gratitude

Thanksgiving has a special place in my heart. Over the past serveal years the Lord has been teaching me what it truly means to live with a thankful heart. Some days I am great at this and other days I fail completely, but praise the Lord for new beginnings each day. Thankful. What does it truly mean to be thankful? This is a question that I have often asked myself over the past serval years: What does it truly mean to be thankful? I don't know if I have truly figure it all out yet, but I believe to be truly thankful means to be grateful, to have a heart that is always praising God no matter the circumstances, to always look at the glass half full instead of half empty, to look for the goodness of the Lord in all things, to open your eyes to the blessings that God provides so freely for you each day and I believe you have to choose to be grateful. It is a heart act- it is a choice that has to be made each and every day. I believe you have to wake up each morning and believe in your heart that "today, I am grateful!" (grateful no matter what the circumstance is). Some days this is easy and some days it is hard. But it is something that my heart desires each and every day so I am striving to change my attitude and live with gratitude each day. I am so thankful that I don't have to go on this process alone, but I have God who teaches me, guides me, models me and shows me ways to live out this attitude of gratitude!

This year Thanksgiving finds me in another country again- South Korea this time not Thailand! :) If you would have asked me a year ago today if this is where I would be I would have never guess it. This Thanksgiving I am learning to be thankful in all circumstances. The past four months have been some of the hardest, humbling, growing and joyful times. I have learned so much, cried so much and prayed so much, but today I can truly say I'm thankful. Since arriving in Korea I have listen to tons of Pastor Levi pod-casts from Fresh Life Church in Kalispell, Montana (my parents church). These messages have been challenging, encouraging, life-giving and have given me amazing encounters with God. One thing that I have noticed that Pastor Levi keeps mentioning in the sermons is "Even though.... I will... Oh, wow! This little phrase has capture my heart and has resounded in my mind over and over the past four months! So today, I say "Even though... I am...":

Even though I miss my family I am thankful for the family that God has given me here, The Houser's.

Even though I miss my college friends I am thankful for the friend that God has given me here, Emma.

Even though it has been hard transition I am thankful because I know that I can trust God for He is so faithful.

Even though I have always struggle with writing I am thankful that I can express my heart through this blog.

Even though I feel exhausted most days I am thankful for early gray tea! :)

Even though I am far away from some many I love I am thankful for technology (facetime, skype, imessage, facebook) that keep us connected.

Even though I feel alone I am thankful that I am learning how to embrace it and depend more God.

Even though I am single I am thankful that I get to share the joy of planning weddings with friends! :)

Even though I miss going to church with my college friends I am thankful for the church God has blessed me here in Korea, SCBC.

Even though I feel inadequate in teaching sometimes I am thankful for my sweet, flexible and always loving students.

 

Thankful for each day, worship, freedom & ability to pray, pictures, peanut butter, lessons that God's teaching me, God's love, my comfy bed (serves as a nice chair as well), my family, my roommate, quiet moments, protection & safety, God's word, my quiet times with God, MAIL, ICS (my school), co-workers and all the blessings I receive daily.

There is so much to be thankful for in my life. My prayer is that I will learn even more what it means to live with gratitude! this next year!

With a thankful heart!

Love, Daniella

Alone

Alone. This word has been on my mind constantly the past two weeks. You may be thinking alone? How are you alone? You have a community, you have your students, you have a roommate, you have friends and yes, I do know I have all of these things. And I am so thankful for each and every person in my life, but I have also felt more alone than I have ever have before. This is a new feeling for me. I have always been surrounded by my family growing up as well as a very busy and intentional Christian community. Then when I went to college I was surrounded by a bunch of ladies living in a dorm, tons of college friends and then I lived in a house with 4 other ladies! I was never alone in college. There was always someone to hang out with, talk with, do something with, eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner with. And now in Korea I have enter into a new thing in my life- being alone. Eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner alone, running alone, hanging out on the weekends alone, spending evenings alone. Really this is a huge step for me because I have always been afraid of being alone, but I think being here in Korea is helping me to embrace that fear. Please do not miss read this blog as I am always alone I do spend time with people and I am so thankful for the friends, and "family" I have here (you know who you are and that my time in Korea would be completely different without you and that I am truly forever thankful for you!) Also, please do not feel bad for me; that is not why I am writing this post. I am writing this post to express what God is teaching me through all of this and to process what is on my heart.

Alone. This word use to make me nervous and afraid. It use to put anxiety into my heart and mind. Yes, sometime it still does and yes, I still do not like to be alone, but I am definitly learning how to embrace it with God's help and guidence. I do have a deep desire to be with someone someday, but I believe God is showing me how to embrace right now and discover new things about myself- like learning how to be more of a homemaker (homemade english muffins, pumpkin puree and such). I have enjoyed long walks listening to Pastor Levi from Fresh Life speak God's word in an amazing and challenging way. I have spent more time on my knees with Jesus. I have enjoyed lazy Saturday mornings. I learning to be thankful for these moments now and still hang on to the desire of someday of not being all alone. It is just different being alone. That's my conclusion. Different!

