The Next Chapter

When we first visited Bishop Cummins I saw a notice posted near the pastor's office door advertising the need for teachers at the sister Reformed Episcopal church school, St. Stephen's Classical Christian School. The opening that interested me was for secondary humanities--history, Bible, literature and writing. I applied for that position, but did not get it. Instead, I was offered and have agreed to teach 5th grade, and possibly secondary level Biology, beginning in September.

Stephen, Elisabeth, William and Jesse will attend the school, so this will be a new chapter in their lives, too.

I am hoping to have the stamina to sustain the course load. I will probably be teaching history and Bible (integrated with writing and literature), grammar, math, and Latin daily, (plus science less regularly) if I have "only" the 5th grade. I don't know what will drop from that schedule if I am teaching Biology, too. Most fifty-three year old teachers are looking forward to retiring, not just beginning their classroom careers!

Please pray for me as I begin writing lesson plans this summer, and for the younger children who are anxious about whether they will survive in the new environment.

Homeowners Again

Not long after we moved to Maryland Maria, a woman from Bishop Cummins, told us that another friend from church, Gail, had been thinking of selling her house. Maria knew it had four bedrooms and thought it might suit us. I asked if she would make a phone call and see if that was still the plan. Meanwhile, Gail was wondering if the new pastor's family would be buying a house and if they might be interested in hers. She received the phone call from Maria that same afternoon. Pop had already seen a number of houses, none of them as well-built and maintained as Gail's. We made an offer shortly after seeing the house, but have been waiting for Gail to find a new home of her own.

Finally, the wait is over. We signed all the paperwork today, so the house is now ours. The closing went smoothly and even cost us less than we had anticipated.

Gail closes on her new home next Friday and moves on Saturday, so we should have possession at the end of next weekend.

Some men from church are going to work on a few projects for us before we move in. Space in the basement will be walled off and painted for a bedroom for David. Shelves will be added to the broom closet in the kitchen to convert it to a pantry. A storage shed will be erected in the back yard. We're allowing Monday and Tuesday (the 8th and 9th) for that. We'll begin moving the light-weight items from our present house on Wednesday, and a local moving company will pick up the heavy furniture and all that's in storage on Thursday.

William will be the first to celebrate a birthday in the new house--on Sunday, May 14.