Tea, Easter & New Friends! Just oodles of random thoughts & images!

This is my latest find in teas!  I really enjoy it which I suspect means my students will drink my whole case of it before I get more than 3-4 tea bags for myself!  😊😊.  A small price to pay for building relationships!

Tonight is the Easter Vigil, when we celebrate & welcome new members fully into the Catholic faith as we rejoice that Christ has Risen!  This is the most important & most spectacular liturgy of the church year!  If you haven't been to one, I highly recommend it!

A good friend of mine gave me the orchid below.  It’s so beautiful and makes me think of Easter & Spring.  Of course, I tend to have a black thumb.  You know, the opposite of those who have green thumbs and can make anything grow.  I have the Thumb of Death.  So... I decided to bring in some additional support.  I ordered some orchid food sticks, which will hopefully give me the upper hand (or thumb as it were!)

So let’s hope I can not only keep this alive but help it to bloom more than once!  Any advice would be greatly appreciated! (Just comment as “anonymous” )

These are two lovely ladies who are on the Activities Committee with me in the new apartment complex I live in.  I had them over for tea this past Wednesday night and we had a lot of fun getting to know each other & our cultures.  Interesting to me is that both had arranged marriages and they’ve worked out wonderfully.  It’s such a difficult concept for me to wrap my head around.  Both are dying to set me up...so they can go to an “American” wedding!  Hahahaha!  I keep trying to tell them I’m very happy single, thank you very much! But I must say I am so enjoying getting to know both of the wonderful souls and learning more about their lives & culture! They've been so kind to me, I can't thank them enough!


And lastly, Tallula has become a lap cat overnight!  I’m certainly not arguing even though I don’t know what brought it on!  She’s just too cute so I had to throw this image in here to wrap things up!  Happy Easter everyone!

Friends & Squirmy Worms!

Good Friday Morning!

This picture is of a Thanksgiving dinner place card from 2 Thanksgivings ago!  I have kept it as a piece of memorabilia of the evening & especially of this family whom are all good friends of mine!  The three children all went through my Scripture class & were involved in our high school Youth Ministry programs.  You bond w/ your kids when gone for a week on a Mission Trip!  Especially when all the females are sleeping on the floor in some other school's classroom for the week!  Their Mom has been a Mission Trip chaperone & now works at my former parish school where we would giggle together & share chocolates!

Why do I bring this up!?!  B/c, although I really like where I now live and the much shorter commute, it has been difficult for me.  I don't make friends easily, I'm pretty anti-social, preferring to stay alone at home w/ a book or any "Law & Order" marathon I can find on TV.  So I've been going through some depression at being so far away from the few good friends I have.  It took me 15 years to open up and make friends.  I was texting my friend ND the one who made the place card & the Mom in this family and she was so sweet!  She & her husband insisted I come over for dinner this past Wednesday!  I did and it was so nice to see familiar faces & get hugs galore!  Plus, the food was superb as always!  Oh, did I mention I got leftovers to take home!?!  Yup, pretty awesome!

I truly am blessed to have such caring souls in my life!

On to the Squirmy Worms!!!

Once classes end today Spring Break starts & I think adult & student alike are more than ready for it!  I feel a part of it is everyone gets a break from the normal routine.  Which I think is a good thing.  We all tend to fear change, but not all change.  It's good to shake things up once in a while!  Plus it's so nice to see everyone excited to spend time with their families!  In a culture of electronic devices, seeing everyone excited to break away and spend time w/ actual human beings is a wonderful thing!

And with that, I bid you adieu!

Peace!

Learning about other Faith Traditions

This week a number of students, teachers & I went to the North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe to learn about our Jewish roots and get a tour of a stunning synagogue.  I think sometimes kids (and some adults too) forget that Jesus was a practicing Jew.  The early church took a lot of its traditions and rituals from Judaism and it was wonderful watching the students realize the similarities and differences between how both worship.

It's a nice reminder that we all have much more in common with each other than we think.  And the differences we have are opportunities for us to learn from each other and reflect on what an amazing Creator we have! 

The apartment complex I now live in has a large Indian population.  I was asked by the administration to be the Activities Director for the complex.  So I work with a group of other volunteers to plan one social event/month.  Most of the ladies I've met are Indian and I've been having a wonderful time getting to know them!  Yet another way to expand my horizons and learn new things!