Just so you know

I have started a new blog to document my journey to India. There are many reasons for this, but one of the greatest being that I want to have a different feel to that blog than this one has. I have not decided yet what is going to happen to this blog after I leave for India. I have thought about keeping it for updates when I'm in the states (my sister's wedding etc) but I'm not sure. Part of me wants to just go ahead and end it when I graduate. I love this blog, it has been the perfect way to document my college experience and I would not delete it, but I also feel like it may be time to start something new for this next chapter in my life.

Until May, I will be posting on both blogs, so follow both :) and I will keep you updated about the future for An Everyday Tar Heel.

Go over to my new blog- Trading Ashes in For Beauty- and check it out!

I am so excited for what God has in store for me in the future and I look forward to sharing it with you! 

One of those weeks....

It has just been one of those weeks.

Cold and rainy. Indoor recess.

Sick again. I haven't felt completely well in months. I have just become used to having a runny nose. But this time my voice/throat were soar.

Teaching all day with a sore throat sucks.

I was tired and grumpy all week, so of course the kids seemed worse (at least worse than normal). I had very little patience for their nonsense, for the talking and the goofing off.

Math on Tuesday put me in such a funk that even reading Percy Jackson for 20 minutes afterwards couldn't lift me out of it. (Let me tell you, that is a serious funk)

Tuesday night at small group, we spent the evening talking about prayer and then praying for an extended time. As we were spending time confessing our sin, I thought back on the day- every word I said that was too harsh, every time I didn't have enough patience for a child, and so on. Cause that's what it is, sin.

Oh how I need God's grace for this every day, every hour. His grace to have patience when they just won't stop talking. His grace to have love even with those kids who sit on my last nerve. His grace to take the time to listen to them and not just rush off to the next thing. His grace to stay focused when I want to think forward to India plans.

Grace.

I want these children to see God's love through me everyday. I know that I am not always reflective of His love, but that is my desire and my prayer. That they would see Him when they look at me.


This week hasn't been all bad, of course.

My students have been rocking it out with the writing unit we have been doing. They had to do research on an environmental issue and then write a persuasive essay/paragraph trying to get their reader to do something to effect the issue. This is super hard, but they have been doing awesome! They also have made presentations about their issues and they did a really great job with this. We show the presentations for parents/friends tomorrow. I'm super proud of the work that they have done and I'm excited for their parents to get to see it.

We have also started a new reading unit where we are studying Greek mythology (hence reading Percy Jackson). I personally love mythology (although all my knowledge comes from reading Percy Jackson) but its so fun to learn about. I finally feel like I am contributing a lot to the other teachers on the team- this is my jam. I may not know a lot about teaching geometry, but I know mythology. And the kids are loving it. They are so into reading the Lightning Thief. When I stopped reading yesterday, they groaned, loudly. They are always asking me questions and begging to read ahead. They are also loving reading other books and learning more about the Greek gods and goddesses. All around, super fun.

All around, I don't think this week has been too much worse than other weeks. I have just allowed myself to feel overwhelmed and stressed when I didn't need to be. I am very ready for spring break and it is hard to know that my friends will be on break next week when I still have a few more weeks to go. But I will survive.

My time with these kids is drawing to an end. They were asking me if we could have a party on the last day of school and I laughed and told them that I would be India then. That's crazy. They will be finishing school and I will already have been in India for several weeks.

They are so cute when I talk about India. They ask so many questions and are so interested. I love it. They ask me to send them postcards and I tell them that I will, of course, send them something. (I will have to somehow remember to do that hmm...)

so this post is all over the place so I'm going to stop now. The good and the bad. That's what teaching is I'm realizing. Taking them both and learning to push through the bad for the sake of the good. I do love my kids and seeing them really get it is so exciting. And as much as they drive me crazy, I know that I am going to miss them so much.

(They have also been all up in my personal life lately...)

Here I go....

I've talked about it more than 4 years now...

Prayed about it, dreamed about it...

Each time I left, I looked forward to the day that I would get to stay...


Well, that day is coming. Very soon.

I have already told most of you this, but for those who haven't heard my exciting news...

I'm going to India!!!

(To stay this time!!)

I sent R an e-mail last fall saying, "I've been talking about moving to India for 4 years so I guess its time to do it now...."

I'm graduating in less than 3 months. That alone is ridiculously scary to me. 

I'll be leaving for 3 months in India a week and a half later. 

