Sunday, October 4, 2009
"The Prediction"
This is a video I found somewhat entertaining.... if you're interested to see it, click here. Very interesting. I think I have it sort of figured out, but not all the way....
Saturday, October 3, 2009
All About Faith and Experience
To lose one's faith surpassesThe loss of an estate,
Because estates can be
Replenished, - faith cannot.
Inherited with life,
Belief but once can be;
Annihilate a single-clause,
And Being's Beggary
~Emily Dickinson~
I stepped from plank to plank
So slow and cautiously;
The stars about my head I felt,
About my feet the sea.
I knew not but the next
Would be my final inch,-
This gave me that precious gift
Some call experience.
~Emily Dickinson~
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Narrowing it down
Today I was blessed to have a free evening. Since today was a teacher in-service day at work I got off at three instead of five. When I got home and checked my e-mail an even nicer surprise awaited me... my teacher for my class tonight apparently came down with the stomach flu so she canceled class and gave us some homework that will be turned in over the internet. Tomorrow will be another quick day at work because we still have some training to do, but should be done by around twelve, so in a way it will feel kind of like a three-day week-end, which I am not at all complaining about.
With my free time I decided to look over the talk outline for my retreat talk about prayer. I am also supposed to be picking out two really good reflection songs that will to first lead into my topic and then help reflect about it afterwords. You would think that since I am a huge music fan that this would be a no brainer for me, but the truth is there are too many good songs I can use and I am having a hard time narrowing them down.... I am tempted to use the song "Anyway" by Martina McBride mainly because the chorus helps relate to everyone easily because it says "God is great, but sometimes life ain't good. When I pray it doesn't always turn out like I think it should, but I do it anyway. I do it anyway." The rest of the song does not necessarily fit with the topic though.... The other song I would love to use is called "Here I Am" by Leona Lewis. I feel as though that song could easily be from God's own point of view... I used to have that song on my playlist, but I took it off for a little bit of a change... There are other songs that I could use as well is "Crash and Burn" by Savage Garden.... too many great songs and I can only use two. This narrowing down thing is not at all as enjoyable as I thought it would be.... I am praying the Holy Spirit will help me find the two most perfect songs for this talk that will reach these kids the best. I guess I have no other choice, but to keep praying....
With my free time I decided to look over the talk outline for my retreat talk about prayer. I am also supposed to be picking out two really good reflection songs that will to first lead into my topic and then help reflect about it afterwords. You would think that since I am a huge music fan that this would be a no brainer for me, but the truth is there are too many good songs I can use and I am having a hard time narrowing them down.... I am tempted to use the song "Anyway" by Martina McBride mainly because the chorus helps relate to everyone easily because it says "God is great, but sometimes life ain't good. When I pray it doesn't always turn out like I think it should, but I do it anyway. I do it anyway." The rest of the song does not necessarily fit with the topic though.... The other song I would love to use is called "Here I Am" by Leona Lewis. I feel as though that song could easily be from God's own point of view... I used to have that song on my playlist, but I took it off for a little bit of a change... There are other songs that I could use as well is "Crash and Burn" by Savage Garden.... too many great songs and I can only use two. This narrowing down thing is not at all as enjoyable as I thought it would be.... I am praying the Holy Spirit will help me find the two most perfect songs for this talk that will reach these kids the best. I guess I have no other choice, but to keep praying....
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Taking a trip down memory lane
Over the week-end I decided to look through my "special" box. It is the box that I keep everything I find kind of sentimental... Mostly cheep scrap books and letters from retreats, letters from other people, pictures, special certificates, my baby calendar, etc.
As I was looking through it I randomly pulled out an old home school "newspaper" my home school group put together. I read through some of the old articles I wrote when I was fifteen and all the other articles about the activities we did. It brought back some good memories. I remember the countless sports days, the field trips to the zoo and the children's museum, all the art fairs, science fairs, history fairs that we did at St. John's... The book fairs, all-saint's day parties. Family focus nights that we used as another means of getting together to go hang out. The endless games of football and knock-out. Having contests to see who could jump the farthest off the swing. Running races around the gym until everyone was so tired we all just wanted to drop. The annual Easter parties. The Summers with weekly swimming parties where the girls and guys would eventually end up in a "battle" over the large rafts using noodles to fight with. Valentine's Day Parties and getting the usual valentine from everyone, and secretly getting excited about getting one from the boy I had a crush on.... birthday slumber party nights and the annual cook-outs/bonfires each family had where everyone would come and stay until late hours of the night...Too many good memories from those days.
