HAMAN AND THE NO GOOD VERY BAD DAY

One of the third grade teachers was kind enough to extend a Purim invitation my direction.

The students brought guests, filling the classroom with lots of Moms, Dads, and Grandmas.  




In keeping with the carnival-type atmosphere of a true Purim celebration, participants arrived with masks. Some were fabulously ornate and others were very simply constructed. Mine was of the invisible variety.

From behind their homemade disguises, attendees greeted one another with the morning Hebrew salutation “Boker Tov!”  Mixing it up a bit, seats were swapped along with the greeting. 

Showing the guests how a usual day begins in 3MR, a sharing time was enjoyed during which three students and one brave parent were prompted to share about a time when something was lost. 

A Purim festival commemorates the celebration which took place at the end of the biblical story of Esther.  The main antagonist in the book of Esther is the King’s evil Chief Minister, Haman.  

Revelers soon had strips of blue masking tape affixed to the bottoms of their shoes.  Haman’s name was added to the tape where the recollection of his evildoing could be sufficiently stomped upon.  

As Miss Moyer read a condensed version of the biblical tale, partygoers sat perched on the edge of their green classroom chairs with noisemakers at the ready. Each time Haman’s name was mentioned, feet stomped, shiny streamers trembled with the force of expelled air, and an increasing swell of honking sounds grew until the room sounded convincingly like canned New Year’s Eve. 

This pleasant gathering, celebrating God’s deliverance of his people through the courage of Queen Esther and her cousin Mordecai, culminated with the sipping of white grape juice and the eating of delicious HAMENTASHEN. Hamentashen is just a big word for some little fruit-filled pastries, the reference being Haman’s ears or Haman’s pockets. A nice touch.  




If Kelloggs really wanted to inspire smiles at breakfast time, they’d find a way to make Pop-Tarts taste more like hamentashen.  

No Place I'd Rather Be!

A younger Carley Rush in the hands of a face painting artist!

This will be my twenty-third consecutive year of volunteering at Penn View’s Country Fair and Auction.  I was first introduced to this awesome event when my son Isaac was a first-grader which feels like way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. For almost the first decade (and before I was the school nurse) I worked several shifts each year as a Penn View parent. Those were the days when each parent agreed to cover several different shifts on top of toiling long hours in our home kitchens in preparation for the event.  Nothing like the streamlined signups for short shifts today! The week before the event we were baking cakes and laboring over stove-tops as we cooked the traditional chicken corn soup recipe from scratch and delivered it with great ceremony to the waiting refrigerated truck.  

I distinctly recall one specific year, way back when we were still putting tent-stake holes in the parking lot at Christopher Dock. I was working in a food stand on a particularly hot May day just one hour after sitting in the dentist’s chair for a root canal. Half of my mouth was post-anesthetically sagging as I attempted to speak charmingly to those waiting for a funnel cake.  In retrospect, I probably looked a fright and sincerely hope I wasn't drooling. There is no stopping the auction volunteers!  There was no question that every single parent was going to be an integral part of the event. I realize I am sounding like one of those people who talks about walking twenty miles each way to school IN THE SNOW so I will stop now....

Jayne Longacre and Kathi Welby washing berries for those delectable strawberry pies!

I’ve joked that I have volunteered in every area of the Auction except for car-parking and the dunk tank.  This is by design. 

Jay Gordon and his trusty florescent parking flag.

I’m too much of a pushover to tell people where to park and way too much of a wimp to be submerged in a chilly tank of water at the hand of a mischievous coworker or a legitimately well-thrown ball. The braver of our Middle School students join the volunteers in signing up for a shift atop that risky wet perch.  

Though it has been years since my entire upper half was sticky from balancing perfect balls of chocolate ice cream and freshly cut berries on still-warm waffles, I'd do it all again just to work with some of the great personalities under that dining tent.  

Not that anyone is hiring for it, but I could put touting fabulously delicious sausage sandwiches on my resume as well. 

I've sold burgers and assisted with beverages. I've cut berries until my fingers were red for days, bagged candies, and sold French fries.  

In recent years I've been a first-shift Friday assembler of the coveted strawberry pies. I accomplish this under the watchful eye of booth-coordinating friends (and excellent arm-twisters), Todd and Donna Alderfer. With at least 1,200 strawberry pies sold each year, I suspect I will keep making them for a very long time. 

Many moons ago I helped to bag and sell Penn View's deadly-delicious doughnuts.  (Yes, I’ve been a PVCS devotee enough to remember the doughnut days….) 

This photo was before my time but the doughnuts were not! (You can probably still see them on my hips). 

