Just Trust Me

 Last week, I was following my daughter's car to their new home. It was a gorgeous day and she was doing a wondeful job of driving and not losing me as I drove my little Smart car at speeds of 70 mph down a major highway. My Smart can keep up with the Big Boys. About halfway through the trip, she called me and said she'd like to stop at the next Cracker Barrel. It's a nice place to change the baby, use the restroom and grab lunch. I reeeeeaaaaallllllly had to go to the bathroom, so I said the sooner the better. Her little baby was being very good, so she wanted to keep driving just a little further to the Cracker Barrel. I did some wiggling in my driver's seat and kept right on following. Hmmmm, The Cracker Barrel was in the town of a dear friend whom I hadn't seen in about 10 years.  I thought it sure would be nice to see Suzanne, but we didn't have time today and I didn't have her phone number with me. Oh well, maybe next time. We arrived at the Cracker Barrel, I jumped out of my car and scurried to the ladies room as my daughter got the baby and baby stuff out of her car. When I came out of the restroom, my daughter and baby were just coming in the front door of the store. I held the door for her and then looked to my left. I said to my daughter, " Is that Suzanne?" " I don't know", she replied. So I walked over with baby and my daughter, the lady looked up and started to say, "May I help you", but in that instant saw me and said, " Debbie!!!!!!" What is amazing to me is that God knew all along where we were going to stop. I didn't even know Suzanne worked at Cracker Barrel. It was God's doing totally. It was as if He were telling me, " I know you want to see Suzanne. I know you don't have much time. I have everything covered. Just trust Me." Also, on the way home from my daughter's two days later, I stopped and got to visit with my friend for one more time. Yep, she was working the same hours that day too. Thank you, God, for being concerned for such little things in our lives. It is in the little things that cause me to realize how much You love me and how very near You are each and everyday.

Spelling Words

Next week I will once again be the Spelling Mistress for grades 0ne through five. I have a list of words to go over before then. Some are words I have used most of my life. Others, on the other hand,are ones I have never heard of before. My husband has a much better vocabulary than I have. For many of the words, I just ask him , "What does this word mean?" He will then tell me and look it up just to be sure he is correct. There have been several words that even he didn't know. The second part of being a spelling caller-outer-of-words is to use the word in a sentence prior to having the child spell the word. This can be tricky when I'm unfamiliar with the word. Here are a few examples: gelid, moue, shallop, hawse,teetotum and jimjams. I didn't have a clue as to the meaning of these words. My husband knew one and for another he knew an older definition of the word. I have penciled in some sentences to use for the more difficult words and will remind the child to say the word, spell the word and then say the word again after it is spelled. The whole goal for these s-p-e-l-l-e-r-s is to just do their best. Some of the younger students get so worked up before and during a Bee that they will cry if they miss a word. I definitely don't want to see these little ones upset about missing a spelling word. There are a slew of brilliant people who can't spell. So, spelling is not a measure of intelligence. However, what spelling bees do do is give kids confidence in speaking before an audience. In addition to this, the bees help them to figure out the parts of the word and their meaning which aids in spelling the words. Finally, for the spellers and for me, our vocabulary is increased. Let's relax and spell with enthusiasm, kids! Hey, here's a little word history of enthusiasm -( theos, god.) "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm," said the very quotable Ralph Waldo Emerson, who also said, "Everywhere the history of religion betrays a tendency to enthusiasm." These two uses of the word enthusiasm-one positive and one negative-both derive from its source in Greek. Enthusiasm first appeared in English in 1603 with the meaning "possession by a god." The source of the word is the Greek enthousiasmos, which ultimately comes from the adjective entheos, "having the god within," formed from en, "in, within," and theos, "god." Over time the meaning of enthusiasm became extended to "rapturous inspiration like that caused by a god" to "an overly confident or delusory belief that one is inspired by God," to "ill-regulated religious fervor, religious extremism," and eventually to the familiar sense "craze, excitement, strong liking for something." Hmmm, I wonder if you can spell "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"? By the way, I wonder what it means?