A friend is...

" A friend is a bay where you can anchor your boat in bad weather."

Another great metaphor and beautiful picture from one of my students. Speaking of friendship...

We had a friend of Joel's from school over tonight for dinner.
I love watching him with his friends. He is always so interested, so full of great questions and appreciation for what their heart speaks. He finds true joy in people, in stories, in shared experiences. How blessed I feel to be the one closest to his heart. I am often caught off guard by his interest in my thoughts. I start to say something, thinking that only I would find this interesting and that maybe I should just cut the story short. Then I look up and see those big, brown eyes waiting and smiling at my words. My heart wells up with thankfulness to know that he is indeed my friend. He is truly a bay where I can anchor my boat in bad weather and in calm seas as well.

Here is one of my favorite pictures of Joelie, listening to our friend Matt...

So lovely is he.

Love is...

We have been studying similes and metaphors in my ESL reading class. It has been delightful to see the clever ideas the students come up with. Today we talked about illustrators and they got a chance to be creative and illustrate their simile or metaphor...who says adults can't have a little fun in class? This is one of my favorites...

A few more...

"A friend is like jewelry because they are unique and special."

"Love is like a plumb because it is both sour and sweet."

"My friend is a pig because she will eat anything."

"Home is like life because you can not live without it."

More coming tomorrow...

Oh, in case you also are curious about communal living, check out www.vineyardcentral.com This is such an interesting group of home-churches that also have two communal households. Grab a cup of coffee and settle in for a good read because this site has LOTS of interestingness going on. Love it!

If I ever get on a communal living kick again...

You are all free to remind me of the following things:

1.The Washer and Dryer: We share them with one family and one single girl that live in the duplex in front of us.Besides the fact that they are in a pretty scary basement beneath the duplex that I refuse to go in at night, they are really gross and dirty. Yuck. Before I finally wiped them down, they both had so much gunk (I don't even know where it comes from) that I felt like our clothes were cleaner before they went in!! Also, they leave their clothes in for hours and hours and our clothes have to wait in line.

2. The trash cans and recycle bin: We take them out and bring them in almost every week--even though we are all supposed to share the responsibility.

3. Our sprinkler: apparently we share that with our neighbor too because it always ends up in her yard and we have to retrieve it if we want to use it in our lawn!

So, I am rethinking the whole "oh, communal living would be soo great and save so many resources and create community and on and on...". I mean, I haven't totally given up on the idea but so far I am being pretty wimpy with these few shared resources! Ideally we would actually know our communal living neighbors and have a common goal for the living arrangement and so we could have some practical "how are we going to share" discussions, but still. Americans are so individualistic and its hard to change that in my own attitude. This little talk has made me want to try harder though. For goodness sakes, we are only sharing three things!! I'll let you know how it goes.

Well, not too much going on. Just getting ready for mom and dad to get here on Saturday--yippie!! We did go to a pro-soccer game on Sat. night--that was fun. Here is a picture of Joelie with two buddies from school taken after the game:

Benjamin on the left and Sully on the right.Both are great, interesting, yogaing, skiing, earthy type guys. Of course, the guy in the middle is pretty great too:)Guess that's all for now. Hope you all are doing well, Jen

Mixed Reviews...

So, I got a haircut on Tuesday. I saw my ESL students today for the first time since the haircut and knew they would be full of opinions...they didn't let me down:)

"Jenny, you look so.....clean!"

"Jenny, you look like a highschooler now, maybe 16 or 17." Great.

"Jenny, why you didn't cut bangs? Bangs are essential."

You learn something new every day. Bangs are essential. This turned into a long conversation and the student was actually very perplexed why Americans don't think bangs are essential. She insisted that "Bangs make someone more attractive. I mean you are attractive without them but normal times people are more attractive with them." aha.

Anyway, it was really fun hearing all of their comments. Of course, there were lots of sweet comments thrown in there as well, but I just thought these were classic.I'll try to post of picture of the new do later on tonight:)

EDIT: Here are the promised pictures...


So, nothing too different. Just a few layers and some much needed thinning out. Oh yes, layers was a major topic of conversation today as well. The girls had been calling them "levels" and were delighted to learn the correct term. Even the guys got caught up in all of the bangs, layers vs. all one length, dye, natural color talk. You just never know the kind of conversations you'll have when you walk into an ESL classroom--how wonderful is that?

A walk in the woods...

