Tag: surprise

Terrible blessings

I wasn’t ready to go back to school today. I felt it with my whole being. But I couldn’t afford not to go, financially. I’m only paid by the day, and I had already taken off yesterday.

So, I went to school today.

I had my first class. We did our work, and it went well. Then I went to see the one teacher who knew. We chatted briefly, but well.

And then she asked/told me that how about she go ahead and take my other class, and I go ahead and go home now, so I could rest. So, I cried some more in gratitude, told the department head what the other teacher was going to do and that I needed to leave – and he accepted without question – and I left.

It was a terrible thing that made any of this relevant, of course, but it made the blessing all the more powerful.

My mom and I had planned to meet at Costco after school today, so we could get groceries for Sunday. So, instead of going this afternoon, we went this morning, basically right as the store opened. After we finished, I had a slice of pizza that I had been longing to have for some time, as well as a soft serve and a frozen coffee thing, both of which I had also been wanting for some time, and enjoyed my lunch thoroughly.

Then I went home and rested.

I talked with my dad, and it was a really good conversation.

I got the body wash I had been wanting.

I visited my grandma for what was likely the last happy hour at her place, and my mom and husband joined, too.

And I rested some more before going to adoration… which wasn’t actually happening as the church had advertised. So, I jumped into the end of the Spanish Mass that was happening instead and adored Jesus through receiving Communion with immense gratitude.

And then I went back home to rest some more before bed.

Now, I’m ready and going to bed.

Oh, and my best friend surprised us with a beautiful bouquet of flowers delivered to the house today with a kind note.

So, goodnight.

God, thank you for the many blessings of today, including my ability to spend time with those I love and who love me. Help me to heal fully, especially with and through your grace and love. Keep my family safe and well, please. Stay with us, powerfully, please. Help me to feel your arms helping me, healing me, guiding me. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

Flawed

The system is flawed. How are we supposed to be healthy if we can’t eat healthy foods – or just about any foods at all – and drink heathy drinks, including water, without getting totally ill? Who made this plan? Why? How do we do it??

The body does this consistently with food poisoning, sure. It needs to clear out everything and start over. But anything more than a few days… that’s just absurd.

Dear God, help me to eat and drink well, that I be healthy and be my best self with and through you and with and through your aid. Please, keep my husband safe and well, same for me. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

Carnival

Tonight, we attended the rodeo carnival. My husband and I went in with my brother and his wife, because a friend gave us some carnival packs he never ended up using or reselling. Plus, we had a few free ride tickets from the volunteer appreciation brunch the rodeo had this year (which was quite cool, by the way).

I think we all went into it a little tired, but game. And I think we all ended up having actually a really good time. We walked around a bit to get an idea of pricing and availability, and then we rode the gondola across first (after I got a corn dog with the food card we had). It was actually quite neat, but also slightly terrifying. Something about it just felt kind of janky, when compared to ski gondolas, and we had this paranoid feeling that our phones were going to plummet at any second, and our hats would go flying, forever lost to us. It also stopped twice, though briefly. That didn’t make it feel any better. But it was still cool, and I’m glad we did it. Definitely a fun view to have of the whole complex.

Then we all needed a bathroom break, so we went over to Center to use real bathrooms and to see the youth agricultural mechanics contest. My committeemen who told me about this contest were not wrong: these kids make aMAZing things. We talked with one girl who is a senior in high school, and she presented her project to us. It was an automated washer and dryer for sheep, goats, and cattle (they do this for showing constantly, and it is actually kind of hilarious to watch folks struggle to clean and dry these animals by hand). It was immensely sophisticated, it boxed up neatly for transport, and it took her over a thousand hours of labor, which she did by herself, and cost $24,000 in materials. She plans to patent it in the very near future, her siblings will use it for their show animals this next year, and she hopes to get it contracted for production and sale at about $80,000 a pop. Oh, and she also demonstrated its functionality for us with life-sized stuffed animals. That was both awesome and adorable.

