Dates and Dreamers

Hank still likes to surprise me every once in a while. When we were dating, I was horrible about surprises. I don't know if it was coincidence, my genius sleuthing skills(bahaa!) or just friends with loose lips, but I managed to ruin almost every surprise he planned.

  I would fret and worry that the surprise wouldn't turn out well or that he needed my help but I couldn't give it because... well, it was a surprise. I have gotten a bit more trusting and a little more relaxed. Turns out life is more fun that way!

    So Hank told me mid-week that he wanted to surprise me with a date on Saturday. I said ok and he proceeded to tell me to be ready by 2:00pm.

   Saturday rolled around after a tough week at school and I was extremely thankful for a thoughtful husband. We needed to get out and have some fun.

   We spent the morning around the house- he changing the oil and mowing the lawn while I did laundry and looked up recipes :). We piled into the cars and headed off. Would you know that my hubby found an online coupon and took me to a historic home tour?!

    On our anniversary weekend we planned out our dreams for the next five years. Since then, we have been planning and plotting and looking into seeing those dreams happen. One of those dreams is to fix up a foreclosure and then sell it for profit. This is more of a stepping stone to other dreams, but we love to work together on projects and Hank is super Handy.. Hmm.. Handy Hank. Hank the Handyman... I like it.

    We walked through houses built in the early 1930's and talked about our favorite kitchens, flowers and bookshelves. Old Houses are so neat and these had been well-loved. We took pictures and made notes and gathered valuable gardening advice. We even scored some homemade honey from one of the home owners and I filled my purse with the pecans that covered the sidewalks.

   After we finished the tour, Hank took me to a pizza food truck near down town. He had cleverly found another coupon and this little food truck served vegan pizza! This month we are going vegan- more on that later.

   We grabbed our pizza and dashed to Discovery Green to eat.

    Lately God has been teaching us about food. It started when I watched Forks Over Knives. In that documentary, I was so challenged by the idea of eating a plant based diet. We love green veggies and we have a fairly natural diet to begin with- but I have no problem splurging on sweets and Hank tends to eat a lot of meat. So we decided to go for it and see how we felt eating vegan for a month.

   I love the idea that I am cutting out cholesterol, eating sustainable food, and perhaps downsizing my massive carbon footprint (I have a jeep...)

   All in all, it has been so easy. That may be because I cheat every once in a while (mmmm Donut holes...) but the vegan food we have cooked thus far has been DELICIOUS. No lie. It has been epic. Vegan fajitas, black bean salsa with beet chips, vegan crepes. Yummy! And it is absolutely guiltless because it is natural.

    So, Hank and I grabbed our vegan pizza and headed to the park. Discovery Green is located in downtown Houston and it is an urban green space that hosts free shows, movies and has the coolest fountain and jungle gym for kids to play on.

We saw that there was a movie on the lawn when we arrived. We hadn't intended to go to this park but it was the one that the guy at the pizza place suggested. Would you like to know what the movie was about????

God is so cool.


It was about meat production in America and how our system needs to change. It wasn't a Peta production with graphic pictures. I can't handle that. It was an honest look at the problems within our commodity oriented animal industry. Cheap meat has become the goal- rather than good quality or animal welfare. And one of the main groups of people who are suffering are farmers. Farmers who have to raise a huge amount of chickens in a highly technological way to ensure that they make a small profit. Farmers who have been indentured to big companies because the industry is set up in such a way that the farmer incurs all the risk and the farmer loses all if the demand for meat decreases. In the video, farmers were interviewed and a solution was presented. More people need to farm but the farms need to be smaller.

   Hank and I never pictured we would want to farm. I still can't say I am too terribly excited about pigs, but the concepts presented in the movie were so simple and just like what my grandparents did. It just made sense.

   One of the dreams that Hank and I have is to open a cafe that serves locally grown food, provides and warm place for people to sit and talk and a venue for local Christian artists and sell art and have concerts. We love people, we love food, we love the arts. And we love working together.

