CCD - I've been joking for the past several of days with Michelle. I recall that when she was first starting to teach step, she prepared, and prepared, and prepared. It was almost obsessive. She wanted to make a good first impression and not let her class down.
These past couple of weeks Michelle has been spending every free moment preparing for instructing CCD — formally Confraternity of Christian Doctrine but in essence Catholic religious education. Preparing notes, outlines, etc. I've been involved and it's given me a chance to use Apple's Keynote 2. I've also been able to draw on my years of working with RCIA when she has a question.
Yesterday I went to work early so that I could be home a little after 5PM. I watched Mighty Timbo while Michelle took the other four. The twins went to kindergarten CCD, Abigail to second grade, and Claire attended Michelle's fourth grade class (oh the pressure!). Michelle said things went fine. In fact, she had a hard time getting Daniel to leave and come home.
Karol - Last night Michelle and I made it through the last part of "Karol - A Man Who Became Pope". (See photos) For something aired on the Hallmark Channel, it was well done, if a bit long (4 hours). It starts with him as a young man and ends with his election to the papacy. You see his struggles with his decision to become a priest, the battles with German Nazism and the Soviet Communists, his elevation to bishop, archbishop, and lastly Pope. You see his deep friendships and his ability to resist evil by the force of his words. I'm going to see if the TiVo can burn some DVDs of it.
Acquisition - The official press releases about the TDI acquisition are online. You can see Oxford's version and TDI's version. Don't strain your eyes looking for the word 'Nashua' in those releases. That's all I'm sayin'... In a strange confluence of events, yesterday I had lunch with my old boss, Eric, founder of the former VAutomation. It was nice catching up.
Top Ten - Hat tip to Will for pointing me to last night's Letterman:
Top Ten Signs You Have Too Many Kids
Happy 16th anniversary to Tom and Alyssa!
John and I are teaching confirmation this year - he's back for the 3rd year in a row, and I'm just starting out.
I was so very surprised to learn just how much these kids do not know about their faith. I'm even more surprised about my fellow teachers.......
I guess we converts have pretty high standards. I don't know how anyone could get through 16 years of Catholic education and not understand why the church opposes in vitro fertilization (one of my fellow teachers) even though said person does seem to understand why not on contraception.
I tried to explain that contraception and in vitro are the flip sides of the same coin, but to no avail.
Hi Alicia,
For the 5 or so years I helped with RCIA, I was used to a certain limited degree of "cafeteria-ism" but most on the staff were pretty faithful and kept their reservations to themselves. Most knew that while they may have difficulty with certain teachings, they were there to present the faith, not what they think the faith should be.
I was a bit concerned about Michelle because she has an assistant who doesn't practice much and dissents on nearly every controversial topic. "Spiritual but not religious". Luckily in fourth grade CCD you don't cover much that people have difficulties with.
I haven't participated in anything like CCD or RCIA for the past couple of years. Call it burnout or perhaps it's just re-acclimating to living in a new town. I was so involved in our Nashua parish I wanted to take it slow with the new parish. Plus, I'm trying to take the spiritual direction of Opus Dei more seriously.
I saw a great followup to Dave's top ten at QuiverFull.com. For example:
+ You wonder WHY they make 4 roll packs of toilet paper.
+ You add a second (or maybe third) refridgerator.
+ You schedule bathroom time.
+ It takes at least 2 carts in the grocery store.
+ "Family Meal packs" at restraunts are a laugh.
See the rest at:
http://www.quiverfull.com/clips.php/id9/
HA! I love that Top Ten. Exactly how many kiddos do you have? I am the mother of six.
Posted by: Lisa at October 22, 2005 03:56 AMHi Lisa,
If you enjoyed the Letterman Top Ten, you should really check out the lists at QuiverFull.
http://www.quiverfull.com/clips.php/id9/
They are full of funny but "I can relate to that!" items. Dave's are absurd. QuiverFull's are a bit more realistic but still humorous.
We have five kids so far. I know it is not featured prominantly (as on BlogSpot blogs) but I do have an "About" page linked in the lower right corner. You can see it at:
http://bilikfamily.com/about.html