I must admit, even though I have some hard days teaching these little guys, there is a funny side to them that makes me laugh and keeps me going. Today I want to post a few of the comments that some of the children have made over the last few months. I hope it makes you smiles this snowy day:





























"My parents used to be fun when we lived in California, but now they are just organized!" Lya, age 5

According to Lya, the song 'I May Never March in the Infantry' goes like this: "I may never march in the cavity, shoot the actibany..."

The children were getting out the Chess/Checkers game we have in the classroom and one of the little boys called out, "Who wants to play Chest?"

Jake F. of K3 asked, "May I eat my bag of rainbow colors now?" (asking if he could have his bag of Skittles.)

There is a little girl in K3 by the name of Dhanvi. Lya told me, "I am so glad Zombie is going with me on the field trip. Zombie in my friend."

A few of the boys were arguing about who was going to be last in line. Apparently, it is a great honor to bring up the rear. "Who's turn is it to be the booster?" they finally asked me. It took me a few minutes to realize they were trying to say 'caboose.'

I have two girls in my class and the rest are boys. One of the girls, who's name is Soane, wrote her name as Sane on one of her papers (see pic above.) I later mentioned it to Joe who stopped by for lunch that day. He asked Soane, "So, is your name Sane or is it Soane?" She gave him a funny look and said, "I am Soane, not Sane!"

One afternoon during art, I noticed some blue stuff all over one of my boy's chairs. I touched it, smelled it, and thought, "Whatever it is, it smells sweet like peppermint candy." I asked Jake what he had eaten or gotten into. He gave me this guilty look and did not want to answer. Upon further investigation, I found it was on his pants, another chair he had sat in, plus all over the bottom of his shoe. "I need to know what this is," I demanded. "You won't get mad?" he asked. At this point I was desperate. I needed to know for the sake of all of us. "No, just show me what this is." He led me out of the room and into the boy's bathroom. That was when I noticed that in each urinal there was a blue pellet for odor control. My heart sank. I had touched that stuff??? A small footprint was right in the middle of one, and then a clump, plus lines of shoe markings all over the floor, obviously made as he tried scraping the stuff off. I followed the blue footprints and they led out the door and back and forth all over the hallway rug, right to the classroom. Now I know what he does in the hallway as we wait for him to return every bathroom break! What a nasty thing to have to clean up at the end of the day, but one lesson learned was this:  just because something smells sweet and pepperminty, do not assume it is candy or something good to eat. BLAH!

I have plants in my room. My Goldfish plants loves water so I have been making sure it always has lots of water. Lots of moisture means bugs...Joe told me they are fungus gnats. Well, these little things like to fly around your head as you work, talk, and eat. One day I was teaching the children and I noticed one of these things fly by my face. Next thing I knew it was in my throat and I was choking on the horrible lump that would not go down no matter how much I swallowed or drank water. The children all stared at me with wide eyes, wondering what was wrong with their teacher. I finally explained what had happened and one of the boys quickly covered his mouth with his hand. "I am not going to talk anymore today! I don't want to eat a bug!" The next day we saw another one go by and the same boy said, "There goes another bug for you to eat, Mrs. Simmons." I told him it was his turn, but he said they were all for me. Nice.

     I do not like to make New Year's Resolution. I have made them in the past and tried to follow through with them, but I usually wound up throwing in the towel after the first couple of weeks. One of the reasons why I do not like to make resolutions is because I feel terribly guilty when I break them. So, I was set to begin this new year with nothing new. I was determined to not make a resolution so I would not have to fail in completing my goal. Yet, the Lord had other plans for me. It is hard to fight His leading when He lays something on your heart. This is how it came about:
     I had gone to visit my grandmother the first Saturday in January, with the hope to visit with my older brother while I was there also. Ever since he could drive, it has been our yearly tradition to go visit my grandparents together during Thanksgiving. Things changed after my grandfather passed away the February before I was married, plus the fact that once I was married things changed quite a bit too. I moved four and a half hours away from my family and I could not just up and go whenever I felt like it, yet Joe has been very good about letting me go visit my grandmother, encouraging me to go as often as I can lately because my time with her is precious. 
      I reached my grandma's house and walked in to find my brother greatly disturbed by circumstances back at home in Vermont. It has not been easy for my family during the last few months. My dad has been battling an aggressive skin cancer for the past year or so and my older brother has been doing a lot for my mom and dad, making sure they have enough wood for their wood stove, taking out the garbage, shoveling the piles of snow that keep coming down this year...normal winter things that Vermonters do. He has also been taking care of his wife who is battling MS, and I saw how weary he looked that morning. He ended up leaving after fifteen minutes, due to frozen pipes back at his house and other things he had to deal with, but not before I gave him his birthday cake and presents I had brought. I was disappointed we did not get to visit more. We always enjoy laughing and talking with my grandma, talking about old times and funny things that happened in our lives. It was not to be that day, though I did enjoy a wonderful time with my grandmother. But my heart was heavy that entire day as I thought about Ryan driving those five hours back home. My two hour trip home that night was spent in prayer for my loved ones. I kept praying and asking the Lord what I could do being so far away. I do not like being so far from my family, but this is where God has placed me and He wants me to be content here and do His will. It was then that the Lord impressed on my heart that since I love to write, I needed to do something with that. I began thinking about how many people there are out there who are struggling with family issues, sickness, financial hardship, job insecurities, you name it and there is someone having a hard time. The idea came to me that I should write a letter a week, mailing it out every Monday morning to someone who needed encouragement and a Scripture verse to keep them going. The more I thought about it, the more excited I became. With 52 weeks in a year, that would mean 52 letters going out to 52 different people. That seemed doable. And so I went home and wrote my first letter to my brother that Sunday afternoon. A week later the mother of a little boy in my class collapsed at work and was sent to the ER when she was not responsive for a few minutes. I felt the Lord leading me to send them my second letter. I do not know if they are Christians. They do not go to our church, or any other church that I know of, but seeing that they are sending their son to a Christian school I figured they would be open to hearing some Scripture. It was Tuesday morning when the father came in and thanked me for my letter. He said his wife cried as she read it and was greatly encouraged. I know I was encouraged to hear that God had used my words to help them in their trials. It was also that same night that my brother wrote to me and thanked me for encouraging him and helping him realize that the things on this earth are minor compared to the things of the Lord. It made my heart sing to hear my brother say those words. It was less than a year ago that he got saved and his life has changed completely. What joy it is to see him grow and become a new person in Jesus! 
     So my resolution has become my 2014 mission:  to write 52 letters (or more!) to different people who the Lord lays on my heart. I have so many names that I wonder if I should write more letters a week. Are you struggling today? Maybe the Lord will lay your name on my mind and you will find a letter in your box this week. Are you going through a time with minor struggles in your life? Maybe it is your turn to send someone a letter to encourage and build them up. Let's fill the mail with lots of letters and keep on building each other in the Lord.