Plants, passion, and peace in a new season

Life is Bangkok has settled back into its usual routine, which somehow has a distinctly different flavor every semester. I've never before lived in a place where the daily pattern of my life changes so much every few months, sometimes with little rhyme or reason. I might run every Saturday morning for a few months, and then stop. Or maybe I see a particular friend regularly for a year, and then we come back and never quite pick back up again. I go through streaks with which grocery store I prefer, or do I like the market better (weekend market or Ram 2?) or do I not even want to cook at all? Part of the fluctuation is just the nature of the expat life, part of it is the ebb and flow of this particular community, and part of it is just me and my come and go self. Since certain parts of my life naturally become so regimented, maybe the changes are the way I manage to survive without living in an enormous rut. Either way, my "new normal" normal life seems to have returned. 

What does that mean for this seaon? Well, as mentioned in a previous post, one thing it means is plants. Green plants, flowering plants, and edible plants. I've been working on the green plants for years, and a few of them flower on and off, but this is the first time I've tried actual flowers. So far, they are alive and well and I have plans to add a second pot of them. My veggies- tomatoes and radishes- are also doing well. My seedlings have grown into small plants. The radishes will take just a few weeks to mature, but the tomatoes are much slower. They're in small pots acclimating to the great outdoors right now. Next week I'll move them to full sun and wind, and then later to their permanent home large pots. 

Another aspect of this season has been a renewed passion for the missional side of my job. In part, that comes from teaching Bible this year. In part, it comes from having 13 little sponges, I mean four year olds, in my class. They love to learn about God, to sing praises to his name, and to pray. One of my favorite moments of the whole year (all 25 days of it so far) was at the end of the day when we were all packed up and doing a fingerplay while we waited for the bell to ring. One student raised her hand and asked if we could "do the one where we go like this (folds her hands) and talk to Jesus. Why yes, yes we can!  Another student interrupted calendar time last Friday to ask where God got all his power. Who gave it to him? Try answering that one in language that a four year old understands!  

I have also really been enjoying cooking lately. I've slacked off considerably this week, but was doing well until now, which means I have my freezer well stocked for these days when I'm too lazy to cook. This past weekend I baked bread and blueberry muffins, then a friend dropped off some banana bread, so I had baked goods coming out of my ears. Luckily, I found some people who were willing to take some of those muffins off my hands :) 

This has also been a season of lovely Saturday mornings spent with my friend and her kiddos. We will often meet at the school and talk while we watch the kids swim or play. Being nearly 3 years old, their new favorite activity is to go to Tee-Tee (Aunt) Clare's room and play. We are pretty okay with whatever keeps them occupied while we chat and drink our coffee. We don't make it every Saturday, but we've done it often, and it is always precious when we do. 

Oddly enough, given some situations going on around me, this has also been a time that I would describe with the word peace. Perhaps my heart is finally beginning to trust God and, I hate to even type it, let it go (cue the music...). It's no secret that I am a bit of a control freak. My brain knows that God is soveriegn, that he alone holds my life in his hands, and that he does in fact, want and know what is best for me. My heart has always been slow to believe it, leading to a great deal of worry and anxiety and stress. I don't know what the difference is, if I am just tired of fighting or if the daily ritual of watching one particular tired student fight against sleep at nap time has allowed things to click at a deeper level. Either way, I'd say this is a time that has been characterized by peace, and I am grateful. Tough days and tough decisions lie ahead, but I've been able to resist stressing about them now and just leave them in God's hands. I know; I'm a little slow on the up take. 

Wow, I finally wrote a blog post that wasn't entirely about K4! I am reclaiming my life! It's just cause we're having so much fun that I can't help but write about it. But it does in fact feel good to be working normal hours again and getting my life back! 

Blood, sweat, tears, and a few little green sprouts

Blood: we had our first dripping/gushing blood in K4C this week. Luckily it was only a bloody nose and it stopped fairly quickly. Bloody noses I can handle. Open gaping flesh wounds? Not so much. Praying we don't end up with any of those! 