But we also want to teach our kids to work and work hard. I don't want my kids to grow up spending hours in front of a tv or computer. I want them to be so tired at the end of a day that they can't get into trouble :). I want them to learn to work hard and play hard. You see, these are core values in my family. My grandparents knew how to work hard but they also knew how to relax and their family and friends were always the top priority.

So God has been planting ideas and dreams and last night my mind was just too active to allow sleep. So I wrote out some of those dreams and allowed God to begin to give me a vision. And He did. And it was great.

   I know anything can happen tomorrow. In East Texas, where I went to school, they would say they would do something "Lord Willing and the Creek don't rise."  Lord willing, we would like to open a cafe and raise all the food to supply it. Lord willing, we want to spend our time out in God's creation, witnessing the miracles of seeds that die to provide life giving nutrients and witnessed the miracles of relationships and feeding people's hungry tummys and trusting God for what we need.

And it Begins!

Tonight I met all my children and their parents and may I just say- I am excited!

After a short spiel by our administrator and the pastor of the church where my school is, the families were released to our classrooms. I was running on adrenaline so I barely felt nervous.

 It took all of the last three days to finish my classroom. And that was with the hours spent in the afternoons and evenings of this week. I have a new respect for all of the teacher I have had!

I have eaten lunch at the church the past three days and the pastor even asked if I felt like I lived there! You know you have been at a church too much if the pastor asks that!

But, as the final minutes quickly ticked by, I had a huge peace (one that was oddly accompanied by a large amount of adrenaline and a long mental list of tasks to complete). Hank was a marvelous help. He had to work today but finished right after church. He came with lunch and we ate and then buckled down. The final details came together and I must say, it looked like a real classroom and I felt like a real teacher. A great feeling! :)

When the parents were dismissed and began to come into the classroom, I put on my best smile and began to greet the children and their parents. I feel so fortunate in that 11 out of 12 parents came. This tells me that I have a group of involved parents and that is so important.

Hank took all the supplies and organized them in the back of the room while I gave the parents information about myself, what we would be learning this year and our classroom rules. When I finished, I was able to meet some of my students. They are PRECIOUS and SO ADORABLE!!!!

And their parents were amazing. I am so thankful and so very blessed. We pulled out of the parking lot and got pizza because we were both too brain-dead and tired to cook. But I couldn't shake this glorious peace. Before we climbed into our cars and left the church, I turned to Hank and said "This is where we are supposed to be." And he feels it too. In the staff and the family feel of our team, the sweet students and their parents, and the administration that wholeheartedly  supports us... I am so thankful and so excited for our first day tomorrow!

Whew... Overwhelmed in this place

Today was the second day of teacher in-service. I am still learning what in-service is, but I think its basically a lot of information geared to get the teacher ready for school in a short amount of time.

While it is all good information and I am so extremely thankful for this job and the students I teach this year, I.am.overwhelmed!

My brain feels a little exhausted and I can't quite wrap my mind around tasks that need to be done- like lesson planning and completing eight hours on pre-service classes and professional development classes online... Oh and I am still working towards getting certified with the state- more online classes.

This month may actually break me of my internet addiction. I am actually cutting down my excessive facebook time because I cannot stare at the computer any longer.

There is a silver lining to each cloud afterall!

Today I was so extremely blessed by my mentor teacher- who patiently and lovingly answered my many questions and walked me through the schedule and curriculum. I learned more about the incredible vision this school has and was shaken again by what an incredible privilege it is to work at a school that teaches students to be excellent in life.

And I got a bulletin board done! Happy Dance!

Now Hank is cutting out game pieces and various paper that needs to be laminated and I am just so thankful for the sleep that I will get tonight.

With that- fairwell and sweet dreams all!

He brings me honor

There is a verse in the Bible about how a woman can save her husband by her faithfulness. I like that idea. It is so full of hope. But I think sometimes here in this house it is flipped.

Sometimes my husband is the one saving me.

This past weekend, Hank attended a men's retreat. He had really been praying about getting some 'guy time' and had been searching out men from our church over the past few months. So when a fellowship in town, a gospel church, hosted a men's conference, hubby was jazzed!