In these moments of being alone I am thankful that I am not truly not alone because I have the promise that God is always with me. I love this verse from John 14:8 " If God is all you have, you have all you need!" Oh, how I need to remind myself of this often "all I need in this world is God." He should be my hearts deepest desire.

If you feel alone in this world remember God is always always with us! He loves you so deeply and will always be the best of friends with you!

Thank you for being apart of my life!

Love, Daniella

Randomness

Oh, Korea! You are so random, but I am learning to love it! The past month has been a whirlwind of many activities, lesson planning, teaching, learning to rest and depending on God for so much! I still definitely have those up and down moments of being homesick. It hits me in waves. Small little things trigger a strong emotion of just wanting to be home where everything is so familiar, but at the same time I can't imagine missing out on the people or things that I have experience so far. The Lord has continue to show me this past week multiple reasons why He has me here in Korea. He is in complete control. He knew that my job was to teach second grade instead of third grade. He knew I would need a friend and He has provided one. He knew that I would need a family and He has provided one. He knew I would need a roommate and He has provided one. He knew that I would need to learn again what it means to be patience with myself and to allow myself to rest. He knew that I would get homesick so in those moments He gently reminds me that my home is in Him. These are small blessings that I am so thankful!

As I have been reflecting this past week one word that has come to my mind often is "random". In my thinking right now I think Korea is random. There are so many little stores around here that sell random things all in one store. After my 10k race I was served a huge meal with traditional Korea food (random). Last weekend I went to Lantern Festival. There was lanterns sitting on stages in the river for display! Over the weekend, I got to take care of a three old and spoil him while his parents were gone. I loved it! Yesterday, we celebrated "peppero" day which is kind of like "american" valentine's day. Everyone gives each other these cookie sticks dip in chocolate! Today we were sent home early because the water stopped working at school and we couldn't keep elementary students at school all day without going to the bathroom. My students couldn't even last the hour and half that we did spend at school. So random I know! And now I am listening to Christmas music which I never do before Thanksgiving, but Thanksgiving is so late this year. See what I am talking about so many random things! But these random things are blessings! These little stores have what you need all in one store, the food was so good after my race, the Lateran Festival was a fun night, and taking care of Caleb was a blast! I ate three boxes of peppero! Today I was able to get so much accomplished grocery shopping, talking with my family for 2 hours, lesson planning, pinterest, thinking of Christmas gifts, cleaning, relaxing and blogging! Yes, I am learning to embrace the randomness and look for the blessings that are in each of them.

The holiday season is approaching- my favorite time of the year Thanksgiving and Christmas. I am anixoulsy awaiting the holidays as I spend Thanksgiving with my community in Korea and Christmas with my family in the States! Both will be precious times I am sure. I.CANNOT. WAIT!

Thanks for sticking with me through this random blog post to go along with the random theme! I appreciate each and everyone of you who reads this blog! Thank you for your kind words, support and encouragement!

Love,
Daniella

A glimpse of Korea

(I just found this blog post and realized that I never posted it ... this gives you a little glimpse into how my brain is thinking these days... completely overloaded (forgetful) and just have too much on my mind that many things get put off! Oh, well hopefully it is just a season. In the meantime please be patience with me! Hope you enjoy seeing the pictures of my life here!)

Hello friends! I have finally accomplished my promise to you of giving you a picture walk of my life in Korea. Hope you enjoying seeing what I am surrounded by! J

My apartment

My very own room!

My relaxing living room!

Very convenient kitchen!  

 

The market where I buy my fruit and veggies sometimes!

A busy street close to my house!

My "city" Songtan!

Outdoor work-out equipment. (These are literally everywhere!!!)

A way of transportation to Seoul or other parts of Korea:

The school where I teach at. My classroom is on the second floor and the third floor is high school!

The rice fields right outside our school!

It's officially! I am a teacher because I have mailbox in the teacher lounges! Haha!

Hope you have enjoyed the little glimpse of my life in Korea through the camera lens!  

 

Love, Daniella

State Soccer

It is long weekends like this one that make me "homesick"! It is not actually a long weekend for me, but it is for my brother and sister. They are both at state soccer this weekend. My brother is coaching a high school team and my little sister is playing for her high school soccer team. I am so proud of both of them! I would seriously do anything to be in Montana this weekend cheering them on from the sidelines! But reality is that I am in Korea, I am a teacher and I have to miss some pretty hard things to miss. It is really hard and sometime I question why God has called me to live so far away from my family for so long. It has almost been 5 years! Then again I am so thankful for technology that helps me to keep in the loop with my family and get updated scores, stories and so much more. I already starting to want to count down the days until I go home for Christmas! :) Nathan and Mia- I want you to know that I love you so much and I am so proud of you! Have a blast at state! Play hard and glorify God in all that you do!

