To-Do Lists vs. ADD

Most days, I can write a to-do list and count on getting at least some of it done.  Today, however, my ADD won.  Yes, everything I did was productive, but (until about 5:30 PM) none of it was actually on the list.  UGH!  On the other hand, I finally feel like my Fruits of the Spirit tree in my classroom is finally complete (I'll post some pictures tomorrow) and the 5th grade band members started voting on one of their pieces for the spring concert (something we had to do this week so I could order it), but the list is far from done and I'm going to bed and remembering that tomorrow is another day.

Excitement

Excitement at school today...we lost power for about an hour at the very end of the day.  There are no windows in my classroom, just an emergency light in the hall (which is no where near as bright as I thought it would be) and 2 small emergency flashlights plugged in around the room that charge whenever the power is on and turn on when the power is off.  I had 18 kindergartners in my classroom at the time and it got VERY dark.  We were lucky they were all sitting and we were rehearsing.  No one was up and getting a tissue or in the bathroom.  I was standing at the piano, kind of hoping it would come right back on, when there was a very small voice, "What happened?"  They were great...just stayed in their seats (no crying, no panic) until I could get the doors open and grab one of my flashlights out of an outlet.  By the time I was getting them into line, a few at a time, their teacher arrived and took them back to their classroom (where they had windows).  I <3 my kids!

Added 11/30/10: I can't just leave it at that, after the other 'excitement' not too far from here yesterday afternoon/evening.  Praise God that was all we dealt with in our school yesterday.  Please pray for all students and teachers at Marinette High School and especially for that young "suspect/victim."  God help our children!

Catholic (Christian) Morality

"The first line in the Catechism's section on morality speaks volumes. It is not, 'Give up everything you really want and follow all these miserable rules or you're going to hell." It is 'Christian, recognize your dignity.'"

That statement jumped off of the page at me today.  I've been (rather slowly) working on reading Theology of the Body for beginners by Christopher West.  It is "A Basic Introduction to Pope John Paul II's Sexual Revolution."  I've tried to read a chapter each Sunday, when I take a little more time for prayer, refreshment of the soul, and study of God than I'm usually able to do during the rest of the week.  I just finished chapter 8 (of 9, so I'm almost done).  Once I actually finish the book, I'll run through the important points of the whole in a sort of review.  Hopefully that will happen next week...

This statement, however, just cried out to me as something I wanted to talk about TODAY..."The first line in the Catechism's section on morality speaks volumes. It is not, 'Give up everything you really want and follow all these miserable rules or you're going to hell." It is 'Christian, recognize your dignity.'"

What a great way to summarize why we should follow the rules and how we should decide a course of action in difficult situations.  We need to make our moral decisions based on our own dignity and the dignity of our fellow human beings.  A few applications of this statement:

• Sexual intimacy...that's (obviously) the main focus of the Theology of the Body...the dignity of the "one body" union of marriage and the beauty of sacrament that it is.  More about this when I actually finish the book.
• Language...this is an area I've slipped up in recent years.  I kept my language clean through college, but since I graduated, I've let quite a few words slip into my "at home" language that my younger self would be ashamed of.  I'm making a commitment, right here, right now, to clean it up...I know I can - I keep it 100% clean at school.  Keeping one's language clean shows that you recognize your own dignity and respect the dignity of those around you.
• Media consumption...there's so much garbage out there, on TV and the radio.  I don't need to elaborate, you've already thought of several examples of your own.  Do we really respect our own dignity by watching or listening to it, regardless of whether or not we think it has an effect on us?  Do we respect the dignity of those who work in the industry by reinforcing the notion that "sex sells?"  Can we even do anything to change it?  (That's the toughest question).  The way the industry is going these days, we have to weigh the good with the bad and make a decision on a case by case basis, but I'd like to try to work harder to not take the easy way...choosing the movies and music that the commercials tell me I should like, but finding out if there are other options that reflect our dignity better and supporting those.  I love country music, for example, but so much of the music is about drinking and sex that I've changed to choosing my country song by song on iTunes and listening to Christian radio instead of the local country station...more control that way.
• How we care for our bodies...most things are good (or at least fine) in moderation, but how hard is it to find moderation these days?  The upper Midwest (and very "country") mentality of "it's not a good time unless you are too drunk to remember it" certainly does not reflect the dignity of the human person.  Along with much of the country, I struggle with my weight.  I'm not morbidly obese, but I ought to lose 40 lbs or so to be healthy and taking care of my body the way I should.  It's something I try very hard to do...perhaps something else to blog about.  My state has finally enacted a state-wide smoking ban.  (Praise God!)  So many are upset about it ("The government shouldn't be telling us what to do!"), but if we won't respect the health of the people around us, someone should make us!  Many of those working as bar tenders have no choice in their profession (and in this economy, who can afford to quit their job?).

I'm not trying to get on a soapbox and do any preaching here...these are just thoughts that came to mind...any others?  Please share in the comments!

Feeding Frenzy Friday II

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving!  I'm not a Black Friday Shopper, so I probably won't go out to pick this up until tomorrow, but the Feeding Frenzy Friday item for this week is canned stews and chili.  Click the link to learn more.

