{"id":2111,"date":"2013-08-22T00:27:09","date_gmt":"2013-08-22T05:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/?p=2111"},"modified":"2013-08-22T00:27:09","modified_gmt":"2013-08-22T05:27:09","slug":"a-new-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/22\/a-new-life\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been asked<\/a> to give a bit of an update on our family post-move. I am sorry that I have not done so already. Part of my reluctance has been related to that old admonition that if you don’t have anything good to say\u2026. Well, there are plenty of good things to say, but some not-so-happy things are close to the surface and I know I’d regret it if I did a post on what I think of Californians.<\/p>\n

But I can try to avoid that topic and share some other blessings:<\/p>\n

The kids are doing great.<\/strong> The boys have been in high school for a week now and seem to be making the transition well. They have some people they know from the youth group at church. While making friends will take longer, at least they ‘re not sitting alone during lunch. The girls also have a friend at their elementary school and they are adjusting. Jonathan, however, is quite distraught that he cannot go to school. He loads up his backpack, describes his plans for the day, says all of his goodbyes, and heads out the door. He is quite serious for a five-year-old (but he’s only 2!). He is a blessing.<\/p>\n

Kelli is doing great<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u201das long as that assessment is based upon the meals being served and the laundry being done. If you asked her about boxes unpacked, home furnishings, or wall decorations, she doesn’t feel quite so settled.<\/p>\n

I am here. Some parts of my initial reception at my place of work have been very encouraging. I know some of the older profs and they make me feel very welcome. That enthusiasm is a great motivator for me as I think about returning to the classroom next week. I was asked if I’m nervous. It’s hard to assess my feelings but I feel a mixture of excitement about teaching and concern about what demands might be made by having 258<\/em> unique students. Besides the challenge of preparing two new classes this semester, I was recently given a great writing opportunity that will take a lot of time in the next two months. <\/p>\n

In some ways, I would like to think I ‘ll be a much better teacher than I was before. In other ways, I wonder how it will go with freshmen, cell phones, and athletes in the classroom. Most of my visions of the return to the classroom have been what many might call idealistic or just plain crazy. Is it too much to expect that after a few weeks in survey class the playing of video games on campus will nearly come to an end and students will spend the time instead studying their Bibles? I don’t know; I think I am going to learn a lot this year.<\/p>\n

\"DSCN6344\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kids at the Santa Barbara Mission<\/em><\/p>\n

\"DSCN6352\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The beach near Santa Barbara<\/em><\/p>\n

\"DSCN6402\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jonathan on his new bike<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/font>\"DSCN6371\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The sunset from our backyard<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been asked to give a bit of an update on our family post-move. I am sorry that I have not done so already. Part of my reluctance has been related to that old admonition that if you don’t have anything good to say\u2026. Well, there are plenty of good things to say, but\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}