stuff, stuff & more stuff

This week is VBS. It's called SonForce Kids and it's all about gettin' on the secret agent for Jesus gear. For this week, and this week only, you can call me Wi-Fi Wendy (aka Special Agent in Charge of Digital Downloads). I'm loving the songs. They're on autoplay in my head. All. Day. Long. Which really isn't good at. . . say, 10:30 pm when I'm trying to fall asleep and all I can think of is "I trust you with my li-i-i-ife." Just imagine the music from James Bond, with a Jesus twist. Add a spy pose, and that's what we've got going on. It's awesome. Except I can never remember half the motions (they're complicated) and I look like a complete idiot.

I found out that I'm teaching a combination class again this school year. I can't say I'm thrilled about this change of events, because I'm not, but I keep telling myself that I still have a job - which is a lot in this day and age. And perhaps not where you live, but out here, Christian schools are really struggling with keeping enrollment numbers up. It's been a challenge. So bring on those 1st and 2nd graders and let me rock their world! This is not my first time teaching a split. I've done it 3 1/2 years with 3rd and 4th grades. But this is my first attempt at combining the little guys. Half of them are already trained in the ways of Mrs. Bergland, so it'll just be getting the firsties on board with the rest of them.

In preparation for school, I've already spent a small fortune, bought some supplies at Walmart, a bunch of teacher related things at the $1 Tree, and a boatload of books from the Value Village for my classroom library. Hey, they've got a buy 4 get 1 free deal, and that's about the best deal going on as far as thrift stores are concerned. And I love me a big classroom library. Plus, half my class has already read my books. Time to expand.

My classroom this year will be more than doubled in size from last year's room. That's a bit scary considering all the bulletin board space. So if you're out and about and see something cool on some teacher's bulletin board, PLEASE, for the love of Pete, let me know.

Of course, just in time for school to start, all the tomatoes will finally decide they're ready to be picked. It's August 10th and we've yet to pick one single ripened tomato. (Ask me if I'm bitter, you folks who have had tomato sandwiches for lunch for days on end.) On the other hand, we've had several good sized zucchini and a bunch of yellow squash as well as a few handfuls of green beans. Our green pepper plant is also going crazy. I've found a yummy recipe for chocolate chip zucchini bread and tonight I'm trying out a new yellow squash recipe. It contains bacon. Well, we all know that anything with bacon has to taste good, right? Even if it's squash.