An Old-Fashioned Girl

Those who know me know that I've always enjoyed things that are "old-fashioned."  Growing up, my mom used to tell me I was born in the wrong century...I loved Laura Ingalls and Anne of Green Gables like best friends.  As an adult, I love living in the 21st century for innumerable reasons, but I continually am drawn to certain things that might be called "old-fashioned."

One of my old-fashioned interests is sewing.  I've come to regard sewing as a "dying art."  My generation does not know how to sew, mostly because it is cheaper and faster to go buy what you need at the store.  I've always wanted to learn to sew, but didn't have the opportunity until a few years ago, when a developing friendship with a creative and crafty family included the opportunity to join them in their sewing projects.  I began joining them on weekend afternoons or evenings, socializing and enjoying their company, and sewing gifts for nieces and nephews and godchildren.  Before I knew it, I'd been persuaded to make myself a quilt, shown here on my guest bed:

When I decided to take the new job and move away, leaving our Sewing Circle behind was a tough sacrifice.  So I was immensely touched when they told me they were making a quilt for me.  At the time it wasn't finished, but when I came home for Christmas, they presented me with the finished product:

I wish I could adequately express my delight in this gift, which truly is a work of art.  The details, the colors, the patterns (some of which were original designs by my friends) - remarkable!  I also love to garden, so they chose the perfect theme for me. I have to show off all the different ways I've displayed it in the house:

What a gift of beauty and love and friendship.  This is a gift I will treasure forever.  It's the perfect gift for an old-fashioned girl.

Staying warm

It's been warmer this winter than it typically is, which means lower heat bills and less snow shoveling.  But we've had some snow and frigid temperatures this week, so to celebrate I thought I'd share this little video.  Yes, Calgary is a little to the north, but this Southern gal welcomes any and all advice from those more experienced with cold winters.

Singing Tweets - Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra - YouTube

Hmmm.  Apparently, the key to staying warm in the winter is alcohol...alcohol and rich food.  If I'm not quite...myself...in the spring, you'll know why.

UPDATE:  Here are some pictures of the approximately six inches of snow we had last night.  It's moderate by local standards, but rather a lot by mine, and of a different consistency than the icy stuff we get at home.  When it snows here, life goes on, and not just because we have snow plows and salt trucks and "know how to get around in it." You're as likely to stay in when it snows as you are when it's cold and rainy, which is not very often for me.  And with the snow we've had so far, shoveling the driveway has only taken about 15-20 minutes.

My driveway and the house across the
street, as seen from my garage

My back yard, and house behind me

I shoveled that!

Home again!

The title of this post holds a double meaning, because in the time since my last post I've travelled home to be with friends and family for Christmas, and home again, back to my new residence and way of life.

I ended first semester jubilant for having survived it (quite well, if I do say so myself), exhausted from months of stress and transition, and desperately homesick.  I counted those last hours before I left for home, walking out of my last meeting directly to my packed car, and made my way south for a "progressive vacation" (some people have progressive dinners; I have progressive vacations).  I stopped at my brother's house, then moved on to my home of the past 11 years, then finally to my parents' for a week at Christmas.  A few days after Christmas I reversed it, finally making it back "home" on January 2...in the middle of the first real snow of the season.

My time home with family & friends revitalized me.  I basked in every moment of swapping stories with the adults, playing with the children (and secretly enjoying their bickering over who got to snuggle up with me next), making THREE batches of Christmas cookies (my favorite treat), watching movies I hadn't had the attention span for in months.  One friend, who saw me both at the beginning and the end of my vacation, commented on the difference in me.  I felt the difference, too...I felt calmer, more relaxed, less frazzled.  I don't think I even realized how stressed I'd been.  I felt more energetic, more optimistic, more eager to take on the challenges of a new semester.  I also realized that I don't have early stages of Alzheimer's after all...I'd just had so much going through my mind that I couldn't take any more in.  It's great to be able to remember things again!

Now, I'm back in my new home.  Unlike last semester, I don't have to figure out where to find groceries, exercise classes, or a dry cleaner's.  I don't have to experiment with different ways of washing dishes (sans dishwasher) to prevent sickness and grease fires.  I know my preferred Mass times, and I've decided which parish to join.  I even shoveled the driveway and figured out how best to clear it on snowy mornings.  All of that will make this semester much less stressful than last...I hope!

I have one more week before classes begin again.  I worked most of last week, and I have a great deal of work to do this week to prepare for classes.  But since my brain feels less cluttered, I feel more excited about tackling it, more confident in my ability to do it and do it well, more grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this work.

I hope 2012 holds abundant blessings for us all!

I survived!!!

The exams are finished, the grades are submitted, and I have SURVIVED my first semester teaching college!  Not only that, if my student thank you notes indicate anything, I actually succeeded.  I can't believe how much I've learned this semester, or how much I still have to learn, but that is all on hold right now while I go enjoy my family & friends.

Catechetics & Theology

Many people have never heard of catechetics, the subject I teach, and have asked me to explain exactly what it is.  It's easily confused with theology (and sometimes it's just easier to tell people that I teach theology), so let me differentiate between the two.

"Catechesis" comes from the Greek word which translates "to echo down."  Specifically, to catechize is to echo down or hand down the Faith to others.  (I love the translation "echo" because it presumes faithfulness to the original teaching of Christ down through the ages.)  "Catechetics" is the science of how to catechize, how to echo down the Faith.  It prepares those who want to hand on the Faith to do so effectively.  So the program has two key goals:  ensure that students know the Faith, and prepare those students to become professionals in the field.

