Two weeks completed!

Hi friends,

The two weeks at the Jesuit School of Theology are over.  I'm happy because I got to see my children again, after almost two week of being apart from them.  They spent almost two weeks at my parents house.  With their aunts and uncles. And their four cousins. They had an awesome experience.  As well as I did.

The hardest part for me, this two weeks was the parking.  I had to move my car every 2 hours because street parking was limited to 2 hours only. Another problem was driving home right after my last class and missing the Eucharistic celebration. I couldn't stay to the Mass because I had to be home early and cook dinner for husband.  I tried my best to prepare ahead of time in the morning or day before but that left me with little time to read for the next day class.

Housework was also done to a minimum.  The big bonus was that the kids were not home.  So I only had to worry about the kitchen, bathroom and laundry. And don't forget the pets, two chihuahuas and two fishes.

Yesterday, I had a very strange morning.  I was already at school, when I remembered about the coffee maker. I couldn't recall if I had turn it off or unplugged it.  I had to return home to make sure everything was ok .  I had to skip the second class to do this. The next class after that one started at 11 AM, I decided to advance a little on the dinner preparation during that time.  Before I left, I checked that everything was off at the stove.  But a few blocks away, I got that feeling that something was forgotten so I returned home, to double check.  I couldn't believe myself.   I got to the school just in time for the next class.

While driving to the school, I called my sister to pray for me.  Something was distracting me from the classes.  Worry and Anxiety.  She read to me something about bringing peace into my life.  The words were so calming and gave me strength.

My two weeks at school, are now over.  However I still have to catch up in a lot of reading.  And apply what I have learned at my parish.  This is what the classes were for, to prepare us to work with our parish community. I will be talking more in months to come about the things that I'm learning, and how I have used this information not only at the parish but also in my own home with my children.

Hope you all are having a great Summer.

Mi semana

Hola Amigos,

My first week at the Theology school is over.  I still have one more week, yet I wanted to share with you, some pictures of my week at the school.  Share a little more about my classes, classmates and teachers.

Front view of school.

Next is a glimpse of the great food we had at lunch. 

Today we had pupusas and salads.

Here is the Jesuit priests that celebrated Mass today. 

Fr. Ed

&

Fr. Gerardo

The last picture is the front entrance into the Chapel.

I have enjoyed this first week of classes.  Like I said in previous posts.  I'm taking a summer session of Theology classes in two weeks.  I have 5 different classes. Cristology, History of the Church, Pensamiento Social Cristiano, Religiosidad Popular and Pentateuco. ( I don't know the right translation for the last 3 classes.)

Our teachers come from LA, Texas, Mexico, Spain, Fresno and Berkeley.

Today we had teacher evaluations.  We the students had to evaluate the teachers.  I think all of them are excellent.  They each have a unique and interesting way of presenting their class.  The PowerPoint presentations are very good.

Now is time for me to start doing my homework.  I have two books to read, Church documents, and watch related movies to the classes.  One is Luther, the other one is Black Robe. And I have to also read the Nican Mopohua.

Religiosidad Popular

Religiosidad Popular is Popular Devotions that have passed on from generation to generation among our Catholic Hispanic people.

I'm taking a course in this subject at the Jesuit School of Theology. We have two teachers for this class.  One teaches Monday and Tuesday, the other one teaches the class on Wednesday-Friday.

Both are excellent teacher, each with their own unique talents.  One of the teachers is Lupita Vital.  She has written three booklets regarding our Hispanic devotions.  Two are about Lent and Advent. The third one is about Our Lady of Guadalupe.

During class Lupita asked us to think or reflect on how Our Lady of Guadalupe has changed  our life.

I thought it will be great to write about this here and share with you.

Well, as a young girl, I always remember there was an image our Lady of Guadalupe in our home.  My mother has one that was crocheted by hand. She had this on her living room wall.

Another tradition that I remember was the processions. In Mexico every 12th of December a big feast is given in almost every parish.  In the town were my father is from.  La Ceja (the brow), Zacatecas.  This is usually the time, most families are busy with their small lands.  So they celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe as their patron saint in the first 12 days of January.  Every day there is a procession from a certain neighborhood or town nearby towards the larger Municipal town of Garcia de la Cadena, Zac.




Above is a small clip of this year's procession.

I remember we will walk for not sure how many miles from our town to the larger town of Garcia.
I was around 14 years old, the first time I was part of a procession.  Most people offer their walks for a special prayer request.  Others do it as gratitude for a special miracle.

Another memory I have, of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe are the Mananitas ( early morning songs).  On the 12th of December, some parishes open their doors at 5 AM to have their parishioners come and sing song to our Lady of Guadalupe.  I remember doing this a few times at the parish of St. Elizabeth in Oakland, CA. When ever, possible I will stay up to see the live broadcast from Mexico city on TV.

When I was attending the Christian Church.  I drifted away from some of my Catholic traditions.  Not because I was told I had to, but because I felt it was not pleasing to God to give so much special attention to someone else.  One day while reading the bible in Revelations Chapter 12.  I read the description of a lady that appeared in the sky.  The description is so much like the image of our Lady of Guadalupe.

I felt sad, that I had put aside a special devotion to our Lady of Guadalupe.  Mary was a special woman in the life of Jesus.  She was the one who carried him for 9 month in her womb.  She cared for Jesus in his childhood years.  How can we not have a special love for her.  Of course I will never put her above God, but she will always have a special place in my heart.

