in with my sister. Move forward to November just as we are finishing the renovations and Dad begins to mention moving to independent living. At Thanksgiving, my sisters and I begin looking at a place close to us all. Not much discussion. Thanksgiving happens and we invite a few realtors over to help us think about what to do with the house. The "flood discount" is high. Most of the realtors had sold a house with one flood - but 4 in 10 years and a fire - not so much. Just for grins, we contacted some "We buy ugly houses" companies....several responded. By mid-December we had a possibility, we had to clean out the house and take what we wanted, move the items the children wanted, hold an estate sale and move Dad to his new place before closing on the house. It was a true miracle that all was accomplished by December 22nd. Add to that the normal holiday activities and of course my job. All was accomplished. When we realized that it was all going to happen before Christmas, Perry contacted our friends and made plans for a trip to Bonaire the second part of my Christmas break. Everything fell into place - another miracle....
So...we arrive in Bonaire, Marilyn shares with me the book "Something needs to Change." by David Platt. I spend the first few days reading the book. I really couldn't put it down. I didn't want to be rude and not visit with our friends, but the book was all I wanted to read. As I read it. I began to change...I began to think about what I needed to change. I know that I won't be climbing the Himalayas and experiencing what David did...but I have my own mountains, my own pain, and my own shortcomings. I have begun the change by writing today. I want to somehow write what I realize I need to do. It's almost as if writing will help me put my thoughts in action.
It took going away. Getting away from routine. Letting my mind wander and listen to what God had to say. I realize that sometimes I take what God does in my life for granted. I know I have faith that God is there. That God will take care of me....as I read the book, I thought about how God took care of every obstacle that was in place with my Dad's house. He provided just enough time and extension of time. Until I stopped to reflect...I really hadn't noticed all of the things that fell into place. Only they didn't fall into place, God planned the way.
Add in one more little issue.....in late November and early December I had been working with the insurance company to acquire a drug I use for osteoporosis. This drug is not to be used when dental work is to happen. I had not been able to get the drug. Nothing was working. Then...the last day of school I broke a tooth. The root canal did not work; the tooth had to be extracted. It would not have been possible without risk (actually the doctor would not have done the procedure if I had taken the drug). One day before we left for Bonaire I had the tooth extracted and left the country without pain. God knew the plan. God made things work. I need to be aware of all God has done in my life and how he has taken care of me. Something has to change.
So, as 2020 begins, my clear vision is that I must proclaim Jesus as Lord. I must make Him the master of my life and realize what He has planned for my life. Something has to change. I challenge you to read the book. What are you missing out on that God has planned for you? I can't wait to see where 2020 will go.
And then...the sermon on Sunday and the lesson in Bible Study - it was all about sharing your testimony....It was like God was making a strong statement - Something has to Change and it begins with listening and allowing God to use my life. So...Something has to Change...it starts with a life-altering journey of obedience to Christ. I can't wait to see where 2020 takes me!
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
2018
It's been many years since I have taken the time to write on this blog. It's time I return to reflect on life. 2018....wow! January 1st of a new year - so much to think about, so much to do.
As I think about returning to writing a blog, I think about what I want to share. What do I want to spend time writing about each week? Last year I began a school blog that I write each Friday to share with the outside world all the cool things happening inside the walls of RCE. I have successfully kept up writing each and every Friday that school is in session - so - I am going to try to write each Monday a little something that is hopefully uplifting - or something I want to remember.
Right now...all of my thoughts are still with Harvey and our flood of 2017. So my first postings will most likely be something about what we've learned through Harvey.
School had just started - students had been at school for 4 days with the first day of school being the day of the eclipse, which started the year off in a most unusual way! We should have guessed with the eclipse happening on the very first day that the entire year would be different than any other year.
Thursday night of the first week of school, I was watching the news. A Hurricane (Harvey), was in the gulf. At that point it wasn't even a hurricane, but rather a tropical storm. It was headed towards the Texas Gulf Coast. The news was guessing on the amount of rain to be expected and all of the normal expectations of a hurricane...but it didn't seem like it was to be too bad...just lots of rain. Sometime around 8 in the evening, the school district sent out a robocall to cancel school for Friday in anticipation of the storm. It was unusual for the school district to call it so early. That should have been a hint.
I had left my computer at school, knowing that Thursday night I hadn't planned to do any work....but with the school closing for Friday, I thought it would be a good idea to have it so I could finish off the training videos I had put off watching. So off to school I went.
The weather was calm. No hint of what was to come. Skies were clear. I walked into the building, picked up a few things to put them up, and picked up my laptop. That was the last time I would be in the building for two weeks.
