Cookies!

Bake-a-thon may have been an exaggeration. Decorate-a-thon however… nope, still an exaggeration.

Yesterday we made cookies. Lots of cookies. Or so it seemed. After all was said and done it seemed like we’d hardly made even twelve dozen cookies. With only three varieties on the docket for the day, two of which needed to be decorated, it was bound to be an exciting adventure. Assuming, of course, exciting adventures include frosting on every surface the children came in contact with, flour “snow flurries” and Star Wars.

 I will have to say, we adults were all in agreement that next year we were definitely going to be doing our portion of the decorating using pastry bags because once we transferred the remaining frosting from the bowls after the kiddos were finished (and by finished, I mean showed no interest in decorating cookies anymore until we started doing it) the process seemed much more streamlined and much less messy. Honestly my favorite part was decorating the gingerbread people, some of which I cut out using my Star Wars Cookie Cutters from Williams Sonoma to make Yoda and Darth Vader gingerbread men. Something about the simplicity of just decorating using royal icing and a few embellishments was much more satisfying than trying to get the buttercream frosting on the sugar cookies to behave exactly like I wanted. Personally, I wish I’d made Storm Troopers and Boba Fetts as well instead of so many regular gingerbread people.

It seems like each year we make less and less in the way of cookie varieties, but it still takes us the same amount of time. Perhaps it is the whole trial-and-error approach that we go into these annual all day baking sessions with the kids and deciding to make each year better focused than the previous. Or perhaps it is because we love the company we’re with.

Why Am I a Sunday School Teacher?

Why am I a Sunday School Teacher? This is a question I have been pondering throughout the week. The answer was not as readily available as I was expecting it to be when I agreed to speak about it.

While it is certainly enjoyable to watch the children learn new things or think new thoughts, it actually is just the reverse I found most surprising. What I learn from them during the lessons is profoundly rewarding. The way their unobstructed thoughts are articulated into theories about the world around them; how they interpret stories or scripture; their unique take on an art project; it all forms an environment rich with creativity and flourishing with imagination.

To say this is inspiring would be an understatement. Every time I get to teach, a little thrill runs down my spine. This wasn’t always so. At first, I was terrified. What if the kids don’t like me? What if I screw up or say the wrong thing? What if everything gets out of control crazy? Well, sometimes these things happen. I distinctly remember, after what I was told was a particularly moving service where there was a moment of silence, the kids in my classroom all decided at that very moment to start screaming with high-pitched giggly voices as if they were trying to out-yell each other. However, instead of judgment on my class management skills (or lack thereof) I received mostly laughs from parents picking up their kids.

Bible Adventures for me isn’t just a chance to teach the kids, it’s a chance to get to know them and a chance to explore through their eyes. Of course, having an excellent curriculum helps. I remember the days of trying to come up with a lesson because either there wasn’t one or the one provided was, well, awfully vague or overly complicated. Most of those lessons were obviously meant for a much longer Sunday School session than the typical thirty to forty minutes we have during the remainder of worship. The curriculum our Christian Education Coordinator, Kristina, acquired for us to use seems like a perfect fit, not only as a way to break up the lesson into two parts when needed, but also as part of our church philosophies and values. The days of spending a week or two trying to build a lesson are a thing of the past, and for me at least on a recent Sunday, asking for a printout of the lesson I was teaching that morning because, in typical Cory fashion, I didn’t check my email to look at the lesson until late the night before and found that the file wouldn’t open on my computer because it wasn’t in PDF format like it usually is. Funnily this was probably one of my favorite lessons, where after reading the story we gathered in a circle on the floor and filled a glass jar with glass pebbles, one at a time, saying what we were thankful for. Sometimes it really is just the simple things in life that bring about the greatest joy.

So again I ask myself, why am I a Sunday School Teacher? Quite simply put it is because I have a thirst for knowledge, and sometimes that knowledge is only accessible from a child’s point of view.

Parents

Growing up, I had a multitude of parents. To people who think a family of only one man and one woman is the only legitimate family, I offer a different view.

Yes, I had both a mom and a dad growing up. But I also had a grandmother heavily involved in the first few years of my life, if for no other reason because my parents were so young when I was born. While my parents were married they had two more children, but as life happens, people grow apart, and they eventually separated. This opened the door for stepparents, a role that has got to be difficult to step into. After all, my stepdad took on three kids and had one on the way with my mom. My stepmom went from having two kids to five almost overnight. To say that neither of these people played a significant role in my upbringing would be a grave disservice to them.

