It's quiet...

And that's a good thing.  We had a quiet weekend, and this week has started off pretty quiet.  It's good to start to get into a rhythm of things.  Jesse's getting used to his job on the golf course, and I'm getting more used to staying at home.  I kind of like it.
I must say though, seeing all of the teachers posting about getting their classrooms ready, and parents posting about the first day of school, it's been really weird for me.  This is the first time, since I started grade school, that I didn't have to get ready for school to start in any sort of way...  VERY strange for me, especially after teaching for 4 years.  But I'm ok with it.  I have been able to help Jesse with a few things that I've never been able to do before, because I was too busy with school.  It's amazing to think how much being a teacher completely consumes your life.  That is why I did not want to do that over here.  That's not what we came to Germany for.  So, needless to say, I'm enjoying a break :)
Things are going well with the church here.  We had an addition a couple of weeks ago.  One of the ladies at church gave birth to a beautiful baby boy!  But other than that, we've had several visitors come our way over the last few weeks.  Some have been family of some of the members, but others were new to the area, and looking for a church home.  It's always encouraging when you get visitors!
Also, I started to teach Bible class a couple of weeks ago.  There aren't very many kids at our congregation, but we have a few!  They had been doing one Bible class for the kids, combining all of the age groups.  But one family (who had 5 kids) left, and the Bible class has sort of been in limbo.  So we started it up again.  This time, we have 2 Bible classes for kids.  My friend, Amanda, is teaching the 3-4 year olds, and I am teaching the 1-2 year olds.  This has been a challenge.  I have 2 students.  Both of them are 1.  It has been difficult to 1) get them into the class without screaming 2) have any sort of curriculum or structure to follow.  As a teacher, it has been difficult to not have structure.  But I had to remind myself, they are babies and they will learn.  This past Sunday we had a breakthrough!  Both of them stayed in the classroom the whole time, with no parents!!!  One stayed in his chair, while I had to hold the other, but I was so excited!!!  So we are literally taking "baby steps", but we will get there!  I felt a lot better about the class after Sunday.  So tomorrow night, we will try it again!  I pray that it will continue to progress!

Love from Germany!

P.S.  I signed up today for a cake decorating class.  It starts in September and is 4 weeks (once a week).  I will be baking my own cakes and taking them to class to learn how to decorate them!  I'll let you know how I do!