08/31/10

Hope you enjoy this "piece of art" today.... taken at the mansions in Rhode Island.
Enjoy this song today. I was singing it on the way home from school.

08/30/10

Today we were at the bank cashing a check.

One of the tellers asked Wesley and Mikayla what would satisfy them... and she said she knew they couldn't get money so what else would satisfy them. (She was wanting to give them a sucker.)

Mikayla, without batting an eye, told the teller "Money doesn't satisfy me."

The lady was a bit shocked to hear her say that and, I'll admit, I was too!!! I know how my daughter loves to earn her some money. :)

The lady never did ask her what DID satisfy her so I thought I would.

She said "God's Word."

It did my Mother's Heart good to hear that. I know that isn't always on the forefront of her mind, just as it isn't always on the forefront of many adult minds, but hearing that from her was a glimpse of what we are teaching them at home.

I pray she will always feel that way and that it isn't a "standard answer" because that is what she thinks people want to hear, but that it is truly from her heart.

She was correct today, though... Only the Lord can satisfy.

Psalm 90:14
O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness,
That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

08/29/10

Psalm 61:2
From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Psalm 62:2, 7
He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved.
In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.

08/28/10

Wow... such a busy time of year with getting back into school. I have so many things that NEED to be done but not enough time, it seems.
As I am crazy around here, I hope you enjoy the beauty of rain droplets on this "Wandering Jew"... that is the only name I know it to be.


So many times we walk past things such as this and forget to notice the details that God has provided for us to enjoy.

Take the time to open your eyes in a different way today and notice a detail from God.

Just as He takes care of the tiniest details in His creation, He takes care of the tiniest details in our lives. Praise Him!

08/27/10

Today is my sweet Steve's birthday. I am so thankful for the day he entered the world and the Lord claimed him as mine. :)

In honor of my sweet Steve here is one of his favorite scenes from Maine. We enlarged this and he put it in his office at work.

Here is another funny from today. A second grader not in my class asked me this:

Child: "Where are you from?"

ME: "I am from around 8 minutes from here."

Child: "But where are you from? Where did you grow up?"

ME: "I grew up around 8 minutes from here."

Child: "Oh, I thought you were from another country because of the way you talk."

ME: "You think I am from another country?"

Child: "Yes."

ME: "Where are you from?"

Child: "North America."

ME: "I'm from North America, too.... why do you think I am from another country, though?"

Child: "Because you talk so different."

ME: "I'm just SOUTHERN, dear."

ANOTHER Child says: "Yeah, she just has a southern ACCIDENT."

That has made me and one of my team teachers laugh A LOT today. :) Hope it makes you chuckle, too. Happy Friday!

08/26/10

It has been a crazy day. :) My students are giving me the "teacher excitement" with the questions they have been asking in Bible time. It is showing me they are REALLY thinking about what I am teaching and want to learn more. They are coming up with some questions that are getting ME thinking, too!! For instance: "If God is in charge of our thoughts, why do we think bad things?" and "If Satan had never fallen from Heaven, would someone still have sinned? Where would they go if God only made Hell for Satan and his followers?" I don't recall ever having questions like this from my students this early in the year. I love it. Our Bible time went on a lot longer than I "intended" today, but it didn't bother me one bit.

Here are some of those butterflies I wrote about this past weekend. They are on Mikayla's Mexican Sunflowers. They were doing the "Butterfly Dance"....

08/25/10

The Theory of the Dipper and the Bucket
(from the book How Full Is Your Bucket?)

Each of us has an invisible bucket. It is constantly emptied or filled, depending on our daily interactions with others. When our bucket is full, we feel great. We are productive. We make a positive impact on our workplace. When it is empty we feel down. We are deflated.

Each of us also has an invisible dipper. When we do or say things that increase positive emotions in others, we are using that dipper to fill their buckets. Conversely, when we are negative, we are using that dipper to decrease others' positive emotions by dipping from their bucket.

A full bucket gives us a positive outlook and renewed energy. Every drop in that bucket makes us stronger and more optimistic.

An empty bucket poisons our outlook, saps our energy, and undermines our will. That's why every time someone dips from our bucket, it hurts us.

