Bypassing Scratch

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Confession: There have been times that I’ve spent so much time decorating my classroom for the new year that I ended up behind in planning my lessons.

It all got done, of course, but only by taking it home to finish. (The room, of course, I couldn’t take home with me, but probably would’ve if I could’ve.)

Well, I can’t live that way anymore, see.

So today, my first day back in my classroom, I spent time arranging furniture and organizing my desk, clearing out the junk.

But I didn’t draw a brand-new poster for outside my door as usual.

Instead, I took the wrinkled one that I made last year and cut out the words.

It still looks pretty cool, and no one will notice the difference.

A small step but it’s something. 😛

Jungle Lot

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I think this may have been a Toys R Us store previously, heading east on High Point Road in Greensboro, NC, but now it’s some sort of warehouse place.

These guys looked very much out-of-place and unappreciated, so we decided to roll through and say hello. 🙂

I’m thinking they’d look great in our backyard. Kevin????

Nanu Nanu, the Light’s on You

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We replaced the old incandescent light bulbs in our chandelier with some of the new-fangled energy- (and money-?) saving ones.

A few thoughts:

  1. They look like like eggs and remind us of the gleek Mork had to hit himself in the head with — or die.
  2. They contain mercury. What happens when they hit the landfills and burst?
  3. They take a long time to get bright. This means you have to keep them on longer to use them the same way, which defeats the cost-saving purpose, at least in part.
  4. Also, still on number 3, what happens when you need light right this instant? What if there’s something in your eye, and you need to see in the bathroom mirror? What if it’s night, and you’ve already gone to your car to leave, but then you realize you forgot something in the bedroom? I don’t know about you, but trying to see in dim light in any kind of situation like these can give me an instant headache.

So, the only true benefit of these new light bulbs that we can see is that they’re supposed to last longer, saving us money.

Well, we haven’t proven that yet and don’t believe every ad we see. And will we remember when we bought them to figure it out? Probably not.

I guess overall, this is a thumbs-down.

However, since companies are phasing out incandescents as we speak, we’ll just have to turn on the switches a little earlier and wait patiently.

A Journey of Faith

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Last year sometime, we got a DVD in the mail from the monks at Clear Creek Abbey in Oklahoma, northeast of Tulsa. It shows them going through their days: praying, singing, and working. “Ora et Labora” is one of their mottos: Pray and work.

We have no idea why we were sent this. We probably got on their mailing list through another Catholic organization we support or something. And they were probably hoping to elicit a donation from us.

Frankly, I thought the video was a little boring, although it was interesting in its way. Kevin, on the other hand, was fascinated by it. He watched it over and over, usually while he was doing other things.

Fast forward to February of this year, Friday the 18th to be exact (according to Kevin).

For a couple of months around that time, there was a table in the commons of our church with used religious items and a box for donations. Kevin saw a Benedictine medal on the table. Two inches in diameter, the medal is pretty heavy and made of some kind of metal. It commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Benedictine sisters’ coming to America.

He paid a dollar for it, but that medal has become immeasurably valuable to him.

That very day, he put it on a chain and started wearing it, and it inspired him to research all of the inscriptions on it, which led him to research the Benedictine order.

Then, on July 3, our new priest Father Tony blessed the medal, and he’s worn it ever since.

At that point, Kevin says he began to officially live his life as a spiritual Benedictine oblate.

The word oblate means “to offer.” An oblate in the Benedictine order is a lay person, meaning someone out “in the world” as opposed to in a monastery, who follows the Rule of St. Benedict, while possibly also being fathers and husbands (or mothers and wives, since women can be oblates, as well).

On July 15, Kevin emailed Father Joseph Mary Lukyamuzi, director of oblate formation at Mary Mother of the Church Abbey in Richmond, who encouraged him to continue on his path, offering his assistance along the way.

And then, today, Kevin’s journey came full-circle: The Clear Creek Abbey rosary we ordered earlier this week came in the mail.

All that time Kevin watched the Clear Creek video, he didn’t realize that the monks he was watching were Benedictine monks. At that time, he hadn’t studied anything about the Benedictines (or any of the many orders), and the video doesn’t spend a lot of time on the distinction. It wasn’t until he’d begun researching the order that it hit him.

God does work in mysterious ways, doesn’t He? 🙂

One Missing Piece

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image

We weren’t long into this 700-piece puzzle before we realized we were most likely missing at least one piece.

In the sea of white and fur-colored pieces, the bright hues of the yarn were among the first sets of pieces Lucas and I sought out.

And now, here we are, all but that one hot-pink piece placed.

A feat, indeed.

But when I look at this masterpiece, where does my gaze quickly settle?

That one missing piece.

Lord, please help me focus on what I have rather than what I don’t.