It's time for the new Fall-Winter Wishlists!

Here are just a few sneak peeks!

The new Metropolitan baskets come in three sizes and are available in five colors.

    

We have a new Low Bowl Basket and large and small Low Bowls that work well together for your favorite snacks.

And...The newest color in pottery-Chocolate!  Such a rich and beautiful color... and no calories!

Shop With Me anythime at

www.longaberger.com/sandrahuling

There's a World Out There!

I am discovering a little more each day that there is a whole other world out there. A world of people who drive cars and go shopping and stop at post offices at all times during the day! During the day!!! For someone who has spent all of her time on a school schedule since I went to kindergarten, that comes as a real shocker! Sure, people have hinted about it, but I am just now seeing it firsthand. Days off from school and summer vacation are different.  All of us "school people" are off then.  Did you know that some people can go in to work at different times and leave at different times??? Some even go out for lunch or leave to get coffee or go to the bank...during work!!! And they can go grocery shopping when the stores and parking lots and aisles are not packed solid. And they are not even looking over their shoulders to see if someone they know sees them and might asked why they are not at school...er...work???



This retirement thing is a real learning experience.  I keep thinking, "I shouldn't be out during the day!!!"  Any fellow teachers feel the same way?  My guess is "Absolutely Yes!"

Old habits are hard to break! :)

Favorite Hymns

Facebook fans rank favorite hymns - UMC.org

What are your favorite hymns? Facebook fans were asked that recently. Below is the list that was compiled form the results. Do you know these hymns? Some are new and some are old.  Can you sing them and/or hear them as you read this? Do you agree with the choices? The rankings?


Anyone who knows me knows that I probably know them all, can hear them all, and am probably singing, humming or whistling them all day. Yes! These are all a part of my story. I like a lot of them. I love some of them. And I absolutely detest one of them.  Many of you know which one that is! ;-)

But, they are all part of the story. Each one speaks to someone in a specIal way. One of them was the first one in the old hymnal and another is the first in the current one.  One was a favorite of both my mother and her mother.  One was a favorite of my other grandmother.  Two of these will always connect me to two specific pastors. One takes me to a cousin's wedding. One should be sung in Spanish.  One takes me back to my first summer camp experience-and it's not one you might suspect.  Two of them immediately transport me to that special mountaintop not too far away. 

Tell me about yours.  What hymns are your favorites?  If you know these, sing them!  If you don't know some of them, listen to them and learn them.  Find someone who knows them and share and sing them together.  Some you may like.  Some you may not.

Keep singing!

Top 20 Favorite Hymns (Actually it is 22 with the two ties listed!)


1. Here I Am, Lord
2. How Great Thou Art
3. Amazing Grace
4. Hymn of Promise
5. In the Garden
6. Lord of the Dance
7. It is Well with My Soul
8. Be Thou My Vision
9. Great is Thy Faithfulness
10. Blessed Assurance/Because He Lives (tie)
11. The Old Rugged Cross
12. Holy, Holy, Holy
13. For a Thousand Tongues to Sing
14. Spirit Song
15. Victory in Jesus
16. Pass It On
17. What a Friend We Have in Jesus
18. Christ the Lord is Risen Today
19. Lord, You Have Come to the Lakeshore
20. Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee/Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing (tie)

Third Thursday Book Club: September 16

The first meeting of the Third Thursday Book Club will be on September 16 at 7:00. Thank you to Pastor Beth for starting us all off.


We have chosen for the September book an American classic that has its 50th anniversary this year-To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird was Harper Lee's only novel, but one that captured the country when it was published and is still greatly loved and admired today. If you have read it in the past-maybe in school- or you have never read it before, please join us in reading it this September and join us, if you can to discuss it.




Here are some things to think about:
What has made this book so popular for fifty years?
What does it say about America, its history, its people, its values?
Why does it continue to be popular across generations?
What is it about this "first novel" that makes it so unique?
Does it reflect the way things really were in the America that Harper Lee captured?
What is it that makes this a "teaching novel" as well as a good read?

And here is a peek at the rest of the year's books!

Surviving My First Official Day!

Yes! I did it! I have made it through the first day that I really know that I am retired-a clerical day. Yes, I did awaken without an alarm before 5:00 AM. Old habits are hard to break. Actually, I, like most other elementary teachers, have put in many more "clerical" days than we have ever been paid to do. That's just the way it is with elementary teachers! ;-) Elementary teachers spend many more days and hours and money on their rooms than teachers at other levels. All of my years have never proved that wrong. We spend our time away from the classroom planning ways to make our classroom the best that we can offer to our students. The room arrangement…finding just the right books to put out for the first day…putting names on everything…making sure that the birthday pencils and stickers are ready! And as someone once said, elementary teachers teach students, not subjects. Our love of teaching encompasses not only our curriculum and standards but the more important part of educating the whole child. And often that teaching occurs as a child tells you about a softball game the night before or the new baby sister or the tooth that is not quite ready to come out but will be the center of attention until it does. Those moments are as important in the life of a child as the many hours of instruction. Those are the moments that I will be missing…a lot! :)  But, as for today, the “rare” Clerical Day and tomorrow, the "not so rare" In Service Day, I will not be missing those.



For my friends who continue to touch the lives of children on a daily basis, I wish you the most wonderful and satisfying year. You will find that they pass by quicker than you can ever imagine! But they will make a difference in your life and in the lives of so many children-some differences you may come to know and others that you never know. But never forget that if you love teaching, you are doing the job that you were called to do. Never doubt it. Enjoy!

And for those, like myself, who are now among the "retired", there is no such thing as a retired teacher.  That's only a term some people use.  We are teachers.  We always have been and always will be.  For when you are called to do something, the call is forever.  And I, like you, am forever grateful to have been called!

Look what's available this month!

Visit the NFL Shop for some great Steeler baskets

...oh...and yes...other NFL teams! ;-)

The 1 pint crocks will retire at the end of August.  Only $15.  Stock up for holiday giving.

I love the  appetizer plates.  Mine arrived this week.  They are a great size!

Shop With Me anytime at

www.longaberger.com/sandrahuling

On Teaching

I like this quote from John Steinbeck...

"I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit."



Thank you, John!