Pumpkins on Parade

My mom is a member of the Raytown Kiwanis.  She and other Kiwanis members took on the HUGE project of Raytown's First Annual Pumpkins on Parade.  After my aforementioned Saturday morning meltdown, I met my mom at Cave Spring in Raytown to help set up for this AMAZING event!  Basically we had almost 500 pumpkins carved by local families, organizations and groups and lined the trails of Cave Spring with them.  Then over 1000 people came through the trail!  It was AWESOME!!  


I was crazy enough to have my classroom carve pumpkins.  Yes.  That means 24 second graders armed with kid-friendly carving knives and pumpkins.  It was so much fun!!!

This is a picture of one of my students and myself at our classroom carving.  I got permission from her mom.  :-)

Here are our final products!  I was SOO proud of my kids!  And I loved that so many of them came out to see their pumpkins.  

Here are some more pics from the night!  SO MUCH FUN!!!

COOL Pumpkins:

COOL Pumpkins by my mom:

Happy Halloween!!  Go carve a pumpkin!

Saturday Morning Melt Down

I melted down.  Saturday morning I was out of my house at 7:30 and at my parents' by 8:00 to clean their house (something I've done for the last few years for some extra cash).  By 8:20 I was sobbing into a bowl of cereal at their kitchen table.  Hmmmm....stressed much?

I've always been able to handle a busy life.  I've always been able to pile one more thing on my work load and handle it with grace.  Not this school year.  I have never felt like more of a failure as I do this school year.  Between the never-ending papers of grad school and the weekends spent working at school and my house that hasn't been cleaned in weeks, I just can't do it anymore.  Saturday morning officially ended my cleaning career.  I'm exhausted and stressed and I just want to enjoy life again!  Some of my work/grad school friends and I have decided to form the "I Hate My Life" club.  Obviously, we're kidding.  We don't really hate our lives, but things have been that miserable and overwhelming.

But can I just say how glorious our Father is even during these hardships and stresses??  I love Him for 2 Corinthians 12.


And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." 


Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Lord knows I'm at my weakest right now.  And I love Him that He will work through me -- especially when I'm weak.  


We had conferences this past week.  And I was blessed many times over.  In one conference, I was talking with a mom who is just lovely!  She was telling me that her son lreally struggled with his spelling tests last year and how it really upset him to not do well.  I was kind of flabbergasted to hear this because he's one of my students who has scored 100% on every single spelling test we've taken -- and we take one every Friday.  The mom was telling me that she asked her son what he thought was different this year -- why was he doing so much better on his spelling?  


His answer is heaven sent.  He said, "Mom, I think it's my teacher.  She makes me want to learn."  


Lord, have mercy!  I love you, Father!  He knew that I needed to hear that my stress and hard work is paying off.  It MEANS something.  It means a BIG something.  I know that beyond the stress, beyond the long hours -- I am exactly where I'm supposed to be, doing exactly what I'm meant to be doing.  


Thank you, Lord for the beautiful reminder.  Thank you for being strong in my weakness.  

A Prayer

Father, I want to know Thee, but my cowardly heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting.  I come trembling, but I do come.  Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without a rival.  Then shalt Thou make the place of Thy feet glorious.  Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Thyself wilt be the light of it, and there shall be no night there.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

 A.W. Tozer