"I have overcome the world."

What I've been making:  I went on a painting spree over the past few weeks.  There are more pages that I have wanted to paint, but I haven't had the time.  First 5 App is doing a series on Leviticus, which has been fascinating.  I have never wanted to read that book of the Bible, but the devotionals make it easy to connect to our lives.  Hopefully in the next few weeks I can start to fill that book of the Bible with paint, stickers, washi tape, prayers, and reflections about God.

John 16:33 is a verse that I drew in my prayer notebook a month or so ago.  I decided to paint in my Bible.  It is one of my favorite pages.

I've finished a few more pages in Nehemiah.  It's my goal to finish all of the pages in the chapter of the Bible.  It has been so neat to study this book of the Bible at church each week.

"And they offered great sacrifices that day an rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced.  And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away."  Nehemiah 12:43

I love that their rejoicing was heard far away...  How powerful.  They were so excited about God and His goodness that they lit up their towns and cities.  They were on fire for Him.  Let's apply that to our lives now.  Are people far away able to tell how much we love the Lord? 

My mom sent me this link to a blog about how to paint watercolor feathers.  I used their instructions to paint Psalm 91.  I also made a copy to give to a couple friends on watercolor paper.  It's amazing to paint on watercolor paper.  It looks so much prettier.

"He will cover you with His feathers.  And under His wings you will find refuge;  His faithfulness is a shield and a buckler."  Pslam 91:4

This week was a week full of prayer.  Praying in Spanish, in English, with small groups, with a larger group, by myself.  I feel God pulling me closer and closer to Him.  This past Saturday I was feeling a little discouraged, but I saw this quote from Lysa Terkeurst that really touched my heart.

I went to the college group at church and we sang this song, No Puedo Callar.  I loved the verses and chorus.  I used the song as inspiration for this creation in my sketchbook.

The lyrics in English read...

Jesus changed my crying into joy

You erased my past

Today I live in the Light

We dance in Your freedom

Your life is in my being

We sing for You

Gloria, oh God

The joy of Your salvation

I cannot keep quiet 

Every Monday I have been going to a women's group at church.  It has been such a joy to get to know the ladies there.  Spending time praying and reading God's word with such wise women is the best way to start my week.  This week I made these little encouraging notes to give to them.  Using my talent for painting and creating to bless the lives of others is fun.

How are you blessing the lives of others?  What is God teaching you?

Con mucho amor.

A Year Down Yonder

What we finished reading:  Last week we finished reading A Year Down Yonder.  It is a sweet squeal to A Long Way from Chicago.  This book is about Mary Alice spending a year at her grandmother's house in the country.  It takes place during the Great Depression and tells the tale of Mary Alice changing in a year.  

This website has a list of fun ideas.  I would have loved to do their suggestion of writing letters back and forth between Mary Alice and her brother/family.  We just don't have enough students in our little class of 3 to do that project.

The project we ended up making was a group calendar.  Each chapter of the novel breaks down what happened in a particular month of the year.  The boys each took two months to illustrate.  They wrote on the back what Mary Alice learned through that chapter.  They struggled a little with the writing part.  They wanted to just write a summary of the chapter, but I challenged them to take it a step deeper and write what the main character learned.

How are you pushing your students to think deeper?

Con mucho amor.  

Stepping up my Math Game - Part II

What I've been teaching:  January was a really crazy month for me, and I felt like I was just barely getting by with my lesson plans and grading.  Math is the subject that I am not super passionate about, so it often is the first to turn "boring."  Here's the link to Part I of improving math class from last semester.

Two weeks ago I decided I need to incorporate more projects and games again.  We started off by playing exponent bingo.  I pulled the idea from Teachers Pay Teachers, but I created my own bingo boards.  The boys love playing games, and this was a great way for them to practice exponents.  I also found this awesome puzzle to use with scientific notation.  If I had more time, I would have loved to incorporate scientific notation with our space unit in Science, but I didn't get around to doing that part.

