Wise Advice

Recipe for Preserving Children

• Take one large grass field
• Half a dozen children
• 2 or 3 small dogs
• a pinch of brook & some pebbles

Mix the children and dogs well together. Put them in the field, stirring constantly. Sprinkle field with flowers. Spread over all the deep blue sky and bake in hot sunshine. When well browned, remove to the bath tub.

~Taken from the Reformed Church of

Christchurch, New Zealand Cookbook

New "Take Two" post

This one really isn't a specific movie review, more of a general reminder of what to look for in movies. You can find it here.

Tiffany

Treasures

I was just featured in my first Etsy treasury! The theme is Fall and there are some splendid reminders that cool weather IS coming. Follow this link to see them. A warning: don't scroll down to the end, there is an immodest picture.

Tiffany

Just Opened-Again!

As you might have noticed in my side bar, I have recently reopened my Focus This and my Simply Scrumptious Scarves Etsy shops.

You might find things such as:

or:

Come by and take a peek!

Tiffany

In Memorium

Today is the One month anniversary of loosing Tiggles. I have tons of pictures that I took of her so I thought I'd put some of them together with the captions I thought of as I was taking them.

"Why did you put me in here again?"

"You woke me up to SEW!"

My Two Girls

"Mom, there's a big black thing pointing at me!"

"Is it safe?"

"Ooooh! My favorite shoulder!"

"Ooooh, there's something over there! I can smell it!"

"MOM! There's the big black thing again!"

"I can't smile at the big black thing. I'm too shy."

"Really, Mom, all I want to do is curl up and got to sleep."

"I'm not sure about this, Mom. I mean it's big and black."

This one is just too sweet not to put up.

She was SO cute!

Tiffany

God's Blessings

What exactly do you say after you've disappeared off the planet for three months? Simple. God is GOOD!

In the ast three months I have been able to:
~Go to New York City
~Meet wonderful new friends
~Get better aquainted with old friends
~Witness the marriage of a best friend
~See Wicked on Broadway with front and (almost) center seats
~Experience my first dance tech week
~Experience my first dance recital
~See my parents off to New Zealand for three weeks
~Go to Indiana for a month for the Masterworks Festival
~Say "Goodbye" to my beloved Tiggles
~Be blessed in being part of such an amazing cast of The Miracle Worker
~Be blessed by that wonderful cast
~Be a part of the truly awesome things God did at Masterworks

Right after school let out, I flew to NYC to be a part of a friend's wedding. What a beautiful picture of God's covenant with us that was. The Lord was so glorified that day and I know all the days since in that new family created for Him.

While in NYC, a new good friend won tickets to see Wicked on Broadway. She was so kind to let me tag along with her. What an experience! We could literally have reached out and touched the conductor's head! (Not that I think he would have appreciated it much. :-) Every sequin was sparkling for us to see. Every curl was visible. Every facial expression was right there for us to see!

The week I came back was the week of my first ever dance tech week. The dance class I was in was involved in two of the three performances. So I attended a couple of dress/tech rehearsals. Then came my first ever dance recital. It was SO much fun! I think I've found a new interest (because, you know, the four or five.....or six I already had weren't enough. ;-)

Then came my fourth year at Masterworks. Every year I come back and say, "That was the best year, ever!" And it is always true! God brought together such an amazing cast from so many different places. He used us all in our own unique ways to create and amazing production of The Miracle Worker. He blessed us with a packed house all four performances......even the afternoon ones! If you've ever been involved with a production that has afternoon performances you know what a blessing that is.

Sadly, two weeks in, (on my birthday) I found out that Tiggles was very sick. My wonderful sister, Shannon, and her husband were hedgehog sitting for me. I was so glad they were there and willing to cuddle and be sweet to her. Two days later I was told that my baby had passed away. Again, God used that amazing cast to be there when my sister couldn't be and my parents were in New Zealand and only able to communicate through e-mail.

God did so many amazing things that month. He continued and continues to bless me.

"Blessed be God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which hath blessed us, with all spiritual blessing in heavenly things in Christ."

~Ephesians 1:3~

At Last!

One of the things that is required (quite rightfully) of the teachers at the school where I teach is that we create lesson plans each week. Now, I would always make mine up, put it in the binder where I keep all of mine, put it on a music stand that doubles as my podium, and then struggle each day to make my way around the second music stand I have instead of a podium, almost knock it over and catch it just as I glanced at the lesson plan I was looking for. A lot work for something I look at multiple times a day.

So I thought, "I'm spending all this time creating lesson plans and I go through this twisted dance just to use them." I use an index card system to keep track of what needs to be done each day. Then, six weeks before the end of school mind you, I came up with the idea of putting my lesson plans on index cards.

It works brilliantly! Each day is on one card and I file them with all the other things I have to do during the day. My second music stand has a one area that is cleared. I had a binder clip that I stuck on the edge and slip the lesson plan for the day in there. Now it's right in front of me all day. And I love it.

Now if only I had thought of this at the beginning of the year.

Tiffany