Knit Wits.

What do you get when you combine twenty knitting needles, ten skeins of yarn, twenty four chocolate cupcakes with Nutella buttercream frosting, two bags of chips, one bottle of Valentina, two pitchers of iced tea, ten middle schoolers and one teacher?

My house yesterday afternoon!

My students have known that I knit since last year. I've brought knitting on the bus on a field trip, would whip it out during chapel or while students are sharing book reports. Because they have been exposed to it so often, a few of my girls asked if I could teach them how to knit. Ready for any excuse to have people over and bake, I offered to have a few of them to my house for tea and knitting. In my mind's eye, I imagined three or four girls sitting around my table with cups of tea and cupcakes. Little did I know what was in store!

I've been knitting since eight grade and can knit with my eyes closed (seriously!). I knit during movies, in the dark, and while holding a lengthy, involved conversations. I taught myself how to knit after watching my Grandma Beaver during summer vacations at her house, and have no idea how to follow a pattern. I will see something I want to make, feel it and look at it for a few minutes, and then go home and make it. When these girls asked me to teach them, I was worrisome that I wouldn't be able to explain something that I had been doing for fourteen years without thinking.

When I offered the afternoon to the class, I got an overwhelming response. As I’ve already spoken about on this blog, my house is pretty teeny tiny. We have a large kitchen table that seat eight and juuuuuuust fits in our front room. Because of the space limitations I said that the first ten people to email me would be on the list. I got home from school that day and had more than ten emails already! Surprisingly, I had quite a few boys who were interested too. In the end I had three boys and seven girls descend on the Casa (not so) Calma yesterday.

If I thought teaching was hard, teaching Science was harder, and teaching Science to middle schoolers was excruciating…teaching middle schoolers how to knit? Like the pains of childbirth! The hardest part for me was that I couldn’t easily walk around the table to assist peeps that needed it because our house was too small! My hands hurt all evening afterwards, because I was knitting for about two hours straight.

It was all worth it though. One sweet girl was so excited that I saw her continuing to knit as she was walking to her car. I was commissioned to make a knit tie for one incredibly fashion forward dude. I could share something I love to do with people I love. Best part? I was told, ‘You’re the best teacher ever!’

Will you be MIME?

I have received some of the best, direct, and often hard to answer questions from students. Some of the best have been posed outside of the classroom, and have to do with my personal life. Samples include and are not limited to:

- Why do you think you're still not married?

- What is the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you?

- Do you think everyone is supposed to have a best friend?

- What do white girls want to be tan and Mexicans want to be white?

- What was the weirdest thing that has ever happened to you in Mexico?

The last question was asked on a bus ride by my student Santiago, and it took me a moment to think of the perfect answer. He will often ask questions that have a story involved (mostly when he's trying to distract me from a lesson about scientific notation), and at that moment I couldn't retrieve one specific shining moment of weirdness.

This weekend? Santi's question was answered once and for all!

It all started in Guanajuato, a tranquil, picturesque and culture filled city that a group of us decided to descend upon this past weekend. The town is filled with brightly painted homes, balconies, squares with fountains and cafes, theaters, bakeries and romantic restaurants. This is my second time traveling there and I fall deeper in love with the place the longer I spend there. I traveled there this time with nine others, including fellow teachers and friends. We spent our days enjoying the varied offerings of Guanajuato and would often meet up for dinner together in the evening. Saturday night we decided to meet on the steps of the Teatro in the center of the town before venturing off to dinner. One unique and

charming part of Guanajuato is the impromptu performances that often happen on the steps of the teatro or the cathedral next to it.

This evening, while we waited, a mime entertained the growing audience with funny antics like pretending to ring the cathedral bells with his own rope as well as miming that he was walking the stray dog that pranced past the crowd. While we were sitting in the crowd he started pulling people up to be a part of the show. After choosing two young girls and parading them in front of the audience to be applauded, he started scanning the audience once more. For those of you who know me, I cannot stand mimes. They are funny from afar, but hands down frightening up close. As he started to walk closer to the area of the steps where we were sitting, I purposely started looking for something in my purse. When I looked up to see where he had gone and who he had chosen, I looked up into the expectant eyes of my worst nightmare. He put out his hand and I shook my head and did the classic Mexican finger shake signaling 'No way, Jose!'. He appealed to the audience and once again offered his hand. With the encouragement of the nine around me, I was lead to the front. For perhaps ten minutes I was lead through silly, harmless hijinks including pretending to ride a motorcycle and ballroom dancing. Then, when I was convinced we would be dismissed off the 'stage', the weirdest part of all occurred.

