Life in Fayetteville

Friends and family have been asking for a while when I was going to start a blog, but I've never done it. I feel pretty strongly that I already have enough excuses to forgo the cleaning and the dishes. However, now that I am going to miss out on adult conversation at the end of every day, I figured that I need somewhere to empty my mind.

Sydney helped me come up with the title for our blog. I never realized how hard it would be to think of a unique name that wasn't absolutely boring or too cheesy. Sydney's first vote was the 411, since that is the name of her self-published weekly newsletter. (It's being posted on doors near you.) Her second choice was something involving "wild roses" but we figured that Zach might not want to be compared to a flower. Or that Neil wouldn't want his son called that. So here we are.

I taught for two hours at church today. Out of a three hour block of meetings... I teach Sunday School for grown ups every other week or so and once a month I teach our Women's class, called Relief Society. Today was the "Sarah Show" as my once a month gig happened to coincide with my weekly lesson. It's been a long time since I've taught grown ups (I've been teaching nursery age, eight year olds, and 14 year olds for the last 3 years), so there's a little bit of a learning curve to overcome. Each time I teach, I re-learn something about teaching at my class's expense. Thankfully my class members are so kind as to not mention it to me.

Since teaching two classes at church is a little unusual, everyone asks if I was a teacher before I had children. (I guess only a teacher would be willing to do this?) People look at me kind of funny when I tell them how I substitute taught for one day in college and never went back. It was a fourth grade class and I couldn't stand how little control I felt over what was going on in the class. I've learned things as a parent that I didn't know back then as far as how to address a group of kids, but I am not an elementary age teacher at heart.

I enjoy speaking in front of large groups and teaching anyone I don't have to discipline for leaning back in their chair, talking out of turn, or generally making mischief. I'm too much of a control freak for such craziness. So teaching adults is a good fit for me. Today, I had my Sunday School class break up into small groups and teach each other the lesson so that they wouldn't have to listen to me for the entire hour.

It's getting dark as I sit in my covered deck and I can hear noises under the nearby trees. That's the signal for me to go inside.