I have a piece discussing inviting a Saint to walk with you in the coming year. This past year, I helped contribute to the Catholic Mom Prayer Companion, a collection of 365 short reflections designed to give the reader a moment to catch her breath and pray. Because the book is entitled, the Catholic Mom Prayer Companion, I thought it a great idea to have a companion for engaging in the year of prayer. Hence, I suggested turning to Jen Fulwiller's Saint Generator.
If you'd like to read the story over at Catholicmom.com, Walk with a Saint, it will explain what a Saint Generator is, and why you might want to give it a try. It's fun.
As 2016 is winding down, I thought back and realized, I did make some of my goals this year.
1) I lost seven pounds. I probably gained two back from the past two days of food, but it's still progress. I also ran in two 5K's.
2) I read 12 books. (One a month). Working to make it two a month in the coming year.
3) Wrote 32 pieces that got published somewhere for pay. (A new high).
4) Got a job.
Have a great time preparing for the new year, I'm going to make my annual overly ambitious list of things I want to do.
What are my goals for 2017?
1) Lose 10 more pounds.
2) Read 24 books.
3) Write 52 pieces that get published for pay.
4) Grow at my job.
5) Learn a piece of music a month. (It's to stretch me).
6) Reconnect more with family and friends.
7) Redevelop my prayer life. (The Saint I got through the Saint Generator is planning to help me).
Have a great last day of 2016!
Showing posts with label ambitions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ambitions. Show all posts
Friday, December 30, 2016
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Have a Piece over at Aleteia today!
Goal of 2016? Write and get a piece published every week if possible, every month if not. And to finish my book and lose 20 pounds. If I'm going to try, I'm going to try big.
Here's to starting off strong: The Good Shepherd One Pew Up.
Here's to starting off strong: The Good Shepherd One Pew Up.
Friday, March 15, 2013
7 Quick Takes Friday
Yesterday I introduced an ambitious blogging schedule. Today, I'm trying to keep to it, but reality keeps reminding me, "You are not in charge!" How? Well, today is Friday. It is a half day for some, an off day for one, a whole day for another, and trial day for my husband. Fixing the ONE lunch was actually NOT possible. The little horde of voracious toddler raptors and teen walking locusts had consumed all the macaroni and cheese, bagels, cheese sticks and tortillas that might be used to make a meatless lunch. The kindergartner had given all 4 CANS of tuna away in the food drive. There was only meat in the house. No fruit. Barely any vegetables. No time to make pasta. No yogurts. no pineapple cups, and the school has banned peanut butter. So I thought, no biggie, swing through Taco bell, grab a bean burrito to go and we're set. They're not open yet. No biggie, I'll bring it later. My 2 year old threw up in the car. We will see if today is a hard fasting day for my 16 year old...or not.
2. Habemus papam franciscum!
3. Not Reflecting the Dignity of the Poor
I was on facebook the past few days to snatch news and rejoice with others about our new pope, and there was an ad for the SSDI (Social Security Disability Income). The facebook page which I will not link here, was a means for people to apply with the federal government. The thumbnail that showed up next to the link either was hacked or shows a profound lack of charity for those who need the safety net that the government can provide.
Are You Kidding Me? This is not Okay.
4. I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!
Having sent Helen off to the editor, it is now time to write up a 100 word pitch, a 300 word summary, select snippets I want to show to hook readers, create a facebook page, write an interview about how Helen came to be, provide resources and additional bonus Easter Egg type material --like the bonus features of a DVD, and draft a way to launch the book. My 16 year old took pity on me and created the Facebook page. You can help it grow by linking and sharing it --here.
Guess I'd better get in the car and go deliver her a lunch.
5. MUSICAL CHAIRS PARENT WEEKEND!
One daughter is in the tech for Les Miserables. One daughter is in tech for a version of 12 Angry Men. We have an Auction this weekend. Their father is getting ready for trial. I could really use that bi location grace right now, if I am to get all people where they need to go when they need to go. Fortunately, my oldest son (a driver huzzah), is coming home for Spring Break. We may yet survive.