I used to joke about getting on a plane for India the day after graduation, I guess God took that joke seriously.

Here's what the next year is going to look like for me:

Graduate on May 12

Leave for India on May 23 (with an awesome team from Summit including my mom and brother!!!)

Team will leave India on June 2 (or something like that)

I will stay in India until the end of August.

K gets married on Sept 14(!!!!!!)

I will be around NC doing various things for a few months (more details on that as I have them)

Return to India sometime after Thanksgiving and stay for 6 months (so until about May)

This is more than I could have hoped or dreamed. God has been so faithful in providing a way for me to be in India. I am so excited to get to return and see all of my dear friends. I can't wait to introduce my mom to all my girls at the orphanage and show her and my brother around the place that I love so much. I can't wait to see my brother playing with the boys, they are going to love him! 

I have a lot to do in the next 3 months. I am already really busy with student teaching, but I know that God will provide all the time that I need to get ready. I will be keeping you updated on here about my journey as I prepare to go and raise support, etc. 

I am already getting together my support team (both financial support, but more importantly prayer support). If you would like to be on my support team and receive e-mail updates from me, please message me on Facebook or send me an e-mail as lsdroege@gmail.com. I am looking for people to choose one day of the month to commit to pray for me every month (stole this idea from a friend). If you would like to commit to pray for me, please let me know. I know that it will be encouraging to me this summer to be able to look at my calendar and know exactly who is praying for me that day.

Guys, I am so excited! I hope that you will join me on this crazy journey that God has set before me. It will be May 23 before I know it!! I can't wait!! 

Currently

I saw this post on a friend's blog and I loved it! I want to do update posts, but I get easily bored with the whole "High 5 for Friday" thing. So I think I'm going to start alternating between those type posts and this.

Without further ado, I am currently:

Reading more books than I can list probably. Just finished two kids books- When you Reach Me by Rebecca Stead and Wonder by RJ Palacio. I would definitely recommend both of them. (I keep thinking about adding book reviews on this blog and then forgetting about it). I am also reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, Revolution in World Missions by KP Yohannan, and (pretending to read) The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien. These books all take a long time and so I frequently skip to other books. I also read too many books at one time and don't focus very well. I'll hear about a book that I want to read and then go read it even though I'm in the middle of so many others.

Listening I'm not a big music buff, lately I've been listening to Mumford and Sons on the way to school or the Civil Wars. Other than that, I've been playing my Film Scores Pandora station while planning lessons or while the kids work in class. I love that that station plays Harry Potter music like every other song.

Eating I just made banana bread yesterday which is super yummy. I received more chocolate than is healthy from my kids on Valentine's day last week. Yummy but dangerous. I haven't yet figured out what my diet looks like with teaching and everything, I don't have a lot of time to cook, but last week I made a big pot of soup on Sunday and took that for lunch throughout the week and that worked great. So maybe I will do that again this week. We shall see.

Watching Doctor Who and more Doctor Who, with the occasional episode of Sherlock thrown in. Love to watch Doctor Who while writing lesson plans.

Running Bahaha this was one that my friend had (I took it straight from her blog for today),  um I wish I could say that I have been running. One of these days I will figure out how to exercise regularly with my schedule the way that it is.

Writing lesson plans and more lesson plans, but I've gotten really good at it!

Feeling: slightly overwhelmed, but less so than two weeks ago. Each week, I feel more capable as a teacher and more prepared. I'm still trying to figure out how to keep my life balanced and find time to do everything that I want to do.

Waiting for summer and all the big things that are to come. (stay tuned for some big announcements!!). (And for the next episode of Doctor Who)

Missing my friends and family in India.

Wearing Right now? Exercise pants and a hoodie while I write lesson plans for the week. Usually, figuring out what it means to "dress professionally" while still looking cute and like my own style. I think that I have figured it out :) Its a pain getting dressed sometimes, but its fun to find a new cute way to look like a teacher.

Wanting more free time, but loving the reason why I'm busy. Also, wanting the next episode of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries (check it out on youtube fantastic).

Needing grace upon grace for my kids everyday.

Learning what it means to truly love and have grace everyday. Also just how dependent I need to be on Jesus to be able to do anything. But also that I truly love teaching, as exhausting as it is and how much I miss lazy days and lots of sleep, I really do love teaching. I love my kids and co-workers.

Enjoying tea, Doctor Who, and lesson planning. And kettle popped popcorn for dinner.

Resting in the knowledge that God has his plans for me. 

