Josh, Kelly, Everett, Emery, Atticus & Boo

Follow our day to day life through marriage, work, raising twins, and so much more. This is our Life As We Know It...

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

What is Christian Spirituality?

Lately I've been starting off my day by listening to the Podcast of the Village, of sermons that we've missed. http://www.thevillagechurch.net/podcast/index.html

Today's message (from May) really touched my heart. It was from the Village Core Values series. The whole sermon was on different ways people express their spirituality, or gifts. This is something that is really close to Josh and I. It's really important to both of us that we are doing something that is for the good of others and will make an impact on someone, whether this be through our job or just our everyday lives.

The whole time I was listening to the talk, I kind of just sat back and smiled, thinking how funny the Lord is. Throughout the course of this summer break, I've really been thinking about my kids at school and myself as a teacher. The whole reason I've ALWAYS wanted to be a teacher was because of my love for children and hopefully the impact I could have on their life. Now, I'm not going to lie, those are two things that sometimes during the school year I need to be reminded of. But on those tough days, I always just try to take a step back and watch my kids and remember why I do my job.

This past year this was something that I had to do quite often, due to a certain student. This student was someone that would lie, oh about 10 times a day, to my face. Bold face, look me in the eye, lie. He would steal, my things and the students. He would cheat, not even off the smart kid. And he would torment the other kids. All of these things, made it really difficult at times to love him. But in the end that was all he needed and wanted, and JUST the reason I had been saying I was a teacher. For these moments. It was at that realization, that I was truely able to see what my role was, what my "gift" was. I needed to love him, hug him, and care for him in the way that the Lord would. And I knew that this was something that he was not going to get anywhere else, therefore if I was the only way he would see the face of the Lord, then that was my job.

So I guess, that's the reason the message today hit me so hard. I've already been thinking about ways that I can let Christ shine through me as my students teacher. And really I think this will change my whole attitude as a teacher and the attitude of my class. To love my students, the best way I know how, as Christ did.

Ephesians 4:15-16
"Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows, and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."

Friday, July 11, 2008

It's been a while...

So obviously it's been forever since I've posted. Since it's now summer time, and I have time on my hands, I've decided that I'm going to try to get in the habit of blogging on a regular basis so hopefully come the school year, it'll be a habit....Phew..that was a mouth full!

What have the Widener's been up to since November, you might ask. Well let me try to recap :


  • As many of you already know, this past year I taught 4th grade. The previous year I had taught 3rd grade, so I had about half my previous class this year. This really was such a blessing! It was 10 less kids that I had to get to know and 20 less parents that I had to win over. So great! This being the case, our wedding was extremly important to them. We got engaged at the end of my 3rd grade year, so these kids felt like had been with us through it all. So I really wanted to do something special for them, that had to do with our wedding. My great principal and I decided to a "mock wedding." I sent out wedding invitations to the kids, Josh wore his suit and I wore my wedding dress, the kids dressed in their "Sunday Best", and we cut cake. It turned out so wonderful! I think the kids really enjoyed it!

  • Our first married Christmas! When we planned a Fall wedding, I really hadn't even thought about the fact that Christmas would sneak right up on us. I LOVED it! It was such a special Christmas for us. It's so nice that both our parents live in Flower Mound so we didn't have to run all over the place to see everyone.









  • For Christmas, we decided to get a puppy! Josh & I both love LARGE breed dogs, so have always talked about getting a Great Pyrenees or Newfoundland. Well, a couple days before Christmas I was browsing the web and found the Texas Great Pyrenees Rescue. They had just had a litter of pure breed Pyrenees dropped off. We were in luck! So without telling Josh I filled out the application, and the next day got a response. I really didn't think we'd hear from them, so that's why I hadn't bothered to tell Josh. ( He would have gotten to excited) So we talked to the people, and they said we could go pick out the puppy that we wanted. Long story short...we went and looked at them one night, and after playing around with them, Josh wanted the biggest one. He was so cute with little gray ears. So that night we came home with Atticus.



  • Josh turned 28 on Feb. 17! Yes I know he is old! We went out and celebrated with our good friends John & Alex at Fireside Pies. Yes I chopped of my hair, so cliche I know "Get married and chop off all your hair." It really wasn't planned though :)













  • I finished up teaching 4th grade. In Feb, my principal told me that I would no longer be in 4th grade, I would be going back to 3rd. This was such a blessing. Althought I loved the age of my 4th graders and I really enjoyed my team, the curriculum in 4th grade is nuts! It's never ending and to try to teach a 9 year old how to get their thoughts out and on paper, is absolutely ridiculous! So many people my age can't even do that...But it was a great year in 4th and I have so many wonderful memories...Here are a few and mainly funny quotes:

  • Having Mary by myside at all times! I don't know what I'm going to do next year without her.
  • "Aunt Eidith is dead! We saw her at the grave yard. - Would they just burry the old lady?"

  • The day I got my engagement ring on my finger, one of my boys had a count down as to when we will be having kids. In December he decided that it would be in 23 months and he would be in 6th grade.
  • I'm going to miss my special ed. boys so much! They were such a blessing to have in class & brought such joy to the general ed. students.
  • During Social Studies one day: Student A - "Hickery Dickery Dock - Whew" then repeat..Student B - "I think I have a runny nose...I think I have a runny nose..."Student C - " I know there is petroleum on my hands..I just know it..." Student D - "Cookies...I'm hungry...Cookies...." : At this point Mary and I just put our heads down and laughed, because if I didn't I would have cried.
  • The day my girls finally admited who they had a crush on, BUT I had to swear to secrecy that I would not tell a sole! ( so cute!) Boy I'm going to miss those girls!
  • The day I had on my wedding dress a boy asked me: "What's all this? (pointing to the area about my strapless dress to my neck) Is this what brides look like? I've never seen a bride before..."
  • Of course, it was bound to happen with a class of 9/10 year olds, they were talking about how women have babies. So one kid said "Not all women have babies." another said "Well, only ones that are married." last one said "That's not true! You are so simple minded." I just sat and listened and tried so hard not to fall over in laughter.
  • Boys vs. girls Football game. Josh was the captain for the boys and I was the captain for the girls. They love Josh so much!
  • For about the first 6 months, Atticus gained an average of 5 pounds a week! He ate about 8-9 cups of a food a day. He was such a growing boy! Here are some picts. of him the past 8 months!

The first month he always fell asleep this way!

10 weeks old

11 weeks

He loved the snow! 4Months


Puppy graduation - 6 months

8 Months old - He loves to catch June Bug
  • I turned 25 on June 21! We had a great day by the pool and Atticus went swimming for the first time.