Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving.  Giving thanks.
Food.  Lots of food.
People.  Enough for me to feel at home.
Conversation.  Chatter everywhere.
Laughter.  Smiles.  Friends.  Noise.
This is Thanksgiving.

The group, minus Lindsay, Rebecca, & Christopher

Oh, the Strides We Have Made

You know you're an English teacher when the following exchange makes you a wee bit excited:

Me: (to the class) Please sit down.
Pedro proceeds to sit in my chair.
Me: Pedro?
Pedro:  You said sit down.

Now, I know this kind of thing happens every day with countless numbers of sweet, yet ornery, fourth graders all over the world...but dude, did you notice the perfection of his answer?  "You said sit down".  Makes me tear up a little bit...ok, maybe not.
 

The Most Beautiful Sound

I heard the most beautiful sound Sunday night.
It was the cacophony of singing at church.
Now, our church isn't known for what you would call "beautiful" worship.
We have one guitar, we could use some intensive classes in clapping as a group, and the church as a whole has trouble carrying a tune.
But on Sunday night something got into the multitude of kids we had.
They decided to sing for all they were worth, at points you could have classified it more as shouting and less as singing.
And it was beautiful.
All I could think of, during this assault on the eardrums, was how the majority of these kids had never been to an evangelical church six months ago.
They began coming...mostly for the snack.
And now they sing, or rather, make a joyful noise.