"I wanna be a teacher like Mr. Mac."

When Eli was little and asked the age-old question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" his answers were typical of many young boys:

"I want to be a fireman because they save people."
"I want to be an ice cream man because they get lots of money!"
"I want to be in a rock band." (He actually still wants to do that, and I believe he will one day. Eli on vocals and keyboards; my brother, Tom, on guitar. It's gonna happen!)

But something changed for Eli in fifth grade when he had an amazing educator at Little Mountain Elementary School in Mt. Vernon, Washington. The teacher's name was Jeff McRoberts, affectionately known to his students as "Mr. Mac." What made Mr. Mac so special? Was it his brilliant knowledge of math? Or language arts? Or history? Maybe. But more important than any of that was the relationship he had with his students. My friend, Jane, recently completed her doctoral degree in education. She is quick to tell anyone who will listen that the principal component of effective teaching and learning is not the teacher's knowledge of content or even his ability to explain that knowledge to students, but rather his relational skills. Learning is relational.

When teachers relate to their students and truly care, students feel it. And they respond. Mr. Mac did exactly that. Learning was fun in his fifth grade classroom because it was a team effort of both teacher and students. Mr. Mac cared about his students personally; he got to know them. Their interests became his interests. After his year with Mr. Mac, Eli changed how he answered that question about a future profession:

"I wanna be a teacher like Mr. Mac."

Well, just the other day, progress toward that goal became a reality, as Eli walked across the stage at BYU-Idaho and received his diploma for earning a B.S. in elementary education.

He still has a couple steps to go, including student teaching, but "Mr. Webster" is just about there.

College was not Eli's favorite. Unlike for some of the rest of us, writing papers, taking exams, and sitting in classes is not exactly his "Chick-fil-A sauce." But he did all those things anyway, many times over, one semester before his mission and four years since coming home. Every semester, at some point, he told me he was dropping out. He never did. Instead, he pressed forward, and each time, it was my pleasure to say, "Another successful semester down, Eli!"

The part of college he did enjoy were the teaching practicums. In the elementary classroom, he thrived, and just like Mr. Mac, the kids loved him. As he finished each practicum, he was showered with cards and notes, hugs and high fives. He is going to be such a great teacher.

Mr. Mac built relationships, and some of those lasted even after the kids left fifth grade. His bond with Eli persevered, even after we left Mt. Vernon. When we returned to visit, Mr. Mac would take him out for ice cream and talk to him, just like you might another adult. He never talked down to kids. With social media, we continue to keep in touch with Mr. Mac and his wife. He posts the very best political memes. Frequently, Eli will text me and say, "Did you see what Mr. Mac posted today? So, so great!"

So, thank you, Jeff. You rock. That little boy who sat in your classroom 15 years ago is soon to have a classroom of his own.

Monday afternoon, with 2,000 other graduates, Eli processed into the "I" Center to "Pomp and Circumstance." It was a majestic moment for this mom. He was surrounded by family,

His big sister and tiny nephew,

His little brother,

His incredibly proud parents,

...and his beautiful wife!

Major congrats, Eli! We love you!

Hands That Serve

Last month I had the opportunity to speak in church. For me, this is happens, on average, quarterly. Our kind bishopric members know how much I love to speak, so they ask me often, and I couldn't be any more grateful, though often the topics I'm given are incredibly humbling. One Sunday a couple years ago, I came home and excitedly announced to my family that I'd be speaking the following week, but that the topic was something I'm really, really bad at.

My darling family then began to list off possibilities, one after the other. Apparently, I suck at just about every church topic. My topic last month was no different in that regard: Sacrifice. Nope, not that good at it. I mean, come on; sacrifice is hard! Going out of my way to serve others when it isn't convenient?  Let's just say it's not always at the top of my to-do list.

However, I know a few people for whom sacrificial service comes naturally. They do it seemingly without thought, almost like breathing. Shulamith is one of those people.

Two weeks ago was a crazy busy weekend at our house. We took Seth through the temple, sent Eli and Amanda to the final Vans Warped Tour, and celebrated Halfway Christmas, all in three days. Prior to that weekend, I was overwhelmed with papers to grade, and my house reached a point that gave new meaning to the word "tornado." Just thinking about tackling that tornado caused me anxiety. Our house needed to be ready for the weekend, but there was way too much to do in too little time.

