All is quiet

Today a lady at church said, "I heard you have a 'blog". But she didn't even know what a 'blog was. I really do not think that anyone will really read this or care, so I feel like I can pretty much write in anonymity. But like I tell my kids, don't write anything that you would be embarrassed or ashamed of.

Today is the memorial of St Augustine. Am I a student of Augustine? Not really but I like his story and I love his Mom. St Monica prayed her son into the Church with her prayers and tears. And OH MY! The power of a mother's tears with our Lord. Thank God Augustine was open to His grace b/c he really became an awesome saint. "Late have I loved you oh beauty ever ancient". It makes me appreciate all the more learning to love my faith at a later time in my life.

So here is a little of the beginning of my story. I was born into a Catholic family and baptized at around three weeks of age. (You know how they used to believe in Limbo? Why would they not baptize the children almost before leaving the hospital? Just wondering.) I attended Catholic school from K-7 at which time my parents moved me to public school. My mom thought that the 8th grade graduation thing was way overdone (but it is nothing compared to today) and with seven kids I am sure that school was expensive. So I became a "public" in 8th grade. I continued to attend CCD through my sophomore year if I remember correctly. It was a bit erratic by that time and I was confirmed in 4th grade so it was just b/c my folks said I had to go. And there was a cute boy that went now and then too-that didn't hurt anything.

In the early 70's I attended a brand new high school in my area and during that time it was all about trusting the kids and they will do the right thing. Yeah right. We spent more time in the library some weeks than in class. Much was independent study and study at your own pace so we would check out and go cause trouble in the library. Now I say this like we were really naughty but the librarians liked us and would shush us and sometimes send us out to the commons if we were too rowdy. Thanks be to God we were pretty smart kids or we would have been in big trouble come time for college. All this time I would attend Mass like any good Catholic girl would. We really didn't get into too much trouble but we were a bit rowdy at times. We could drink beer at age 18 and we did. We would have parties at our house and one time my Mom said, "Either the house moved 12" to the north or the rug moved 12" to the south. We would have a house full of kids and everyone was drinking beer. Was it irresponsible? Absolutely. To say it was a different time is true but in hindsight it was definitely irresponsible. Thank you God we all grew up and have better sense from what we learned. I really dated very little but had a date for the prom in my Jr year so that was cool. It is probably better that I didn't date much b/c I was way too boy crazy. I graduated as a Sr class officer but the job really didn't entitle much-in fact there were no titles and no meetings etc. There was very little class distinction and the PTSA (the Parent-Teacher-Student-Association) really ran things. I graduated in the upper third of my class but I didn't work very hard at it until test time and paper due time (I am still a procrastinator!). Enough for this time---I do have work to do.