The First Month of College
Both of my girls are currently college students. Izzy is a sophomore attending the University of Akron and Rosie is a Freshman at Walsh University.
Rosie was a little apprehensive before her first day of school. Would she miss her old friends? Would she ever make any new friends? Could she hack college classes?
The answers are: No, she doesn’t miss her old friends much because she sees many of them regularly anyway. She has made dozens of new friends, and even has a new boyfriend. She had straight A’s at the midterm and just got back a huge paper that was graded 100/100. I’d say that was a pretty successful first month! I credit her private writing tutor, a great co-op writing class, and Bravewriter classes with her writing strength.
Because she has a long commute of about 25 minutes, Mr. Pete got her an old Crown Vic from govdeals.com. It’s like driving a tank and even though the gas is a little more expensive, we feel that she is physically protected in case of an accident.
Izzy is a fine arts major and has discovered a love of printmaking. I expect some wonderful pieces to be gracing our walls shortly. I am helping her with her papers. We have found that my transcription skills are a plus here. She skips the middleman of dictating into her phone and dictates directly to me. It’s faster and it helps me to edit her work better because I can ask her questions as we go. By the end of the semester, we will have a regular system.
Can I still take care of a baby? Yes, I can!
Last weekend, I traveled with Calvin and Sarah up to a destination wedding so that I could watch Baby J. while they attended the wedding. I was basically alone with the baby from noon until midnight. I learned a few things.
First, this is a good baby. He only cries when he needs something, he likes to play, and he is easily entertained. That made my job very easy.
Second, if I ever have to do this again, I seriously have to do more upper body strength work beforehand. I could hold him and care for him, but I was definitely feeling it the next day.
Thirdly, being a grandma to him was pretty instinctual. I was so afraid he wouldn’t like me or that I wouldn’t remember what to do, but it was just like riding a bike and came back quickly.
Big changes coming to our diocese
With Pope Francis clamping down on the celebration of the Latin Mass, our diocese is experiencing some shrinking pain. The bishop, in an effort to appease Rome but preserve TLM, has designated three places for the rite to be celebrated. Two of these are in Cleveland and one is in Akron. That means that my parish, and the parish where we have our homeschool co-op are both losing their Latin masses.
I don’t know what this means to these churches financially. The folks that attend TLM, at least in my area, are devoted to the rite, not necessarily the parish or the parish priest. The entire time they have been at my church, they have sort of kept themselves separate from everyone else. Not totally, but enough to notice. They will most likely just leave.
Interestingly, the Akron Church that will now host TLM has a school, but it is full of students who have a scholarship to attend and most of them are NOT Catholic. I don’t know what that will mean for TLM attendees either. It will be interesting to see.
The minimal sports fall
Rosie did not run this year. It was the first time in 13 years that she did not compete at all as a runner. So our opportunities to watch a cross country meet have been with CYO and Miss C. But we also have Saturday Soccer and since Mr. Pete is no longer a coach and I’m not the soccer mom, it’s fun to go as a soccer grandma and just enjoy the game!
I could get use to this.
