You should check it out to see how rich you are. :)

The best thing about this site the social commentary it brings to mind. I mean, yes we are all rich compared to today’s world population, but we certainly don’t feel rich! If we compare ourselves to many of those around us, we could make the case that we aren’t rich. We are often just getting by month to month. But, step outside of that thinking for just a moment. What are we doing with our money? Are we spending it on things we truly need?

I think the overwhelming majority of Americans would say we are wasting our money on things we don’t need; however, those same people won’t take any steps to change their habit.

Just some thoughts about wealth, materialism, and simplicity.

From a rich person, mind you, so listen up! :)

What could you do with $40 per month? Sponsor a child through World Hope International! https://www.worldhope.org/  I have a little girl named Prerana from Nepal.

My brother and sister-in-law donated money in my name to World Vision to provide educational supplies to children in poor countries. Best Christmas gift EVER! http://www.worldvision.org/ Thanks Dave and Whit!

In high school, I sponsored a child from Brazil through Compassion International, another great organization. It was $28 per month back then, but I’m sure it has gone up! Check it out! http://www.compassion.com/default.htm

Sharing to influence someone’s life in a more positive way is far better than spending my money on something I don’t really need.

That was in 2003; I watched their documentary in 2005 or 2006; today, Invisible Children has grown into a non-profit organization that has been working hard to get the US and world governments to do something about the terrorist Joseph Kony’s reign via his “Lord’s Resistance Army.”  The LRA has been terrorizing Central Africa for 20 years, but these three young Americans almost singlehandedly brought the world’s attention on him, and the LRA’s power has been weakened significantly. You can track information about what is going on with this at another Invisible Children website.

Sometimes I wish I could go somewhere that far away and do something that big. Africa has been on my mind lately for a few reasons. . . our church is going to use one week’s worth of offering to build a water well in an African country, and I know a missionary couple working in Uganda who I’d love to visit. And, I’ve always dreamed about writing a book about Dr. Eva Gilger, a missionary woman from my hometown who spent 50 (FIFTY) years in Kenya, caring for orphans and starting a girls’ school.

Maybe I need to start planning a trip!

It is a bit time consuming (probably just because I’m one of those people who like to get my money’s worth, so I make full ((too much?)) use of it). Mostly, though, three months was more than enough for me. I actually did meet several quality guys and we emailed or chatted online. One of them I met in person, twice. He is fantastic, but I’m not sure we’re going to go anywhere. Time will tell. Maybe I’ll tell the whole story sometime. :) I have lots of tips for anyone thinking they want to try online dating, but I won’t pontificate about them here (I’ve used that word entirely too much today). For now, a few things that bug me about online dating:

• Winking smilies. I now seem to use them in e-mails all the time, whereas before they were reserved for only very sarcastic lines. Ugh. It’s so girly of me. ;)
• Guys who don’t fill out the short answer questions. The site I was using gives you a seven-day trial. How hard is it to tell at least a few sentences about yourself, even if you’re not going to pay for the service?
• People who don’t post photos. Duh. It’s a DATING site! How can you not post a photo of yourself?

And, since I don’t want to be negative Nancy–a few things I really liked about online dating:

• The people who were really real on their profiles. They honestly and frankly described themselves, even some of their negative traits.
• The many types of people I came across. Some of them were a bit quirky, which made me laugh; others were very successful and driven, which made me think, “How in the world is this person not married yet?”; still, others had come from very different cultures and backgrounds. I guess, since I love people anyway, I find this type of thing very interesting.
• The shared element of Christian faith (I used a distinctly Christian-owned site) encouraged me quite a bit. I haven’t encountered a whole lot of single men around my age who actually care about going to church, serving others, and loving God.

