Posted on by Katie

Things On My Mind

Day’s Verse:
For even young people tire and drop out,
young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don’t get tired,
they walk and don’t lag behind.
Isaiah 40:30-31

As you’ve probably inferred from the pictures, earlier this week I cut off a significant portion of my hair. Not all of it; I think I would’ve gone into short hair shock if I’d bobbed it. Even so, my head feels lightweight now with the loss of 12″ of hair (I wonder how much it weighed?). I’m loving the new cut, and I have to give props to Woodroe Parker for giving me the best short hair cut I’ve had in years. Continue Reading >>

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Teaching Anxiety

Day’s Verse:
This third I will put into the fire;
I will refine them like silver
and test them like gold.
They will call on my name
and I will answer them;
I will say, ‘They are my people,’
and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’
Zechariah 13:9

Things are getting busy around here. My days of quiet down time are rapidly coming to a close as the Bicycle Alliance’s teaching grants really get underway. It’s looking like I’ll spend March through May intensively teaching bike classes to PE teachers — probably one class a week, which is a lot. Each class is 15 hours, and most of them will be in remote school districts way out in eastern Washington. I’ll be spending a fair amount of time on “business trips” for the Bike Alliance, spending a couple nights in places like Okanogan as I teach the two-day class. I’m not wild about this, but it’s only for a couple months. Most of all I’m actually nervous about teaching the classes. I’ve taught Traffic Skills 101 before, and feel moderately comfortable about that. But this class adds a whole different dynamic: The kids’ bike skills curriculum. We’re training PE teachers to teach a bike unit in their classes, and that bike unit is something I’ve never actually implemented myself. Back in September I spent a week in Spokane observing and assisting a PE teacher as she did the unit. But that’s very different from having done it myself. I’m no PE teacher, and I’m concerned that my being a bike person and not a PE teacher will undermine my credibility among my PE teacher students. Continue Reading >>

Posted on by Katie

Hair Today…

Day’s Verse:
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
Philippians 4:4

Yesterday I went to my first haircut in over a year. The guy measured my hair: 19 inches long, after cutting. I commented that I wondered how long it would get, and he said, “Oh, I’ve studied that. Coarser hair can grow longer than fine hair because the ends last much longer. The problem is that after years and years, the ends start splitting, so eventually the hair reaches an equilibrium between rate of growing at the roots and rate of breaking off at the ends.” (OK, he didn’t use ‘equilibrium,’ but that’s the general idea he imparted.) That said, he went on to estimate that my hair could probably grow down past my posterior, into the 36-inch range. Continue Reading >>