Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Official book club plans for Lent, and navigating the snow into the spring semester...

Good day to you all! I'm working hard to have a better week over here. It's been intense, to be sure. Once again (*long suffering sigh*) we've completely redesigned our course, and thus each week the way that we are presenting the material is totally new to us. As you can imagine, this makes for time consuming preparation, in addition to all of the teaching, grading and email answering that is involved with having 200 students. It's not entirely pleasant, but it's not all that unpleasant either, if that makes sense. I'm getting used to it again, and if you can believe it, the volume is actually *better* than it's been in previous semesters. So I'm trying to look at the positive things, and not complain about the negative things. It can be a challenge, but it's actually going pretty well.

We also continue to get lots of snow and cold temperatures here in Western New York. Not that this is an unexpected thing in the dead of winter, but this has been a much colder winter than usual. It does wear on a person after a time. I've had the winter blues a bit, and actually joined a gym to try and climb my way out of it. In fact, I think we need a whole separate post on that topic, since it is a brand new one to me. Look for that in the next few weeks. ;-)

Lent starts NEXT WEDNESDAY, how did that happen?! I've been busily planning away. I downloaded the Magnificat Lenten Companion, and plan to read that each night with Henry. I also may give up wine. 😨 That might be a little rough when I'm looking to wind down in the evenings after work and the kids go to bed, but I think it would be fruitful. What are your Lenten plans shaping up to bed?

There is also our book club to plan for! You know me, I'm a Kindle reader, so I downloaded the book yesterday:

https://www.amazon.com/Thief-Novel-Living-Water-Book-ebook/dp/B00DPM7YUE/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517942942&sr=8-1&keywords=the+thief+landsem

I know many of you are awaiting your copy from your local library. Here are my thoughts: We'll begin reading as Lent starts, so our first official "meeting" won't be until the week after Ash Wednesday; out timeline will run through Holy Week. We'll have a little book chat weekly, and I'm aiming for posts on Thursdays. I thought Tea Time for the book club worked well for Advent, but this time I want to try written posts again. I rather missed doing them over Advent. And speaking of that issue...

I had a little heart-to-heart with myself, and realized that during Lent, while the semester is very much in full swing, I will not have time to both write a book club post each week *plus* put out a short Tea Time podcast episode. I really wanted Tea Time for the major liturgical seasons, but Lent simply isn't going to work, at least not this year. I still think Summer Ordinary Time is a very viable possibility though, so that is my goal. For now, I'd like to focus on weekly therapeutic posts, along with the book club. These will likely be together in one longer post each week.

And here is how I see the dates/reading assignments broken down:

February 22nd: Chapters 1-6
February 28th: Chapters 7-12
March 8th: Chapters 13-18
March 15th: Chapters 19-24
March 22nd: Chapters 25-30
March 29th (Holy Thursday): Chapters 31-36

How does this sound to everybody? The chapters aren't long (the book is about 340 pages total), so I think it will be manageable. As soon as your copy arrives, you can get to reading, and I think the timing will be good! Thoughts? Who do I have joining me this Lent?! Leave a comment!

6 comments:

  1. I'm in :) Just ordered the title through ILL.

    I love all of your therapeutic posts, by the way!

    Hope you and all of your readers have a blessed start to Lent (and Happy Valentine's Day!)

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  2. Always a bright spot in my day to see a new post! Will try to read the book - ordered it from library. We got an ice storm with some snow and the brutal cold. Am so ready for spring! Not sure what my Lent with entail with any extra curricular activities! Have basically 'given up' a lot of my life right now to help care for my sister. (A bad reaction to the radiation and then blocked kidneys set her back a few weeks. Now we have to get her on her feet again - feed her - everything until she can do for herself. Doctors say give her two weeks to regain where she was before the kidney issue.) I may do the Best Lent Ever again from Dynamic Catholic. They are short videos and such and if I can't do it every day, I can play catch up every few days. Always very thought provoking. Thought that this Lent I would try to DO more in the way of offering up more, praying more short prayers and being more aware of others needs and prayer requests. I'd like to be more of an encourager too. Some Lent's I 'give up' something I MOST want each day. That's often harder for me than saying, okay I give up . . . and then live for Sundays! Hope everyone has a blessed Lent!

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    1. Awwwww, thanks Donna Alice! I love seeing your comments on here! I have been praying for your sister. <3 I love your Lent plans! They don't have to be all formal, sometimes it's good just to try some new things, and keep ourselves in a prayerful state of mind.

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  3. The thief arrived at the library for me. I'm picking it up tomorrow.

    On the Microsoft Edge issue I mentioned last time. We now have a temporary fix (we were able to remove the icon from the task bar) and a more permanent fix is supposed to be in the works.

    I'm still deciding what my Lenten plans are. Giving up chocolate (which is hard and easy at the same time) or restricting the amount of TV I'm watching are the top two contenders for giving something up. I'm also considering noticing things more (for lack of a better term). For example, the tooth brush splatters in the bathroom don't bug me but they do bug my mom. So making a conscious effort to see them and clean them up would fall in this category.

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    1. yay, Melanie! So excited to start this book. I'm glad your tech issues are on their way to be resolved. Such a headache, right. #ugh

      I love your Lent idea! It's really the little things, isn't it? Hum. This is giving me some new ideas!

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