It is funny. There are times when I am grateful to be done with the home school years, but then there are times when I remember how much fun I did have with my home school group. The friendships I made then are very unique. We were all kind of put into this group for socializing and to have people that really knew what it was like to be home schooled and not how people stereotyped it. I am even guilty of stereotyping home schoolers even though I was one.... This group was filled with people who had totally different personalities, and yet, just knowing they knew what I was going through made those differences with everyone to not be any deal at all. It was a relief to be around people who did not ask the expected questions, "How do you make friends?" "Do you get to wear pajamas all day?" "Are you all like super religious?" "How do you stay in touch with fashion and music?" etc..... The kinds of questions I had to answer countless times, and still do when people find out about being home schooled.. As I think about it, I know that if we all were not home schooled we probably would have never even known each other. Lots of us lived in different cities/counties and so there would have been no way we would have really hung out. I am not even sure that if we did all end up going to the same school that we would have all ended up as friends just because of how different our personalities are and how some of us like the opposite of everything else others liked. I bet a few of us would have been friends, but I have a hard time seeing all of us as friends. As it is now I still talk to quite a few of them because I have recently made the effort to get in contact with them. For awhile there hardly any of us talked to each other....
A lot of people like to ask me if I would home school my own children. I have mixed feelings about that. I feel as though if my children did not have a strong support group filled with kids around their age as I did, then I really do not think I would home school them. I feel extremely grateful that my group of home school friends was as large as it was. It was very special, and not always the case in most places. I know that if I did not have as many friends dealing with the things I was then I would have been miserable. Being home schooled is definitely something different and out of the ordinary, and some people would "look down" on them, and if they don't have those people to go to and let out their frustrations then it would not be fair to do that to them. That's just me though.
Those home school days will always have a special place in my memory filled with good times. Those were some good days, that's for sure.
As I was looking through it I randomly pulled out an old home school "newspaper" my home school group put together. I read through some of the old articles I wrote when I was fifteen and all the other articles about the activities we did. It brought back some good memories. I remember the countless sports days, the field trips to the zoo and the children's museum, all the art fairs, science fairs, history fairs that we did at St. John's... The book fairs, all-saint's day parties. Family focus nights that we used as another means of getting together to go hang out. The endless games of football and knock-out. Having contests to see who could jump the farthest off the swing. Running races around the gym until everyone was so tired we all just wanted to drop. The annual Easter parties. The Summers with weekly swimming parties where the girls and guys would eventually end up in a "battle" over the large rafts using noodles to fight with. Valentine's Day Parties and getting the usual valentine from everyone, and secretly getting excited about getting one from the boy I had a crush on.... birthday slumber party nights and the annual cook-outs/bonfires each family had where everyone would come and stay until late hours of the night...Too many good memories from those days.
It is funny. There are times when I am grateful to be done with the home school years, but then there are times when I remember how much fun I did have with my home school group. The friendships I made then are very unique. We were all kind of put into this group for socializing and to have people that really knew what it was like to be home schooled and not how people stereotyped it. I am even guilty of stereotyping home schoolers even though I was one.... This group was filled with people who had totally different personalities, and yet, just knowing they knew what I was going through made those differences with everyone to not be any deal at all. It was a relief to be around people who did not ask the expected questions, "How do you make friends?" "Do you get to wear pajamas all day?" "Are you all like super religious?" "How do you stay in touch with fashion and music?" etc..... The kinds of questions I had to answer countless times, and still do when people find out about being home schooled.. As I think about it, I know that if we all were not home schooled we probably would have never even known each other. Lots of us lived in different cities/counties and so there would have been no way we would have really hung out. I am not even sure that if we did all end up going to the same school that we would have all ended up as friends just because of how different our personalities are and how some of us like the opposite of everything else others liked. I bet a few of us would have been friends, but I have a hard time seeing all of us as friends. As it is now I still talk to quite a few of them because I have recently made the effort to get in contact with them. For awhile there hardly any of us talked to each other....
