How was your day?

Our computer got a virus and was doing some awful things for the last few days. I'm grateful to our friend, Ian, for fixin her up. John got home safely from California and met me at the Trevor Hall show at Vaudeville Mews in Des Moines Tuesday night. We had a great time, and we ran into Rick and Ann Long, whose son, Adam, is in college in Oregon and told them to go. It was a wonderful show and worth the scary drive. Sadly I heard on the news the next day that a 40 year old woman died on that same road at 7:00 after her truck slid down a ditch. That makes me think that maybe I shouldn't risk my life to go to a concert. Trevor, Chris, and Mario signed a drum that I got from Paul, who makes Michael Franti and Jaden's stomp boxes, and it looks great. I haven't decided if I'll put it in the silent auction for the benefit event in April or give it to John for his birthday. I heard that my cousin, Jonathan, was also in a car accident and that his blazer flipped down a ditch and landed on the roof. How scary. I thank God that they are alright. Today I had the interview with my student, Klyne, and Andrew from the Times Republican, and I learned a lot about Klyne during our lunch together. I would like to eat lunch with my students more often. I took one of my classes to the auditorium today to listen to eight students compete in the Poetry Outloud competition. I wasn't sure if my students would like it, but when I asked them if they were ready to go they wanted to wait until they heard their favorite poem, Jaborwaki, and many of them said they felt inspired by the contestants' abilities to memorize and be theatrical. I'm glad I chose to take them. No other classes attended. Mara and I went to my student, Patrick Youd's, house last night to help him and his mom better understand how to study. I hope that my home visit will motivate him to try harder. We went to the nursing home afterwards, and many of the residents were watching an old black and white movie on the big screen tv. There is a lady named Levern that Mara calls Loverburn. It makes me giggle, and Levern seems to enjoy it too. We went to Wal Mart to buy some pop for the carnival, and Mara spotted a mom of one of her classmates from preschool and yelled "Hi Sebutia's mom!". I'm interested to see if that is really the young boy's name. The woman who was behind the cash register as we were paying had very large breasts, and when we started to walk away, Mara whispered to me, "That's just the way God made her, right mom?" I was proud that she didn't say anything embarrasing to the lady and that she knew that we're all made differently but beautifully. Usually I ask the kids how their day was as we're driving home from Kyle and Melissa's, but yesterday Mara piped up and asked it before I had a chance. She's learning quickly. Chloe is studying Luke 6:27-31 about being kind to even those who aren't kind to you or who steal from you. It's an excellent verse that we all need to remember. Tuesday we were snowed in and didn't have school, and the kids played well together and were very creative and productive. It took Mara an hour to make her 18 Valentines, and she was very proud of herself. I'm excited to hear about her party today. I found two more musicians to join the line up for The Market event in April. Seth Doud and Nick Beard are going to join the stage to help raise money and instruments and art supplies for youth programs in need. I hope that the people of Marshalltown will step out of their routine and attend the event, and that it is a fun and fruitful night. I hope that the student who stole my favorite fedora hat will return it, and that he and I can have a meaningful conversation about treating others how we wish to be treated. I pray that Robin's husband, Alberto, enters Haiti safely tomorrow to distribute more supplies. I pray that the family in a rural town near Chariton where there was a shooting last night can recover from the incident and be healed emotionally and physically. I pray that my cold is taken away and my voice restored. I pray that families take a minute every night to ask each other about their day. I pray that people attend tomorrow's carnival and leave feeling a brighter spark for spending quality time with their family, eating, playing, praying, reading, and laughing together.