Pretty neat, huh?

Then we wandered back to the carnival to use up our tickets. Should have done it earlier, we quickly discovered, because the place was packed and the lines were long now.

Nonetheless, they rode a swing ride, a spinning ride with almost no line, and another flipping-spinning ride that went super high up and, somehow, had an almost-zero line as we walked up to it (which didn’t last).

We spent the final tickets on a game we had seen and called unfairly priced early on, where you get to throw baseballs at overturned beer bottles and try to break them. But you only get two balls per turn and have to break two bottles. (So, if you miss the first, why bother throwing the second? Exactly.) However, we had tickets to spare and no one wanted to wait in any lines for rides anymore, so we went for it.

The boys enjoyed it and did not succeed in breaking the bottles. They did, however, succeed in getting tiny bits of glass all over their hands from the used baseballs that had been falling on the piles of broken bottles all day (and all rodeo, most likely). So, that sucked. After they washed their hands, it was immensely better, but not all the glass was gone, apparently. I’m just hoping it’ll be fully clear from my husband’s hands during his shower, so he can come to bed with fully clean and safe hands. I’m too sensitive for stuff like that, and probably would freak out for weeks if any ended up in the bed.

Anyway, we then went to the club we enjoy, partly just to use he tickets my mom had given us, but also so my brother and sister-in-law could try the awesome frozen (think frostie-style) Jack & Coke and the awesome Milk Punch (also called Rodeo Punch), a milky drink with nutmeg that is like horchata, but not. On the way, a girl from one of my committees was clearly leaving and she could tell we were going up to the club, so she handed me a handful of drink tickets she was not going to be using before tomorrow night. (Not like we needed those, but more to share! And we did both sue them and share them, which was great.) We still ended up with three drink tickets leaving in my hat, but those had been a gift in the first place, so no monetary loss on our family’s end, anyway, and more money for the kids (scholarship money).

We finally left to go home at eleven o’clock, all of us wiped. But the highways were actually open tonight, free from construction shut-downs, so it was a quick drive home for once. (Yippee!)

So, yes, another night both out and up late for me. And I had a very nice time with my family, doing something we don’t usually get to do. So, that was fun, and so am grateful.

Thank you, God, for such a nice time with my family and for keeping us safe. I love you. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

Tea Party

Today, we attended a tea party as a bridal shower for my friend’s sister. And it was actually really nice. We very much enjoyed the tea party, and it had me want to have more tea parties in my life… which was a surprise for me! Who knew I would want to have tea parties in my life??

Thank you, God, for such a lovely day with family and with friends. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

Prayer

I was already doing the daily readings each morning and the rosary each night. Now, for Lent, because of a specific 40-day prayer challenge offered, and then a specifically relevant one offered, as well as one that includes a priest I know personally, I have between 25 and 50 minutes of extra prayer and intentional meditation each day. It’s a lot, but I have enjoyed it so far. In a way, it keeps me focused. And I like that it is giving me all different ideas thrown to me each day, from different directions. It is keeping me rounded in my thinking and exposing me to more good in the world than I had known previously, which is always a wonderful thing.

So, thank you, God, for the Hallow application and for this prayer opportunity that is actually more than forty days, even though it’s called a 40-day challenge. Thank you, also, for that silly irony. Keep us safe, please, my man (this is my husband) and our children (once they begin), especially, please. Help my mom to breathe easily and comfortably. Help to heal my dad’s daily pains by his turning closer to you. Thank you for this life. And thank you for my husband. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

Kids

I spoke with the dean today and got support on how to proceed with the kid who has been cheating throughout the year. His guidance was helpful by scores. It also helped to know that, should the conversation not go well, we had a clear plan of proving the cheating and then, if it continued, withholding the grade for the class as a whole, since the student hadn’t actually earned one by doing her own work.

