Since my last post God has given me that greatest gift of joy. It's pretty cool that even through the times I think ought to be hard, He is able to give such joy in the journey. Of course, that goes up and down.

So now I have a job! I've been accepted for substitute teaching in one district, with many more pending, and so far I'm busy for four days in a row. I was able to spend three days in a row in the same classroom. The first day was great fun (incidentally, that day I knew I couldn't be a good sub so was relying on God very hard!), getting to know the kids, thinking on my feet, and playing (educational) games in free time. The second day was a hair-puller (incidentally, I had decided I could be a pretty good sub so was trying to stand on my own two feet). Today was another fun day -- I didn't have to prove myself anymore because I knew I could fail as a teacher and still go back, and I knew that sometimes subbing is fun, and I knew that God is with me no matter what. And the teacher gave me much more interesting lesson plans! Amazing how dependent you can be on a teacher...

Tomorrow I'm subbing again. They are absolutely out of subs in the district, so I was needed to go back to my fourth grade class but had previously agreed to fill a spot as Title I Math teacher in middle school. So... who knows who those kids will have for a teacher tomorrow.

Anyways, I have learned:
-- that subbing is great fun.
-- that it takes me about half a day to learn 14 names.
-- that 5-minute time-fillers are a necessity.
-- that the better you know the kids, the more likely you are to run out of time instead of to have extra.
-- that teaching is a big job and I am not always up to it!
-- that teachers have crabby days and should apologize regularly -- somehow without losing their authority.
-- that I am not a good enough teacher to have my students do worksheets. I could keep their attention as long as I was presenting something, but I am not that great at classroom management. However, a few tips:
* separation does wonders for certain chatty groups.
* making some kind of nonsensical award is very useful. Today we had the wet noodles and the dry noodles. Wet ones were the ones who talked when they were supposed to be quiet. The dry one (otherwise known as anti-wet) was the one who started talking and then, as soon as he saw my forbidding features, stopped mid-sentence.

I decided I need to do a better job of praising positives instead of scolding negatives. That's the story of my life right now I guess. If you can thank God for the good things it's much easier to love the place He's put you. And -- having something useful to do brightens my mood immensely. And -- maybe He's guiding about where I should stay. Because now, I actually have a choice. I hate choices. But I was offered a job at the Zuni Public Schools as a preschool teacher. So. Should I stay in the Northwest with my family and my ever-changing substitute position, or go Southwest and have a more stable job situation in a small town where I know almost no one (but I love the church! And I still miss my kids there!). He will guide, I'm sure. Yesterday I went to a Bible study. We learned about the story of Abraham's servant finding Rebecca at the well. God really guided quite amazingly there, when the servant went 450 miles by camel according to the wish of Abraham. His prayer for guidance, asking for a sign, was an encouragement to me. Sometimes I wonder if God really likes it when I ask for His guidance to "PLEASE, be VERY obvious!"

Anyways, thanks for your prayers, and most of all, thank you to God for helping me to begin to love this place. Did I mention that my drive to and from work is absolutely gorgeous?