But this works both ways. When we fill others' buckets, our bucket is also filled. And when we dip from others' buckets, our own bucket is emptied in turn. So we face a choice every moment of every day: We can fill one another's buckets, or we can dip from them. It's an important choice - one that profoundly influences our relationships, productivity, health and happiness.

I heard this in our teacher devotions yesterday. In order to be filled and fill others it is also important for us to stay filled in God's Word daily so that we can be what we need to be for others. I am thankful the Lord can fill me in ways that no one else could!

08/24/10

As we were leaving Cadillac Mountain that day we passed by other small towns to get to Bar Harbor. I just couldn't get enough of the boats in the marinas. I made Kevin stop the van so I could get out and walk to the docks to capture this. lol

My first lobster roll..... it is basically lobster in a hotdog bun. lol This one was good... but the one I had the next night was even better!

Looking out over Bar Harbor. I love this picture.....

We are still listening to a trumpet blasting around here. Wesley was playing it at 5:40 this morning. lol At least he is committed. Of course, I may need to "be committed" while he learns to play! ha!!!!

08/23/10

Here is a gull from the coast of Maine. I was excited to get as close as I could and photograph actual wildlife without it running/flying away from me.

This picture is my fave... I caught him in a *yawn*.... kind of how I feel at the moment!!!

As I was coming upstairs from afternoon recess duty and checking off my students at the end of the day I heard a noise coming down the hallway.

As I walked further down the hallway I noticed it was coming from my side of the building... my room, in fact!

"Hark! Is that the trump of God calling me home?"

NO.

It was Wesley on his "new" trumpet he finally got in Band today.

I had to contain my chuckles and laughter as I walked closer to my room to find my son blowing through that trumpet with all he had. His face was as red as a tomato but he was one happy boy.

He wants a trumpet for Christmas but first in band class he has to experience the trombone, flute and clarinet before we get serious on an instrument. I am LOVING that he is loving an instrument. Our house is going to be filled with lots of noise music in the days and months ahead.

When we got home he practiced outside.

I know our neighbors are loving that.

Between the piano and viola that Mikayla plays, and now Wesley's trumpet, just call us the "Von Fowler Family Musicians/Singers."

We will be going on tour in the spring.

You will not want to miss it! :)

08/22/10

Psalm 104:24-27, 31, 33

O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.
So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.
There go the ships:
These wait all upon thee;
The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever: the Lord shall rejoice in his works.
I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.

08/21/10

This morning the kids and I went outside and watched Mikayla's flower garden for quite a while. There were TONS of butterflies flitting about.... we even got to see our first Monarch! I loved seeing the details of God's creation yet again.... the details of the butterflies, the details of the dew on the flowers, the details of the flowers themselves. I took pictures, of course, but I haven't had time to work on them as we have been extremely busy. I'll show those soon. It was a peaceful beginning to our crazy day. We talked about how butterflies would be in heaven... what a wonderful glimpse of what is to come for us!

For now... here are more from Maine. This is one of the lighthouses and right now I can't remember the name. We definitely saw why lighthouses were so needed up there! ha!!

The sun peeked out for just a minute. The rocks... oh the rocks. I just LOVED the rocks by the ocean.

Barnacles and other shells on the rocks. Thought that was so neat!

Mikayla and her new sunglasses... girlfriend got her some from Walmart in Maine after she left her others on the Mayflower. Can you see me in them? She was "cooking" again.....

Here is what she "cooked."

Mom and Dad sit while we explore around the rocks.

Steve in the fog with the lighthouse. :)

We walked around to the other side and got to view the lighthouse closer. This is still a residence for those in the Coast Guard so we had to be careful where we went to ensure privacy.

As we were walking back up the path from this Mikayla leaned over the chain link fence to look at some flowers and such. Her new charm on her necklace she had gotten in Boston got caught on the fence and fell into the flower/grass/mess. It broke my heart.... she was so upset and rightly so because she had bought it with her own money. We all worked together to look where she saw it drop and Wesley went over the fence and searched through all the foliage and found it. She was so thankful.... That is a sweet memory of this lighthouse for me. :)

08/20/10

I'm not at the end of my rope... but this first full week of school has come to an end. The kids did a fabulous job and I am proud of them. I stayed late today taking down wallpaper border in our teacher workroom/bathroom area.... we are re-doing it for our teachers so that it is more functional and "updated." (I didn't leave till almost 8:00..... so it has been a long day).