This week we started Geometry.  I found this blog on Pinterest that I used for inspiration.  We learned about different kind of lines and incorporated them into name drawings.

The next day we studied obtuse, straight, acute, and right angles.  We used yarn to show that we knew the different types of angles.  They make fun decorations in the classroom, and it provides an opportunity for the boys to be creative and use their artistic sides.  I used this yarn idea combined with this paper collage to create the assignment that the boys and I did.

What creative ideas are you using in math?

Con mucho amor.

Create

What I've been making:  Bible journaling has been so revolutionary in my walk with God this year.  I started off super strong with painting in January, but lately I haven't been taking as much time to express myself; however, here are some of my latest creations.

At church we have been learning about Nehemiah over the past month.  I had never read the story before, but it has so many amazing applications for our lives nowadays.  Here are the few pages I have started so far in this book of the Bible. 

The second week of the series Pastor John preached about how we need walls to keep the bad out and doors to let the good into our lives.  Satan will attack our lives, and we need to be prepared and ready to fight.  We also need to hold our weapons while we work - and are we working for the kingdom of God?

The fourth week of the Nehemiah series was very powerful.  The devil is going to use distractions to knocks us down from what we are doing.  If he can't distract us then he will discourage us.  I can so easily identify with those two strategies he uses.  But God is more powerful.  

"Our fight is not with people.  It is against the leaders and powers and the spirits of darkness in this world.  It is against the demon would the works in the heavens."  -Ephesians 6:12

Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays.  Even though I have been single for the past 24 years on this holiday, I just love celebrating love.  My friend Carla made a beautiful card for her boyfriend using the pattern of the heart from the page above.  I used the pattern as inspiration for this page.  How amazing is it that God's love endures forever...  He will love us more in a single moment than anyone could love us in a lifetime.  

God, please put a desire in my being to absorb Your Precious Word into my heart today.  Use these images, verses, and stories to bring others to read Your Word.  I know it is how You, Father, speak to me.  You know exactly what I need to hear and read, and You reveal it to me through the Bible.  Give others a desire to talk to You.  In Your MIGHTY name I pray, Amen. 

Oren sin cesar

What I've been learning:  PRAY and REST have been my two words for 2016.  One I have been doing really well, and one I have been struggling with lately.

I started prayer journaling September 2014 when I first got to the Dominican Republic.  I bought a basic composition notebook, and used markers, pens, colored pencils, and watercolors to journal praises and petitions to my Heavenly Father.  A couple weeks ago my heart was sad to finish the notebook that begin the transformation in my heart, bringing me closer to Him.  I have another notebook that quickly took its place in my spiritual life.  Not only do I write my prayers, but I also cover the pages in verses, worship songs, and quotes that touch my heart.

It is incredible to look back on past prayers and the miraculous ways God has answered them.  "Never stop praying" from 1 Thessalonians 5:16 has really been a way of life for me since moving to Santiago.  It is really all I can do sometimes.

"And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him."  1 John 5:14-15

I've been trying to incorporate prayer into every aspect of my life, including the ministry at church that I help with, APPS Joven.  I have loved working with the youth group at church, and I have been trying to help instill practices to cover the ministry in prayer.  The first Saturday we spent 20 minutes praying before the group started, I was blown away.  God really answered.  40 young people showed up.  One girl asked, "Is tonight some special night?"  Nope.  Just a normal Saturday youth group.  The difference?  God was there with us.  We went before His throne and asked Him to send the young people that needed to be there.  He did.

Last Saturday I got together with two ladies from church and we spent the morning praying together.  Tears, laughter, and amazement at what God is doing filled our time at the kitchen table with our hands folded and heads bowed.

"Where two or three are gathered, there I will be also."  Matthew 18:20

Are you talking to God?  How is He working in your life?

Con mucho amor.

In a Galaxy Far, Far, Away...

What we've been learning:  We started 2016 with a unit about the planets and outer space.