Love, Sis

I can't find a soccer picture of all of us, but I love this picture of my siblings and I! :)

Lovely Fall

My goal for this past weekend was to rest. Last weekend I posted about how exhausted I was. This whole transition thing is a lot on the mind and the body. There is so much that I am learning and observing that my mind is just tried. My body is just aching. It is a process and I am learning each and every day how to handle it better. Some days I handle it better than others. This weekend I took the challenge to rest and say "no" to many things (if you have known me for long you know that this is huge). I am going to be completely honest with y'all and say "I have a REALLY hard time saying no to things!" Slowly oh, so slowly I am learning that in order for me to be able to give my all I need to say no to some things. It is so stinking hard to find the balance. If anyone knows the secret please tell me!

I love the "crunch" of leaves under my feet!

So for this beautiful fall weekend I surrounded my weekend around these verses from Matthew 11: 28-30 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." My weekend was filled with relaxing and restful things- being still before God, laying in bed awake for an hour before getting out in the morning, reading in the park, staying in my pjs until 3:30 in the afternoon, baking, working on small school projects, writing cards, journaling and praying about decisions. If you would love to pray for me this week that would be wonderful. I have some decisions to make about being apart of a spring break mission trip, coaching high school girl's soccer for my school and leading a woman's bible study. I really need wisdom in figuring out how much I can handle while still trying to figure out this whole first-year teaching business! And, oh, a new country!

Breath-Taking Beautiful FALL

Sunday was absolutely wonderful though! I can't even explain the feeling beside deep joy and feeling so close to God. I love that I am apart of a church community. I love that I got to go out to lunch with sweet friends and spend the afternoon walking through beautiful fall Songtan. Reading in the park was wonderful and a sweet time with Jesus as He whispered to me through words on the pages. On my walk home I found myself lost for a little bit, but somehow I stumbled upon my street. The walk was refreshing as the chilly fall weather is settling and the leaves are changing colors. Fall has arrived as October is coming to end. Anne of Green Gables sums October up so perfectly when she says:

I am looking forward to November as Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays surrounded around being thankful!


  Love , Daniella

Happenings in Second Grade

Dear friends!

There are so many different things that I would love to tell you. I guess this is what I get for being so absent from the blogging world this last month! There may or may not be a lot of blog post this week as I process through all my happenings!

 

On Friday, my students and I celebrated the 50th day of school. What a huge mile stone! I cannot believe that I have been a "real" teacher for 50 days! In some ways it seems like the time has flown by so quickly from the first day of school. My students have grown so much in their personalities. I love watching the change that happens each and every day! To celebrate the day we did some "activities"! A few of our activities were writing about what we would be like when we are 50 (I love the different things my students wrote- so stinking cute!) , we talked about what we have learned the past 50 days, and drank coke floats because that's what they did the in fifties- get it! :)

 

This past month we also had parent-teacher conferences. I was a nervous wreck before conferences and had to really humble myself before the Lord. All of my doubts came rushing to my mind. Am I a good teacher? Have my students learned anything the past 50 days? What if the parents hate me? What if I do not know how to handle a situation? All of these doubts put a deep fear and nervousness into my heart and mind. Once again, God is so faithful! I walked away from each parent-teacher conferences encouraged. The parents of my students are so supportive and encouraging! I really could not ask for a better first year class. Yes, we have our ups and downs and challenges, but overall I humbled by the grace I receive each and every day!

 

The classroom has been an happening place. We have study about apples, fossils, space, and fall this month. My teaching philosophy that I learned from Taylor University is to make learning engaging while still covering all the standards so I am a huge fan of "thematic" units which means each week has a theme like apples! This week theme is spiders and bats and then we will jump into our "Thanksgiving" units starting off with pumpkins!

 

Another field trip is in the works for this week. We are going to planetarium. My students loved learning about space during our space week so we are all very excited to go see the star show and look at some model space shuttles!

 

The past 50 days have packed with craziness, exhaustion, fun, learning, excitement, and so much love from my students. I am definitely on a crazy, beautiful, unknown adventure!

 

100 days of school here we come!

Studying our "cookie" fossils

Our smiling "apples" for Apple Week

Our "oreo" moon phases for Space Week

I am bummed because I forgot to take pictures for the 50th day of school! :( Don't worry I will for sure try to remember to take pictures on the 100th day!

Love,
Daniella

 

Love, Daniella