I think I’ve learned a few things about myself through this experience, too. It has been good. As I said before, I don’t know why I didn’t try this out sooner! :)

It’s interesting to think about those reasons. For one, I was mortified at the thought of someone finding out I was clicking away on people’s profiles in search for a date. It seemed desperate, a little creepy, and more like something for people much older than me. Another reason I avoided it is that I convinced myself I didn’t need online dating to help find somebody. It was a little prideful, actually, thinking, “I’m above God making that my story.” There was an blog post from Boundless that really confirmed how wrong this thinking was.  http://www.boundlessline.org/2011/10/engagement-stories-aurora-kenneth.html  Yet another (and probably the biggest) reason for not trying online dating was that I was a little embarrassed to admit I had a “problem” (i.e. not having a boyfriend/fiancee/husband at my age). Speaking of age, the median age for women to get married now is 26. I’m 28. So, it just confirms what we always knew, right? I’m above average. :) Anyway, up until this year, I have been very quiet about my desire to get married and have a family. Maybe I felt like I needed to put up a more independent front. Maybe I felt like people would feel sorry for me if I talked about it.This summer, during a family prayer time when everyone was home, I asked my family to pray that I would find a husband soon. Of course, mom has been praying for this for years, as I have, but it was affirming and healthy for me to tell it to my family. There is nothing wrong with letting people know you want to get married.

Now, don’t get me wrong here, thinking, “Oh, poor girl. She’s desperate to be married.” I’ve grown up around many people older than me who didn’t get married until after 30 (and even 40), so it wasn’t like I didn’t think it wasn’t going to happen eventually. I hadn’t (and still haven’t) hit the panic button. (Ummm…..actually I won’t ever hit the panic button because I have faith that God knows what is best for me at any given moment, and right now that’s being single). I’m so content and blessed in my life as it is right now. Still, I definitely recognize the ways in which life would be so much better married and starting a family. Being alone is boring!

So, why online dating? Basically, I believe God can and will use whatever means (even technological) currently available to move us along in His will. Does that mean I’m going to meet someone online? Not necessarily. Even if I don’t, I already know I will have been blessed by the experience and learned a little about myself in the process. Just in three months, I’ve been both blessed and, it would seem, a bit cursed, as I learn how to go about this process. That’s probably all you need to know about that. ;) More about the details later.

This all plays into the end of the year really well. I am finishing up yet another year after high school of being single. On some days, when I am free to wander around Barnes & Noble at my leisure, pick up and leave at the drop of a hat, or spend inordinate amounts of time reading or working on the latest project as school, the single life is a wonderful gift. On other days, when I come home from a big event to an empty apartment, sit and eat alone at a restaurant (worst thing ever!), or get asked (for the billionth time) why a “young, pretty thing” like me isn’t married, being single is a depressing and difficult experience.

Still, regardless of what happens, I always know that God is right there, and He truly provides me with comfort on the tough days. One of the best was this past Valentine’s Day, an experience I have been a bit too self-conscious to share up until now. I had walked back up to the school to get something, and when I walked out of the building and headed west, I was blessed by this gorgeous sunset. It seemed that God was speaking directly to me, saying, “I Love You.” He knows His children intimately and speaks to them in ways that are perfect just for them. That was the best Valentine’s Day gift ever!

So, I’m soon headed into another year of the single life. I hope it is full of adventure and love!

My love for and opinions about Tim Tebow?

My recent foray into online dating?

The end of yet another year as a single woman?

The beginning of yet another year as a single woman?

Oh, the possibilities! :)

Let me know which you’d like to hear about!

I was walking down the hall to my locker at my high school, a few weeks into my Senior year, on September 11th, 2001, when I noticed my English teacher, Mr. Phillips rush across the hallway to my Government teacher, Mr. Turner’s room, saying something like, “Gary, you have to see this.” I would later learn the first tower had already been hit, since it was an hour past 8:46 a.m. in NYC. I immediately sensed that something was wrong. Perhaps it was the tenor of Mr. Phillips’s voice. The next thing I remember was choir class, and I think we watched some tv. It gets a bit blurry ten years later. I’ll stick to the most vivid memories.