6. Need to Tackle Birthday Paloozah.
Marathon necessary to prepare for and recover from eating not included.
I need to throw a party for my 9 year old son. On his actual birthday, he refused to celebrate. Why? One of his friends had lost his mother over the weekend. The funeral was his birthday. So he told me, I'll wait on the cake and the dress down day. What a heart. If anyone deserves a party with balloons and bounce rooms and firecrackers and piecaken, it's him. Will plan party after I drop off lunch for 16 year old.
7. For fun, here's the last one, a bit of poetry written just after learning we had a pope.
A Watched Smokestack
Never Popes.
I leave the computer and
BOOM!
We have white smoke.
May have to scoot over to confession to take advantage of Pope Francis's offering of an indulgence to make up for that and other transgressions, right after I deliver lunch and plan John's party. Have a great Friday!
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Stop Already! Or At Least, Let Them Eat Cake.
I have had children in the school system for 15 years. In that time, I have watched academic creep. What was for third and fourth graders, is now taught in second, what was first grade is now expected of kindergarten. What my children do in high school, I remember struggling to master in college or opting to avoid all together.
At the same time, the schools go merrily on discussing how our kids should 1) volunteer 2) get 8 hours of rest 3) exercise 4) read for recreation 5) join at least three clubs or 1 club and do a sport and have a social life that includes at least 5 friends and regular-get-togethers. They should also feel free to let the teacher know they couldn't finish an assignment if they needed to rest but know ahead of time, they'll probably be penalized for not turning it in on time. They also are informed that high school is a time to try out new interests, but if you do poorly, know that this will affect college applications and there's no mercy for mess ups. It's goofy. Apparently, if you are not carpe the hell Diem out of every moment, you're flunking parenting and childhood.
I protest. I was a teen. I remember being stupid. I remember not getting 3/4ths of what I was supposed to do. I remember listening to the same record over and over again, playing video games until my quarters were all gone and having nothing to do. I remember being bored. We have become a society that does not value rest or down time or non online time. Every moment is caffinated and stimulated and saturated with live stream and twittering and email and wi-fi.
As the parent, I wrestled with the desire to tell her to blow it off. Honestly. I wanted her to just relax about it and go to bed.
This was not a case of a girl being irresponsible, this was a girl who had done homework over the weekend to get ahead and now was working on new assignments that arrived this week. She took a 30 minute break but was still working at midnight only to receive email notification that two of the assignments were no longer due the next day even though they'd been assigned as due. So she lost sleep and time to work that was no longer immediately necessary and had the unfortunate situation of still having work that was due which she had not yet done as it was supposed to take only a few minutes of time. I know because I got to hear this rant last night when the strung out teen couldn't find a paper she was supposed to correct. She'd done the work, it had been graded, she'd made two small errors but the paper was missing.
It was physics.
Rather than allow me to send an email explaining the mishap, she redid the entire thing. She explained, "Yeah, maybe I lost it but that won't mean I won't be penalized." I understood she was partially correct, there is a tyranny of policy that sometimes seems to trump common sense and sensibilities. And while I thought her teacher would probably be reasonable, she didn't feel she could take the chance. She also explained she wouldn't be able to sleep knowing it wasn't done.
Being incompetent in physics, I did the only thing I could do, I brought her cakes and milk.
It made me wonder how and why there hadn't been push back against this demand to make children master what we did not, to demand they know more than we ever did, sooner than we did. I know why. Part of it is ego manifested in vicarious pseudo virtue competitive parenting. You know what I mean, "my kid is an honor student who takes physics and is on the highly selective competitive team of whatever that wins and is better than all those other...blah blah blah." Part of it is the desire of school systems to win that battle on the district level. Our children are foreign policy experts, Olympians, multi-jointed multi lingual TED talk worthy thinkers with steve jobsian inventiveness and oratory skills that put the founding fathers to shame. They can assemble a plane from a bicycle just like MacGyver and have memorized Pi out to the 1,000 number (9). Next year, we're making them expand it to 2000, but with a calculator and by hand.
