Cheryl's Snippets: An update . . . finally!

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

I’ve had a couple complaints that this blog has been ignored for too long. My bad. So here is the update . . . we are alive and well.

Now for the details:

Jason completed third grade at Jackson school with flying colors. He excelled academically with making the honor roll every quarter. He continued to take piano lessons and although it often wasn’t his favorite thing to do, when he found a song he liked, he played it eighteen million times a day. Those songs happened to be “Star Wars Theme Song” and “The Pink Panther” and so when it came time to play for recital or offertory in church, those were the songs he played! It’s not every Sunday that the Pink Panther theme song gets played for the offertory so it got a few chuckles. He continues to love soccer, but has branched out to basketball and any other sport that involves a ball. He played on a recreational soccer team in the spring and played very well despite his team not doing well (a challenging learning experience). But he is now on a competitive team that has limited travel and he is looking forward to playing soccer at a higher level. This summer he attended Camp Keola, a Mennonite summer camp in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and loved singing all the silly songs and boating on Huntington Lake.

Brendan flew through fifth grade with academic excellence as well. He took up the guitar and surprised us all with his quick learning. It appears he has found an instrument that really fits his interest and abilities. He played soccer on a recreational team in the spring and was known for his strong left foot cross and corner kicks. While he continues to enjoy soccer, he is more interested in learning volleyball and went to a volleyball camp this summer to hone his skills. Brendan also enjoyed a week at Camp Keola and had a great week all around. At the end of the school year, Brendan had a small business venture going where he made bracelets out of paracord and sold it to classmates. He taught himself different types of weaves and clasps from watching youtube videos. He surprised us all with his ingenuity and entrepreneurship.

Peter has a year of university teaching under his belt. The main courses he taught included “Theology and Ethics of Peacemaking” and “Conflict Management and Resolution” for graduate and undergraduate students. He also taught “Conflict Transformation” to students who are completing their bachelor degrees in the degree completion program. He also supervises graduate student internships. After pushing hard all year, he took some time this summer to read a novel or two, complete projects around the house, and relax a bit. He taught two summer classes that were held on Thursday nights throughout the summer, but at least it was a break from his regular teaching schedule. While the boys were both at camp, we took the opportunity to head over to Monterey on the Pacific Ocean. It has been a long time since Peter and I enjoyed a holiday with just the two of us. We rented a tandem bike one morning and biked up and down the coastline, a lovely experience.

I survived my first semester of teaching undergraduate university students. It was a challenge but I mostly enjoyed it. I loved being in the classroom and interacting with the students and doing my best to help them think about marriage and the family in our American context from a Christian perspective. I did not enjoy grading as much but that comes with the territory. As I was getting my class underway, I was approached by the counseling center that is associated with Fresno Pacific University and Seminary to consider working for them. It had been a long time since I practiced as a marriage and family therapist but with this opportunity, it seemed like a good time to renew my license and start seeing clients. By March, I was seeing about seven clients a week. At times, this was quite stressful as I was doing class prep as well as trying to be helpful to my clients but I managed somehow. Things slowed down considerably in May when my class finished and grades were in, and many of my clients terminated as quite a few were college students who were going back to their homes. I took a few weeks to decompress before revising my course based on student feedback. And I’m glad I did that early in the summer because at the end of June, I received a phone call from the university asking if I would consider a full-time one year appointment as the interim sociology program director and sociology instructor. Their sociology professor resigned unexpectedly and someone was desperately needed to fill the position while a national search could be conducted in this coming year. I was flattered that they thought of me but it didn’t seem something that fit with my skills and time. I tried to turn it down but was talked back into the position, which was modified based on my skills and availability. So now I am working for FPU in a 2/3 time position, teaching two courses each semester, advising students, and keeping the department afloat. Thankfully, one of the two courses is “Marriage and the Family” which I’ve gone through once already. But the other course is a new one to me, “Introduction to Sociology” with 45 students already enrolled. So even before my July 1 start date, I was scrambling to reacquaint myself with the field of sociology and figure out how to teach it to undergrad students who mostly won’t care much about the subject. I’m glad I had all summer to do prep even though it meant hanging out by the pool with a sociology textbook in hand. Classes begin in two weeks and I have the syllabus ready and know what I will be teaching the first two weeks at least. I would like a bigger cushion but I think much of the semester I will be flying by the seat of my pants! I am told by other professors that as long as I am one step ahead of the students I will be fine. But for my sanity, I would prefer two to three steps ahead instead.

So that is our family life in a nutshell. This can be reciprocated, you know . . . we love to hear from all our family and friends near and far!