"Theology" is the "study of God."  Theology takes the doctrine, the truths of the Faith that have been handed on by the Church, and then reasons what else could be deduced from that body of knowledge.  Theology is more speculative, beginning with what is known and progressing to the unknown.  Catechesis does not go beyond what is known, but only deals with what is held by the Church.  Pope John Paul's Theology of the Body illustrates theology very well:  he took what we know about Creation, the Fall, and Redemption, and speculated (beautifully) about what else might be deduced from that knowledge.  Of course, he did so in a catechetical setting, and in his position as the chief catechist of the Church, so it's also very catechetical...obviously, the two dovetail quite a bit.

A couple of weeks ago, one of my theology colleagues told me he was surprised to see me at Sunday Mass at Parish A.  I thought to myself, "I'm a Catholic teaching Catholicism at a Catholic University...why would he be surprised to see me at Sunday Mass?"  Evidently my puzzlement showed, because one of my catechetics colleagues chimed in, "What's the difference between a theology professor and a catechetics professor?  Theology professors attend Parish A; catechetics professors attend Parish B.  Theology professors homeschool their children; catechetics professors send their children to school."  I laughed, because while exceptions to the rule do exist, the idea has roots in reality.

When I returned to town after Thanksgiving, I noticed that many people had already decorated for Christmas.  Indeed, most of my neighborhood has suddenly become very festive in these dark days of December.  And some of my catechetics colleagues are right up there with the most festive of them.  The theology professors, on the other hand, are not putting up their decorations during Advent (since it's a penitential season), but wait until Christmas Eve or so to decorate.  So we can extend our distinction:  "Theology professors don't decorate until Christmas; catechetics professors decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving."

Now that I know about the game, I'm on the lookout for other fun distinctions between theology and catechetics...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I can't begin to express my gratitude to God, family, and friends for all the blessings I've received this year:

- one of my best years teaching high school,
- a surprising, amazing new job opportunity at the college level,
- the quick sale of my house,
- the discovery of a beautiful new place to live,
- all the generous helping hands on both ends of the move,
- an outpouring of love and friendship from old friends,
- warm welcome from new friends,
- countless prayers offered up for me to successfully meet the new challenges,
- delightful, inspiring students,
- successes in the classroom,
- failures in the classroom (yes, I'm grateful for those too),
- beautiful Masses, inspiring homilies, and sweet moments with the Lord,
- the light at the end of the semester tunnel.

May God bless you and yours as richly as He has blessed me!

Fall Festival

I've battled my first bad bout of homesickness in the last week or so, for several reasons.  The days are getting shorter and darker (dark by 5:30 now, and by 4:30 when exams end...sunrise just beginning at 7 am).  I've been overwhelmed by work:  I inadvertently scheduled two major projects due the day after fall break, and I've been frantically trying to dig out from under my own self-inflicted torture.  And I just flat-out miss everyone.  I haven't had time to meet many people or develop many friendships here, and I haven't had the time I've wanted to be in touch with everyone from home.  I'm at that point in the semester where you feel like you've been working so hard for so long, and yet you still have so far to go.  All of that left me quite cranky by the end of this week.

So on Friday, when I had graded the last of the first set of projects, I left my office a little early and got in touch with my domestic side.  I cleaned the kitchen for the first time all week.  I made some bread (it's "Five Minute Artisan Bread," so don't get overly impressed), some pumpkin soup, butternut squash casserole, and apple crisp.  I roasted some little crouton-size pieces of butternut squash to garnish my spinach salad.  And I had myself one delicious fall dinner.

When the kitchen was (finally) clean, I went to CAT on Tap, a social gathering for catechetics (CAT) majors.  They invited the CAT professors (of which I am one) to sit as a panel and answer their questions.  They mostly wanted to know what to expect out in the field, lessons we'd learned and challenges we'd faced, so their questions were easy to answer.  Afterwards we mixed and mingled, and I enjoyed talking to many of my students about themselves and not just their assignments and class concerns.  Everyone considered the evening a rousing success:  about 40 students were present, up from six at previous events.

Yesterday, I went to the Big City with a gal I've been getting to know.  She knew of a few consignment shops and we went to check them out.  I came home with a warm & cozy cashmere sweater for about $20.  She found two suits for close to the same price.  We took a little detour to Trader Joe's, a store I'd never visited before but which I intend to visit again - yum!  We enjoyed a beautiful sunny Saturday with the last of the fall colors shining brightly.  Best of all, we laughed and talked and enjoyed getting to know each other better.

One valuable lesson I learned while teaching high school:  sometimes you just have to stop working.  I hate the feeling that my work isn't finished; it nags at me and the black cloud hangs over me when there is work still undone.  But if I keep working and trying to keep up, I end up tired and cranky and frustrated and with little joy in life.  I learned that lesson again this week, as I struggled so hard to keep up with the many and varied tasks I faced.  A few hours in the kitchen, a delicious meal with plenty of leftovers at the end, and some social time, all put me in a better frame of mind.  I renewed my resolve to break away from work periodically, to give myself the mental break necessary to do that work well.  I have to learn this lesson all over again in these new circumstances, and figure out how to make it work in my new life.  But I believe it's an important lesson, and I'm glad I learned it again.

Hopefully I can live by it in these final weeks of the semester.