As a society, we keep demanding more without ever pausing to consider what we might be losing in the process of demanding that kids act as something other than kids. It started with the death of recess and shortening of lunch, the professionalization of parenting and extra curriculum activities, the banning of sweets and treats and firm denial of the reality that there is always a bell curve in every class. We've decided as professionals and a people, the definition of success is the highest standard deviation. In statistics, these numbers are supposed to be thrown out and not applied towards one's generalizations that might come from the data. The question becomes, when college students have to produce Ph.D. work, what will the doctoral students do? I don't know about you but I'll cry foul when I can't adequately assist with Kindergarten homework. The authorities will probably declare me unfit and make me return to preschool at that point though.
My daughter finished her work. She chatted happily over her snack, buoyed by the little something and the knowledge she'd finished. She said it was a good thing I'd shown up, or she was prepared to break out a journal and start writing how she hated the world and everyone because it was just so hard. But the little dessert, that was enough to take the edge off of everything.
I learned something they don't teach you in any grade. Midnight snacks and milk even cure the ills of physics and high school.
At the same time, the schools go merrily on discussing how our kids should 1) volunteer 2) get 8 hours of rest 3) exercise 4) read for recreation 5) join at least three clubs or 1 club and do a sport and have a social life that includes at least 5 friends and regular-get-togethers. They should also feel free to let the teacher know they couldn't finish an assignment if they needed to rest but know ahead of time, they'll probably be penalized for not turning it in on time. They also are informed that high school is a time to try out new interests, but if you do poorly, know that this will affect college applications and there's no mercy for mess ups. It's goofy. Apparently, if you are not carpe the hell Diem out of every moment, you're flunking parenting and childhood.
I protest. I was a teen. I remember being stupid. I remember not getting 3/4ths of what I was supposed to do. I remember listening to the same record over and over again, playing video games until my quarters were all gone and having nothing to do. I remember being bored. We have become a society that does not value rest or down time or non online time. Every moment is caffinated and stimulated and saturated with live stream and twittering and email and wi-fi.
As the parent, I wrestled with the desire to tell her to blow it off. Honestly. I wanted her to just relax about it and go to bed.
This was not a case of a girl being irresponsible, this was a girl who had done homework over the weekend to get ahead and now was working on new assignments that arrived this week. She took a 30 minute break but was still working at midnight only to receive email notification that two of the assignments were no longer due the next day even though they'd been assigned as due. So she lost sleep and time to work that was no longer immediately necessary and had the unfortunate situation of still having work that was due which she had not yet done as it was supposed to take only a few minutes of time. I know because I got to hear this rant last night when the strung out teen couldn't find a paper she was supposed to correct. She'd done the work, it had been graded, she'd made two small errors but the paper was missing.
It was physics.
Rather than allow me to send an email explaining the mishap, she redid the entire thing. She explained, "Yeah, maybe I lost it but that won't mean I won't be penalized." I understood she was partially correct, there is a tyranny of policy that sometimes seems to trump common sense and sensibilities. And while I thought her teacher would probably be reasonable, she didn't feel she could take the chance. She also explained she wouldn't be able to sleep knowing it wasn't done.
Being incompetent in physics, I did the only thing I could do, I brought her cakes and milk.
It made me wonder how and why there hadn't been push back against this demand to make children master what we did not, to demand they know more than we ever did, sooner than we did. I know why. Part of it is ego manifested in vicarious pseudo virtue competitive parenting. You know what I mean, "my kid is an honor student who takes physics and is on the highly selective competitive team of whatever that wins and is better than all those other...blah blah blah." Part of it is the desire of school systems to win that battle on the district level. Our children are foreign policy experts, Olympians, multi-jointed multi lingual TED talk worthy thinkers with steve jobsian inventiveness and oratory skills that put the founding fathers to shame. They can assemble a plane from a bicycle just like MacGyver and have memorized Pi out to the 1,000 number (9). Next year, we're making them expand it to 2000, but with a calculator and by hand.
