Happenings Lately

The first of 14 INFED infusions in January-March

Another infusion....finally finished!




Dallas Arboretum with 500,000 tulips for Spring




Mom in front of the tulips



One of two giant peacocks at the Arboretum...fashioned with 10,000 pansies

Amtrak Station in Ft. Worth, TX after we'd ridden the rails from OKC!




Roosevelt display board at the Board of Education in Ponca City--
the art teacher and I designed, created and stapled!



 

Read a LATTE...

Travel a LATTE...

Drink a LATTE coffee!

Ode to Diane

ode

noun \ˈōd\

: a poem in which a person expresses

a strong feeling of love

or respect for someone

or something

(Merriam-Webster)

My dearest friend Diane was bestowed an amazing honor last evening. She was selected as the

Ponca City Public School's

2014-2015

Teacher of the Year!!

Dr. Pennington, Superintendent of PCPS; Diane Anderson TOY; Shelley Arrott, Assistant Supt. & Human Resources

 

 

 

Diane is a friend whom I greatly respect; therefore, this ode to Diane...

Diane was voted as TOY (teacher of year) by her East Middle School staff and then moved to one of the top three finalists across Ponca City in the selection process by virtue of her outstanding portfolio.

 

The three finalists were interviewed by a selection committee with the winner chosen by secret ballot. At the banquet, Dr. Pennington was handed a sealed envelope to add to the mystery before he made the announcement to a packed house of teachers and administrators from all over the district, board members, Friends of Education, and Education Foundation members as well as State Senator Eddie Fields.

 

I must admit, I did squeal when I heard the first syllables of her name as he announced the winner!! I was on my feet cheering in a nano second!

 

Here a few of the reasons I was so excited:

 

I have taught with Diane since 1995. Yes, that is NINETEEN years!!

 

First, we taught first grade together. First grade must have been the cement for our friendship which has endured all these years.

 

Walked countless miles together after school in our attempts to stay thin...thinner...and finally to just have an excuse to get together for a prolonged chat.

 

She taught my son for PreK and Kindergarten and deserves an extra gold star for those two years!

 

Then, in the payback of every teacher in the profession, I taught her son as a 5th grader. Nerve-racking but fun to have her as a support at home!

 

We have taught in two different schools together until the district realized they really should keep us separated. So, she teaches at East Middle School and I teach at Roosevelt.

 

I have sat in hospital rooms and waiting rooms with her through several scary moments as well as traveled with her to distant reading conferences.

 

Through it all, I must say that she is so deserving of the honor as she always seems to find the positive in people--even when she's been wrongly judged or treated. She always does what is right for the student, even if it's the hardest yet longest way for her. She is a forever student advocate! I love that about her!

 

Ponca City News, Friday, March 14, 2014

 

 

I have learned from Diane that a person can learn to laugh about just about anything. That's our normal pattern--fuss then laugh.

 

We've counseled each other through medical issues of all sorts, questioned the doctor's judgments and diagnosis and simply been there for each other.

 

We've shared many meals. We have developed a funny little pattern of always pretending it was "my turn" to buy since we really don't keep track of those petty little things.

 

We've loaned books back and forth...some just living in the wrong classroom for years on end.

 

We've sat at each other's dining room tables (not near enough I might add) and chatted some more in our ever-evolving attempt to keep up with each other.

 

We know each other's parents and she was a great support to me as my Dad breathed his last.

 

As a matter of fact, she's the kind of friend who took Blake for the weekend and for trick-or-treating...never knowing that night would be my last with my Dad. She cried when I called her with the news--like I knew she would.

 

Last night, when she started her speech. She cried...a little. I knew she would and I really wanted to help her with her glasses and her paper.

 

 

 

Here are few quotes from her students:

 

"She goes out of her way to help all students. I always learn something new in her class; recently, I learned during the evaporation lab that heat makes water evaporate."

 

"Mrs. Anderson is cool and funny. She always has a photo, and video or an illustration to help us learn a new concept."

 

"Mrs. Anderson does experiments with us. I love the egg drop."

 

"Mrs. Anderson is a wonderful teacher. She always makes sure to explain things that are on a level so that we can understand. She pushes us to our full potential and she can relate to us. I am so happy to have her for my teacher."

 

So, what does the TOY do the day after she's won it all?

Teach...of course!

Build authentic relationships with 8th graders who are tough to love...

Smile at the accolades but...

will realize there's another kid out there

who doesn't quite "get it" yet.

Yes, Diane, my friend, PCPS's Teacher of the Year,

taught today just like all the other days!

If you're interested, you can see her school web site here.

Thanks for reading about my friend! As her friend, I just wanted to make sure the world knew what a great teacher she represents to the community, her students and to her colleagues!


