Summer school is officially over. I'm so glad. I'm ready for a month off. It won't feel like that long because I have to prep my fall classes and I have to finish grading for this term, and so it's already whittled down to three weeks. And I'm having a garage sale . . .
The lovely university decided in an effort to cut costs to program the AC to turn off at 5:00 p.m. My night class (Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:00 to 9:30) was roasting every evening by about 7:00. I would stick it out till 7:30 mostly and let them do their workshopping or "in-class" writing out of class. Go home, put on pjs, turn up fan, do work then.
Tonight they came to my house for dinner. I had a bunch of corned beef brisket in the freezer (five, all point cut) and I put them in my big roaster. I made a pasta dish, a cucumber salad, pico de gallo and chips, 40 egg rolls, deviled eggs, rice Krispy treats in six flavors, another dessert made by putting Rolos on top of those little waffle looking pretzels in a 250 degree oven for four minutes then squishing a walnut down on top and making the warmed up caramel ooze out and make it all "stick" and yes, Carly looked at me last night and said really, you should be able to buy Rolos without wrappers, very tedious. Carly made macaroni and cheese and four loaves of beer bread (made with Rolling Rock) and a student brought a cake, another brought a big giant gob which is a Pennsylvania thing and ribs, and another student brought a chocolate cheesecake. It was a nice buffet.
One of my students is named Renea. She writes like a dream. She has five children ages 2-12. They are Ryan, Cheyenne, Ashley, Donald, and Katie. Her husband Mike came with her. I told her it was okay. They were adorable kids.
I was really taken with all of them. I had seen the baby before. Usually I am into the girls, and this was no different, but I liked her two boys a lot too. Ryan was hanging out with the adults. You know that age when the kids don't want to run around sugared up but would rather fringe around the adults and listen in on their conversations - he is right there on that cusp. A good looking young man.
The baby had a tow headed blonde ponytail and she finally warmed up and was running laps around my island all sugared up on strawberry rice Krispy treats. Donald had on a green shirt, and he was just a little mess. He just had a little sparkle about him. He was five but very tall. I thought he must be seven at first. He spotted the dogs' toy box and promptly went through it. The Chihuahuas have a rubber tarantula and two stuffed snakes (very small) from Ikea. I don't mind toy snakes, haha. Well, some of them are not good. These look like cartoon snakes. Not very realistic.
So Donald has the first one in his hand and he doesn't know I'm watching him and he turns it over and over checking it out, really studying the thing. All these college kids eating and talking and he is just amusing himself and giving in to his curiousity.
And I don't want you to take this wrong, but I love this boy's mother. It isn't like sisters or daughters or friends. But as a teacher, I have students I love. I have cried twice this semester reading Renea's essays. She moves me. She is good, and she works so hard. But it isn't that I love her because she is talented. I have other students who write well and I don't always even like them. Some of them are brats. But I have a handful of students that are wonderful.
Renea is one of those. I was looking at her kids and her husband, big dimpled guy going thin on top, and I thought oh Jehovah, let me find a way to witness to her. Let her like what I say. She wrote an essay about losing her dad. Let me tell her how she can see him again. Let her come into the truth and see these five wonderful babies live forever.
I'm so tired tonight. I'm getting too old to cook all day and clean all night and then write about it. I think most of the time that the new world, well, like a bad country song, if you're waiting on me you're backing up. I think I'm ready but I also make progress on some of my problems and I think well, you ain't as good as you thought you were. But I want a little more time in this system. I want to try to talk to Renea. I want my girls to get motivated. I want that little boy with the aspirin bottle full of dimes to live.
I do not want to regret that I didn't try harder to talk to someone about God's kingdom. I don't want to think about Renea telling me she's Catholic and get lost or something like that. I don't think she is from what I have observed, but with five kids, she might be. However, she is going to college to become an elementary school teacher because she likes little kids. But imagine the suffering if she doesn't get life, and her children don't get it along with her, because I didn't try.
So when I return her final portfolio, there will be a Bible teach book coming her way, and a YPA and a Bible Stories book.
We'll see. Jehovah wants me to try. I know, because Jehovah loves to give life. He is so generous with the gift of life. I think Renea would appreciate that with five kids. I want her to have her life forever. Wouldn't that be cool, to talk about how she came into the truth a million years from now?
In the meantime, I am tired. And I still have one more run of the dishwasher. Whew.
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