Saying Good-bye

2 blogs in one night, so crazy! But I needed to process through something that happened this week and this seemed as good a way as any.

One of my students left us today. She just moved houses and is going to be going to a new school.

She had been talking about this coming for a while, but things fell through and then she was still here and then randomly she was all "I'm leaving this Friday" and now she is gone.

Her brother brought her by, she packed up her desk and left.

And that's it.

I will likely never see her again.


I'm not going to pretend like this particular student was a walk in the park. If you have heard me talk about student teaching at all, you have heard me talk about her.

She is difficult, she is sassy, she can be extremely stubborn and disrespectful.

Sometimes I honestly wanted to strangle her.

But I also loved her. She is honestly one of my favorites.

As rude as she could be, she could also be wonderful and fun. She is hysterical and crazy.

Most of all, she is so incredibly smart and has so much potential, if she would only just work hard and do her best.

I'm super sad to see her leave our class, but I am also just extremely worried about what is going to happen at her new school. In the wrong environment, without teachers willing to challenge her (both intellectually, but also stand up to her when she can be disrespectful), I am worried of how she could end up.

So much potential could be wasted.

And we had just been making gains. Two weeks ago, we had the worst week, but since then, we had been getting along a lot better. She was still herself, but I was finding ways to connect with her and get through to her.

And now she's gone.

I don't really have anything else to say, except that his whole thing just sucks. It sucks that our community is being thrown off, it sucks that she has to make this huge transition in the middle of the year, it sucks that she is going to be going to a pretty awful school, and it just all sucks.

And there isn't anything I can do about it.

I have to believe that God has a plan for her. That He knows what is going on here. That He is going to be with her and protect. That she will know that Mrs. S and I loved her and somehow that will have made an impact on her.

Her name is on a list with my other students on my mirror to remind me to pray for them. It will stay on that list.

I'm going to miss that crazy girl. 

Hive 5 for Friday

Another blog from me? Crazy I know! I really am going to try to blog this semester and one thing I want to do is the top 5 thing. So here we go:

5. Almost full-time teaching!!
I am gradually getting the hang of this teaching thing! It's been going well and each day gets a little easier. I absolutely adore my school and students, so even though its exhausting and stressful, I love it!

4. Taking the Praxis
Not exactly a high, but I'm glad that its over. I went and got it over with on Wednesday and I was exhausted and sick, but its done and that's all that matters really.

3. Super fabulous small groups
God has blessed me with 2 awesome small groups that I get to be a part of- the one I lead for college girls and the one that the Rudolphs lead for young professionals (I sort of count as a young pro). My college group is amazing! We have such a great group of girls and I love getting to lead and learn from them. I just feel like every week it just gets better!

2. Lesson planning with Michal and Sherlock
Wednesday night, I got to hang out with the always wonderful Michal Rudolph. Chris was out of town, so she and I ended up getting Moe's and watching an episode of Sherlock while I wrote some lesson plans (they were some awesome lesson plans). It was so wonderful getting to spend time with her, it had been way too long with her crazy life and me being so busy with school.

1. Defying Gravity
Not the Wicked kind, but the trampoline time. I actually just got home from jumping at Defy Gravity with the young pros small group. It was amazing! 1 hour of pure trampoline jumping. I am definitely going to be sore tomorrow, but it was worth it! I will definitely be going again!

Thanks for checking in!!


Also, on another note, here is one of my current obsessions. If you like Pride and Prejudice at all, you should be watching this youtube series, cause its AMAZING!!

I'm still here!!

Believe it or not, I am still here!!

I realize that it has been so long since I've posted that most of you either: don't remember who I am and why you follow me or no longer care.

But I am going to try to revive this blog!!

I'm pretty busy right now, but my life is getting really exciting and I want to be able to share it with all of you!

Here are some of the things that I am looking forward to in 2013 that you will get to hear all about:

1. Student teaching (already off to a start)

2. Graduating from UNC :(

3. Finally heading to India!! (for good or at least for longer!)

4. K getting married!

I suppose I could start calling her by her full name since she lives in the good ol' US of A again, but its more fun to call her "K."

Anyway, 2013 is going to be a big year for me (I realize that we are already solidly into 2013 and it is now February, but humor me). I really do intend on being more active on this blog. I have been lazy, uninspired and just downright lazy about blogging on here, but I do want to get back into the habit of it.

God has big things in store for me this year and I hope that you will join me on the journey!