Sweat: our morning recess is shady and cool, but lunch recess is like a little sauna. It doesn't help that we eat in an open air cafeteria so I'm sweating even before I get to recess duty, as even the shade at midday is somewhat miserable. My poor little kiddos are soaked after ten minutes. We don't stay out much longer than that and there's usually a gaggle of them following me around waiting for me to ring the bell for the last minute or two. They are sometimes resistant to drinking water earlier in the day, but no one resists when I make them get drinks after lunch! 

Tears: my morning drop off criers have pretty much stopped, but we still get some tears throughout the day from bumps on the playground or tired frustrating moments during wake up or things like that. No one has cried in time out yet, and I totally expected them too. My TA told me my time outs aren't scary, which they aren't supposed to be, though they seem sufficiently effective so far. Come to think of it, no one has gotten time out during recess yet, so maybe that's when the tears will come...

Sprouts: I've been getting more into gardening in the last few years and have enjoyed visiting my brother's community garden in New York and seeing what he grows at his apartment as well. So this summer I bought some seeds because hey, if he can grow tomatoes on his fire escape in New York, I should be able to grow them on my balcony in Bangkok, right? This week I planted tomato and radish seeds and they just started sprouting🌱. I'm so excited to get them into pots and watch them grow. And then of course, to eat them. I have some sugar snap peas too, but I wanted to try these first. 

Tomato sprout 

Radishes! Maybe not my favorite veggie, but they're supposed to be easier to grow than most of the others and I like them well enough, especially if they're from my own garden ❤️

The First Week

LOne week down, and so far K4 is everything I hoped it would be. My students are delightful. They range from shy and sensitive to spunky-spitfire independent, from well trained little listeners to 'what? you want me to sit down?'. Some look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them to draw a picture of themself, others have practically mastered the objectives of K4 already. They are excited, giggly, impulsive, silly, talkative, stubborn, eager, insistent, adorable, emotional, hilarious, and all the other things a 4 year old ought to be. When we went to the big auditorium for chapel yesterday, the chairs kept folding up on half of them because they aren't big enough to weigh it down. The little one next to me held her blankie. It's been awesome. 

I've been so impressed with how quickly they are catching on to the classroom routines. The one transition that we are really struggling with is entirely my fault and not theirs- we haven't yet found a "come in from recess signal" that is loud enough for them to hear during the craziness of lunch recess. They're great at lining up after morning recess, but it's much calmer and quieter then so they can hear. Well, that and some of them really don't like waking up after nap time, but hey, who does? 

As expected, the first week brought tears, snot, vomit, and blood, but it also brought lots of laughter and smiles. Their favorite activity is a brilliant "game" called Mokey See, Monkey Do. I say, "Monkey see, monkey do, I can ________, how about you?" and fill in the blank with all kinds of things- wiggle, jump, touch my toes, act like a dinosaur, etc.  The brilliant part is, the last line of the game is always 'line up' or 'sit quietly' or whatever else I need them to do at that time. For a movement break or a transition, it works like a charm :) 

There are things I miss about middle school for sure- the quirks of preteens and young teens, being able to send a kid to fill my water bottle for me, their independence, the five minutes between classes when I can actually use the bathroom- but plenty of my kids have been stopping by after school this week to say hi or waving vigorously at me when they see me on their way to PE, drama, or play after lunch (all of which require them to walk by the elementary building). They change so much over the summers that some of their names escape me when I first see them, especially those I haven't taught in a few years. I miss my middle school colleagues and the swagger of the 8th graders who think they rule the world, but I am comforted by a great K4 team and my new kiddos and being so busy during the day that it just flies by.  I'm glad I made the switch. 

As my days have begun to find their way back to routine, the homesickness has come too. Pictures of my family enjoying time in northern Michigan, videos of my nephew laughing hysterically, reports about how my Grampa is doing- while I want them and welcome them, they also make me miss people. It's the never ending struggle of my life and my job- my heart scattered across the globe. But as I sit with my tea and look at my balcony garden and the trees and city beyond, I know I am where I am supposed to be right now. God is faithful.