Working for a Church

There are advantages and disadvantages to every kind of job.  Environment, pay, co-workers...all can play into whether or not someone loves or hates their work.  Fortunately, there are many different types of people in this world, because there are jobs I just couldn't survive doing...but I digress.  There are many things I love about my job...the kids are #1, the other teachers I work with, the environment of the parish is fantastic.  There are things I wish were better, of course.  I wish my classroom had windows and the salary was a little closer to a real "living wage," but again, I digress.  One of my favorite things (after my students, of course) about working in a Catholic school is that I have access to a church, 24/7.  I hate the fact that there are people out there that require us to keep churches locked (and I'm not talking about the insurance people, either...I'm talking about the people we're trying to keep out...the vandals and the thieves).  There is a hallway just outside my classroom, however, that leads directly into the church basement.  It's locked going into the school but not going into the church.  There is very little I find more peaceful than a quiet, dark church and after I've had a particularly stressful day, I'll usually make my way up into the Eucharistic Chapel and sit in adoration for a while.  I'm always more relaxed and at peace when I leave (and I usually pay a little extra for a candle, too, so my evening visits are benefiting the church).  I wish everyone could experience, even just once, the peace of a quiet, dark, empty church.

...but my favorite Book is...

One of my favorite tools for prayer is my Bible...one in particular.  Fireside Catholic Publishing has several "Themed" Bibles.  Each one of their themed Bibles has inserts relevant to the age/group that Bible is published for.  The Fireside Youth Bible is great for middle and high school students.  I have a Youth Bible on my prayer table in my classroom.  I'll cover it in a post some other time.  My Bible is their Faith-Filled Catholic Women's Bible. 

The translation is the NAB (New American Bible) and is the full Catholic Bible.  In addition to the actual books of the Bible, in Fireside's themed Bibles, there are 4-page articles inserted every 60 pages or so.   The articles in the women's Bible are on the topics of acceptance, compassion, diligence, faith, forgiveness, generosity, goodness, holiness, hope, humility, joy, justice, kindness, love, loyalty, patience, peace, sacrifice, suffering, triumph, understanding, and wisdom.

Each article starts with a page called Plan and Purpose that covers the importance of (in this instance) hope in our lives, where it's easy to fall short, and what scripture has to say about it.

The next page has a list of scripture on the topic, scripture-based reflections, and suggestions for ways to respond to the call.  At the top of the page is a prayer to say before delving into the scripture.  The third page has a Profile in Faith, highlighting a saint whose story is relevant to the topic at hand.

The last page has an everyday story of Faith in Action.  I'm not sure if these stories are fact or fiction, but I always look forward to reading them.

I find these articles so helpful in developing a Scripture-based prayer life.  I read the first page one day, then 1-2 of the pieces of scripture each day until I've worked through those.  I do the reflections the next day or two and try to choose one of the "responding" suggestions.  The next day I read the Profile in Faith and Faith in Action.  In all, I spend about a week on each topic, trying to focus on that area in my life as well as in my prayer.

Book Nerd

So apparently (if my sources are correct...) the BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.  I've bolded the books I've read in their entirety and italicized the books I've only read part of.  The comments after the author are my own.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien 

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee  

6 The Bible         ...I'm working on it.

7  Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott   ...and Little Men and Jo's Boys :)

12 Tess of the D'urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

14 The Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

19 The Time-Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Graeme

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma - Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis   ...ok, now didn't I just claim the whole Chronicles of Narnia at #33??? 

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgommery   ...and the entire rest of the series...something like 10 or 11 more books.

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville   ...I have no intention of finishing it.  The only book I've ever read that I really didn't enjoy.  At all.

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine St. Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare    

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl 

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Ok, so if most people will only read 6 and I've read 24, I guess that makes me a book nerd.  Well, I guess that won't really surprise anyone in my life...

How many have you read?

Feeding Frenzy Friday

Something I've noticed about many blogs is that they have a special theme for certain days of the week.  Thankful Thursday, Weird Wednesday, Wordless Wednesday, Family Time Friday, etc.  I've decided to start Feeding Frenzy Friday.

I've been so blessed.  I'm far from wealthy, but I don't go to bed hungry, sleep on the street, or worry about where my next meal is coming from.  There are so many in this world who can't say the same.  There are hundreds of homeless students in the local school district.  The food pantries can't keep up with the demand.  There are quite a few extra drives going on around here to help stock their shelves, but I'm hearing that they still don't have what they need.  There are simply too many in need and money is so tight for all.  I'm always so discouraged by the small amount I can do, but if many people each do something small, it turns into something big.  Every Friday, I'm going to post an item and then go to the store and pick up $5-10 worth of that item to take to church on Sunday for the food collection.  I invite any of you that can to do the same (set your own amount based on your own situation) and leave me a comment that you participated so we can all see what we contributed to.  (All of the items I choose will be taken directly from the list posted online by one of our local pantries of things they need the most...It's a very long list.)