Parents come in all forms. Some people are raised by their grandparents, some people by foster parents, some by stepparents, some by adopted parents and some by biological parents. A key word in all of these figures is ‘parents’. So what I don’t understand is why some people feel the need to blast others for taking on a parental role for kids who are not their own. How can having more parents involved in a child’s life be a bad thing? What harm can come from a child growing up with multiple parents?

Personally, I’m thankful my parents got divorced. I’m thankful they both remarried. I’m thankful that my mother and stepfather also got divorced and my dad and stepmother are still together. And I’m thankful that they are all still very actively involved in my life at the age of thirty-four. (Oh gawd, I’m that old already? Eeek!) But honestly, aunts, uncles and family friends played a huge role too. As Hilary Clinton wrote about it taking a village to raise a child, I wholeheartedly agree. So this Mother’s Day I say thank you to the village that raised me.

Rallying

Lately we’ve seen a lot of rallying going on across the world. But I have to ask myself, does it really work?

While the protests in Egypt were, for the most part, peaceful, other nations haven’t been so lucky. Whether that was on the part of some protestors resorting to violence or the governing regime abusing their power, it seems that any protest walks a fine line. Today our church along with many organizations, concerned parents, students and teachers are going to our state capital today to advocate to keep funding for current programs to feed children who otherwise would go hungry. I realize the correlation between the protests in the Middle East and here in Washington State are hard pressed, but they are both based off of the people’s response to their government.

While I am not on that bus driving up to Olympia because I have to work this afternoon, my partner and many of our friends are. This isn’t uncommon in our church either, and certainly not the first time we’ve driven to our state capital to make sure our voices are heard and to speak with our local representatives and senators. We’ve gone up many times as part of the Religious Coalition for Equality on behalf of the LGBTQ community for equal marriage rights and to fund sex education in schools beyond the Just Don’t Do It curriculum the previous administration instituted which resulted in the highest teen pregnancy rates this country has seen in fifty years.

We all know the budget is in crisis due to high unemployment and a shrinking economy, but do we have to sacrifice our children in order to appease the No-Party’s spend-without-funding attitude? I don’t think so. There is far too much evidence to suggest that kids who are fed without fear of going hungry do better in school and are much less likely to have behavioral issues to simply decide that during a time when, arguably, there are more kids in need of free breakfast and lunch programs, to cut them out to make a miniscule dent in the state budget.

I find it interesting that even though nobody wants higher taxes, anytime we are in need of making budget cuts we undermine our kids the most. Whether that is by taking away funding for education by slashing programs and teachers and making classrooms unmanageable and unteachable because they are just too big, or by taking away breakfast and lunch which, to many kids, are the only meals they may get that day. Any talk about lowering our staggering defense budget is immediately wrought with the same rhetorical response that we are at war. Well, true, but not with Japan or Germany, so why do we still have massive military bases in those countries? I can understand the logic of strategically locating our military all over the world, but when we spend well over fifty percent of our national budget on defense and less than six percent on education, healthcare or even programs for our returning veterans, there is something inherently wrong with the system. Yet any talk of reducing the military budget is balked at, even though reducing it by a small fraction, even just five percent, would add an incredible amount of money to fund our children’s education and help our veterans receive the help they need and deserve. Take another five percent out and we’d probably be able to make sure that every citizen in this country has access to quality healthcare. Amazingly this would still keep our defense budget in the United States of America at almost forty-nine percent, still much higher than any other nation in the world, and yet we’d be able to do so much more.

While I am all for raising taxes to pay for things to keep and improve our country’s infrastructure, I am much more in favor of spending those tax dollars wisely. What I don’t understand is why the privileged feel they are entitled to basic human rights not afforded to the less fortunate, when more than likely it was on the backs of those people who helped make them. I guess when looking at the big picture, I don’t see how taking out a fraction of a percent from the state budget in order to ensure that tens of thousands of children go hungry every day is the right choice to make, but then again, we did elect these people to make these decisions for us. However, it is our job to make sure that they act on behalf of our wishes.

If you want to make a difference, let our elected officials know. Let your voice be heard. Write a letter, call their offices, rally on the front steps of the capital. Be aggressive. A government of the people only works if the peoples voices are allowed.