Of Sound Mind and Spirit

My Open Classroom for Religious Education This year teaching the faith brings a new challenge for me with my religious education class for 3rd graders at my parish.  Our newish, growing parish is housed in our first building, a Parish Life Center which consists of a worship space, two cry rooms, one classroom and a meeting room.   For the last several years, I've been blessed to teach faith formation in the meeting room due to the large size of my 3rd grade classes.  This year the fourth grade class is larger which pushes my third grade classroom into  a corner of the worship space.  All together, there are four religious education classes spread out throughout the worship space.  That's about 65 kids, four teachers and four aides within the same four walls making noise for class.  To top it off, my classroom space is situated in front of the cry room window where we can see the kindergarten class throughout our lesson. The situation sounds a bit crazy, I know,

Our lack of content on the blog is not for lack of thoughts , but difficulty putting the blog on a higher priority when balancing work and life.  I can't tell you how many times in a day or week I think of something to write ...  and have no access at that moment to a computer.  I have a small notebook that I carry all the time in my purse. I use it to take notes during a good homily or balance it on my leg to write while driving when something inspires me.  Unfortunately sitting in front of a computer usually takes place at work and then it's nearly impossible to carve out 20-30 minutes to compose something and make it sound "pretty."  Case in point - I am writing this as quickly as I can on a rare lunch break. I don't know that it will ever actually be published, but I'm giving it a shot.  I wrote these notes in the style of 7 Quick Takes Friday created by Jennifer Fulwiler over at Conversion Diary . -1- Last week I was out every single night of t