The kids rooms

Here are some pictures of the kids room.

First Julian's room

We sorted the toys.  Labeled the boxes.  

I got rid of the big blue bin.  And replaced with two smaller Ikea boxes. This are stack-able.

Next daughter's room.  She did all by herself.  Look how she organized her jewelry. The pink boxes from Ikea.  She used to sort all her stuff, her own way.

Her bed and wall decor.  She is all into the Hunger Games now, Justin Bieber went down, but she still loves him.

 For her own coffee table she decorated with patriotic theme.

Here is the other side of the room.  That cluttered corner is all my craft stuff and books. I'm working on that corner.

Hoping to show you the finished room soon!

Weekly Updates

Hi everyone!  I'm have been busy.

Well, have tried to be busy.  Next week, I start Theology classes at the Jesuit School of Theology.  Is a two week intense program.  Please keep me in your prayers.  My kids will be at my Mom's house and I will only have husband at the house for two weeks.

I need to have my meals planed and grocery shopping done on weekends.  So you will be seen less of me.  I will try to update at least once a week on the weekends.

My son finished his swimming lessons today.  And daughter went on a field trip with her summer day camp group.

I have lots of catching up to do.  I hope you all have a blessed weekend.  Till next time, God bless you.

Book Inventory

Years ago, not sure how long ago.   I made a list of all the books I had in my bookshelves, not including the kids books.  This past weekend and yesterday, I have been working on organizing the kids books and my books.

I took out all the books that are no longer interesting to my children.  I kept only the favorite ones.  I categorized them.  I did the same with my books.

I have many new books that were not on my book inventory list.  So I looked up the document in my computer to update it.  I could not find it.  I probably wrote it while I still had my other computer that broke down.  This is when I realized the importance of saving a backup file on a disk.

Now I have to rewrite the document.  This time I will be saving it on a disk.

I used the other list, that I had printed on paper to go over my books and see which ones, I no longer own.  Most were donated to a local  Christian church. The others to a thrift shop.

This is the before picture before organization.  I'm not sure what happen to the after picture.  I need to take it again.  Two bookcases done two more pending.

Updated:7/6/12

I had taken the after picture but it was saved in the internal memory of my camera.  That's why I could not find it.

I later purged more books that will be donated to our church's yard sale. And here is the final result after the some books were removed and re-arranged.

I labeled the shelves with each category of books.  I used plastic bookshelf dividers on the left bookcase.  On the other bookcase.  I used this plastic sorters, they are actually to separate piles of papers on desks, but I did not like the method.  I prefer the vertical files.  I found a great use for this plastic dividers.

Meet Chuby

A month ago, my son brought home a caterpillar that he named Chuby.  I don't have pictures of the caterpillar.  My Son took Chuby to school one day and left him there for a few days.  Later he brought him back but he was all wrapped into a cocoon and lay inside the purple box my son's teacher made for him.

Chuby was not moving, he was still for many days.  One day I was cleaning my son's room and took a look at the immobile Chubby.  I thought he was dead.  I knew that caterpillars form cocoons when they begin their transformations into a butterfly, but somehow this cocoon looked different.

The next morning, my son went into his room to change clothes.  He started screaming, "Mom come quick." To my amazement, I found that Chuby had turned into a beautiful butterfly.

What I thought was dead, was still alive.  This made me reflect about things that sometimes we find hopeless.    God is always working on our requests.  Sometimes we might think that he will never answer, but then when you least expect it, he surprises you.

I was very proud of my son that day.  He knew just  the right time to let go of Chuby.  "Mom, I think its time now. Chuby is moving his wings to much.  He wants to get out."   He opened the top of the box and waited for Chuby to fly out.

Chuby flew away.  Free.  Occasionally we see a similar butterfly around the house.  My son, shouts happily, "Hi Chuby". I just smile.  I'm sure God is smiling at us too.  

I needed to share this story with you.  Two people inspired me.  Dianne and Patricia. Thank you for your friendship.

July Activities

This will be a very busy month for me.  My daughter started her summer school, science day camp.  And I needed to get my son busy on something other than TV and video games.  So this morning I went to sign him up for swimming lessons.

The swimming session started today. And the next available was going to start at 9:35 AM. I register him at 9:20 AM.  I'm glad I was just a few block away from the pool.  He got dressed in the car and when we got there they had just started.

The last five minutes of class the kids got to jump off the board.  Amazing! This is his second year taking swimming lessons.  I will probably sign him up for another session in August when my daughter is able to sign up for her first lessons.

This is one thing I procrastinated about for years.  Getting the kids to take swimming lessons was always on my to do list. Last year, I finally broke that procrastination with my son.  Daughter is still needing those basic lessons.

In two more weeks I will be taking Theology classes at the Jesuit School of Theology.  Its a two week summer program. I will be at the school all day.

This is why I need to get my home in order this next two week.  I need to update the monthly menu and organize all my shopping trips for the weekends. I will have to get up early and prepare dinner before I leave to school.

I'm sending my kids to Mom's house, those two weeks I will be in school. This way, the house will stay cleaner and  I will just have to worry about my husband.

I will try to give you updates at least twice a week.  Computer time sometimes distracts me and things are not done on schedule.  Have a Blessed week.