Once home, I picked up some stacks of paper and washed a few dishes. But over all - I thought why - I'll be home all day on Friday with nothing to do. I dropped off to sleep with little worries of the next day...
I woke up on Friday with one thing that had to be done. I had to go to the doctor to get a shot. It was scheduled at 10...so I picked up a few things and ran off to the doctor.
I got to the doctor only to find out I could not receive the shot, I was running 102 degrees of fever. The moment they said I had a high fever - I felt bad. I drove home and went straight to bed - grateful for a day off from school to be able to sleep off the fever.
I had the TV on as I slept. The breaking news kept repeating that Harvey was gaining strength and would possible hit the coast near Corpus Christie at a category 3. I just decided to sleep, hoping that I would feel better in the morning.
Saturday morning the weather was beginning to turn gray. The news now had the storm coming in closer to Houston and possibly more than a Category 4. Perry began to put things away. We had planned to pull honey from our hives, but I was too sick to work with honey. I went to bed early knowing that the rain was coming. The news had told us that we were on the dirty side of the storm and there would be a lot of rain. No worries - we had water, we had food...we were ready for the rains. We knew the street would flood...but we were ready to stay put for a few days. I went to bed early as I was still suffering from a fever. The rains had started, but nothing amazing yet.
Evidently, it had rained hard most of Saturday night. The storm was coming in near Rockport (closer to Houston) and with more rain and wind than expected. Sometime around 2:00 Perry woke me up to ask for help to move the bee hives...they were under water. We suited up and moved the bees.
(To be continued...)
As I think about returning to writing a blog, I think about what I want to share. What do I want to spend time writing about each week? Last year I began a school blog that I write each Friday to share with the outside world all the cool things happening inside the walls of RCE. I have successfully kept up writing each and every Friday that school is in session - so - I am going to try to write each Monday a little something that is hopefully uplifting - or something I want to remember.
Right now...all of my thoughts are still with Harvey and our flood of 2017. So my first postings will most likely be something about what we've learned through Harvey.
School had just started - students had been at school for 4 days with the first day of school being the day of the eclipse, which started the year off in a most unusual way! We should have guessed with the eclipse happening on the very first day that the entire year would be different than any other year.
Thursday night of the first week of school, I was watching the news. A Hurricane (Harvey), was in the gulf. At that point it wasn't even a hurricane, but rather a tropical storm. It was headed towards the Texas Gulf Coast. The news was guessing on the amount of rain to be expected and all of the normal expectations of a hurricane...but it didn't seem like it was to be too bad...just lots of rain. Sometime around 8 in the evening, the school district sent out a robocall to cancel school for Friday in anticipation of the storm. It was unusual for the school district to call it so early. That should have been a hint.
I had left my computer at school, knowing that Thursday night I hadn't planned to do any work....but with the school closing for Friday, I thought it would be a good idea to have it so I could finish off the training videos I had put off watching. So off to school I went.
The weather was calm. No hint of what was to come. Skies were clear. I walked into the building, picked up a few things to put them up, and picked up my laptop. That was the last time I would be in the building for two weeks.
Once home, I picked up some stacks of paper and washed a few dishes. But over all - I thought why - I'll be home all day on Friday with nothing to do. I dropped off to sleep with little worries of the next day...
I woke up on Friday with one thing that had to be done. I had to go to the doctor to get a shot. It was scheduled at 10...so I picked up a few things and ran off to the doctor.
I got to the doctor only to find out I could not receive the shot, I was running 102 degrees of fever. The moment they said I had a high fever - I felt bad. I drove home and went straight to bed - grateful for a day off from school to be able to sleep off the fever.
I had the TV on as I slept. The breaking news kept repeating that Harvey was gaining strength and would possible hit the coast near Corpus Christie at a category 3. I just decided to sleep, hoping that I would feel better in the morning.
Saturday morning the weather was beginning to turn gray. The news now had the storm coming in closer to Houston and possibly more than a Category 4. Perry began to put things away. We had planned to pull honey from our hives, but I was too sick to work with honey. I went to bed early knowing that the rain was coming. The news had told us that we were on the dirty side of the storm and there would be a lot of rain. No worries - we had water, we had food...we were ready for the rains. We knew the street would flood...but we were ready to stay put for a few days. I went to bed early as I was still suffering from a fever. The rains had started, but nothing amazing yet.
Evidently, it had rained hard most of Saturday night. The storm was coming in near Rockport (closer to Houston) and with more rain and wind than expected. Sometime around 2:00 Perry woke me up to ask for help to move the bee hives...they were under water. We suited up and moved the bees.