Kisses from Katie: a new discontent

Some books are good reads,

 

Some books teach me new information,

 

Some books are classic literature.

 

Then, there are some books that

 

simply mess up

 

BOTH my heart and my mind.

 

Kisses from Katie was exactly that type of book.




Katie Davis' organization is called Amazima

It happened so simply....my sister in law Janet gave me a copy of the book at Thanksgiving. I read a page here and there and laid it aside, planning to read it soon. That was three months ago.

Well, I finally read it on my Kindle/iPad mini this past month, finishing this week.

Welcome to my new state of discontent...

HOLY Discontent is defined by Bill Hybels as the following:

"What is the one aspect of this broken world that, when you see it, touch it, get near it, you just can’t stand? Very likely, that firestorm of frustration reflects your holy discontent, a reality so troubling that you are thrust off the couch and into the game. It’s during these defining times when your eyes open to the needs surrounding you and your heart hungers to respond that you hear God say, “I feel the same way about this problem. Now, let’s go solve it together!” As you live from the energy of your holy discontent, you’ll fulfill your role in setting what is wrong in this world right!"



The front gate at Katie's house is always open!

Bill Hybels coined the term holy discontent in his book by the same title. That is the only term I can think to explain how I have felt since I began to read about Katie Davis and her life in Uganda.

How can I possibly go on with my entitled life of obvious luxury when I read of someone like Katie living out Jesus to everyone she meets? Everything I do...every action....every "necessity" I think I "have-to" have to live....pales in comparison to Katie's everyday world with her girls in Uganda. Read more about Katie's story HERE.

                                               Hear Katie speak of her burden for Uganda

Every moment since I finished the book three days ago has been spent with this agonizing thought:

What on earth am I doing to show the love of Jesus Christ in my everyday life? 



Katie and her girls' precious feet

I'll be completely honest here....I do NOT have an answer to that question. As much as I try to show kindness and love to people on my job, at the store, etc. it somehow just pales in comparison to what Katie has done....is doing. I have never sat with anyone dying of AIDS, picked "jiggers" out of anyone's toes, cooked beans for 200, 300, 600 kids over an open fire, brought sick people into my home to care for them just because no one else will.....the list is endless!

 

My friend Kelley, over at Kelley Highway, asked me the question,

"So what did you learn from Katie?"

Here are a few of the lessons I learned from Katie:

• love everyone in your path
• feed the hungry people in your view
• make sure that kids are getting an education
• do something about what you see
• don't worry about the rules of what's expected--just love people
• don't be afraid to bring people into your home and care for them
• realize that God's your source of strength
• go after what your heart tells you--no matter how crazy
• love unconditionally
• leave the front gate open--you never know who might need a place
• carry first-aid supplies in your car to bandage people up wherever and whenever
• notice poor, shivering little children in the rain--get them supper
• be willing to live with rats and roaches to love orphans
• how to have a heart big enough for 600+ children--everyday
• not to worry about how everything will unfold--just focus on the one face in front of you

                                                 watch to find out more about Amazima

To sum up my experience with Kisses from Katie, here is a quote from Katie, mother of 13 Ugandan daughters:

“People tell me I am brave. People tell me I am strong. People tell me good job. Well here is the truth of it. I am really not that brave, I am not really that strong, and I am not doing anything spectacular. I am just doing what God called me to do as a follower of Him. Feed His sheep, do unto the least of His people.”

My question to myself is...
 

Am I feeding His sheep

and

doing it unto the

least of His people?

 

Am I doing what God has called me to do as His follower?

 

 

 

Feel free to comment as I'd love to hear what you have to say about Katie and her work in Uganda.

Please comment and let me know if you've also read the book.

 

 

Reflection on "There are No Shortcuts"

Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi said this,

“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion

to their commitment to excellence,

regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”

An educator that I have a great deal of respect for is Rafe Esquith. He is a winner of the American Teacher Award in addition to other various awards. He teaches in Los Angeles, where he refers to his school as, 'The Jungle' simply due to the fact that the majority of his students are not from English-speaking homes and many are from poor or troubled families.

I have read three of his books entitled: Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire, There are No Molasses Classes and There are No Shortcuts. The second mile is no stranger to Rafe as he chronicles what he accomplishes with a group of 5th graders each day. Those activities include 6:30 am problem-solving lessons, guitar lessons at lunch and Shakespeare productions after school, in addition to many other herculean feats each day. Oh, and did I mention that he takes his classes each year on multiple field trips to places such as Disney Land, Washington DC, etc.

Since I entered my chosen field of education in 1995, I have been privileged to meet many amazing and not-so-amazing educators. Many exemplary educators that I have been so privileged to teach alongside for these years truly exemplify excellence and traveling the little-known second mile. This book has made me realize all over again, that excellence and hard work go hand in hand in the teaching profession.

