Matthew 23:13-22: Daily Gospel XXIII

This Gospel passage  is a bit confusing, and I ended up looking up a study on it just to get a little context. Simply, this is directed at false teachers. Perhaps the equivalent I automatically thought of are media sources today, shouting at us about what they consider good and evil, which can be a twisted truth more often than not. Take the treatment of the ALS ice water challenge. It's for a good cause, it's lighthearted, why would you not support this, you heartless person? Perhaps we listeners can learn a lesson as well of standing back and awaiting for the truth to arise. I stood back and neither got involved nor condemned, and then suddenly the whole revelation of the embryonic stem cell research came out. We need to be discerning listeners in a world full of false teachers. We need to be informed and prepared before we try to educate others so as not to lead astray.

Suggestions for one year olds

Calling on the mamas out there (and those of you with more experience with one year olds than me). I'm a preschool aide (yay!) with 3-4 kiddos on my own between the ages of 1 and 2 for about 3 hours in the morning when they're waking up (uhhhh...). Between breakfast and playtime outside there isn't a *ton* of downtime for them, but I want to start getting an idea of what to do with them as far as arts and crafts, numbers, letters/words, sensory, etc etc for times when we do have some free time. I'm so clueless. I've started a Pinterest board to find some good age-appropriate activities, but sometimes those can be pretty involved, more appropriate with being in the home, with one child of that age group, and all those resources at your hands, rather than on the fly with three to four kids around the same age. So, suggestions welcome!!

A Whoosh

Holy jeepers, Batman, is it August already? I feel like I definitely lost this summer a bit. By starting it with a new semester and getting married and ending it with a new job and end of a semester (with new classes soon to follow), I feel like the middle was definitely a whoosh. (Whoosh, n., a blur, a blimp, a blink-and-you-missed-it occurrence.)

Don't get me wrong, a whoosh is fun, but phew, am I ready for a bit of a breather. Gratefully, I have mostly finished a paper on time, it is submitted and ready for peer review. That leaves a project due for this week and a paper for next week. In case you're curious about the goings-on of these papers, the one I finished today was for my Theology of Joseph Ratzinger class (I know, right?? He is so over-my-head intelligent. You read him once and think you get it, only to read him again and realize you're definitely not on his level.) and I wrote it on Ratzinger's view of death and dying as an experience of love and community. The project and paper for the class entitled D. Von Hildebrand and C.S. Lewis on Love are over a book of our choosing and incorporating it into a church ministry of our choosing. I am doing mine over the book Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl and how its themes can be used in a pro-life ministry (Frankl describes his experience in Auschwitz and then develops his idea of logotherapy).

Now that I've bored you to tears, I'll update you on the rest of life. We keep busy between Knights events and helping at our youth group on Wednesday nights and me volunteering and starting work next week. Between writing and reading for class I try to keep up with the cleaning and in the evenings I've gotten a bit hooked on Netflix. It's one of those novelty kind of things. I still miss cable a little bit, as that's what I'm used to, but having Once Upon A Time, The Twilight Zone, Saved By The Bell, and 18 and Counting at my fingertips, with no commercials...there's some perks to that. I promise I don't watch all the time. After these papers are done, I have high hopes of finishing reading Candide by Voltaire, working on a jigsaw puzzle, and delving back into genealogy a little bit before the next round of classes hits. My reconsecration starts on Aug. 22nd and ends on Sept. 24th (it so happens to begin and end on Marian feast days), so that'll be directing our prayer life here a bit.

Goodness of married life: date night walking around Matt's favorite store. I might have bored quickly of the computer-ness of it all, but it was nice walking around and having an evening away from the apartment.

The struggles: Papers and homework consuming my life when I procrastinate/rush, leaving housework/living decently generally not done. Oi. Like I said, I'm ready for a fresh semester to start anew.