A lot of people like to ask me if I would home school my own children. I have mixed feelings about that. I feel as though if my children did not have a strong support group filled with kids around their age as I did, then I really do not think I would home school them. I feel extremely grateful that my group of home school friends was as large as it was. It was very special, and not always the case in most places. I know that if I did not have as many friends dealing with the things I was then I would have been miserable. Being home schooled is definitely something different and out of the ordinary, and some people would "look down" on them, and if they don't have those people to go to and let out their frustrations then it would not be fair to do that to them. That's just me though.
Those home school days will always have a special place in my memory filled with good times. Those were some good days, that's for sure.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Angels are just too cool!
Today happens to be the feast day for the three Archangels. I was blessed to be able to attend Mass today, which I no longer take for granted like I have in the past. Apparently, up until the sixties each Archangel had their own feast day, but they decided to give them one to share so people did not get too confused about which day was for which Archangel.
Michael is the most famous of the three angels. Michael means who is like God. Most people usually associate him with being the leader of the good angels to send Satan out of heaven. He is also supposed to play a huge role at the end of the world to help bring peace to the world. He is the patron saint of Police.
Gabriel is known as the messenger. Gabriel means God's able-bodied one or hero of God. In the old testament he came to Daniel and gave him skill and understanding. He was the one to tell Mary that she was the chosen one to be Jesus' mother. He also came to Zacharias and told him that his elderly wife, Elizabeth, would have a son and to name him John. He is the patron of communications through technology.
Raphael is known as the healer of the three. Raphael means healer. He is the one that we have the smallest of information on. He is mentioned by name in the book of Tobit, which as the majority of people, know happens to be one of the books removed from the protestant Bibles, which I find very sad because it happens to be one of my favorite books to read from the Bible. Songs of Solomon and Proverbs come pretty close to it that one... anyway I went off topic there... Anyway, in the book of Tobias Raphael comes and cures Tobias from his blindness and then rescues his wife from the devil. The only other part of the Bible which speaks for certain of Raphael is in Revelations 8:2. Some people believe that the "angel of the Lord" mentioned in John 5 is quite possibly Raphael as well, but there is no way to really know that for certain.
Monday, September 28, 2009
What you see is what you get... or is it? hmmm.....
Tonight in class my teacher had us look at all sorts of optical illusion picture things. I gotta tell you, after looking at ten of them straight in a row my eyes started to get really tired and I felt like I did way more reading then I have in awhile.... If any of you are at all interested in looking at a few you can click here and it will take you to a place with tons of them. Very strange stuff I have to say. Enjoy!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
"Remember! What goes in the car stays in the car...."
Oh what a fun week-end I had, and a much needed fun one too!
Friday evening I spent with my younger brother at the bowling alley. It was nice to spend some time with him without arguing. I think it is really nice we found something that is "our" thing. No one else in the family really likes to go bowling except for Shane and I. Shane happens to be an excellent bowler. He tells me all the time I have the potential to be just as good as him if I practiced more, but I just don't have the time nor the interest to really become great at bowling. It is just something I do every so often for fun. I realized I must have become one of the "regulars" there in the past few months since they know who I am and no longer card me when I go and buy a beer. It is the only place I do not get carded anymore which I find funny because I do look so young.
Saturday I went up to Indy with my sister and some friends. Oh what an eventful trip that was. Going up there and back was very entertaining for me. One of the guys did not really seem to know how to be quiet. He talked pretty much none stop all the way up there and all the way back. He talked about the most random subjects like how much cows weigh and how people in Bloomington are never really homeless, but there are REAL homeless people in Indy... just random topics. Some subjects I probably should not have laughed at, but the things he said were just too funny, which is why everyone in the car made a pact to not talk about everything that was spoken of in the car.... I had a blast shopping up in Indy. I do not go up there very often, but I feel as though I found some nice things... My favorite thing I bought (which happens to have been the most expensive as well) is a new olive green sweater which was on sale... I got it for $30.00. Now, I do not normally spend that much money on clothes, but I saw that sweater and pretty much fell in love with it. I refuse to wear it to work because I want to keep it as nice as I can for as long as possible. If I wore it to work, I know it would get ruined quickly.
