Ephesians 3:14-20

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

We're working on adding fractions with unlike denominators right now, so I thought it might be fun to do some "real-world" practice.....

I brought some salt to school and a variety of measuring cups and spoons.

The kids had to add up all their different measurements after finding the least common multiple of the various fractions (1/3, 1/2, 1/8, etc.)

I hope the lesson helped them see how math is used in real life.  I know the lesson helped me....but in a totally different way!

Tonight as I was thinking about what I wanted to say to all of you, I was looking through my pictures and came across these of my students' hands as they were working on their activity.

It struck me that as they were measuring salt from one cup to another simply to work a math problem, I often find myself measuring my "abilities" as a mom/wife/teacher with no real purpose other than making myself feel inadequate.  And that's a REAL PROBLEM....not just a math problem.

I texted a friend early today and said, "I NEED RECIPES WHENEVER YOU CAN SEND SOME!  I'm not juggling all of these roles very well!"

Her reply made me laugh, because she said "Hang in there, clown friend! Aren't clowns suppose to be good jugglers!?"

See, we have a little clown joke going on in our friend circle and she reminded me that life is suppose to be enjoyable not stressful.  Then after school today, I went to talk to another math teacher about what she is doing in class right now.  She gave me a book to get some ideas from....and I couldn't believe it when I opened the book and found this assignment!!!

Chuckles is the name of the clown from the Mary Tyler Moore Show that me and my friends have laughed about together!!

I know this probably sounds silly, but I truly believe that God gave me a reason to smile today in the teacher lounge as I stayed late to run some copies.

  My devotion this morning was all about being okay with weakness and allowing God to work through our fragile spirits. 

I am not going to pretend that I am not weak.  I am not going to pretend that my grief has reached a point where I can talk about Nick without tearing up......and honestly, I hope I never get to that point.  I am not going to pretend that teaching full-time is easy.  I am not going to pretend that keeping things in order at home, preparing meals, keeping up with laundry, being a "fully present" mom, and all the other things that fall on my daily list (with help from Tim) are easy.  I do often feel like a clown that is trying to juggle too many different kinds of balls.  I remember hearing one time that as women we need to decide which balls are made of glass and juggle those the most carefully, and that is what I am trying to do.

I'm trying.........and while I don't always feel that I measure up to what is acceptable.......

I will keep on trying.

Today, God used a friend and a math book to make me laugh.

I'm going to fall to sleep tonight thinking of all the reasons I have for smiling instead of the reasons that I could be dreading the sound of my alarm at 5:15 a.m.

Praying you find a reason to "CHUCKLE" today in spite of what your days holds and praying you remember that the only measuring up you have to do happens in the presence of God,