Busy, Busy Fall

I really don't sit down and relax much these days.
School is crazily busy. Right now I'm practicing twice a week with the academic team for their district meet on Monday, and practicing in the evening for the upcoming senior play.
 For these two sophomores, whose moms work here, this bench might as well be their front porch; they spend more time here than at home...but don't seem to mind too much.



Having forty seventh and eighth-grade students is wonderful, but it keeps me grading papers as fast as I assign them. Their solution...of course...is "Don't give us any work to do". I tell them that I answer to God for how I teach them, and if I gave them nothing to do, I'd have a hard time explaining to Him why I took money for teaching them, but only babysat them. They talk. I tell them that they will never learn anything that way because everything they hear themselves say, they already knew. So they hold their hands over their mouths to keep from commenting until question time, and they listen to stories with wide-eyes and sometimes subtle smiles (if they already know what's coming next-- which, believe it or not, many don't). Right now we're in Genesis. They're amazed that so much happened between Adam and Moses...and I don't even tell them everything.

Last night was fall concert. Another huge "first" for the nervous seventh-graders.
Seated behind me were a couple of alumni...remembering...beaming at the superb performance of their younger siblings up in the choir.


Outside, the clouds staged another performance--a light show and offering of much-welcomed rain!
Life is pretty much the same here in this little corner of the earth.
We have a particular kind of peace.
I pray for years more.