This week's item: Peanut Butter

Preach the Gospel

"Preach the Gospel at all times; when necessary, use words."

That's a quote frequently attributed to St. Francis of Assisi.  Various sources are conflicted about whether or not he actually said it, but it's a quote I like.  I am much more comfortable with people noticing my beliefs than having to tell them about what I believe.  My prayer life is very private...I'm not sure the people who share the same house as me even know when or how I pray.  I hope they know that I do, but I don't sit down in the living room to study my Bible or say my morning prayers...those things happen in my bedroom and, more often than not, the door is closed.  I'm not saying I live a perfect life...far from it.  The times I fail to live up to the ideal in just one day would make a lengthy list, but I try.  At the same time, we all know it's true that we have to speak about our faith at times.  As a Catholic School teacher, it's part of my job (and, I believe, an important part).  It's just not something I feel like I do well when put "on the spot."  I think that's part of the reason I started a blog.  Even if no one reads it, I'm putting my thoughts and ideas out there, having time to think about what I want to say and how I want to say it.  That will help in the "on the spot" moments, and if someone does actually read it, I might even get some feedback or start a conversation.

Prayer Request Page

I've added a Prayer Requests page to my blog.  When I have prayer requests, I'll add them to the page.  If you have prayer requests, please add them in the comments.

On Sunday, my grandmother (on my mom's side) fell and broke her pelvis.  It's a pretty minor break...the bones didn't move around, just broke, but she's going to be laid up for a while.  Prayers for a quick recovery and peace during the process would be greatly appreciated.

On a side note, she is one awesome and smart lady!  She couldn't get my uncle's attention (it was early in the morning and he was still asleep) and she couldn't get up.  However, she could reach the TV remote, so she turned the TV on and all the way up.  As my aunt poitned out, he must have woken up thinking, 'OK, time to get her some hearing aids!"  Thank God for blessings...that she wasn't alone, that she was able to wake him up, that she didn't have a concussion, and that the break is "nondisplaced" (meaning the bone stayed where it should, despite the break).

Celebrations

A couple of years ago, we came up with the idea to make and decorate cupcakes as a new birthday tradition.  This idea came from the fact that we either made a cake, ate 5 pieces (1 each) after the birthday dinner and then had leftovers and ate way too much sugar for a week, or tried to make a healthier dessert and the birthday boy/girl ended up feeling cheated it didn't really feel as much like a birthday cake.  With cupcakes, we each get one and then we can either throw away the extras or (more often) send them to work with someone (you can't take 1/2 of a cake to work, but you can take 12 cupcakes).  My sister got this great book, Hello Cupcake, and we started trying different designs.  Some are very complicated.  We've also bought What's New, Cupcake and tried some out of there.  These designs tend to be easier.  Yesterday was my mom's birthday and we all got together and celebrated today.  The cupcakes we chose to make for her were, by far, some of the easiest we've made.  These were in the What's New, Cupcake book and only took a couple of hours to decorate (as opposed to an entire day).  We were very happy with how they turned out.  On a side note, I can't take credit for the pictures...my sister is the photographer in the family.

Prayer

My prayer life has always been a bit more of a conversation on the run.  I like to think that I pray my way through life, thanking God for blessings (large and small) and asking for help when it's needed.  I do think that type of prayer is effective and important, but lately I've found that I need more.  Days when I start out with 10-15 minutes of quiet, structured, "sit down and be still" prayer and a reading or two from my Bible go better...I'm more content and at peace with life.  My attitude during weeks when I get consistent morning and evening structured prayer and reading time is so drastically different than weeks when I don't have take the time.  I want to write later about some prayers, books, and other tools that I've found helpful and inspiring, but for now, I just want to share two of my favorite morning prayers.

I remember reading about a daily offertory prayer when I was young, but I never got it written down and didn't think of it again until recently when I came across this slightly modified version that I really like.

God, my friend,

I offer you this day.

Let all my prayer, work, joy, suffering today

join with the lives offered to you

by the whole People of God

and especially with our great Eucharist,

Jesus,

your Son and our Brother.

Let your Spirit be with me today,

especially in...

And I ask your loving concern today,

especially for my friend...

Remind me, through the day, that I am not alone

Amen.

from Daily Prayers for Busy People by Fr. William J. O'Malley

As a teacher, I think it is important to pray for my students daily.  Every morning, when I walk into my classroom, I light the battery operated candles on my prayer table and offer prayers for my students.  This is a prayer I say for me...

Lord, let the joy of my days be a snare for the young;

let me lure them from lackluster lives to Life;

let my love and patience entice them to you!

Amen!

Source forgotten...oops!



Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

How appropriate that I start this blog...the epitome of free speech...on the day we in America mark to celebrate, remember, and thank those who have fought for our freedoms.  So, for my first post, I think I'm going to leave it with just a simple prayer:

God bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her,
And guide her
Through the night
With the light
From Above.

From the mountains,
To the prairies,
To the oceans,
White with foam,
God bless America,
My home, sweet home.
God bless America,
My home, sweet home.

St. Michael the Archangel stand with our troops in battle.  Pray for us.