December Dailies 2013, Day 7

My son and a classmate play "Ding Dong! Merrily On High" at the Barnes and Noble Book Fair today.  He rocked it out. 

December Dailies, Day 6

Crafting with students is so much fun, especially at the holidays.  Here, students are making icasohedron ornaments for the holidays.  Good times!

December Dailies, Day 5

This morning, I made the family some French Toast for breakfast.  I added some bananas and Cool Whip Free to mine.  Yum-o!

December Dailies 2013, Day 4

Today, my son became a member of the National Honor Society.  I am quite proud of all of his efforts in attaining this achievement.  He's an awesome kid.

December Dailies 2013, Day 3

I teach with these crazies.  Aren't they adorable?  Bell ringers and, apparently, the new Irving Choir.  They make my heart happy.

December Daily 2013, Day 2

All of a sudden, the magic happened.  My little word caller picked a book that was too hard for him to read previously, and he read it.  All on his own.  Changing his voices for appropriate onomatopoeia.  Recalling and retelling the story we had previously read.  Persistence has paid off.   I am so proud of him.

December Daily 2013, Day 1

"Therefore, stay awake!  For you do not know on which day your Lord will come."  Matthew 24


Last night I was trolling Facebook.  Sometimes, I find myself in a labyrinth when click after click occurs.  I happened upon a post from the daughter of an old friend.  I pieced together that her dad, my friend's husband, had passed away sometime this summer from lung cancer.  That very morning, a friend and I were discussing the sudden death of a young man, and how finite of a time we all have on this earth.  We all have a starting point.  And for all of us, we have an end.  We have no idea when that end point will be.  We must live our days as if it will be the next moment, or at least TRY to do so.
I started my day going to Mass at a different church today.  Our pastor also pastors this church.  It is our sister parish, St. Mary's.  In his homily today he shared the story of a phone call he got on Friday night from a friend who was told he had about a week to live.  Cancer struck again.  They knew this would be their last call.  His friend, also a priest, shared with him that this is what they had been preaching about their whole adult lives: meeting God in heaven.  He could have despaired, but he was rejoicing.  What a message.
It truly stuck with me through my day.  Today was filled with a great deal of professional work.  I spent a lot of time in my classroom (accompanied by Max).  For whatever reason, it did not feel like drudgery, even though I was there for quite some time (5 hours).  Then, I came home, ate, and had to do some grading.  I squeezed a relaxing bath in there, too.  Despite wanting to go down to the basement and demolish our wireless router, it really was somewhat pleasant.  What a gift, as many parts of my day could have completely stressed me out.  
Other snippets of the day included:

• Max believing that Father Jerry was indeed two separate people as he tried to accept his celebration of Mass in a different location.

• Threatening my firstborn with physical harm if he ended up with a C in AP English for the quarter.

• Pretty much eating out for each meal today (McDonalds. Subway, Fazolis).

• Seeing and communicating with a variety of friends via Facebook, text message, and in real life.

• Unpacking the Advent wreath and chilling to end my day.

December Dailies

In the scrapbooking world, there is a thing called "December Dailies."  It is meant to be a way to document your steps through the holiday season.  Scrapbookers, such as Ali Edwards, have even perfected it into profitable pursuits.  We Catholics have called this phenomenon "Advent."  I decided to do a December Dailies type of gig this year for several reasons:

1. I think it's kind of cool that Advent actually started on December 1.  Now all those little "Advent calendars" that have 25 days in them will actually work!
2. This is my year of slowing my row.  Taking back and soaking in.  A great year to document daily happenings.
3. I am completing Project Life, and I will be doing a daily photo anyway (well, that's the target).  This works perfectly with that.

Onward to December Dailies of 2013.