While many teachers just show up every day and don't seem to give an ounce of care about motivating their students or even caring enough to provide safe environments, free of ridicule and sarcasm, there are so many more across the world that model the very essence of sold-out determination to reach each kid in the class.

This poem is such a great example of the mindless "yammer" that many educators, school boards, state education departments and on down the list of our massive educational wasteland seem to think, if they could even manage that fatigue-inducing process! 

If every educator would stand up and demand excellence from themselves and their colleagues as well as maintaining high expectations for their students amazing things would happen across this great nation, in every classroom.

Rafe states that Charles Osgood of CBS News gave him this poem.

There once was a pretty good student,
Who sat in a pretty good class;
And was taught by a pretty good teacher,
Who always let pretty good pass--

He wasn't terrific at reading;
He wasn't a whizbang at math;
But for him education was leading
Straight down a pretty good path.

He didn't find school too exciting,
But he wanted to do pretty well;
And he did have some trouble with writing,
And nobody had taught him to spell.

When doing arithmetic problems,
Pretty good was regarded as fine--
5 and 5 needn't always add up to be 10,
A pretty good answer was 9.

The pretty good class that he sat in

Was part of a pretty good school;

And the student was not the exception,

On the contrary, he was the rule.

The pretty good class that he sat in
Was part of a pretty good school,

And the student was not an exception;
On the contrary, he was the rule.

The pretty good school that he went to
Was right there in a pretty good town.
And nobody there ever noticed
He could not tell a verb from a noun.

The pretty good student, in fact,
was part of a pretty good mob,
And the first time he knew what he lacked was
When he looked for a pretty good job.

It was then, when he sought a position,
He discovered that a life can be tough--
And he soon had a sneaky suspicion
Pretty good might not be good enough.

The pretty good town in our story
Was part of a pretty good state
Which had pretty good aspirations
And prayed for a pretty good fate.

There was once a pretty good nation,
Pretty proud of the greatness it had,
But which learned much too late,

If you want to be great,
Pretty good is, in fact, pretty bad.

As my friend Jennifer says,

"That's all I have to say about that!"

You may find more information about Rafe Esquith at: http://www.hobartshakespeareans.org/

Find a good GREAT teacher and

take him/her a LATTE of thanks...

Tell them thanks for modeling excellence and

working diligently to educate the next generation.

From One to Many

 

 

"And she will bring forth a Son,

and you shall call His name Jesus,

for He will save His people from their sins.”

 Matthew 1:21 (NKJV)

 

 

Manger front and center this Christmas season...with red ribbons

 

This year at VWC, our dramatic presentation was entitled, "From One to Many." The presentation began with a spot-lit manger filled with red ribbons. The narrator began by calling people, one by one, to share their testimony of how they came to know Jesus Christ. As they came forward, they simply grabbed a red ribbon as they spoke. When they sat down, they took the red ribbon to their seat. Conveniently sitting next to them was the person they had spoke about in their testimony!

When the six people had given their testimonies, there were six red ribbons strung from the manger to the six people sitting with the person responsible for them being in the church.

At the conclusion, a man portraying Jesus came forward and took hold of the ribbons to signify that Jesus came in the manger as a babe only to later, die on the cross for our sins--

From One to Many.

It was a powerful way to portray the Christmas season!

May you find MANY to introduce to Jesus in 2014!


Remember the ONE who made all of our lives possible!

                


Drink a LATTE coffee and stay warm!

Caramel SUCCESS

 'Caramels are only a fad.

Chocolate is a permanent thing.'

 

                                                  ~Milton Snavely Hershey

 

Let the record reflect that I have FINALLY managed the fine art of making caramel! For the past few years, I have tried and tried with absolutely ZERO success! On Pinterest, I noticed a recipe that was called "Homemade Soft Caramels." I was intrigued and gave it a try only to experience failure for the umpteenth (not really sure how many that is!!) time!

I have had candy thermometer failure many times over the last few years with caramels. My thermometers and I purposely said thermometers because you see I have purchased several over the last few years. At one time, I think I owned three or four thermometers. The reason? Not a single one works correctly!! As a matter of fact, mom and I RUINED a batch of penuche this season in large part to a faulty thermometer. But I digress...

Creamy soft caramels

In the photo, you'll notice waxed-paper wrapped caramels. YES! That is because I did NOT rely on a candy thermometer and learned how to do it the old-school way--with the cold water test in a cup. My caramels turned out beautifully!!!