I have experience scooping potato salad onto chicken barbecue plates, and doing a complete 180 degree turn, spent two years at Auction time creatively painting the tiny fingernails of attendees. No worries.  I was not serving potato salad while I painted.  

I've crawled out of bed way too early to re-set tables for the well-loved Saturday morning breakfast. Once.  I'll leave that one to you morning people.

I feel as though I've worked at the bake sale. This is not because I have, but because in all these years of auction fun, I have certainly eaten my weight in purchased whoopee pies, rice-krispie treats, ground cherry pies and hard tack.  It’s like I’m an honorary bake sale worker because I’m such a good customer. The same might be said for my purchases at the Quilt Auction and General Auction over many years. 

Along with pie assembly, I've more recently been privileged to serve as a cashier in the food tent.  This is a really awesome job because not only do I get to interact with other parents and friends who love the school, I get to chat with all the community people who turn out for Friday night’s wonderful evening of socializing and enjoying good food.   I’m planning to come back for a third shift on Saturday this year, so look for me there. If you're nice to me, I'll give you the correct change! 

Some handsome Addley boys making those aprons look good. 

My kids have long left the hallowed halls of Penn View, but I will never miss the opportunity to spend time helping at Souderton’s most fun-filled and delicious community happening.  My husband feels the same way and can be found every Country Auction Friday night wearing a rather delightful red and white checkered auction apron while he whips industrial sized bowls of whipped cream for the strawberry pies.

Family Pie Assembly

Don’t miss your opportunity to be part of this important fundraiser for Penn View.  It’s not just for parents! Employees, grandparents, and all friends of Penn View are welcome to join in the fun; even if only for a couple of hours.  

The link is here if you’d like to be part of the team: 
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a48abac29a4ff2-country

Getting ready for the CANDY DROP!

Our students love this event and we notice that they keep coming back. First we see them with groups of their High School friends, reconnecting with each other and with some of their teachers from days gone by.  Eventually they return for that bit of nostalgia with spouses and strollers in tow.

The Country Fair and Auction is a community-building, memory-making, and frankly-incomparable annual event for PVCS.  The vital monies raised at this auction go directly into the Penn View Fund which helps keep our amazing school operational. 

As evidenced by my exhaustive list of volunteer jobs, (thanks for reading to the end!) there is something for everyone! 

Once you've ridden the speedy and reliable shuttle bus to the campus to spend some time working at this shared task, you’ll be so glad you made it a priority.  

See you on May 15th and 16th! 

FAST FINGERS

There is nothing finer than an adrenaline rush on a Friday afternoon.  It was nearly the end of the day when Miss Slemmer summoned me via telephone to the elementary computer lab.  Routine problems come to my office in a steady stream all day long.  But only on unusual occasions am I subpoenaed for an emergency.  In most cases, my presence is sought out for things involving copious amounts of blood, incidences of fainting, serious injury, or a host of other unmentionables.  In fourteen years of school nursing I have never before been beckoned to a classroom for the category of issue I was asked to tackle that particular Friday. 

Apparently I have achieved a certain reputation with some of the third grade students. Visits for illness and injury are recorded via my office computer using some software my marvelously talented (and arguably geeky) husband created for me. Unbeknownst to me, when I see the students for problems during the school day, they have been paying some close attention to my typing skills.

The class had been attempting to conquer a certain touch typing challenge for a couple of weeks. When no one in the class was able to complete it within the time-frame allowed, the students asked Miss Slemmer to bring me in.  



They were curious to see if my fingers were fast enough to triumph over the typing program they were attempting to defeat, namely Type to Learn 4 – Agents of Information. 




The teacher tells me that there is one part of every new level the students dread.  It is called "Drone Control" and it is reportedly very picky about timing and accuracy, making it difficult for the students to beat.

I will admit it took three tries until I even understood the system.  I could blame the internal transition I needed to achieve, switching from medical emergency mode to nimble finger mode in less than a minute. But that is just an excuse.  Indeed, there were issues.  Aside from trying to locate what I was supposed to be typing on the foreign screen, I am accustomed to having backspace and delete keys at my disposal on the keyboard.  Neither was available to me during this particular typing challenge. 

Grace Williams was offering up suggestions to my left.  After my first failed attempt, Owen Latt (to my right) was knowledgeably redirecting me back to the starting point.  Both were a great encouragement, talking me through the particulars of the test.  

Though the correct terminology is typist, Owen tells me I've been dubbed
the "Turbo Typer."  I will unabashedly answer to that title because
it has been so lovingly bestowed.  

Other students were cheerfully calling out instructions from their seats and sending positive reassurance my way.  I felt the full weight of their enthusiastic expectations as I tried to concentrate on the task at hand.

