Religious Ed. classes

Today was the beginning of the end...my last "official" class of my Monday afternoon 6th grade CCD class. Next week, a party, hand out report cards, play a Jeopardy game of my own devising based on the curriculum, and then it is over! On this Wednesday, the last "official" class of my Wednesday afternoon 6th grade class...with a repeat of party next Wednesday.

As we move away from Easter and into softball/baseball/spring sport season, the kids become more anxious to leave class and hurry away. Even this measley hour spent with me seems to be too much for them. The overwhelming majority of both classes do not go to Mass, so this is the only moment for them to touch the Divine! As I did my review quiz with them today, I can see that the students did NOT absorb all that I struggled to give them. We still cannot get that there are Liturgical Seasons, and that Christmas is NOT preceded by Fall, but by Advent. And that the colors for Easter are NOT purple and yellow, but Gold and White. Let's not even discuss the Sacraments, which took over 2 months of my life with them...

The rewarding part of this job is when that one student asks me if I will be teaching 7th grade next year and can they get into my class? I keep telling myself that if I only reach ONE per year, if I just get ONE to pray a bit more, to go to Mass one more time, to think morally just once more, then I have done a good job. Not great, but good. Maybe some of them have had that "Oh ho!" moment, when something becomes clear for the first time. Maybe one of them will turn to prayer when life sucks. Or maybe I am just kidding myself...at this time of the year, I am disheartened and tired. The summer vacation seems to refresh me, and I will be back in September full of the Holy Spirit and new ideas. But in the meantime, there is registration in mid-May, teachers' meetings in June, the new book committee in late July and then book sales in August!!

Countdown to June

I really hate this time of the year...as the school year winds down, everyone seems to realize that they have yet to give out enough assignments to my kid(s) and proceed to harry us all with the onslaught of such projects. Even Ken had a lab/project due in Nursing yesterday...his final exam is on Monday, the 26th, but then he has to do a week of following an RN around on his/her shift. Graduation should be May 22nd...cross your fingers!

And Abby has been hit with a huge project in Globish (Global and English) and a book report the following week for the same subject! Plus we have NYSSMA coming up (instrument review), service hours to be done, and three Regents to study for! Plus I have my two Religious Education classes to wind down, with both a final for each and a party to plan....yikes!

At least, Abby is organized and on top of things. Can't say the same for the bigger kid!

4/11/1982

Twenty-eight years ago today, I was in Southampton Hospital on Long Island recovering from a vaginal AND a c-section! We were now a family of four...twin girls, both with blonde hair and brown eyes. It was Easter Sunday and Ken was sitting next to my bed, nodding off, having been up for over 24 hours. My pains began during the Easter Vigil Mass and by 11 pm, we were on our way to the hospital (with a shower curtain in the back seat, just in case!) The girls were about 3 weeks early, but both were over 6 lbs. and, except for some bilirubin issues, did well. I came home on the 17th and it's been a whirlwind ever since.

So, to my two wonderful older daughters, Happy Birthday, many, many more and I love you both. I miss the baby years, the toddling times, the elementary school days, and yes, even the teenage years! You are now older than I was when I had you...hint, hint!!

New Home Ownership

Well, Kate and Tracy have now been homeowners for over 7 months. They have had to deal with leaky pipes, broken locks, crumbling steps, handrails on the deck missing, huge tree limbs ready to fall, and a multitude of other things...but today, they have a DEAD possum in their backyard! This far and away beats the mouse that they finally trapped in a sticky trap but was still alive, so Kate had to smash it with a rock!

Things could be worse. I think!

Spring??

OK, here in the mid-Hudson Valley, we have a unique season...it is not spring, nor summer, nor winter, but a combo of all. Tomorrow we will hit 86 degrees F; by Saturday, it is to be 55 as a high, and there is no telling if snow is no longer a threat until we hit May. As I drive Abby to school, it is 39 and drizzly, but along the way, I see high schoolers dressed in short-shorts, flipflops and halters. Others are bundled up in jeans and hoodies. No one has an umbrella...must be "uncool"!

Now, I remember going to Forest Hills High School with no hat in the winter...wow, what a rebel! But I did have boots and gloves and a coat. So, I guess I truly was a "geek". But I didn't spend the day with wet shoes, clothes or frostbite. Maybe the weather was different in Queens in the 1970s. Or maybe we were!

So, tomorrow, we will sweat. Saturday, we will freeze. But, eventually, spring will come, fleetingly. Then the humid, hot summer of the Hudson Valley will start. And I will miss this weird season of Spring???

Good Friday

Ever since I became a Catholic, no, even before, when I was attending services with Ken, I have found the Triduum to be a very profound, calming time. My favorite service is Good Friday. No mass, the altar stripped bare, the reading of the Isaiah (my fav prophet!), the epistles, then the Passion where we all get to cry out "Crucify him!" and prayers for everyone from the Pope to those who do not believe in God...as we move along, I think of those who fall into each "category". While the Easter Vigil is full of light, smoke, incense, and pomp, Good Friday is simple, quiet...we even leave without a hymn and the holy water fonts are empty. Something about this brings into focus what it is we are commemorating. It's like a funeral, but not quite...there are no flowers, no murmurings in the back of the room by the very young and very old, no body to inspect to help you deal with this inconceivable event. I think because I know tomorrow is Holy Saturday, that I know what the outcome will be, that it is not quite as sad. There is hope...and waiting.

A Blessed Easter to all of you!

You're getting old when...

the thought of Peeps (which you previously would steal from your siblings' Easter baskets and let dry out until they were the right consistancy) now makes you shudder. Perhaps it is the excessive sugar content? Or that Peeps might pull out a cap and result in another dreaded visit to the dentist? And why are Peeps in so many colors and shapes? Chicks, people...yellow chicks!

And why is it that hyacinths today do NOT smell like they did when you were younger? Have they gone the way of the great tomatoes of my youth? Or the roses that would fill a room with their scent? And I know for a fact it is not MY olfactory glands...I can still smell a skunk for a mile, the scent of gas leaking, even the occasional "leak" from my dog!