Meet Lavender

So after years of Emmi's begging, we relented and got a dog. As someone who has never had a dog, I am so grateful to the people who helped me. And I am so happy that I got connected to the shelter that I did through a friend. It even turned out that I had a personal connection with the trainer who had our dog. It was all like it was meant to be. 

Anyway, we are now getting used to life with a dog in the house. I am not going to lie, it has been a tough week. Lavender is a rescue dog from the streets of California and has a fair bit of anxiety. She is lovely with us in the house, but does not like visitors or other dogs. It is proving to be more challenging than I expected....Some days I am overwhelmed and wonder whether things will ever get better. I watch dog training videos and wonder what the right approach is. Having never had a dog, it's hard to know who's advice to follow. I feel out of my depth. But, we love her and we want to help her feel safe and secure. Surely, she will eventually sense that and settle down...?

But that is not to say that there have not been lovely snuggles. Morning walks in the sunshine. Play. Emmi's joy. We press on.

July

July was lovely. It felt really long and I spent lots of time relaxing on my deck, chilling at home, decluttering and sleeping in. But, I also found time for lots of other things. It's funny how much time there is in a month when you aren't working...I tried to pick one highlight, but I couldn't decide, so here are my favourites:

I met with six other women for Bible study every Tuesday morning. We finished with a potluck on my deck and it was perfect. It is not easy to find women who would commit to studying the Bible in the middle of summer. I mean really, who does that? But my friends were dedicated and I couldn't believe that they continued showing up week after week. 

I spent five days in Hope. Going to the cabin is always relaxing and lovely. I have blogged about it many times. 

I spent quite a few afternoons on my friend Lesley's deck (or she came over to mine). 

My friend and I went to a jazz hymn swing. We had zero expectations and really no idea what it would entail. It was part hymn singalong and part jazz concert. It was amazing. We even got to sing one of my favourite hymns: Abide with me.

Emmi took an art class with her friends and loved it. On her birthday, we took a mother daughter art class with two of her best friends and their mothers. She said it was her best birthday ever.

There were quite a few birthday celebrations and we're not even done yet. Emmi and I both have July birthdays and the celebrations are continuing into August...

One of my very favourite things was the July birthday celebration with my two choir friends. We could not believe how amazing they were at Joey's on Lougheed. The food was delicious. There was free dessert and flowers and free champagne. I was blown away.

It's still early days of August and I am grateful for that, but this summer has already been amazing. And August is shaping up to be even better, Stay tuned....

next yr

I was talking to a friend of mine about next year's classes. It's August already which means that anyone who works in a school is thinking about September. They say that August is one long "Sunday night" for teachers and it's true. Anyway, I am staying at grade two, so I will not be keeping any of my students. But, if I were rolling into grade three, there is only one kid I would like to keep. He is funny and off the wall. He doesn't really listen. He comes in full of energy and never stops. He is likeable and quirky. And he is never boring.  I am ready to pass on the rest of my students, the challenging, the goody two shoes, the quiet ones; they can be "enjoyed" by their next teacher. But R, him I will miss. And if you read my previous post about Joonas, you will understand why.

Joonas

My middle child graduated this year. He is the one child for whom I would receive phone calls and emails from the school. He had been caught throwing banana peels off the roof. He had gone hiking out of bounds with his friends. He had a flask that he was using as a water bottle. He had violated the tech policy...He was also the one that told me in kindergarten that he had chosen a friend because, " I like him because he is BAD!!". It is because of Joonas that I am a better teacher. I love the crazy active little kids in my class who have spunk and personality plus. I understand them. I like them and they know it. It makes my job so much easier when I like the sassy students and they in turn like me. 

Back to Joonas. Despite his many antics, he did very well in school. I am proud of how well he did and how he managed to be successful even though I rarely saw him doing homework. He is smart and funny and I am excited to see where God leads him. Joonas graduated this year and it was such a great time of celebration. I already blogged about our family party in May. In June, there was the convocation and the grad banquet. We were celebrating not just Joonas, but also his really great group of friends, who may also act first and think later, but who are just really great kids. Joonas and his friends formed a group called the Harmonica Boys and they performed at both celebrations. They formed a fishing club which became one of the official clubs at the school. I often hear that a group of boys has invaded our basement and that the group of them are going for swim and sauna at midnight. I hope their friendships continue even though they are all going their separate ways in a sense. 