We had a great hike today. It was one of those times where I just wanted to belt out , "THE HILLS ARE ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF MUUUSIC!!!" I refrained, though, as I had already embarrassed myself by putting flowers in my hair and humming the tune as another couple snuck up on us:) Anyway, it was good to get the exercise, to be in the outdoors, and to have uninterrupted conversation time with Joelie. We talked about everything from homeschooling/unschooling to firefighting(long story) to natural birth (yeah, that was mostly me)to family happenings(happy engagement to my dear bub, happy touring w/ Sheryl Crow to John Mike, yippie for moving to wimberly to my parents, we miss and love you to Jim and Shari sharing love with orphans in the Ukraine, and love you too to Shanny, who is living life and holding down the family fort in TX while the rest of us are spread out all over the world:)to Hawaii hiking memories and beyond. Good times...







What a crazy experience to hike in snow with sandals! Other weekend festivities included breakfast Sat. morning at the coffee shop down the street, laughing heartily at Jack Black in "Nacho Libre" and grilling on driveway/patio. Here's a picture of Joelie and our yummy dinner...


Of course, today was also Father's day. I was thinking about dad on our hike and trying to think of a way to sum up his love for us.
My favorite picture of him is one on Christmas day in about 1992. John Mike was about 8 and dad gave him a Michael Jordan rookie card--which, of course, is every 8 year old's dream. The picture is of John Mike, in shock, hugging dad tightly. If you look closely you can see a single tear running down dad's cheek. That to me is the perfect picture of him. Joy in the giving. Thanks dad, for giving us your time and encouragement and love always. For hours of shooting baskets, catching softballs, reading poems, listening to dreams...words are not enough to express my thankfulness.

Hope you all had a great weekend too, Jen

A heart overflowing....

These pictures remind me that if I seek Him, He will continually fill my heart to overflowing. I think that's because He opens my eyes to the joy all around me. He allows me to see the world, just a tiny bit, as He sees it. It both breaks my heart and gives me such joy.

Speaking of joy, I am SO excited about mom and dad coming to visit on July 1st!!! I probably think about it 10 times a day:) We always have such a wonderful time when they come to visit us in our far off lands....we had so many fun adventures in Hawaii with them and with mom in Honduras. Now, I know SLC isn't Hawaii, but it is a fun city to explore and they are such fun people to explore with! Oh, and our living space is always, always, always more cozy and creative after mom has left her touch on it. Just wait, I'll show pictures. So, add that to this list of thankfulness for sure.....

Joel is singing at the top of his lungs upstairs... I think I'll go join him:)More soon, Jen

In the midst of busyness....

This week has been full.Subbing for my co-instructor Rick in the mornings,tutoring in the afternoons, coming home for a couple of hours, and then subbing for him again in the evenings makes for a long day! In the midst of this busyness, though, I have had such tender moments with the students, with sweet Joelie, and have just felt more content overall--maybe it was my thankfullness pictures putting me back in the right mindset:) I had a precious conversation with a student today whose dream is to get into Texas A&M. I'll just say that it helped me understand the pressure and stress these students are under academically from their parents, from themselves, and from their cultures. It broke my heart for him. I was rushing out of the office when he came to talk. I was a little annoyed to stop and sit back down to listen. I'm so glad that I did. Once again the Lord showed me that in the midst of all life's busyness, people are what matter. Thanks for the reminder. Jen

PS. More thankfulness pictures soon:)

City noises and a thankful heart...

So, it's about 11pm and I'm sitting in bed propped up by pillows listening to the wind and the rain outside. The windows are always open at night and usually I hear noises such as these: our neighbors coming home on scooters or in big jeeps or a big rumbling truck. Our neighbors to the right and over the fence taking there dog out into their back yard making the leaves rustle and twigs break. The sounds of sirens are frequently heard as we live just down the block from a fire station and for some reason the sound is oddly comforting to me. Cars whizzing by on the busy street, even late into the night. A circle of friends sitting in the yard of the duplex in front of us, laughing and talking and making Misty the dog bark. It's the sound of the city, and so far I like it. Tonight, though, tops it all. The wind and the rain are more comforting than even laughter right now. Joel is sleeping peacefully, getting some much needed rest and it all just makes me feel thankful. This week has been a bit discouraging...just a little sad I guess. Wanting things that just aren't right now, like more time with my love and to have a baby in my arms. God is so faithful to remind me, though, of all of the richness and depth and love that is my life and tonight I feel that strongly. So, here are some of the things that bless my soul and remind me of all the wonderfulness he has given me and all that is to come...












The list could go on and on and on and on. I think I'll have to do a part two tomorrow at the very least:) The rain has stopped now as it took a long time to download these pictures correctly...the sounds of the city are back. Cars buzzing and out comes the neighbor over the fence with his dog. I can hear the tinkling of the dogs id tags as he walks...i forgot about that sound. Oh, how funny. It's as if he can tell I am thinking about him because he just let out a big WOOF! Well, I guess that's all for tonight. I'm tutoring a sweet South Korean tomorrow at the library and need to prepare. I have so many things to tell you about the cultures of and interactions with my students...soon. Jen