(To be continued...)
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
E-books @ RCE
At Rummel Creek, as we are currently on the transition campus, we have purchased many e-books. When you purchase from Amazon on a Kindle, the process is rather easy, however using some of the e-books through our card catalog can be a daunting task, especially for the primary students. We are successful in reading in wifi, it's the downloading that snags us. Thank goodness our other theme for the year is GRIT, and the students definitely illustrate GRIT reading the e-books.
Other pros on some of the e-books...multiple copies of the same book. Great for book clubs and instruction. E-books are usually always available. I've been working on teachers using them for instruction using the activeboards. Most of the books for curriculum support are multiuser titles. It's a big change from reading small books in a circle.
The con on e-books - so many different devices and so many different ways to connect. Luckily, most of RCE is ipad friendly. We're still working on parental restrictions and how to get books downloaded.
Moving to e-books has not been a highway of speed, but rather a bumpy curvy slow moving road that will hopefully open soon to a highway!
Enjoy some snapshots of students using ipads to read books.
Other pros on some of the e-books...multiple copies of the same book. Great for book clubs and instruction. E-books are usually always available. I've been working on teachers using them for instruction using the activeboards. Most of the books for curriculum support are multiuser titles. It's a big change from reading small books in a circle.
The con on e-books - so many different devices and so many different ways to connect. Luckily, most of RCE is ipad friendly. We're still working on parental restrictions and how to get books downloaded.
Moving to e-books has not been a highway of speed, but rather a bumpy curvy slow moving road that will hopefully open soon to a highway!
Enjoy some snapshots of students using ipads to read books.
Monday, January 26, 2015
HEB Challenge
It's the last week of January. The HEB challenge starts on February 1st. Student Council and KSHAC will be "in charge" of this challenge. I can't wait to see what the students decide to do. All of the adults had ideas, but it is really the students who will follow through and make it happen. Check out the HEB challenge @ http://itstimetexas.org/heb-community-challenge/ .
Rummel Creek has been on a healthy trip for about 5 years. We have learned about healthy eating and the importance of exercise. This year we are even looking at the importance of sleep. If students are healthy and eat well, do exercise and sleep more, then they will be successful on tests and doing school work. Rummel Creek is up for the challenge!
Rummel Creek has been on a healthy trip for about 5 years. We have learned about healthy eating and the importance of exercise. This year we are even looking at the importance of sleep. If students are healthy and eat well, do exercise and sleep more, then they will be successful on tests and doing school work. Rummel Creek is up for the challenge!
Friday, January 16, 2015
Oh my, time has passed
It's January and I'm finally posting again. We've been in our Transition Campus for 5 months with students. We've started settling in, however with the cold dreary weather of January it hasn't been much fun. Duty in the morning on the front of the school has been most cold and windy. I have found coats, gloves, and other coverings that I didn't know I owned. Today is finally sunny, and it feels so good.
As far as being at the Transition Campus, it's not too bad. The students are doing well with the collection of books that we have selected to bring over. So far we haven't had too many requests that we haven't been able to fill. When you are in a small space, you learn what you really need to exist and what is "fluff." In the library, we've always had a lot of fluff and filling. After being here for these five months, I think my collection will stay just about this size when we move into the new building. I'll just have to keep adding new updated titles, but keep the old stuff moving out. I know I need to monitor what kids are actually reading and what just sits on the shelf. The hard part about that is that my favorite books are just sitting on the shelf. (No one reads Ramona any more...I love the Ramona books!) Perhaps it's time to do some book talks to get the Ramona books moving again...
I'm posting some photos of the new building. It's amazing...it will be SOOOOO big...hard to believe that Rummel Creek will be this big! The gym used to dwarf the rest of the school, and now the gym is the little building in the back...Amazing!
As far as being at the Transition Campus, it's not too bad. The students are doing well with the collection of books that we have selected to bring over. So far we haven't had too many requests that we haven't been able to fill. When you are in a small space, you learn what you really need to exist and what is "fluff." In the library, we've always had a lot of fluff and filling. After being here for these five months, I think my collection will stay just about this size when we move into the new building. I'll just have to keep adding new updated titles, but keep the old stuff moving out. I know I need to monitor what kids are actually reading and what just sits on the shelf. The hard part about that is that my favorite books are just sitting on the shelf. (No one reads Ramona any more...I love the Ramona books!) Perhaps it's time to do some book talks to get the Ramona books moving again...
