Kinder Garden

A short, funny quote from one of my preschool kids :) Malia (another teacher): What should I have for dinner? Me: oo soup salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden! Evan James (5 year old kid in my class): Oh Miss Hannah, I'm going to the Garden! Me: Really? (thinking he meant he ate there... silly me..) Evan: Yea, the Kinder Garden!! Me:Wow! (hahahahaahahahah)

Storms and Fires

So here I am in the library sitting in my chair (yes, I have a chair) enjoying the silence that I come here to enjoy :). It's raining. Storming, actually. All of a sudden I hear a roar of rain coming down on the roof. I love thunderstorms! Don't get me wrong, I love our blue Arizona skies, but really, I long for a good storm every once in a while.

This one just happened to come at the perfect time too. It's been a rather thunderstormy week in my life. Nothing happened, just every so often I find myself going down that dark hole and I have to work my way out of it. Well, it's starting to take a toll on me:physically and emotionally.. and spiritually. But God is good, is He not? His grace is amazing, and His love powerful.

Thunderstorms are such an experience of His power. It's like Him showing us, Look, I can make it rain down on you, refresh you, quench your thirst, and I can do it in powerful and gentle ways.

I went to the worship service at the Canyon on Sunday with a couple of my friends. The wind changed directions that day and began blowing the smoke from the North RIm fire in our direction. The ash falling on our heads looked like snow. We drove over to the rim to look at the smoke and the whole Canyon was full of it. The sun was deep red, and we could vaguely make out the outlines of the edges in the Canyon. It was beautiful even though it was there because of a huge fire (over 15,000 acres now). Yet another display of God's power, a more formidable one to me. I'd much rather have a thunderstorm than a fire of course. If there weren't fires though, the forest would be overgrown. The more undergrowth, the stronger the fire. The more junk there is, the more it needs cleaning out, and the more painful the process. Thank God for his Grace, even if it comes as a storm. And pray for me this weekend if you happen to remember it. Thanks!

summer is here

It's the first day of summer today! It felt like it too; those in Phoenix may scoff, but it was HOT here today. It was, and I think it's because the elevation here is higher and the sun is more intense, but it was hot.. don't laugh..

The first day of summer.. another season is upon us. Truth be told, I'm looking forward to the fall. That is my favorite season, but summer is wonderful of course. The fire season is terrible already, there are 3 fires that I know of around Flag right now. They are closing the forests and lakes and trails and even some of the national monuments (of course not the Grand Canyon, that would be unthinkable). No more hiking, camping, etc. We are all in mourning. *moment of silence*

I was able to finish studying early tonight, so I now I'm relaxing and watching Pride and Prejudice for the bazillionth time. I'm trying to figure out why I like it so much. Aside from the music and scenery and quirky characters, it's rather a slow paced and relatively uneventful movie about a family.. well, I couldn't tell you why it's so good, it just is.

Well I guess I'm not in much of a writing mood, so that's all for tonight.