Miss Lowe's Book Nook

If you haven't heard, in about two months, I'll be starting my first school year as a proper, real-life, actual high school English teacher. I have loved reading basically since I could hold a book (if this ridiculous blog isn't a good enough indicator) but nowadays, I have the opportunity to approach it from a new stance. Now, when I pick up a book, I read it for myself on one level, and on another level, I think, "How would I teach this? What would a student think of this book? What would make this book worth teaching to my students?" This type of thinking has really opened up a new way for me to comprehend and process the books I read and made me even more excited to take on teaching. A great example of this self-observed phenomena is the book I've most recently finished: The Knife of Never Letting Go  by Patrick Ness. I've read other Ness before (check out my post reviewing The Rest of Us Just Live Here ) and enjoyed him, but Knife  was a different ge

Every time I turn on the radio or the TV, all the ads scream variations on the same thing: " Make this the BEST CHRISTMAS EVER! " We all simply MUST have that new piece of tech or toy for the kids or perfectly quirky little object to put on a shelf. Otherwise, how could we possibly have the " BEST CHRISTMAS EVER "? But here's the deal, people. Come on, lean in close. Closer! I'll whisper it in your ear. The best Christmas ever already happened . Whaaaat? I know, it's crazy. Surely having a bigger tree and more lights and more eggnog can make this year  the best Christmas ever? But alas. There is no way that we could ever, ever top the real, true Best Christmas Ever. Could it have been the year that you got that bike you really wanted as a kid? Or the year your family vacation went perfectly? What about last year, when everyone liked the gifts you got them? Nope. The Best Christmas Ever, the one we can never top, took place over 2000 years ago. A car

I know this is a few days late, but I've been sleeping and unpacking the last couple of days. It's great to be back home, but my experience in St. Louis was full of amazing experiences, wonderful people, and over a chance for me to grow and learn. My last week in STL was one of my favorites. As our internships were winding down, all of the interns got to spend a lot of time together. One day, we all worked in a conference room together, getting to both get work done and chat with each other. When the summer started, I never dreamed that I would grow so close with the other five girls, but I did. We all hailed from different places and had different backgrounds and majors, but we bonded over CPH, John Mulaney, Christ, and the fact that we were all outsiders together. We were joyful, tearful, and laughable. We ate cupcakes and pizza, visited tourist sites, and went to church. I am so thankful for Adele, Emily, Katie, Audrey, and April. In addition to all the fantastic people I

My time at CPH has flown by and I now only have one week left in St. Louis! I had a lot of fun this past week, though. As the VBS intern, a lot of my job has consisted of updating and changing files for next year's VBS, Miraculous Mission . I got really good at using the "find and replace" tool in Word! However, this week I got to do more with creating original files and content. Adele and I have been working on creating the PowerPoints for the song lyrics and the opening and closing sessions of VBS. This required a lot of waiting for various art files, waiting to make sure the song lyrics were proofread, and waiting for InDesign to export files. After this week, I could go years without using InDesign again and I would be happy! But really, it's been so cool to put together something that I know will be used by churches next summer. Heck, I'll be using it! When we were exporting lyrics for what felt like the thousandth time, Adele and I reminded each other about

Oh what a week it was! After taking the week of July 4th off to visit home, it was decidedly more difficult to get back in the swing of things at CPH, but it was a great week nonetheless! In terms of what I was working on day to day, most of this week was spent writing a few blog posts for the CPH VBS website. I got to collaborate on these posts with my fellow intern, Adele, which made it an even cooler project. Our first post is already up, if you would like to check it out! I'll put a link at the bottom of this post. We've also been working on creating PowerPoints, PDFs, and other documents that will be a part of next year's VBS, Miraculous Mission . It has been so amazing to work on this VBS and know that churches all across the country will use it next year, including my home church! It is going to be a fantastic way to share Christ's love with kids, and I'm a part of it! I just really love this job. Most of the excitement this week came in the form of activi

Hello again! This was a fantastic week of CPH, though it was a very tiring one! I felt like I was doing a little bit of everything my job could entail, and I loved it. Monday was probably the slowest day of the week. I spent most of my time on Monday at my desk, working on various documents and dealing with the more logistical side of Miraculous Mission . The rest of the week held a lot of ups and downs! On Tuesday we began shooting for our Song Action Videos at a park in the suburbs of St. Louis. My fellow intern Adele and I got to come into work late because we would have to stay late for the video shoot. We were praying all day that we wouldn't be rained out. Instead, we drove to the park in torrential rain through construction! All of the kids for the videos still showed up and we got two of the songs done between storms. At about six, the deluge began again, soaking us all, and leading to another stressful drive through the rain. I was very thankful for dry clothes and a war