In Drama class, we watched the plane hit the second tower, live. I felt disbelief and then dread. The disbelief came from the action-movie impression that crash portrayed. I truly felt like it was some sort of Die Hard movie or something. Then, I realized I had just witnessed the death of many, many people, and I realized the crashes weren’t just crashes. They had been planned. I instantly felt a rush of anger sweep over me. The injustice! Who would do this? How could this be allowed to happen? What was next? Would this be World War III?

I’m sure throughout the day we were somber, questioning, and completely unable to focus on school work. I wonder how I would deal with a situation like this in my classroom today. By the end of the day, I loaded my stuff onto the bus to head to Jewell, KS for a volleyball triangular. I didn’t feel like playing volleyball. I had thought they might cancel it. Yet, I knew cancelling it would not make as much sense as going ahead. After all, we were so very removed from the East, and it wasn’t like we were in imminent danger.

On the way out of town, I witnessed my first and last traffic jam in Miltonvale. Everybody was parked in lines around T&T Service, one of the two gas stations in town. Somehow, they’d gotten word that gas prices would go up! I remember us girls staring out the windows in awe of so many cars downtown, and, I’m sure, with a new anxiety, seeing our parents and friends’ parents acting so strangely.

At the volleyball triangular that night, I reflected on how minor a role sports should play in one’s life. Winning and losing is so trivial compared to life and death, war and peace, the past and the future. I didn’t care if we won, and I don’t even remember now who won. I do remember the time in the lobby between games. A TV was on and there was live coverage on the news of the bombing of Afghanistan. The screen showed a grainy picture of an orange glow off in the distance, shining against a dark, deserted landscape. This was the moment at which I nearly panicked. All I wanted to do at that point was go home and be with my family. Apparently, we were at war with someone and from this moment on, my life wouldn’t be the same. At least, those were the thoughts of an almost-18-year-old farm girl from the middle of Kansas.

Looking back, the ways in which my life is different are quite subtle. There is more security at airports, but that has affected me exactly five times since 2001. Many of my peers, just turning 18 and possibly motivated by the attack, signed up for the military in the months that followed. Yet, only two of those were my classmates and none of those were my close friends. I am so proud of the men and women in my age group who pursued a military career during this time. They have been fighting a difficult, technological, new war bravely, patriotically, and sacrificially. They make me proud to call myself an American.

I think the greatest thing that changed for me after Sept. 11, 2001 was that I had a new appreciation for what goes on behind the scenes in our government. People are working daily to address the threats to our nation, and they don’t get noticed for their successes, but they get lambasted for their failures.  An article this past spring in Time magazine deepened my appreciation for these security officials. Reading the article was akin to reading a spy thriller, and I finished it in awe of how much we have to be grateful for to live in a country with people who work daily to protect us.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2068082,00.html

The best part about teaching is the kids. Once they were finally in my room on Thursday, I got an extra burst of energy. I’m so excited to get to know them! At this school, I get a new crop of students every year since I teach Freshmen and Juniors.

The best part about coaching volleyball happened on Friday, our fifth day of practice. My middle schoolers this year are quite inexperienced in volleyball, and some are inexperienced in simply exercising and moving their bodies! So, we have a lot of work to do! But, the first day we did this certain passing drill, they only had 16 or 18 good passes. On Friday, they started the drill off with 5 perfect passes in a row (followed by an outburst of cheering and encouragement from the whole team) and ended up getting 28 good passes! So, it felt like things finally came together a bit, which was a huge encouragement to me. We haven’t even learned about hitting, blocking, or digging yet, since we needed to work so much on serving and passing. But, that is middle school volleyball for you. I LOVE getting to teach them from the start how to play correctly!

One can imagine the issues that would come up in such a situation. How much time does she miss in 1976 when she’s been in 1803s Maryland for eight months? Do her wounds follow her back to the future? Why is it a white male that keeps beckoning her back to the past? This book was written in 1979, and is considered to be one of the first science-fiction novels written by a black female. I think Butler does a good job of making the sci-fi part of it as realistic as possible. She also excels in creating a spooky mood throughout the story, which is one mood I have always associated with black history in the United States. It is represented as spooky through the literature we read about it because of the secrecy often involved with movements such as the Underground Railroad, slave revolts, and escaping slaves. However, at times, I felt like Butler’s writing was weak. She didn’t keep the pace going, and there were times when she could have described more. Nonetheless, I would recommend this book to people who enjoy reading good historical fiction.

