PLC

During our January clerical day, we stay at school for lunch and play games instead of going out to eat, but having fun is being frowned upon this year because we don't have a contract yet. So I was planning to organize a PLC (Professional Learning Community)workshop that's fun based on the "Courage to Teach" by Parker J. Palmer. It's the most productive release I have come up with so far versus writing a parody of the situation set to the tune of a popular song like I have done with the union not letting us in to work until exactly 7:30 according to Verizon time (which is 7:33 according to the clocks in the school) in "Oblock Parking Lot" set to "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffett. Since I was approached about coming in at 7:27, I released those lyrics as my response. I also wrote another one about wearing black on Wednesdays to "Let It Be" by the Beatles and about not decorating doors for Christmas in "PBEA Dreaming" set to "California Dreaming" by the Mamas and the Papas. I haven't released either of those because no one has approached me about forgetting to wear black and having my aide decorate my door for me, so no response was needed. Now that the PSEA has been fined for using union money to support political candidates, I have thought about a response to that, but that seems like it already is a response in and of itself. I wonder what will strike my fancy in my next entry. Hopefully, I won't have to address the issue of a strike.

Prayer Intentions

I got a call from a lady at a ministry I support financially just to see if I had any questions about any of the recent projects that they sent me information about earlier. I didn't. Then she asked me if there was anything that I would like them to pray for and it caught me off guard, so I said, "no, but thank you." Afterwards, I thought that there are things I pray for everyday and I shouldn't be embarrassed (or whatever the feeling was) to let other people pray for those things too, but I am. Nevertheless, I will try not to act embarrassed and will let other people pray for my intentions the next time they ask.

Marriage

Pray for all married couples. A brother of one of our friends is having trouble reconciling with his wife.

Loss

I was looking to update some of the situations I talked about last week and found out another friend's fiancé passed away in his sleep. I realize Facebook brings a lot of joy to people, but my homepage has been pretty depressing lately. Pray for her and her fiancé's mother. They are both having a hard time dealing with it.

Suddenly

Sometimes things happen suddenly. That's not too profound in and of itself, but a lot of things have come up suddenly for a lot of people I know lately. I only check Facebook once a week to see if anyone left a message for me. Usually there's no message and the first post on my newsfeed doesn't interest me, so I go back to work. Today the first post was that my friend was hit by a train, was on a ventilator for 7 months, but is being taken off the ventilator and allowing nature to take it's course. Going back and looking at her posts before the accident and the posts on her page by family and friends after the accident on her behalf illustrated how unexpected and life-altering/ending things can happen. It made me think of an exchange I had with a former student who was studying to be a music teacher, when she was in a car accident and died. She was from the same class as another student who died driving to work one day. Another friend had been out of work for weeks battling Crohn's disease and she had to leave at 11 AM on the first day she returned to work because a family member committed suicide.

Aside from these life and death issues, another friend who I had worked with at Freedom was recently forced to resign by the superintendent because he took incriminating emails from the superintendent to HR. He has a lawyer and it sounds like it will turn out in his favor in the end, but to have a job one day and be unexpectedly forced out the next day is still stressful in the interim while it is being worked out. Another friend who was unjustly fired from Plum will get her job back, with back pay, which is good, but still had to find a way to make ends meet because it took over a year to fight the legal battle.

I wish I had the time to compose a better introduction, transitions, and, for that matter, a conclusion, besides this, but I do have to get back to writing Algebra work.

Troll Friends

I feel like I have lost touch with a lot of people by spending so much time with school and work. Fortunately, school is done and work doesn't keep me away from my family, but it does keep me away from some of my friends. Basically, it keeps me away from all of my friends except for the ones I have made at work. I sometimes troll places like Facebook to see what old friends are up to and I pretend that they do the same with me, so if we ever do get together again, we can hit the ground running.

Next

My Algebra II book is still on schedule. I thought about teaching a college class after that, but that's too much of a time commitment given my kids' commitments, so I suppose I will do nothing productive when I come home from work during the school year unless I find something else to write for someone.

School's Back

School's back in session, but the teachers still don't have a contract, although one teacher, who was unfairly laid off, gets to come back.

Pray more

As busy as I am (as many of us are), I need to pray more and I am going to pray more.

Missing out

I made it to St. Anthony's and I didn't get out of it what other people seem to get out of it.