Joonas isn't sure what he wants to do yet, but as long as he's not living in our basement when he's 40, I am okay with that. Besides, he cooks a mean steak and I like having him around.

Summer Bible study

So after a five year break, I have finally resumed summer Bible study. I started these summer studies back in 2018 because I was annoyed that all programming ends just when my holidays start and I would have more time for reading and studying. When you can't find anyone offering what you're looking for, start your own...So that's what I did. 

We meet in Lois' lovely backyard to discuss, chat, have coffee and snacks. We are studying the prophets of the Old Testament and it's fascinating stuff. Today's lesson was on Habakkuk and I think it was my favourite one so far. Then again, my favourite book of the Bible seems to often be the last one I've studied...lol. But Habakkuk, what an honest and relateable prophet. He questioned the when of God's timing. Why wasn't God doing anything? Then when God told him that he planned to act and how he planned to do so, Habakkuk questioned the how of God's methods. How like us. How like me. God is either sovereign and in control or he isn't. All things work for my good, not just the pleasant ones that I "approve" of. I want to be able to say with Habakkuk that "though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food....yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in my salvation." I am working on it.

"social"

Nitsa and I are the social committee at school. We're not on the committee, we are the committee. I tried to get it renamed the antisocial (or even the selectively social) committee but apparently that was antithetical to what a social committee is supposed to be....who knew, lol?!

Anyway, it's great because Nitsa and I are both type A perfectionists. You might think that that creates problems, but it actually totally works in our favour. We like to plan events, we like to have things organized, we like things to look nice and we work really well together. We also teach next door to one another so she is constantly popping into my room to make sure the invite she's sending out is perfect, or I'm popping in to show her the sample of the decorations we're going to make.

This year has had a lot of extra social events so there has been a lot of planning and ordering of food and decorating. That's ok. But only because I've done it with Nitsa.

Thinking

I mentioned in a previous post that I had finished some Bible courses at my church. Our church is very blessed to have professors from Regent who attend and sometimes help teach. One such (retired) professor was teaching two courses, one on Old Testament and one on Church History. If you know me, you wouldn't be surprised that I could not resist taking both courses. I have often thought about going to Regent or taking some theology courses, so I feel like these courses were handed to me on a silver (much cheaper) platter. What a gift.

To sum up what I learned would be impossible because there was just so much over the course of eight weeks. Besides, a lot of what I learned was much bigger than just facts. Ian talked about world views and the lenses we use and shifts in culture. Maybe I'll blog about those some day. But what I have been pondering this week is what he taught in the OT course regarding wisdom literature. He pointed out that Christianity is meant to be a thinking religion. It is not about blindly following a bunch of rules. That's what the Pharisees were all about and Jesus condemned them because they didn't love people and in fact added to their burdens. Yes, there are rules for right living, no question about that, but at the heart of it is (or should be) love for your fellow man. You need to go beyond the rules to ask yourself what is the most loving response in this situation. Ian pointed out that in Proverbs 26, for example, verse 4 says "don't answer the foolish arguments of fools", but the very next verse says "be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools". So which is it? Although different reasons are given for answering or not answering, the point is that you need to be discerning about what to do. There is no blanket rule for how to respond because situations vary. In fact, Jesus often answered questions with questions. 

In light of this, I've also been thinking about the rich young ruler story in Matthew 19. He claimed to have followed all the commandments. But Jesus said to him, "if you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor". I've always thought that he went away sad because he was so attached to his wealth, and I think that's part of it. But for him to think that he had kept all the commandments while hoarding his wealth and not helping the poor.....to claim that he has loved his neighbour....well that's all talk. It's like the priest and the Levite in the good samaritan story who would have proclaimed loving your neighbour with their doctrines and lips, but with their actions, not only walked past but made a point of going past on the other side.

So, back to thinking and discernment. Every situation requires thinking about what is the most loving thing to do. And then doing it. That is true Christianity.