Tag Archives: history

August 27, 2012 · 9:08 am

I’m Back with Some Big News! :)

Long time, no see, lovely readers!

My how I’ve missed you these weeks I’ve been away! While I’ve been really busy during this little hiatus from the bloggie, I’ve missed connecting with you here. A lot. So believe me when I say that I am SO excited to be back!

Lots of things have happened in the past weeks. My oldest started 1st grade, my youngest started K3, and I’ve been working like a maniac. We’re back to our school routine and looking forward to the cooler temps of fall.

I’ve finished up the history course I was writing for the university (Praise the Lord!) and I must say, that was an experience. Throughout it all I was reminded of how much I love history and how much I love teaching– and how much I do not love writing curriculum, especially for someone else to teach. But, I do love the history and I look forward to teaching it again someday.

With that coursework now behind me I can FINALLY get back to my writing!! I have had MAJOR writing withdrawals. But the forced time away from it has been really healthy, I think. I’ve been able to hash out some more details for my WIP and I’ve come up with a new series idea that I absolutely cannot wait to start on. I don’t know if I’ll be able to wait, actually– that’s how excited I am about it. More about that later.

On to the big news and some updates!

During my time away from you, readers, my family received some very exciting news.

I am expecting! Our third child will be joining us in late March.

It’s still early in the pregnancy, so I ask for your prayers for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. We are thrilled with this news, of course. I’ll be sharing more about this in another post– this is another miracle as we wade through the waters of infertility, and gratefulness doesn’t even begin to describe my feeling. God is a miracle worker, friends.

Update:

Several weeks ago I shared with you about Rachael, the young girl from my church who is struggling with cancer. You can click on the link to read her story, but I wanted to update you on her current status. Rachael has undergone several rounds of chemo and has celebrated her 12th birthday! Last week she went in for a CT and was told that the tumor, while still massive and present, appears to be shrinking and in some places, appears to be dead. While we were all praying for the cancer to be gone from her body, this is the best news, other than a miracle.

Rachael will now undergo another round of chemo starting this week and then will have a very invasive, very big surgery to remove the tumor that is attached to several organs. Please pray for her, friends. Please pray for this sweet girl and her family. I know that Rachael wants to get back to the soccer field and back to school as soon as she possibly can. What a wild summer she’s had!

Now for some blog news– I will be back to my regular posting schedule from now on, with a few minor interruptions.

Mark your calendars for the week of September 17-21!!! My dear friend Lacie Nezbeth and I have planned a HUGE and FUN celebration that week that you are NOT going to want to miss. There will be tons of fun and TONS of GIVEAWAYS!!

Hope you’ve all had a wonderful summer. Update me on how YOU are doing!!

Share with me: What’s been keeping you busy this summer? What news, praises, prayer requests do you have to share? Any great books you’ve read that I need to put on my to-be-read list?

16 Comments

Filed under Family, Just For Fun

Tagged as blogging, cancer, history, pregnancy, updates, writing

July 11, 2012 · 6:00 am

We Interrupt This Regularly Scheduled Programming…

Hey all.

Maybe you’ve noticed and maybe you haven’t, but my web presence has been a little wonky in the last week.

I suppose I had visions of grandeur that I’d be able to schedule time for everything in my life, but I’ve added something new and it’s absorbing most of my time right now.

I’ve taken a position with an online university, helping to re0rganize and re-vamp their history courses.

This puts my history and education degrees to good use while I’m not in the classroom, brings in a little extra cash, and cuts deeply into my writing time, both for blogging and novel-writing.

But it’s temporary.

I’m having a lot of fun diving back into writing curriculum and just being in the world of teaching history, which is one of my great loves.

So while I’m working on that, my blog posts are going to be much fewer and farther between, at least until the end of the summer.

Like I said, I had visions of grandeur.

But I want to be able to do a good job on this project, enjoy the last few weeks of summer with my family (school starts around here at the beginning of August) and produce posts that I’ve actually put time and thought into.

So for now, please forgive me if my posts are sparse and my Tweets are more infrequent that usual (some might actually celebrate that…).