It has been a while since I have seen him this excited! Every night, he came home and shared his pages of notes with me. He would share how fired up the pastors got and how the whole group of men went crazy in worship or shouted their amens and mmhmms and how they made him feel like one of the brothers. Just a very pale one...

I went to my parents house this weekend for a wonderful party that friends threw for my sisters' impending jobs. Emily is going all the way to Rhode Island for the next year to work as a field teacher at a working ranch. Julia is going all the way out to West Texas to work as an assistant camp director. I am proud beyond words for both of them!

When I got home, Hank told me all about his Saturday- the last day of the conference. He told me about how the pastor spoke of the need for a real life change. The theme was 'recover all' and they had talked about how God wants to recover the men's family, finances, spiritual lives and so on. They talked about praying daily for their wives and families and allowing Jesus to infiltrate every area of their lives. They talked about putting actual life change into effect.

When Hank left the church, he saw a lady walking along the side of the road. She asked if he was going into the city and said she had gotten stranded after a night with friends. He offered her a ride and drove her all the way home. On the way, Holy Spirit was prodding him to talk to her about Jesus and His love. Now, you have to understand how scary that is. For some reason, in this free country with a GPS view of the Roman Road and years growing up in church, it is still scary. Most of the time, we are pretty content to go to church, serve where we can, get to know our neighbors a bit and keep our marriage in shape. Most of the time we are thinking about 'evangelizing.'

But Hank just started talking about Jesus and telling this lady how much Jesus truly loves her. And she listened. She had read her bible before and had gone to church, but it was all a bit confusing. So he gave her a place to start an reminding her that yes, Jesus loves her so much.

On Sunday, hubby said he was going to offer to mow our neighbors grass for free. It is grass we have complained about because it can get pretty tall... So he walked over there and bargained with her, trying to get her to accept his offer. She wouldn't pay him less that twenty bucks, but he still mowed her lawn and came home smiling.

And I am a bit in awe. A bit mystified and a lot humbled. Because I don't quite know what to say. I feel so proud of him, so humbled to see him moving and living out these truths and so challenged to find the opportunities that Jesus has given me to love and to serve. And he is bringing honor into this home and he is leading in a deeper and more sensitive way with more wisdom. And I am so thankful. It feels like a grace baptism again and again and the waters are refreshing. I don't ever want to climb out.

Rested and Ready

        It was perfect timing really. I couldn't have seen it coming and was still complaining just before it came. But in the midst of a job I struggled in and as the doors swung wide for me to be certified as a teacher, it came. An interview I thought would happen five months ago and I longed for job offer.
     And I can see it now, mostly, that His timing was perfect through and through. That if this had come sooner, I wouldn't have learned those hard lessons- about putting forth hard effort when I am mostly frustrated, about trusting the Lord when I am doing filing rather than saving the world. And teaching, well I would have taken it for granted. Just as I did when I taught in Asia.

Taken in Seattle last Summer. So thankful for new seasons, fresh starts and the waves of His Mercy.

      And now it is a great gift. The pleasure of teaching, laughing with those students, seeing the joy of learning creep across faces and feeling his pleasure as I teach. It is so good.
       Next year I will be teaching four year olds at a small school. It isn't glorious but it is good. I am a little terrified but so thankful. He has provided me with just what I asked for- a job working with kids, not far from home. And more than I asked for- a teacher to work with and learn from who will help me along in this new path. And more- a chance to get certified! I look back in amazement at all the doors he opened while I continued to complain. I can be pretty ungrateful and blind at times.

    But now I am oh so thankful and oh so excited. It is small really, but I see the bigness in it. The great task of teaching young ones and building up a strong foundation of His Love, His mercy, His Word. And I checking out stacks of books on parenting youngsters and the young mind. It feels like a crash course in four year olds. And I never knew I would draw so much from babysitting experience but when it is all you got...

    So here we are, once again, thankful. Perhaps one day I will learn to be thankful even when I can't see what he is doing.


Please feel free to post some advice for working with four year olds. Thanks!