More of Maine tomorrow. :)

08/19/10

I just have something to say:

I hate non-sharpening, too much wood, easily breaking pencils.

Do you realize that the way pencils are made nowadays are not right??? The lead is not in the MIDDLE of the pencil anymore and you get sharpened pencils that have sharpened WOOD and some lead on the side.

Can you tell that I have sharpened a lot of those pencils in the last week?

My poor students are having a time with those pencils... and SO AM I.

I miss our old fashioned fully lead pencils from the time of "Noah's Ark"when I was in school. The lead may have given you some lead poisoning but at least it sharpened right! ha!!

More views from Maine.... Still in Acadia National Park but on the interior area.

We had hoped to take a carriage ride when we saw they had them, but they were full for the day. Mikayla was so sad about that.... she was longing to get near the horses, can you tell?

Eagle Lake... made from glaciers receding... just beautiful.

On top of Cadillac Mountain.... the highest mountain on the East COAST. It was chilly up there... can you tell?

We called Mom "Chief" the rest of the day. lol

On a "normal" day when there is no fog you can actually see for MILES. Of course, when we are there it is so foggy you can hardly see off the mountain.

Island off of Bar Harbor... this was my "staple" thing to photograph while up there. lol

Yes, we are cold and the wind is blowing pretty hard.

Breathtaking

Closer

This is the actual town of Bar Harbor! It was neat to see it from a different elevation!

Wesley and Mikayla pose at a stop as we were driving back down the mountain....

Now the whole family.... and it is still windy if you can't tell.

So beautiful to me....

Have I mentioned lately how much I loved Maine?

08/18/10

Water going over rocks in Maine... love to capture water in motion instead of a moment in time. Still working on "perfecting" that!

This is something my principal sent to us about rudeness from the Love and Logic Institute with Dr. Charles Fay. I am personally finding that there is an increase in rudeness in our society with children not being taught the simple manners of "please" and "thank you"... let alone any others.

I saw a child in the library the other day that was talking to his parent or guardian as if they were an idiot. The child was around Wesley and Mikayla's age. It made my skin crawl to hear such condescending tones come from someone so young. Of course, the tones the parent/guardian were giving back to the child were also condescending so you only repeat what you have been taught! The Lord gave me such a reminder to make sure mine and Steve's job as parents is to raise Wesley and Mikayla up to be pleasing to the Lord in all ways.

Ephesians 6:4 - And, ye fathers (and mothers!), provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Here is the excerpt from the article that we were sent:

Remember that it's okay to be old-fashioned. There was a time in our country when parents expected their children to say "please" and "thank you." There was a time when they had to ask, "May I please be excused," before they left the dinner table. There was even a time when most youngsters were not allowed to interrupt conversations between adults, were expected to hold doors open for adults, and believed that adults went first. (I believe all of this is due to the catering of children by parents. Whatever the child says or wants goes....)

Limit television viewing in your home.
Television has pretty much ruined our society. (How's that for blatant political incorrectness?)

Model a humble attitude.
Too frequently, kids in our society grow up around people who are far more interested in winning than serving others. Parents who model humility, respect and politeness toward others are far more likely to raise kids who do the same.

Place character over achievement.
Many kids are allowed to slide in the area of politeness because they are viewed as so incredibly gifted by their parents and other adults in their lives. Wise parents remember that the world is filled with incredibly talented people who've failed miserably because they are jerks. (Amen, and AMEN.)

08/17/10

Here are some views of fog from Maine. :) Told you there would be lots. lol

Do you see Kevin photographing me while I photographed him? :)

Can you find the boat?

I really never realized how beautiful fog could be till we were in Maine and experienced it a lot. Yes, it can also be aggravating when you are wanting that sunshiny picture, but it makes for a mysterious look in your pics!