My last post was about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m now in that light! :) And, honestly, it’s just as wonderful and just as terrible as I thought it would be. This summer is my first free one since, oh, probably about 10th grade. But particularly, since I have started my teaching career, I’ve been busy with either classes or a job the whole summer. This summer, no classes. And I miss them. Surprisingly, I’ve found it difficult to be without stress. I guess I just operate best under stress. However, I’ve been given a wonderful opportunity to read the books that have been waiting for me. Maybe I’ll write about some of them. Also, I’ve been able to do a bit of planning for next year, which is nice strange. . . I mean, I’m going to have a plan? Well before the year starts? What a novel idea! I already have the first nine weeks of Freshman English laid out, including that dreaded grammar instruction.

Volleyball camp is coming up. Can’t wait to get on the court and teach the little girls to love volleyball!

Since I don’t have Internet access at home, I can’t post all that often, so I think this is going to be a long one. I’m at the library. Can I just say that public libraries rock my world? Free internet, free books, free newspapers, and when I logged on today, they had an ad on their website for free music downloads. LOVE IT!

Okay, a book review. Here it is. I bought Tim Tebow’s Through My Eyes and finished within 24 hours. Loved it! It’s possible you haven’t heard of him, if you don’t pay attention to football, so let me oblige. Tebow won two national championships at the University of Florida, was up for the Heisman Trophy three times (the first of which he won–after his sophomore season), and was a 2010 first round draft pick for for the Denver Broncos. Those are just his football accomplishments. He has done and is so much more. The son of missionaries to the Philippines, he is a miracle baby, the youngest of five children, and has grown into a man with a desire to use his football platform (his word) to spread the message of Jesus. I hadn’t heard of this guy until after his second Heisman nomination, but once I started paying attention to him, I began to be more inspired than ever to be more open about my faith. His book has only inspired me more.

I’ll admit this book might be a tough read for a person who doesn’t know anything about football. He almost takes you through every game of his college and professional career play-by-play. Of course, this is only five years, so it’s okay that he’s so detailed, even telling about each of his injuries. I enjoyed hearing his mindset as a team player and leader. He also gave lengthy descriptions of his workouts, which sounded insane, yet inspiring. He detailed his relationship with his coaches, Head Coach Urban Meyer and Strength & Conditioning Coach Mickey Marotti. I could identify with that as well as with the descriptions of his encouraging, faithful parents and the crazy stories he related of growing up on a farm, getting “Farm Strong.” I felt like I was reading about MY life! :)

Throughout the memoir, Tim weaves snippets of spiritual discussion and inspiration. He doesn’t shy away from the tough questions, like “Why does God let bad things happen?” and “Why doesn’t God always answer my prayers?” and “Which way do I go?” As he discusses God, he truly gives readers the gospel message in a non-preachy kind of way. He simply explains why he believes certain things, usually backing it up with scripture and then helps the reader directly (in second person, even) apply it to their lives. What an encouragement!

I highly recommend this book to you if you fit in any of the following categories:

1. A Coach
2. An Athlete (current or former)
3. A football fan
4. A Christian
5. A mother of boys
6. A teacher of football players
7. A farm kid
8. A sports fan (especially of the SEC)
9. A high school student
10. A college student

You will find something in the book to relate to the very experiences you are going through or have gone through. Tim Tebow leads a very public life, as most star football players do, and he is one of the good ones, who is trying to do good things. He stands for things in this world that other people scoff at, and those people are eagerly awaiting his public mistakes. Say a prayer for him when you think of it.

I’m glad I saved this one for last. It’s about the film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Yay for watching movies! :)

Plus, I get to go home for Easter Sunday! Can’t wait to see my family!