I saw an idea on Pinterest over the summer to create pillowcases with the periodic table of elements labeled.  Although we weren't going to study chemistry, the idea stuck with me.  I wanted to incorporate decorating a pillowcase in some way.  Christin had special fabric markers that we used, and the boys each brought their own pillowcase to decorate.  They had to label the planets in order and try and draw them to scale-ish.  They turned out so different from each other.

Next, I had planned a super fun travel poster assignment for the boys.  I even spent several days making my own example.  They were each going to pick a planet and research information about the planet.  Then, they were going to make a travel poster convincing us to travel to their planet.  The boys informed me that they already knew about planets and had done a similar project in elementary school.  I felt really disappointed they didn't want to/had already done the project.

I wanted to incorporate art into the space unit.  Last year I felt like I did a better job including art in different assignments, but this year I have not.  As I was search on Pinterest I found this artist, Djuno Tomsni.  He does a nod to the 1970s with these vacation space images.  We created similar pieces of art.  I especially like Andrew's.  He has a family looking at a cable car on a snowy planet.  On the backside, he talked about how the family forgot their coats and wouldn't make that mistake again.  So creative.

The boys also created drawings about what life on space might look like.  I found this website with what communism might look like in outer space.  The images were so creative and detailed.  I remember when I was in elementary school I loved drawing intricate houses and towers and underground living spaces.  If I had more time, I would love to have them write stories to go along with their drawings.

I used the mystery bag pirate hook (blog post about it can be found here) and threw some astronaut food in a brown bag with a question mark on it.  I purchased the food at Michaels, the craft store, over the summer.  I saw it and knew the treat would be perfect for my boys.

The bags caught their attention as they spent several days guessing the contents.  Once they actually got to open the bags, they LOVED the freeze-dried ice cream sandwiches.  Before researching, they made predictions about how astronauts go to the bathroom, sleep, and what they do in their free time.  Then, they wrote papers about what life is like in space for astronauts.

Next is a unit on weather, storms, and hurricanes.  Any lesson plan ideas for those topics?

Con mucho amor.

Valentine's Day

What we did to celebrate:  I love celebrating love.  Valentine's Day landed on a Sunday this year.  (Here's the link to how we celebrated at the Reyes Academy last year.)  I had some friends over for dinner.  We ate pasta, and we ordered the yummiest cinnamon rolls from my new favorite place: Mari's Cakes.  I also had the apartment decorated for the holiday.  (Thanks mom for sending such cute decorations!)  

The Reyes Academy celebrated Valentine's Day on Monday.  We first made Love Rocks.  Here's an article that explains where the idea came from.  A couple lost their daughters a few years ago.  To help cope with the tragedy they started making these love rocks to spread joy.  Visit their Facebook page here to learn more about what they do.

My mom made one for my roommate and I last year, and I loved the idea of randomly blessing others.  We could leave them at the supermarket, give them to people on the street, or set one on a step of the apartment.  I thought the concept of spreading love went perfectly with Valentine's Day.  The kids each made 2-3 using fabric scraps and modge podge.

Next we did black out poetry with using 1 Corinthians 13 or 1 John 4.  I loved seeing how different the 6 poems turned out.  Christin and I also participated.  It really helped us to think deeply about the text and its themes.  I would love to incorporate this same strategy into English class sometime.  

We ended the celebration by giving the kids their valentines.  Over Christmas break I found these poop pencils, and I knew they were perfect for the boys.  They absolutely LOVED them.  We had fun laughing about sticking poop in our noses, eating poop, and touching poop.

Christin and I made cookies and cake to give to the guys at the colmado and to bring to Bible study.  Through a friend on Facebook, I discovered a website called 40 Acts.  Each day of Lent they send an email with an act to do for the day.  I had already planned on making these things, but when I opened my email the act for the day was to make food to give to someone.  It was fun to randomly bless those around us.

How did you celebrate love year round?