When I spoke to the student after school, the conversation seemed to go really well for what it was. She admitted her lack of academic integrity, and helped me understand what was behind it all, where specifically and why she struggled in class. We talked through the class guidelines and agreements – to which she had agreed at the start of the year – and discussed how she could start following them again and how I and others could support her in doing that.

I had been very worried before the conversation. I didn’t know how to approach it without being pissed at her for doing this all year and for making me have to change all sorts of things just to be able to keep her from cheating, when it would have been better for everyone else another way. Because I was pissed at her.

I was also crushed that I had been such a bad teacher not to have addressed it at the start directly and looked to see how to help her start to participate and actually learn (instead of cheat) way back then.

And I think it was that idea that helped me get to the right place.

The whole reason we want them not to cheat is because they cheat themselves out of an education that way. She lost all this time for learning, because she cheated instead. And I was too afraid of making an enemy of her to call her out on it sooner. (To be fair, there were other bad behaviors from her and her group that took up a lot of my energy for class every time, so this was a minor concern over all of that stuff each day.)

Nonetheless, when I went to talk to her, I almost couldn’t speak. Then I just looked right at her, and I got it. She knew and I knew she had been cheating, and neither of us wanted this confrontation. In that moment, I was clear that I cared about her and was worried for her own fears and concerns. And I shared that with her.

I told her that I wanted to talk with her about her academic integrity in the class. I told her what I had been seeing, including specific dead-giveaways of her cheating at times. I didn’t give all the details, because I saw I didn’t need to give them. I told her I wanted to know what was going on for her in class that she was struggling so much – what specifically was so hard for her, because I want to work with her on that. I said other things that were God-givenly well said, though I don’t recall them now.

And she admitted that she was really having a lot of trouble in class. We talked about how she had done the year before, where she had excelled versus struggled, and why the transition to this class kind of hit her like a tank. I made it clear that she needs to follow the guidelines and requirements in class, specifically the number one rule of understanding every word, every time. It is their duty to stop me, to ask me to speak slower, to repeat, to give the meanings of unknown words… and it is my promise that I will do as they ask every single time. And I do. Her class, of course, is the worst at following this rule, which hasn’t helped her have the courage to speak up at all. And, of course, she is very shy, which only makes it harder for her to speak up and thereby admit she didn’t understand something that it seems like everyone else understood. I told her to have friends ask for her sometimes, if she gets especially nervous or feels like it’s too much in a single class. I told her the special secret that not everyone else does know what I’ve said half the time. She isn’t alone in her lack of understanding, and I’ll be having conversations with others on that topic, too.

I also told her that I want to help her and I want her to succeed. I will work with her both during class and outside of class, whatever support or explanation she may need. We are having this conversation because I care about her success.

And, though she looked very much by the end like she was hitting her limit and needed to leave quickly and cry her eyes out, it felt like there is a real chance she got it and understands that I actually do care. If I didn’t, I would have turned her into the dean directly – I had clear proof of her cheating long ago, and still had that proof to hand over at any second. Not something a student would want senior year, to be sure. But I didn’t turn that in to anyone. And she knows that. I just so hope that she will take seriously what we discussed and that I want her to succeed. I was very proud of her, especially because of how I know she has been struggling, when she recited her quiz thing almost perfectly after class today (it was to make up for a day she had been absent). I was genuinely delighted for her success. And maybe that played into finding the right words, too. Maybe that was how I truly was able to get present to my care for her.

Whatever the case, I am grateful I found the emotions and the words. I hope she got them fully and takes them to heart. I would love to see her succeed in this class the rest of the year. I also hope she doesn’t hate me, because it really does suck when a teenage girl hates you – trust me, I know – but that comes second to her success in class. Because my ultimate goal is to offer growth to the students. So, here’s to her newly impending growth in class! Cheers!