Shulamith (whom I've nicknamed Olivia, because she solves everyone's problems just like Olivia Pope on Scandal) came to the rescue as she always does. Her two older kids were scheduled for an afternoon with their grandma on Thursday, so the two of us got down and dirty and spent about three hours deep cleaning the house while her kids were gone. We thought her baby Theodore might nap, but he wasn't in the mood, so he just crawled around after us, intrigued by our dusting, scrubbing, mopping, and vacuuming skills.

At the end, my house sparkled. The glorious smell of "clean" wafted throughout. What lovely sacrificial hands Shulamith has, hands that serve.

The following week, our basement apartment somehow became home to a large number of spiders. We're not certain how that happened, but we suspect a hole in the wall where we removed a covering in order to paint, combined with an attic door upstairs that blew open in a recent windstorm, was to blame. Whatever the cause, we needed to rid ourselves of these pesky arachnids. Eli and Amanda are moving in soon, and they don't care for the things. Eli gets flashbacks from when this happened on his mission.

 

Shulamith to the rescue once again! She read reviews and ordered this heavy duty insecticide spray, and "Operation Kill Spiders" was in effect. She was a wild woman with that thing, spraying everywhere, both downstairs and up, while I was on kid/dog duty, keeping Theodore and Waffles away until everything was dry.

Eli and Amanda are here again this weekend, painting and moving more stuff in, and I'm happy to report that Amanda has not seen a single spider, and she's been looking!

Since I'm way better at preaching the gospel, teaching the gospel, and writing about the gospel than I am actually living the gospel, let me close with the final paragraph from my talk last month:

"Sacrifice makes every "today," however ordinary, a gift. It challenges the natural man, and wins! It shuts down Satan, and offers us a glimpse of Heaven, as inch by inch, we practice loving as our Savior loves."

Grateful for Shulamith and so many others whose hand are so often hands that serve.

Did that really all happen in just one weekend? Including "Halfway Christmas"?

I think it did. Which is why I needed three days to recover before writing about it. I can't remember a weekend so packed full of activity, all good stuff, but so much all at once.

Eli and Amanda drove down from Rexburg Thursday evening. Friday, I got up and went to school for a few hours, then hurried home to get ready to take Seth to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple at 2:30. Several of us were able to attend with him: Shulamith and Mathew, Eli and Amanda, and (of course) Gerald and I. It was a glorious afternoon:

Saturday, Eli and Amanda went to the last ever Vans Warped Tour. I went with them last year; you can read about that here if you like. This year, though, I needed the day to prepare for the second reason (other than taking Seth to the temple) that Eli and Amanda were here: The Erichsen-Webster family's second annual "Halfway Christmas"!

I love traditions.They bind families and, ultimately, generations. As children grow, they feel safe in events that repeat; they feel connected to both the past and the future. Our family has established numerous traditions through the years, many surrounding holidays, others just because we like them. I also love starting new traditions, and last year in June, we did just that. It was our first ever "Halfway Christmas."

You can check out the details in the post linked above, but briefly, Halfway Christmas was such a super success that we definitely decided it would be a yearly event, sometime in June, and this past Sunday was the day.

When we got back from church, we changed into last year's Christmas pajamas, put on Christmas music, and the celebrating began. Some of us are dieting, so we couldn't do our regular egg casserole, chocolate fondue meal. Instead, we had roast chicken, baked potatoes, light Caesar salad, and rolls.

With the frenzy of graduation and mission prep, we hadn't had the opportunity to celebrate Seth's 18th birthday, so Shulamith brought angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream, and we lit a candle and sang to him. I think he was pleased.

After dinner, it was time to open presents. We had drawn one name each, with a limit of $15. Yep, just $15. And yep, that's not easy. You have to be a little creative. Here are a few pics of people opening gifts:

Did this really all happen in just one weekend? Yes, it did, and one other cool thing thrown in that I almost forgot to mention. Saturday evening, our bishop texted me and asked if I could meet with the bishopric Sunday morning before our block. You might remember back in February when I wrote this, regarding my seemingly lifelong calling to teach Gospel Essentials. I guess I can now testify that patience pays off because, yes, I am finally released!

Even better, just try to guess where my new calling is. Just try.

YOUNG WOMEN!!! Oh yes it is. My absolute favorite place to serve in a ward. I cannot even tell you how excited I am. Thrilled, really. Exactly what I needed.

What perfect icing on the cake of our already wonderful temple/Halfway Christmas weekend.