Love-Hate Relationship

I have a love-hate relationship with Confession. As a Catholic, I believe that when I go to the Sacrament of Reconcilliation, I am speaking to Christ to confess my sins, not just a priest...

So, this is what happened...I was feeling very depressed and separated from God...I could not find joy or solace in prayer - in fact, prayer had become almost painful fo rme over the past few weeks. I was so distracted and disconnected. There was an ache in my heart, I could not explain. As days went by the ache became a hole and continued to grow. I started having thoughs of going to confession. I don't particularly like going to confession. Who likes telling someone, even Jesus, their sins? I know He knows them anyway, but still...it is humbling to kneel before your Lord and say the horrible things you have done...and I am still working on being humble so I don't particularly enjoy this exercise. But anyway, I was feeling desolate and it was put in my heart to go to confession...so I endeavored to go.

My schedule is so crazy, that it is hard for me to make it to Confession on Saturdays. In fact, I shouldn't have been able to go this Saturday either. But God can do all things and rearranged my schedule so that I could get to confession. But even then, I was willful and did not leave myself enough time to get to the Church...and by the time I had gotten to there, it was 4:55 and Father had to get ready for Mass...and I was unable to go. :( - I was upset about it too...because I had wanted to go..but I had allowed my laziness and willfulness to again get in the way...I had to accept the consequences for that, and I resolved to make an appointment to go to confession during the week.

On Sunday after Mass, I was able however, to tried to make an appointment with Fr. Jack to hear my confession and he was kind enough to hear it in between Sunday masses. So I was able to go to Confession. After confession, God gave me peace in my heart again, and I was able to reconnect to Jesus and pray.

Through this I realized that I REALLY NEED God in my life. I CANNOT do without Him. It makes me sad and depressed to be AWAY from Him. And that when I feel that way I need to do something to reconnect in order to find my peace again. I HAVE TO HAVE GOD. There is no alternative, for through Him alone do I get peace, joy, and happiness.

Thank you Jesus, for giving me this understanding.

A little humor...

Text message received today from a friend...

"100 years ago, it was said that a black man would only be president when pigs would fly....wouldn't you know? 100 days into the presidency of the first African-American ---- Swine Flu!!!"

overheard in a dressing room

Ok...so one of my jobs at the store to help ladies find the "right bra" (if there is such a thing). So I was in the fitting room assisting a lady, when the following conversation occurred...

Setting: Fitting room in department store 6 rooms. Three middle rooms occupied. (Lady L is in the Left room, Lady C is in the Center room, Lady R is in the right room)

Lady L - "I give up! I am just going to save my money and get my breasts 'fixed'!!"

Lady r - "Oh?"

Lady L - " I can't stand it anymore. One side is bigger than the other, and nothing fits! I am just going to save my money and get the other one 'adjuseted' so it is as small as the other!"

Lady R - "I know what you mean! I want a reduction. Men don't generally approve of that, but I can't stand this anymore either...They are so heavy and I can't find any clothes that fit right! My husband will just have to live my getting a reduction!"

Lady C - "Um...girls? Can I have your leftovers? I'm tired of being in the tiny titty club!"


I had to leave the area I was laughing so hard...

new phone

so i got a new phone and am still trying to figure out all the new features and quirks...like touch screen and net and strange gizmos. it may take me a while to get it all straight. what i dont understand is that i bought some games and goodies on my last phone and now have to pay for them all over again. i dont get it...ive already bought them why do i have to pay for them again? oh well. i have enough goodies on here right now that i dont have to pay for them right now.

Serendipity...

Today was a different type of day...

I had taken the day off today to work on National Boards and got it completed YIPPEE!!!! But I also had a bunch of errands to run...

I got my car inspected and an oil change, mailed my National Board box...but also went to my favorite hairdressor to get a trim and my eyebrows wax...(exciting, I know)....so I call my salon and ask if my stylist, Angela, has any appointments. I'm in luck and get a 3:15.

It may be a source of vanity...but if you know me, you know I've been trying to grow my hair long so I can donate it and every other stylist I've gone to cuts 4+ inches when I ask for 1/4 of an inch...So, I go to Angela.

Angela tells me today that it is changing salons and that today is her last day. She was happy I came in because she didn't have my number or address so she could notify me of the change...

I usually get my haircut maybe 3 times a year...I LOATHE it...so the fact that I took off today from school, got boards done and mailed, got the car inspected and oil changed, and got a salon appointment with Angie on her last day is definately serendipitous!

Out of the mouth of babes...