Thank you, God. Keep my husband safe, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

Hallow

Hallow is just so cool. Now, I’m doing this 40-day prayer challenge – actually, it’s really hard that each day has a different length and I don’t know that length until I go to play the recording; some are five to eight minutes, others 22+ – and it’s already cool. But now a priest I know personally has popped up on the challenge for the German one. (Recall that I’m doing a German one and an English one, on top of the rosary and daily readings that I already do daily in English.) Such a fun surprise!

Thank you, God, for Hallow, for the wonderful people I have been able to know, and for this lovely day and my wonderful husband. Thank you. Keep us happy, healthy, holy, please. And keep us always safe and in your arms, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

Power outage

We decided to go to Galveston for the rest of the weekend, because Airbnb had some affordable places that normally cost loads more (likely because they weren’t rented already for the weekend, and today was Saturday already). Also, we wanted to take advantage of the extra time off work for me, and go spend some time together intentionally.

So, we came to Galveston. Just after we placed our meal orders for dinner, enjoying our appetizer of queso flameado, as well as the house frozen margarita that had just been placed on our table, the power went out.

It turned out that the whole portion of the island had lost power, and it didn’t seem like it was coming back too quickly. So, after about ten minutes, we had finished our queso and some final chips with salsa (not to mention that it was getting cold in there), and the rest of our food couldn’t be made until the power came back, since the oven wasn’t working. We decided to take our drinks to go, finished dinner at a gumbo place in another neighborhood, and headed home. Fortunately, as we had confirmed with the original outage look-up, the Airbnb was not part of the outage.

Funny bit, though, was that we sat at the bar for the gumbo place, and Wheel of Fortune was on. One of the puzzles was “Brief Power Outage”. We chucked at that one.

Anyway, we’re exhausted, so going to sleep just after nine right now. Goodnight!

Thank you, God, for our safety. Keep us safe and well and in your hands. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

An SJ worth knowing

Have you heard of Walter Ciszek, SJ? He is a priest worth studying. I’ve only learned a bit so far, but have already put his book on hold with the library – I want to read it.

If you haven’t heard of the new app called Hallow, check it out and sign up for the 40-day Lenten prayer challenge called “Lent Pray40: He Leadeth Me”. That’s where I’m learning about Walter Ciszek, and am also having a great chance to try some new forms of prayer from what I typically do.

https://hallow.com

Thank you, God, for this opportunity. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024

P.S. SJ stands for Society of Jesus, an order of Catholic religious. Also, go download the app!

Ash Wednesday

Yesterday was Mardi Gras, also known in other states who know no French as Fat Tuesday. It is the day before Lent begins, the period of 40 days of meditation and fasting before the celebration of the coming of Christ, Easter. All the sugar and fat stores are meant to be used up on Mardi Gras, thus the name. This includes the idea that we will not be eating sugary or fatty things during Lent, even if they don’t come from one’s own making. The first day of Lent, as well as each Friday during it, is a day that specifically includes fasting and having no meat. That day is called Ash Wednesday. It is called so for that ashes are distributed to all, via a cross on the forehead, to remind us that we have come from dust and shall, one day, return to dust – we are the creations of God and will return to him after this life for eternal life. Ash Wednesday…

Ash Wednesday was today.

Today was also the feast of Saint Valentine, also known commercially as Valentine’s Day. It is a day filled with treats and commercialism and indulgence and, even, waste. It does not line up with the morals of Ash Wednesday… which was also today.

So, today was a bizarre Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday combination – one I haven’t known to happen previously in my life. Definitely interesting to have the solemn day land on and, therefore, trump the celebratory day.

But also interesting that, as someone noted today, “Lent” is right in the middle of “Valentine”, you could say at the heart of it… 😛

Interesting thought to have us reconsider how we want to do Valentine’s Day in the future, too.

Thank you, God, for your love and your creativity and your forgiveness and generosity. We love you. Keep us well, that we pursue and fulfill your will for us in our lives. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2024