The two guys who the mime had called up were asked to turn around, so that their backs were towards us. The two girls who standing up with me (who were younger than I was by far) and I were then motioned to pretend that we were undressing. The motions the mine gave were quite suggestive and embarrassing. When he motioned to me, I once again did the 'No' finger shake. I had the encouragement of those sitting on the steps behind me who screamed, 'Don't do it Kelli!'. Eventually I felt so strongly that I was about to turn around and sit down, even though it would mean doing so in front of a huge group of people. At that moment, it started to rain and the mime put his hat out on the ground for any tips he might gain. I realized that I had gained my weirdest moment in Mexico, and quite possibly ever!

Little House in the Big Woods (of Las Fuentes?)

Our house is small. Like, itsy bitsy, teensy weeny, yellow polka dot bikini small. There is plenty of room for Allyson and I, but little else. We share a bedroom, have a large-ish room in the middle of the house for our gorgeous, handmade, wooden, eight person kitchen table. Our kitchen is spacious...if one person is cooking it. Despite our mini me habitation, a dream of mine was granted on Monday night.

After graduating from college, starting a job, buying a car...I had visions of 'my place' where I could invite people over; have dinners, parties, movie nights. Also a place that people just stopped by on their way somewhere, because they knew where I lived and knew that my home would be welcoming. Since moving into the 'Casa Calma' (the name for our casita, since our street is La Calma), all of that has come true. The pinnacle of this dream though, came true on Monday. A group of Mexicans, teachers from Lincoln and various others gather on Monday nights for a dinner made by rotating chefs and in various locations. I have always wanted to host and cook for one of these events in my own home, which has been impossible until this year. This Monday, our house held upwards of 15 people and I was as happy as a clam in my mini kitchen stirring soup, flipping quesadillas and hearing the chatter of guests. Later that night we enjoyed the cool of the Guadalajara evening to sit outside and worship our Creator under the stars.

Have you ever read the Little House series by Laura Ingals Wilder? I read all of them by third grade, and loved them so much that I started calling my mom and dad, Ma and Pa! My favorite is Little House in the Big Woods and my favorite scene is when the whole family is together for Christmas. There isn't enough room to sit down, people sleep on the floor and in the barn, but good food is to be had. Laughter is heard long into the night. Pa plays his fiddle, everyone sings. Family, whether blood or found is cherished.

Togetherness.

Community.

Hospitality.

This is what I have longed for, and have finally found.

New year, new rules, new teacher.

It's humbling and amazing to think that three years ago, I was just starting to adapt to this country that I now consider home. The language, people, expectations, food and way of life was brand new and I soaked it up like a culturally depraved sponge. Mexico has been my window to the rest of the world, even if it's a window that's just one country below my own. Even so, it has become to feel familiar. The things that once felt like blazing a new trail have become second nature. The areas where I was once holding on to God's promises like a vice grip were now not so threatening. Little did I know, God was preparing new challenges in my new country.

For those of you that don't know, this year I have taken a new job at Lincoln. I'm currently the Mentor Teacher, helping teachers who are not only new to Mexico, but new to the profession of teaching. After teaching fifth grade for five years, this sixth year of teaching it only felt fitting to move on to sixth grade! God gave me the opportunity to move up to 6th grade with my class from last year and teach Science (a subject I am fascinated by and thrilled to teach again after two years). As I prepared my syllabus for this year (something I never thought I would have to do), I was concerned that my students would feel ultra comfortable with me as their teacher again. I had nightmares of stampedes in my classroom or students laughing when I tried to discipline them. So, I created the tag line 'New year, new rules, new teacher'. As I introduced my rules on the first day, I reminded my now taller and stronger students that I was indeed a new teacher. I had never taught 6th grade before, and they had never met the 'new me'! I then proceeded to shake their hands and introduce myself, which brought giggles but also squinting eyes, trying to see if I had altered physically in any way and was actually a new person. Although I had fears that teaching in Middle School would be intimidating, impossible, and that failure would be inevitable, teaching has proved to be the bright spot in my day.

The most stretching new part of my life recently has been my new role as Mentor Teacher. I have loved the chance to come along side new teachers, give them suggestions, direction and guidance as they set up their classrooms, plan their first weeks of school, observe their classes and mold them as teachers. It has been fantastic, fulfilling, but DRAINING! There were days during the Orientation Week that I would wake up and feel tired to the marrow in my bones. I felt as if I were always on, needing to answer questions, be a support, be upbeat. For me as a naturally introverted person, it was a struggle at times to keep the up the attitude of graciousness. Once again, God was trying to teach me that it is HE that gives me strength, and not myself. I had become very comfortable teaching fifth grade, loving my students and being loved back. I gave very little effort and had boundless results, with both parents and students supporting me. Now? All of that has been taken away. I'm at the mercy of people who are struggling themselves to feel supported. I try my hardest to work with administration and fellow teachers to make things easier for these new recruits, and I never feel as if my job is finished. This has proved to be the hardest job that I have ever undertaken, and it has put my trust in God to the test.

New year? Totally.

New rules? Obviously.

New teacher? Nope. The Master Teacher has always been right beside me. It's just time that I started talking to Him again.