I'm posting some photos of the new building. It's amazing...it will be SOOOOO big...hard to believe that Rummel Creek will be this big! The gym used to dwarf the rest of the school, and now the gym is the little building in the back...Amazing!
Monday, May 26, 2014
The end is in sight...
I had totally meant to write monthly this year, to be able to share the activity in the library - the weeding, packing and selecting....but...here it is many months later than the last post and nothing has been shared in between....I guess I've been too busy and exhausted to stop and post my thoughts.
We have two weeks left in the "old RCE"...it's hard to believe that the time has come for the building to come down. In September it seemed so far away and now it's just days away and yet we have so much left to do.
It's been a melancholy year as I have opened drawers and sorted through collections of papers, photos, and other memorabilia. What to keep, and what to toss...almost a daily drill. But the boxes are packed, the shelves are empty and we move to the transition campus on June 6th. I've spent the last 25 years here at the current RCE....moving the library the first time in 2000 when the current library was built. I packed and moved the library again with the flood, and then again with renovations...and so it is that we pack the library again to move on to the transition campus where we'll be for 18 months before packing it up for the new school building. The memories will always we packed in my brain and my heart...so many good times...authors...field days...faculty gatherings...parties and celebrations..special students and teachers....they are packed....the heart of RCE will move with us as we go to the transition campus and to our final destination...the "NEW RCE." Two more weeks....I hope we get it done!
Carts are packed, crates loaded...
Boxes stacked for long term storage...
Pallets loaded for transport...
Book carts, empty shelves....
Breaking down the lab....
The end of the KRCE studio....
We have two weeks left in the "old RCE"...it's hard to believe that the time has come for the building to come down. In September it seemed so far away and now it's just days away and yet we have so much left to do.
It's been a melancholy year as I have opened drawers and sorted through collections of papers, photos, and other memorabilia. What to keep, and what to toss...almost a daily drill. But the boxes are packed, the shelves are empty and we move to the transition campus on June 6th. I've spent the last 25 years here at the current RCE....moving the library the first time in 2000 when the current library was built. I packed and moved the library again with the flood, and then again with renovations...and so it is that we pack the library again to move on to the transition campus where we'll be for 18 months before packing it up for the new school building. The memories will always we packed in my brain and my heart...so many good times...authors...field days...faculty gatherings...parties and celebrations..special students and teachers....they are packed....the heart of RCE will move with us as we go to the transition campus and to our final destination...the "NEW RCE." Two more weeks....I hope we get it done!
Carts are packed, crates loaded...
Empty shelves, gondolas loaded...
Boxes stacked for long term storage...
Books wrapped waiting pick up ....
Pallets loaded for transport...
Loading the truck..thankful for the guys!
Book carts, empty shelves....
Stuff by the door to be loaded...
Breaking down the lab....
piles of gondolas....
The end of the KRCE studio....
Reference computers down..empty shelves!
It's been an exciting busy spring......the count down is here....
For more pictures and stories check out: The Rummel Creek 50th Anniversary Blog
Monday, November 11, 2013
Learning, Weeding, Moving On...
Oh my, the last month has been amazing! The library has been busy...we've weeded over 3500 books with still more to go! And surprise surprise...the shelves don't look that empty...except in the 300's where all of the fairy tales were very old and now the shelf sits basically empty!
Learning: Time to learn Google Chrome and the apps that are available. Here's a sampling of my first try to use this program...I tried the app Loupes. Somehow I need to share this with staff members and parents...lots of apps out there for students to explore.
Learning II: E-books...just about to get them "mastered." Learning how to get them out to the community is the next hurdle!
Weeding: It's so hard to move out the books that I love and read as a child. These carts are full of books that I love....but they are now old and worn and not interesting to students. So box them up and send them off....space for new books!
Learning: Time to learn Google Chrome and the apps that are available. Here's a sampling of my first try to use this program...I tried the app Loupes. Somehow I need to share this with staff members and parents...lots of apps out there for students to explore.
Learning II: E-books...just about to get them "mastered." Learning how to get them out to the community is the next hurdle!
Weeding: It's so hard to move out the books that I love and read as a child. These carts are full of books that I love....but they are now old and worn and not interesting to students. So box them up and send them off....space for new books!
Moving On: Yes...it's time to say good bye to this building as it is now. Rummel Creek will not "go away" because Rummel Creek is the people in the community...but the structure is on it's way down. The architects brought some renderings to share. The students have loved looking at the photos. Now that the renderings are posted...the reality hits...we are coming down in June!
The name of this blog is Ms. Frazzled...and boy am I Frazzled this year...I just go from one activity to the next...I just hope it is all complete by June!
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