Today I went to Mass at noon and afterwords I went to my retreat meeting. I am getting really excited about this retreat. There are five and possibly six guys on the retreat team, which I find amazing. There are only five girls, so it is a really nice balance I think. What really makes me more happy about this retreat team is how many people from the student life team are helping plan this one as well. We never really had anyone from the student life team help out before, and so it is very nice to see them wanting to reach out to the high schoolers as well as the college students. Fr. Stan, the priest mainly in charge of the student life team, came up to me today and told me he was really sad when he found out I did not apply to be on the team. He told me I would have been a shoe in for the team. I was touched by that, but I just have too many things going on in my life to give that team the attention it deserves.
After the meeting I headed over to my Aunt's house for a cook-out for my cousin's birthday. We started playing poker, and I am proud to say I won $2.00. I really am not that intelligent when it comes to how to play all the different kinds of poker games, but I do know what hands I need to be looking for. My older cousin keeps telling me he'll beat me at poker one of these days, but it hasn't happened yet. My aunt wants to take me to Vegas to help her win money. With my luck, I probably would lose there. lol
The perfect ending to my week-end had to be watching the Colt's win another game. Some of you may know I am a HUGE colt's fan, and knowing my team is 3-0 really really makes me happy. This week-end was very refreshing for me. I hardly did any school work, and I really just needed some time away from thinking about school. I feel refreshed after it and am now ready for my week to begin!
Friday evening I spent with my younger brother at the bowling alley. It was nice to spend some time with him without arguing. I think it is really nice we found something that is "our" thing. No one else in the family really likes to go bowling except for Shane and I. Shane happens to be an excellent bowler. He tells me all the time I have the potential to be just as good as him if I practiced more, but I just don't have the time nor the interest to really become great at bowling. It is just something I do every so often for fun. I realized I must have become one of the "regulars" there in the past few months since they know who I am and no longer card me when I go and buy a beer. It is the only place I do not get carded anymore which I find funny because I do look so young.
Saturday I went up to Indy with my sister and some friends. Oh what an eventful trip that was. Going up there and back was very entertaining for me. One of the guys did not really seem to know how to be quiet. He talked pretty much none stop all the way up there and all the way back. He talked about the most random subjects like how much cows weigh and how people in Bloomington are never really homeless, but there are REAL homeless people in Indy... just random topics. Some subjects I probably should not have laughed at, but the things he said were just too funny, which is why everyone in the car made a pact to not talk about everything that was spoken of in the car.... I had a blast shopping up in Indy. I do not go up there very often, but I feel as though I found some nice things... My favorite thing I bought (which happens to have been the most expensive as well) is a new olive green sweater which was on sale... I got it for $30.00. Now, I do not normally spend that much money on clothes, but I saw that sweater and pretty much fell in love with it. I refuse to wear it to work because I want to keep it as nice as I can for as long as possible. If I wore it to work, I know it would get ruined quickly.
Today I went to Mass at noon and afterwords I went to my retreat meeting. I am getting really excited about this retreat. There are five and possibly six guys on the retreat team, which I find amazing. There are only five girls, so it is a really nice balance I think. What really makes me more happy about this retreat team is how many people from the student life team are helping plan this one as well. We never really had anyone from the student life team help out before, and so it is very nice to see them wanting to reach out to the high schoolers as well as the college students. Fr. Stan, the priest mainly in charge of the student life team, came up to me today and told me he was really sad when he found out I did not apply to be on the team. He told me I would have been a shoe in for the team. I was touched by that, but I just have too many things going on in my life to give that team the attention it deserves.
After the meeting I headed over to my Aunt's house for a cook-out for my cousin's birthday. We started playing poker, and I am proud to say I won $2.00. I really am not that intelligent when it comes to how to play all the different kinds of poker games, but I do know what hands I need to be looking for. My older cousin keeps telling me he'll beat me at poker one of these days, but it hasn't happened yet. My aunt wants to take me to Vegas to help her win money. With my luck, I probably would lose there. lol
The perfect ending to my week-end had to be watching the Colt's win another game. Some of you may know I am a HUGE colt's fan, and knowing my team is 3-0 really really makes me happy. This week-end was very refreshing for me. I hardly did any school work, and I really just needed some time away from thinking about school. I feel refreshed after it and am now ready for my week to begin!
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