Righteousness

God hears the prayers of the righteous, so that gives me the motivation to do more.

St. Anthony's

It has been on my to-do list without a deadline for a while, which means it has never made it to the top of the list, but I am going to visit St. Anthony's before the end of the summer because I understand it is second only to the Vatican in the number of relics (and is minutes from my house).

ChurchEvangelizing.com

Our bishop wrote a nice 12 web-page letter about how we should evangelize in today's world, by being friends with Jesus and then making our friends into friends with Jesus. This also involved how to be a good friend like correcting our friends. His example was when he had trouble accepting help, a friend pointed it out to him. My example would be people around me swear a lot, but I think they know swearing is wrong and don't care, so I am hesitant to correct them on something like that. Of course, the "friends" I am thinking of are probably more like acquaintances than the kind of relationship he and his friend shared. I just don't have a lot of time to make friends because I focus on Nancy and my girls, which is a good thing too, but they are already evangelized, so I don't know what else to do to get more people in besides praying for them, which I've been doing.

Yoke

It's only hard to be Christian if you try to do it alone, without the grace of God.

God is love

God is love. Put God first, even before your spouse. He will show you how to love them even better.

Protect the soul

Because God loves me, I need to do everything I can to protect my soul.

Fast

I would like to have a long-term plan for my blog, but my blog tends to go through phases like my journey of faith. At times, I am committed and post regularly like I planned to. Then, for some reason, often a good one, but not always, I fall away until I find a new focus and come back recommitted. My new plan is to take one day at a time during the summer while I can usually attend daily mass and one week at a time during the school year when I can typically only attend mass on the weekends.

I got the idea from Matthew Kelly's "Rediscover Catholicism" and from the missionary priest that visited our parish last weekend. Both asked what was the gospel reading you heard at the last mass you went to? I couldn't remember. It seems most can't, but most still believe that God speaks to us through his Word, so I began to think what would happen at work if my boss told me something and I wasn't paying attention to what he wanted me to do. He'd put me through Hell (in a matter of speaking), which may be I am doing to myself if I am not listening to the way God wants to go.

So now I try to listen more attentively to the readings and figure out what God wants me to take away from the readings. Today's message was that I should fast. Fasting will help me focus on what's important and not be distracted by what's less important like I had been. This way I should get Sunday's message even clearer than usual.

What was the message God last sent you through his Word? That would be something worth commenting on. If you can't remember, see what message is waiting for you the next time you attend Mass.

What's next?

After getting my doctorate, there doesn't need to be something next for me, but others seem to think there should be. There's no more formal education I need. I know how to learn on my own. I have the job that I want (and I am even better at it now). I don't want a different job. Nancy knows this too, so most of my time on weekends, after 4 PM on weekdays, and all summer long will be doing whatever Nancy tells me to do.

PSSA

This week's highlight has been praying the Rosary during PSSA administration.

Done

I got my PhD
Hip Hip Hooray for me ;)

Waiting Game

I turned in what I hope is my final draft of my dissertation. I have timed my presentation several times already. I'll probably go through it one more time today to make it even smoother, but I am really just waiting for feedback.

I don't know if this post is more for others or just a place for me to reflect. I could reflect privately, but that wouldn't help anyone else. Even if reflecting publicly doesn't help, this kind of post certainly shouldn't hurt.

How Much Love

It's not how much you do, but with how much love you do it...so, I guess there's no benefit to writing anymore toda

New Year's Resolutions

I have a notebook that I go through every January to see what I have kept up with that I wanted to and what I had wanted to do and decided not to (and those other things I wanted to do and just forgot). I schedule enough reminders for myself that there wasn't much forgotten that I had wanted to keep up with. What's disappointing is that I don't have any new long-term goals I want to accomplish. I think I am close to getting my dissertation approved. I finished what I think is a final draft, but I have finished several "final" drafts that came back from my mentor with feedback for changes. I run out of classes in 9 months, so by the end of this year, I will have passed or been kicked out. I don't want to be kicked out and I don't think they want to kick me out either, so hopefully I get approved before the final class, so I can feel that I earned approval and didn't get pushed through as good enough because time was running out. Of course, if I get to that point, I'd take it. Once my dissertation is complete, I'll have to decide how to spend that time whether it is at the end of the year or sooner.

Well, enough wishful thinking. I better get back to work on my presentation, so it is ready to go if the manuscript is accepted.