After my second "restart", one of the sympathetic third-grade onlookers cautioned the others. “Don’t watch her, you’re making her nervous!”  They were firm and confident, trying their utmost to give the pinch-hitting school nurse a viable shot at victory. 

To my unexpected delight, as I was plowing my way through the constant flow of nonsensical letter combinations, the screen went wonderfully blank.  This was apparently an indication that I had managed to reach the end of the gibberish words I had been prompted to type. The students were watching…and let’s just say the crowd went wild. My small fans were gratifyingly supportive, showing their glee with unbridled cheers and thunderous clapping. 

Having never mastered the art of the curtsey, I took a small bow as I exited the room, leaving my adoring public to their work.

I just never know what to expect during the course of a day.  But surely I’m blessed to spend my working hours with such an entertaining (and in this case hearteningly optimistic) group of students.  Have I mentioned I love these kids?

PUBLIC SPEAKING IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART

I don’t know about you, but standing in front of a roomful of people waiting to give a speech or presentation is enough to make my quaking legs turn to jelly and my throat constrict to the point of suffocation.  But this is apparently not the case for many of our middle school students.

The Mennonite Schools Speech Meet is coming on March 19^th and in preparation for the interschool competition, our students were vying for an opportunity to represent Penn View at West Fallowfield Christian School in Lancaster.  29 Penn View students will make the trip this year with Penn View’s team.

I’ll give you a little idea what was going on when I stopped by the auditorium to take some notes on practice day.

Cedar (playing the part of the CRAZY White Queen with wild hand gestures flying) and Jill (playing the part of Alice and wearing a sparkly silver tiara) were fully engaged in their dialogue.  They were rehearsing lines from the script of Adventures in Alice in Wonderland.

A magnificent paper-mâché leg of lamb was resting in a tin pot on the stairs while waiting for its moment on the stage.  Right on cue, The White Queen lifted the attention-grabbing mutton and began introducing said leg of lamb to poor Alice (who was getting annoyed with the queen’s eccentricities).  Alice says, “I don’t want to meet anyone else,” to which the crazy queen responds, “Don’t be shy Alice.  You’ve got to learn to meet people.”  And on she goes to introduce the exasperated girl to the slab of meat- and vice versa.  Seriously folks, you can’t make this stuff up.

Andrew and Christian were practicing some dialogue as well.  Andrew was playing the part of everyone’s favorite ark-builder- Noah, while Christian was apparently playing the part of God.  Now THAT must have been QUITE an application process.

There were puppet shows and humorous discourses being rehearsed.  The teacher Mrs. Painter shared that most of the students end up choosing a piece of writing which contains humor.  

Mrs. Painter and her handmade puppet!

Several students selected a monologue rather than joining forces with a classmate.  I find this incredibly brave.  I’m fairly certain that in my own middle school years I’d have chosen a large crowd of assistants. I'd have been hiding my blushing face securely behind the puppet stage as I sacrificed only my hands (covered by the pathetic sock creature I’d have foraged from the depths of my unsuspecting sister’s drawer).  

My scapegoat (I mean sock puppet) would have taken in the terrifying view of the spectators with his awesomely steadfast button eyes while I cowered spinelessly behind the curtain.  Trust me; this pitiful scenario would have been preferable to my risking a dramatic full-on fainting episode while attempting an ill-fated monologue.  

But I digress…. (Shocking, I know).

I ended my visit to practice day by listening to Bryanna’s monologue about her imaginary experiences in cow-tipping.  “Have you ever tried to nudge a cow?” she asked nobody in particular as she practiced her lines. With a knowing glance she launched her own deadpan response.  “It’s like hitting a brick wall….”  She went on to describe the painful injuries sustained after succumbing to peer pressure and allegedly engaging the cow.  A contrite Bryanna closed her remarks by promising her adoring invisible audience that she’d never bother a sleeping cow again.

It was fun to go back the next day to watch Bryanna and Ellie give their presentations.  Both were amazing.  

As a person who for years used her dishwasher as a storage space for alphabetized spices, Ellie’s monologue about the virtues of putting things in order was music to my ears.  Oh, how I love compulsive people and the tidiness they create.  My favorite part of her monologue was definitely “I am not the one in need of therapy people! It is you - the cluttered and the lazy- who need to wake up and examine yourselves!”  BOOM! 

Kudos to our English teachers and Penn View’s helpful coach Kendra Rittenhouse for helping our students master the art of recitation, gain confidence, and lift courageous voices as they stand before a crowd. 

Blue, red, or white ribbons will fly home with each Speech Meet competitor at the conclusion of this extraordinary celebration of speech.  

But the best thing our students will gain is the realization that they have a voice and that they can use it with increasing confidence.