I’d love for you to connect with me on Facebook (click on the link to the right) and make sure you are following me on Twitter (@JenniferKHale). I know I’ll be on both of those for at least a few minutes most days.

And I’ve got some GREAT blog post ideas for when I return to my regular schedule.

Until then, I’ll be working hard, hopefully packing in a trip to visit my sister in Nashville, taking my boys to see The Wiggles in concert, and playing chauffeur for soccer camp and swimming lessons and all the other activities we’ve got going on.

Happy Summer, all!

Share with me: What fun events are left on your summer calendar? When does school start in your area?

15 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized, Writing

Tagged as curriculum, history, writing

May 28, 2012 · 6:00 am

Lessons I Want My Children to Learn: Patriotism

Do you know the difference between Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day? Other than one is in May and one is in November, I mean. 🙂

When I was teaching high school history, I always made it a point to teach the origins behind these important days.

Memorial Day, as the name suggests, is the US national holiday in which we remember and honor those who have fallen in service to our great nation.

It began during the Civil War as Decoration Day, when women would decorate the graves of the fallen soldiers with flowers and other mementos. As the years went on and the US was involved in more wars, the holiday adapted and in the late 1960’s, was officially assigned to the last Monday in May when the nation would remember all service members who had died in any war in our nation’s history.

Veteran’s Day, as the name suggests, honors all active and retired veterans of all wars in our history. This date came about from Armistice Day of WWI, (November 11, 1918, 11 am) when an armistice (cease-fire) was declared, eventually leading to the end of the war in 1919.

As time goes on, it seems that the reasons behind Memorial Day, July 4th, and Veteran’s Day have become somewhat mashed together and given Americans a reason to have a day off of work and a cookout.

I’m okay with that. I love cookouts. I love the American tradition of hotdogs and hamburgers by the pool. It’s fun. It’s America.

I’m even mostly okay with the confusion between Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day, because both honor those who have served.

I am not okay with the general public not knowing the history behind our Independence Day celebrations of July 4th. You might be surprised how many people do not have a basic understanding of this momentous day. Yeah, it’s actually different from the other two, but I’ll save that history for another post.

One of the lessons I want to instill into my children is patriotism.

I don’t believe enough people in America actually appreciate America anymore. Somewhere along the way, we’ve lost our understanding of exactly what it means to be free. We’ve lost our sense of duty–we’ve lost our sense of honor.

There was a time when young men stood up, eager to serve. Most of the teens I taught were petrified of serving in the military– the idea was laughable.

Several times I had to combat the idea that serving in the military was only for “stupid” people who couldn’t get into college.

“Do stupid people win wars?” I’d ask.

As a military brat, I have to admit, it was difficult for me to keep my cool in the classroom when this subject came up–more often than I’d like to acknowledge. (I’d like to believe people are smarter than to think the military is only for “dummies”, but alas, many are not.)

I was raised in a military home, with a tradition of military service and the idea that serving our nation was honorable, desirable, and respected.

Although my husband is not military, I want my children to grow up with this same belief.

My husband actually teaches middle school, which is another position to be greatly respected. 🙂 He definitely serves his nation, folks.

My son’s great-grandfathers served in WWII. Their grandfather (my dad) served in Desert Storm. Their uncle (my brother) is currently serving his country.

The idea that standing up for the values that America was built on, what our forefathers believed in when they drafted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, is something to be admired.

While politics seem to continue to make a mess of the values that bore this nation, I want my sons to have an understanding of where we’ve come from, our history, our traditions, and what it really means to be an American.

I want them to believe that America is great. I want them to know it. I want them to be proud of all those who came before us, establishing this great nation. I want them to be proud to be an American.

So yes, we will be cooking out hamburgers this Memorial Day.

But we’ll also be talking about what it means to serve our country. We’ll talk about military service, an option that will be their choice someday, and we will talk about how even at their young ages, we can pray for our leaders, pray for our nation, and pray for those who have served, are serving, and for the families who love them.

Share with me: What’s your favorite thing about being an American?