The Fry Fairytale : Busyness and God's Grace

Again, here I am not believing how fast time is going by. I seriously can't believe September is almost coming to a close. I guess it's true that time flies when you're having fun ... or when you're extremely busy ;). But really, this last month has been fun, wonderful, and busy.

Because Erik and I both had somewhat of big changes {Erik mostly} this year, we both feel busier. I adore teaching Grade 1, but it is a change to my schedule and routine a little bit, so that has taken some getting used to. I am excited that my kiddos can actually do writing assignments, take spelling tests, and do homework, but it makes for more grading! :) Erik has been very busy getting the sports program underway and he is working hard on the PE curriculum as well as head coaching the basketball team. I am a proud wife for sure - he is definitely the best Sports Coordinator I know! With teaching, planning, grading, meetings, practices, tournaments, and emails to keep up with, sometimes I feel like I never see my husband. A few weeks ago, all the busyness hit me and I had a thought that this is how the whole year was going to be. Never seeing each other. Never spending any quality time {yes, I am dramatic and think NEVER when it's actually not never}. Thankfully, I have a WONDERFUL husband who knows how to love me and make me feel better. He has truly done an amazing job at balancing work and home. It is hard, and we are still working on it, but I am so blessed by a husband who cares for my needs and does his best to be the best husband he can be - and the best teacher/coach/co-worker he can be.

Besides having a husband who does such a good job of making me feel secure and loved during this busy time, I also have a wonderful Creator Father who has blessed us with many unexpected blessings this year. Since we started consistently going to our church {IES South} we have really wanted to join a life group. The opportunity presented itself again this year, and we felt led to join one. We have only met twice but man, have we been blessed by it so far. We get to go meet in a real house, enjoy fellowship with 6 other believers that work with us at school, and about 15 other believers of all different ages, from all different types of places. It is a refreshing and much needed night out during the week. At first, I was dreading adding "one more thing" to our list of things to do, but I can already see how the Lord is going to bless us and grow us during this sweet time of fellowship with our church family.

Each year we are also blessed by old friendships and new. I was so excited to come back this year to dear friends that we have worked with for 1-2 years now, and to meet new ones. I have said this before, but God has used my girlfriends these past 2 years to bless and encourage me in ways that I wasn't expecting. I am already being blessed by the sweet friends in my life this year and I am so thankful for them and how they also help me cope with the busyness. Not only do we enjoy investing in and spending time with our friends, we have already enjoyed spending time with our students. I am loving my Grade 1's and each day I fall more in love with them. I have also been able to spend some time with some Senior School girls which is really fun for me! :)

God is really oh so God to us. Even with the busyness of this year, I feel God's presence and I know he is working in our individual lives and in our marriage. A couple specific prayer requests:

~ Erik is overloaded with planning and organizing. He has a lot on his plate and sometimes feels like he doesn't have time to get it all done. He never complains about this (not even to me hardly) but I know he sometimes has a hard time not feeling stressed out. Please pray that he would feel the Lord's peace and presence as he continues to work hard at developing and organizing the sports and PE program. Pray for wisdom as he desires to balance working with all his heart, but making sure he leaves time for God, me, and relaxing :)
~ Pray for me as I continue to get in the swing of things with Grade 1. I am feeling great about how it is going so far, but please pray for me as I am learning new curriculum and trying to figure out the best way to help 6 year old's learn what they need to!
~ Pray for us as we are studying The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren with our life group. Please pray with us that we would be open to the Lord's plan for our life - especially at this time when we are praying about what he has next for us.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and love. We constantly feel them!

And of course ... I would never blog without pictures of some sort ;) So, here are a couple pics of my sweet kiddos!

In Science we have been learning about plants. We talked about their environment and then we took a little "field trip" to our school pool and observed the plants in their environment.