A New Thing

The sun is sleeping below the horizon behind our house and we are hovering in that nether-world of hazey blue and calm has descended finally, again. And it is in this space that I step outside and breathe. Because I need this time. The stretching of legs and the deep inhale of humid Houston air. I need to see the sky for the third time today because computer screens just can't give me this. They can't bring me back down to earth and slow me down and remind me how very small I am and yet how very beautiful my God is in the details. And it is true- as it says in the Quotidian Mysteries, that rich thought comes in the monotonous swinging of arms and legs on the daily walk. And it is in these (all too rare) moments that I stop processing information at the speed of light (or at the speed of my wireless connection) and I stop caring who had kids or got married or split up and I just breathe. The stars pop out one by one and the moon takes the place of the sun and it is all quiet here.

The Gibson Family Goes to Ikea

This is Hank again, Kelsey's husband.  I write a little on her blog when I get inspired every now and again.  Apparently, a Swedish furniture store inspires me greatly.

We went to Ikea on Saturday!

There are some things the greeters at the front should warn you about before you actually ascend the escalator into the heart of the store.  Things like, have you brought food and water?  Have you stretched properly?  Are you in shape enough to walk 4 miles?  Do you have heart problems?  Do you suffer from shopping overload?

Unfortunately, the greeters didn't convey these very important questions to us. 

Now, I had been to Ikea twice in my life before and to their website several times.  They have really cool, really affordable stuff.  I like Ikea stuff.  The two times I'd gone before, once with a friend to just walk through the store and get the Ikea experience, not to shop, and the other time with my two male apartmentmates to buy a desk and desk chairs, we'd been inside the Swedish Village (aka, Ikea) for, at most, an hour and a half.  No biggie right?

Apparently, three years causes the enormity of the store to fade away. 

I met Kelsey and her sister there at approximately 3:30 in the afternoon to browse around and maybe buy some stuff for the house.  We didn't really have a list of things we needed, we just wanted to look around some.  Well, I quickly remembered, you don't really just look around Ikea, then head out. 



Taken from this blog

They are really smart marketers, these Ikea folks.  They set all their furniture (and I mean all!) out in little room setups and apartment setups so people can see what they look like.  Then, they weave a maze through the store so you have to, quite literally, walk by everything before you can get out. 

Ikea's furniture is really snazzy, though, so for the first hour, I was enthralled.  Wouldn't this look great?  Oh, that is really cool!  Sweet, check out that clothes hamper!  They sell fridges?  Woah. 

After an hour and a half, I was starting to get a little weary.  The beds were beckoning to me for a nap.  Again, the Ikea people are smart though.  They put a restaurant at the halfway point!  What better way to get some energy, right?  We piled some food on our plates, well, dessert actually, chowed down, then set off with a new fervor in our hearts!

The fervor lasted until about 30 feet from the bottom of the stairs that led down from the restaurant.  At this point, it had been two hours.  My eyes had begun to glaze over.  The girls feet were turning to mush (they had already been to the zoo that day).  All the Swedish names of everything were starting to jumble together into one Swedish mass. 

Kelsey's sister had gone up ahead of us while we lingered around the picture frames.  For some reason, the frames began to move, twist, and take a new shape.  They formed hands that wanted to grab me and drag me into the picture.  Had there been some Swedish drug in my dark chocolate bar? 

Oh, wait, that was just a heart pillow with arms.  Carry on.

By the time we got to the checkout with our new house items (which were awesome by the way), we had hiked (yes, I do use that word on purpose) through the small Swedish city for over 3 hours.  Over 3 hours!  One store!  Madness, I say. 

Words for the wise when shopping at Ikea.
1.  Bring provisions
2.  Wear comfy shoes
3.  Don't bring small children (they'll get bored quicker than you and get into everything.  Trust me, we saw many examples)
4.  Don't have evening plans
5.  Finally, make sure you bring a strong husband along to carry the wife's purse

Finally, some serious Ikea advice:  shop online, pick out what you want first, then go to the store.  It'll save a ton of time!

Happy shopping!