Claire's Party

Our Claire was invited to little Claire's party yesterday, which was supposed to be a horseback-riding party. However, it had to be moved to Jump Zone because of a thunderstorm. The problem with that was all the noise inside Jump Zone. Our Claire wanted to go to the party, but can't handle all that noise inside, so after trying to overcome it for a long time, she ended up coming home and crying in her room.

Like Mother like Daughter

One of my nieces gets into trouble just like her mother (my sister) did growing up. She threw a tantrum at Idlewild today because she wanted to swim and it wasn't time yet, so she screamed and ran behind one of the rides. I was at another ride with Sarah, so my mom and my sister went around either side of the ride and finally corralled her. After my niece and sister went home, my mom told me about the trouble my sister gave her growing up, so the good news is that it should turn out OK, but it's still tough right now.

New Shoes

I've gone 18 months without buying new shoes, mostly because I haven't been running often. I usually buy them every 12 months and I've had holes in these for at 6. However, it's only now the those holes are starting the fray and not just the fabric is fraying, but the hard plastic cushioning is becoming hard plastic jaggers that's hard on my heels. So, after about 8 miles of blisters, I'm spending money on myself to get new shoes.

It was Emily's first real practice too and she did great. Sarah just got back from the eye doctor's and has a 6-month reprieve from glasses. Nothing new for Claire.

Diaconate

I was reviewing my career plans yesterday and put a surprising thing down. I may apply for the diaconate in 6 years. Our girls will be old enough to stay home by themselves in 4 years, which would give me time to resume visiting the shut-in members of my parish, which I hope would help others see me as morally upstanding enough to be a deacon despite my past before I was married. If not, I'll just keep doing the best I can as I am.

Jeopardy

I've been writing a lot of Jeopardy games for Lincoln Learning Solutions. It will be interesting to see if any of my kids or students end up playing them someday when they are in 8th grade.

Prayer

Deacon Steven's homily was about prayer and how God answers with Yes, No, or Not Yet. He emphasized being persistent (because of the Not Yet), which naturally made me think of our kids' education. Rumor has it that the diocesan leaders want to go to a regional system that will break up K-8 into K-4 and 5-8, which was a big reason we liked the Catholic schools more than the public schools. It keeps the junior high kids younger longer, which is a good thing. They are doing this, not to save money, but to serve a future market. Being of the current market, we have to reconsider our new options. I can't create my own charter school without my wife's permission, but we could enroll them in a cyber-charter school and coordinate with other families a way to supervise the kids during the day - even if we pitch in to hire someone with all the money we'll be saving ($3000 per kid). A class of 14 would pay a "teacher" $42,000.

Happy Birthday, John!

We celebrated John's birthday yesterday because it looked like the only day all of us had free between now and his real birthday.

On an unrelated note, I thought of this daycare dilemma: An owner has two employees that he's trying to decide who to leave in charge when he has to be away from the center. Two critical moments form the basis of his decision. One, 4-year-old Brian tries to pour his own milk and it spills. Ron, a male employee, makes fun of him for being so clumsy because he hates cleaning up messes, but helps him clean it up anyway. Jill, criticizes Ron for being so insensitive. Later, Brian is fighting with his 2-year-old sister and starts choking her. Jill ignores it as none of her business, but Ron rushes over to break them up and let Brian's sister breathe again. Who is the better person to leave in charge?

I wanted to make a metaphor to represent that the opposite of love is apathy, not hate. Ron can be insensitive on the surface, but he loves the children and takes care of them when he needs to. Jill is quick to point out other people's faults, but doesn't really do anything to take care of the children herself. Based on my thinking, I would like to think everyone would pick Ron to be in charge, but my gut tells me a lot of people relate more to Jill than Ron.

Idlewild

We've been having a great summer at Idlewild, going about once a week when Nancy has off work (and avoiding the weekend crowd). The castle opened about 2 weeks ago and they were celebrating it's 60th birthday with cake and cookies, which was a nice surprise. Since the first day when we went swimming early and got burned, we have been hanging out in the park until 3 PM and ending the day at the waterpark. The only people I've seen are Cathy and Jen Hensler (although different last names now). It's been nice.

Update

Nancy and I had another Engaged Encounter Weekend. We had Emily's birthday at the Children's Museum and Claire's birthday at Claire's. I've been thinking more about the political ads I've seen. Trump's criticized for making fun of a person with disabilities, but Clinton isn't criticized for killing unborn babies with disabilities. A Clinton supporter argued that Benghazi and a number of other common complaints about Clinton don't compare with complaints against Trump. I agree with Benghazi being trivial in comparison to her pro-choice stance and forcing workers to participate in abortions against their conscience. The things about Clinton I dislike most are all policy related. The common complaints about Trump (racist, sexist) are not policy related -- he's not going to support killing women or minorities like Clinton and her pro-choice allies support killing unborn babies. I suppose pro-choice people have hardened their hearts so they don't consider unborn babies people and can write off my arguments as irrelevant. There's nothing more I can do for them besides pray.

Annulments

While I was trying to place dates on my timeline, I asked a friend about when she first married because I remember being at her wedding, but forgot the date and knew she would know. Of course, that first marriage was annulled in record time, so it never happened (and doesn't get a place on my timeline).

Deep and Simple

In reading Deep & Simple by Bo Lozoff, I came across this prayer by Mother Teresa that I want to share:

Deliver me, O Jesus, from the desire
of being loved, of being extolled,
of being honored, of being praised,
of being preferred, of being consulted,
of being approved, of being popular,

From the fear of being humiliated, of being despised,
of suffering rebukes, of being calumniated,
of being forgotten, of being wronged,
of being ridiculed, of being suspected.

That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be more esteemed than I,
That (in the opinion of the world) others may increase and I decrease,
That others be chosen, and I set aside,
That others be praised, and I unnoticed,
That others be preferred to me in everything,
That others become holier than me,
provided I become as holy as I should.

Zen and the birds of appetite

Too many ideas have crossed my mind this week. Last time, I wrote about putting writing in perspective because Jesus didn't write. I intended to follow that up with learning a second language, but Jesus had a way to connect with others of a different language, so I am not giving up learning Spanish just yet. I feel someone may benefit from it in the future. That's why I tell myself I pray and read so much, so I can share the fruits of contemplation with others.

When we went to Texas in February, I was reading the Tao Te Ching (the "Bible" of Taoism) and thought how compatible it seemed to the Franciscan charism (in Roman Catholicism). I was surprised to see that same idea articulated in Zen and the Birds of Appetite by Thomas Merton, which I finished this week. That book also led me to ask the question: How does one reconcile true poverty (not having even an empty space for God like Jesus had on the cross) with wanting to enlarge our capacity for the gifts God wants to give to us. The answer I came to was that our spiritual journey has different needs at different places/times and so one will lead to the other, but it's still something that we must ask/allow God to do in us.

Again, there seems to be a disconnect between my inner journey and my outer journey. This week we went to Hoss's because the girls earned free meals for their report cards and we had time to go out to my work before hand. We went to Idlewild with my mom the next day. We went to her house the day after that, when Claire was done helping with Katarina for swimming and pizza. That was the first day I missed mass. Yesterday, we went on our first of three runs with donuts afterwards in lieu of running Plum's 5K, and made it back in time to go to lunch bunch and let me get Klondikes on sale and a lottery ticket. I've since learned my lottery ticket lost, so I bought another today with my number instead of the limited randomly generated numbers.