Yes, I even went a step further and created a Homemade TWIX bar with buttery shortbread, soft caramel, dark chocolate with a sprinkling of sea salt on top! I started with this recipe TWIX bars and tweaked it to my personal liking. For example, I used demetara sugar with some powered sugar in the shortbread and added an egg. For the caramel, I used my recipe which I'd perfected that I'd saved on my Evernote:

Homemade Soft Caramels Recipe 

 

1 c light corn syrup 

2 c packed light brown sugar 

1 can(s) sweetened condensed milk 

1/2 lb butter 

Boil for 20 between 9-11 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly. Test with cold water for soft ball stage.

Lay out on cookie sheet 10x13x1 pan with sides (chocolate sheet pan size) and cut when cooled.

You will notice that the recipe said to BOIL for 20 minutes. Well, the first time I made this recipe, I was a good lil Girl Scout and followed the directions to a 'T'.

Well, can you say--ceramic tile?

Seriously, I could've sold that caramel to Lowe's for someone's "custom home" edition because it would have worked wonderfully as kitchen backsplash tile--

I mean the color was wondrously rich and well, caramelly!

The second time I tried, since I have been on this caramel run for several years now and have experienced failure at every buttery juncture, I knew that any good caramel recipe should probably NOT boil for 20 minutes.

So, I carefully got myself all set-up with my trusty glass measuring cup filled about half way with icy cold water. After the caramel boiled for about 9 minutes, (yes, I said, 9 minutes....!!!!) I carefully scooped some of the boiling mixture onto my wooden spoon and plopped it into my icy cold water.

I immediately noticed that the caramel was not quite finished but that it was close! How did I know that? Well you see, when the boiling candy plops into the icy cold water, it "sets-up" and makes either a strand of candy or a soft or firm ball of candy. My caramel was between a gloopy strand and a very unstable soft ball. I knew enough about making candy to know this--WATCH THIS VERY CLOSE! So, I stirred and stirred. Sure enough, in about 4-5 minutes, I scooped out a bit of candy into the icy cold water and

WAHOO....

we had caramel touchdown! I did a little happy candy dance in my kitchen because I'd just won the candy super bowl....or so I thought! I carefully spread it into my shiny (sprayed with Pam just in case) sheet cake pan.

As I stood over it like a proud caramel momma, I wondered, "Wonder if it tastes as creamy and good as it looks?" I should of waited but I cut a small corner and blew on it and popped it right into my mouth! I have to say....yum yum delicious!

I am positively sure that your life has been brightened all because I have finally figured out how to make "creamy soft caramels!"

The Twix bars I mentioned have been a huge hit this season! For a Christmas present, I made a huge batch and took the bars to the teachers at the school where I am the curriculum specialist. For the last PLC (Professional Learning Community) of the year, I had the TWIX bars in the middle of the table. I had melted dark chocolate bars from Aldi's to pour over the top and had grated some coarse sea salt over the dark chocolate. The bars were a hit! I have also taken the bars as gifts to family members, friends of the family and families of VWC. For my sister in law, I made some with white chocolate and she said they were even better than the dark chocolate. How is that possible? I am not sure....

But, as I say...how can a person go wrong with a delicious combination of buttery shortbread, creamy soft caramel and dark chocolate with a sprinkling of sea salt???

My only failure this time was the absence of proof by a photo! Next time, I will do a better job at providing a photo to prove my caramel-worthiness!

Eat a LATTE of caramel with a LATTE of coffee this week!

Be blessed a LATTE

Christmas Happenings...2013

Hand-carved nativity scene that was purchased in Israel in 2005 by my hubby

Many interesting happenings this Christmas season...Nativity VBS, Ice, and many re-scheduled events! The first weekend of December had the snow in southern and eastern OK and severely cold temps here in central OK. The third weekend found central OK under a thick blanket of glistening, sparkly ice! It came in the form of noisy, ping-ping rain, pelting on our porch, power lines and windows.




Frozen tree in my backyard...hanging heavy with a load of ice






My son's truck covered with several layers of ice.

 

The ice had a way of stopping the Christmas season here in north central Oklahoma! All sorts of events, including the Christmas program at VWC found themselves rescheduled. A lesson I have learned through this weather is that everything will be okay; scheduled life can and will stop until God wills another above-freezing day!

The 2013 candy give-a-way boxes. They came with a cute red lid!

I spent quite a bit of time making candy this season! Candy-making is something my mom and I have traditionally done each Christmas as long as I can remember. I started the season by cooking for the Christmas Market and just continued cooking more and more candy. I enjoyed giving the majority of it away (in boxes purchased from the Hobbly place) and even managed to sell a portion of the fudge which was a continuation from the Market!







To finish this, I am trusting that you had a BLESSED Christmas season!




In the next few posts, I will be sharing news of my caramel success as well as this year's dramatic presentation at VWC! Stay tuned!





Be blessed...

             

Drink a LATTE of coffee....

                          


Try to bless a LATTE of people in 2014.