As a society, we keep demanding more without ever pausing to consider what we might be losing in the process of demanding that kids act as something other than kids. It started with the death of recess and shortening of lunch, the professionalization of parenting and extra curriculum activities, the banning of sweets and treats and firm denial of the reality that there is always a bell curve in every class. We've decided as professionals and a people, the definition of success is the highest standard deviation. In statistics, these numbers are supposed to be thrown out and not applied towards one's generalizations that might come from the data. The question becomes, when college students have to produce Ph.D. work, what will the doctoral students do? I don't know about you but I'll cry foul when I can't adequately assist with Kindergarten homework. The authorities will probably declare me unfit and make me return to preschool at that point though.
My daughter finished her work. She chatted happily over her snack, buoyed by the little something and the knowledge she'd finished. She said it was a good thing I'd shown up, or she was prepared to break out a journal and start writing how she hated the world and everyone because it was just so hard. But the little dessert, that was enough to take the edge off of everything.
I learned something they don't teach you in any grade. Midnight snacks and milk even cure the ills of physics and high school.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Raining Rosaries Link and Other things
For those who don't do facebook...
http://catholicmom.com/2010/12/29/raining-rosaries/
I'd fallen out of the habit of posting over at Catholicmom.com --something I hope to rectify in 2011.
As a challenge to myself and my family, I suggested each of those capable form three resolutions for the new year designed to help improve in the Aristotelian sense, body, mind and spirit. Meaning, I expected them to set three goals; physical, mental and spiritual.
For me, I added professional and personal as well. Here they are:
1) Physical: Get back into shape after Anna Maria Hope is born, meaning decent cholesterol numbers and weight.
2) Mental: Continue policy of reading a book a month, try to boost to two, and practice piano three times a week.
3) Spiritual: Pray the rosary on a daily basis (natch!), and continue ongoing study of Catechism and learning about patron saint for the coming year; Saint Valentine. (I'll write about that later).
4) Professional: Finish Helen. I know, I've written her since 2007, and she's 2/3rds done; with the current delay being that my laptop is getting an extended stay at the Geek Squad owing to a defective hard drive. Yes I have saved copies but the older computer cannot open modern windows....grrrrr. Also, did not make goal of getting published once a month, made it 9 out of 12 though. Will improve stat hopefully and maybe find an agent.
5) Personal: Get birthday cards out on time. Call brothers and sister and cousin regularly. Be on time for things.
Those are my goals for 2011.
http://catholicmom.com/2010/12/29/raining-rosaries/
I'd fallen out of the habit of posting over at Catholicmom.com --something I hope to rectify in 2011.
As a challenge to myself and my family, I suggested each of those capable form three resolutions for the new year designed to help improve in the Aristotelian sense, body, mind and spirit. Meaning, I expected them to set three goals; physical, mental and spiritual.
For me, I added professional and personal as well. Here they are:
1) Physical: Get back into shape after Anna Maria Hope is born, meaning decent cholesterol numbers and weight.
2) Mental: Continue policy of reading a book a month, try to boost to two, and practice piano three times a week.
3) Spiritual: Pray the rosary on a daily basis (natch!), and continue ongoing study of Catechism and learning about patron saint for the coming year; Saint Valentine. (I'll write about that later).
4) Professional: Finish Helen. I know, I've written her since 2007, and she's 2/3rds done; with the current delay being that my laptop is getting an extended stay at the Geek Squad owing to a defective hard drive. Yes I have saved copies but the older computer cannot open modern windows....grrrrr. Also, did not make goal of getting published once a month, made it 9 out of 12 though. Will improve stat hopefully and maybe find an agent.
5) Personal: Get birthday cards out on time. Call brothers and sister and cousin regularly. Be on time for things.
Those are my goals for 2011.
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