High Five for Friday

1. Today is my dear friend Emily's birthday.  A sassy, stylish, sincere woman of the Lord, Emily's heart has encouraged mine to seek, trust, and believe God.  Ours is friendship quite unique--she's over in Nashville doing production work, I'm here in Raleigh teaching high school.  We don't see each other much (like once or twice a year), but that's the real beauty.  It doesn't matter.  When we are together, it's easy, comfortable, rich.  I'm thankful for you Em.  Celebrating His creation of you and the gift that it is to have a friend who will gladly tromp through snow and stand in freezing temperatures just to see the site of Thoreau's cabin at Walden.

2. Watching the Superbowl with great friends on Sunday.  We ate delicious food (see Pioneer Woman's drip beef below), laughed at funny commercials (the Sketchers dog has my vote), and two of us took the DISC personality profile test (I apparently don't fit on any chart...I'm an "I" with high "D," average "S," with a smidge of "C").  Don't know what I'm talking about?  Me either.  I've resolved to do further exploring.  Ultimately, the end result of the Giants winning sat well with us all.  And the drip beef, well, it will have to be made again because it was absolutely that good.  Doesn't this picture make your mouth water? Michal and her slow cooker are to be commended...her husband Chris declared it was better than any restaurant's French dip.  After watching him finish his third sandwich, I believe him.

3. Lemon Poppyseed Sugar Cookies.  I made these for small group the other night, and Amber said they tasted like spring.  They were such I hit that I didn't even have any cookies left to photograph, so I'll post Mel's picture from her awesome food blog.

4. Teaching 1984.  I can't think of a better book to study in senior English.  Even though my students' minds are swimming in "doublethink," most seem appreciative of Orwell's frightening dystopia, and though at first glance a far-fetched conception, it becomes all too real when looking at our modern world's North Korea.

 

5. Meet the Teacher night has come and gone.  It's not exactly my favorite night of the year (imagine being at your workplace for 12 hours...and to be peppy and personable the last hour), but it's never as bad as I think it will be.  I also find it entertaining when I can easily match parent to student.  Some of my kiddos are carbon copies.