Ok, so like usual its 10pm and I'm in the supermarket trying to get groceries. There are few other people in the market with me, but of those in attendence are a mother, father and their daughter (about age 10) and one of her friends. The girls are screaming at the top of their lungs and running around the store. ((((CRINGE))))). I am doing my shopping and trying to stay away from them. As I'm walking down the canned veggie aisle, I slip slightly on some sort of yellow substance on the floor. (EW) and when I get to the end of the asile by the registers I tell the cashier that there was something on the floor. This was shortly followed by "Code Yellow...aisle 8, Code Yellow aisle 8" being projected across the PA system.

I continue on my way and run into the mother of the children and mention to her that their is a spill on the next aisle over and that her girls should be careful, lest they slip... At that time, the girls come running over to the cart talking about "touching the pee" on the floor... (double, no triple EW ICK YUCK!) At this point the father comes over and says...

"At least they have a good sale going on now...almost everything is buy one, get one pee..."

To which the daughter looks at him...completely deadpan and says..."That isn't funny!"

The rest of us started cracking up...It was the funniest thing I heard in about a month...

Out of the mouth of babes...

Lessons....

OK...so as many of you know, I have undertook a rather large and looming project that is due on the 31st...besides having to appear on camera (ICK!) I also have to type approximately 100 pages of support about how "wonderful" I am as a teacher. Well, I don't know how wonderful I am, but I try hard to do my best...

In order to accomplish my goal of putting my box of stuff in the mail by my deadline we (candidates) are given 4 professional development days... Thinking ahead, I chose tomorrow (Friday) and Tuesday as 2 of my days...why not Monday? well, it was already a workday as it was the end of the marking period so I already had it off to complete my grades.

Unlike other jobs where if I wouldn't report to work the work would sit nicely on my desk and await my return...when I don't go to school I still have 105+ students show up looking to be educated....so, if I take a day off, for whatever reason I need to leave them something to do...

We have been studying India for the past few weeks and are in the process of wrapping it up, so I had some choices for my lessons that I was going to leave:
1) Book work
2) Video
3) art project
4) Test
5) Group work
6) Worksheets
7) Test skills
8) Start new content

There are problems with each of these ideas has problems...
1) book work is boring and some will refuse to do it, therefore creating "idle hands"
2) the only video I could find was a travel video on India...would be engaging, especially the carvings of Karma Sutra.... ;-)
3) This particular group does NOT like to draw...and actually enjoys throwing art supplies around the room and chasing each other with open markers
4) Friday especially this would be a problem as they are already spending the morning in testing in preparation for the end of grade tests...
5) Would work in keeping them occupied - but no content would be done...SOCIAL studies, however, would prevail...
6) rather boring and repititious...
7) Same as #4 with the added bonus of being multiple choice and therefore suseptible to "connect the dots" and "I'm done..."
8) Not sure I want to start new content as I don't feel comfortable having them do work on Ancient China and then going back to India on Wednesday to talk about Gandhi and/or Mother Theresa...

So, what to do???

This is what I decided...
Friday - Use an Indian version of Cinderella and create a character sheet....then read a Western version of Cinderella and complete a Venn Diagram (compare/contrast) exercise.

Tuesday - Openbook/open note test using chapter review questions from text book...

that will still keep us in India (sort of) and I still do the lessons on Gandhi and M.T with out them being out of place...


So...now that the kiddies are taken care of .... I will see them NEXT WEDNESDAY!!!! (Boy, am I looking forward to this nice long break...even if I DO get to spend most of it looking at my computer screen....)

Wish me luck!

History...

One of the reasons I became a history teacher was because I was good at history in school. Yes, I know it sounds a little geekish, but it came easy to me. I was always good at memorizing and found the people and events I was learning about fascinating. It hasn't been until much more recently that I have begun to really understand the impact of all the events on the future.

Unfortnuately (or not) this seems to be lost on the upcoming generations. Much of the wonder is gone from these children who live in the age of instant gratification and a never ending stream of information. Why should they care about what happened 15, 30, 50, 150 years ago? What difference does it make in there life? How do you explain the Age of Discovery, for example, to young people who haven't left their home town, let alone their state?

What does the future hold?

Okay, so here it goes. I've thought about blogging for a while, but am not really sure what I would write...so I decided to try it and see what happens...

Today made me really wonder what I was doing in front of a room full of children. I take out the overhead (I know, ancient technology) and a marker and ask the kids to take out a sheet of paper and copy what I put on the screen. I wanted to show them outlining skills and give them the last little bit of information for their upcoming test. So I am going through the material, showing the students how to structure an outline and I am almost done with a page of notes...when off to the side, one of my students says, "Oh, are we supposed to be writing this down?" (SIGH) Makes me wonder...