BRR!!

So today the weatherman is teling me that #1, its going to be -5 for a high. That sounds wrong! and #2, that the wind chills are putting the temp more like -40 for a high. Also, sounds very wrong. How can a number below zero be considered a high?? must mean we're crazy cold up here in SD! I would love to be staying home today, but school is in session, so off I go. I will update later and let you know what the drive was like. I'm hoping uneventful and WARM in my jeep!

COLD!

Once again, we are below zero. They say it is supposed to warm up soon, but I'm not completely sold on that thought! I do want it to warm up, but i'm just not sure when they say its gong to warm up that it really is going to.

On my way to school today, my jeep's thermometer said -15. BRR! Thats cold! Plus, there was a major wind chill, that put us around -30! BRR!! (have i said that enough?)

I saw a local rancher has his cattle out in the pasture this time of year. Those poor animals without any wind break! I'm not usually one to say 'oh poor animals' because I know they are way tougher than us humans would ever think of being, but seeing these cows... I said brr!

Well, I had some a free spots to day at school and we are short subs, so i cancelled some of my speech therapy and filled in where I could, how i could. It was a good day. NOw, i'm jsut doing a couple more speech kids and then I work with my Destnation Imagination kids after school and I'm off for home around 5pm! This is good, because I have a lot of cleaning to do at my house and some packing to do for this weekend. I am taking a group of kids to a DI meet on Saturday. We're leaving school at the wonderful hour of 6:30AM! aren't we nuts?? haha. We have a 2.5 hour drive ahead of us and need to be at our location around 9:00am. I think we'll make it!

Well, I should go for now. The kid I'm working with is almost done with her computer game. No, I didn't just randomly pick one, I have some speech-related games that have the kids work on goals. Its a good thing to have. They like the computer more than me and it keeps their interest much more than I ever could!

Up to his shoulder in a cow...

Well, I meant to write on Saturday night, but I fell asleep. I was rather tired!

It was cold out! (as in negative something!) and what was I doing? Was Icuddled up with my blankie and a cup of hot chocolate, watching something good on television? Was I in a warm place visiting with friends? Was I doing anything that involved being warm? NO! I was out chopping water tanks open with an axe and helping my dad with a cow that was calving.

Yes, we have a cow calving in January! Crazy, I know. My brother purchased some bred heifers and some older bred cows, knowing that they would calf early, and hoping that he could save the calves and then sell them early and turn a profit. Anyways, good theories, but not fun when it is below Zero.

Needless today, my brother wasn't home to watch his cows. He was helping at the sale barn. Dad was at the sale barn, too. This left me to tend to the ranch. No, it didn't disintegrate under my watch, nor did Hell or the ranch freeze over... but it was close on the ranch! Anyaways, I found the cow that was starting to give birth. She didn't look just right, so I called dad, who was the sale barn, remember. He came home immediately (which translates into a half hour later) and we watched the cow for a long time. Dad was hopeful that something might change and she would give birth on her own.. no such luck.

Around 6:30pm he told me that we better start working on her. He called the neighbor, Glen, for backup. I was the lucky fool who held the light and the tail. Those two lucky fools took turns going inside of her to try and find the calf. Much to their double dismay, there were twins. Both were backwards. Yucky! So, Dad and Glen worked for 2 hours, but they got the calves out. Sadly, neither lived.

We were so cold, and Dad and Glen moreso than me (since I wasn't up to my shoulder in a cow), so off to the house to warm up after that experience.

I read the blog "Pioneer Woman" every day. It is a lady named Ree from Texas. She lives on a cattle and horse ranch with her husband, whom she calls "Marlboro Man." I mention her only because this post reminds me of her and hopefully is something that she doesn't get the priviledge of helping with! haha.

Well, off to my work. I'm lucky to be a teacher in a nice warm building during the day!

Updates in life....

What has been going on in my life? Oh not a whole lot of excitement. I thoguht I would just fill you in.

We are back in session at school and things are going as good as can be expected.

Life is good too. I am working on getting over a sinus infection, but other than that, things are going well.

Just thought I'd check in. More to talk about later. I have a long weekend so hopefully I will post.

The Reverence of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Greetings one and all, Happy Feast of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory the Great! Also, Happy New Year 2008!

I write this post today because I wish to share with you the reverence I was priviledged to be a part of during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on New Year's Eve, Vigil Mass for the Feast of Mary, Mother of God. The Celebrant was the Reverend Monsignor Charles Martin Mangan, STL. He is a priest of our diocese that has been serving in the Sacred Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life at the Vatican.

Monsignor Mangan served a very reverent and Holy Mass, pausing from time to time during Mass to collect his thoughts and remain in prayer with the Lord. One could tell this Mass was a love affair between priest and God, not just a duty he needed to perform and move on. Msgr Mangan even took the time to pause from purifying vessels after communion, allowing the Deacon time to put Jesus in the Tabernacle. Msgr. turned, following with his eyes as the deacon took Jesus to the tabernacle and then genuflecting in unision with Deacon Kelley, and then returning to the purifying. It was like Msgr was watching his true love return to their place of honor. It was just wonderful.

A couple other points from Msgr's homily- When we say "Mary," She says, "Jesus." Which unites our and her prayers and points them to Jesus! Also, we need to make the Rosary our weapon, in which we fight the spiritual battles that are always present.

Thank you, Monsignor for a very Holy and reverent Mass. It was very refreshing!

TIHMILY

I am reflecting today upon God's goodness. I was at a Theology on Tap presentation one time by a married couple, Bill and Gayla Martens. Bill and Gayla are school teachers from Aberdeen, SD and are very committed Catholics. They have 4 children and live very busy lives. During the talk, they mentioned that this busy-ness caused them to not always be able to voice their feelings and tell each other that they loved one another. This led them to develop TIHMILY- an acronym meaning This Is How Much I Love You. They would write a post-it note saying TIHMILY and put it some place where the other would see it. And if the reaction is anything like I would suspect it to be, they smile, get a warm feeling and life goes on.

This is the same feeling I get when I look at the crucifix. Jesus is there, arms outstretched and is appearing to say "THIS IS HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU!" No, I don't advocate removing the INRI from your crucifix and replace it with TIHMILY. What I do recomend, is maybe putting a sticky note next to your crucifix with TIHMILY on it.

The INRI that is on the top of most crucifixes means IESUS NAZOREAORUM REX IUDAOREAUM, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Take those initials for a minute, INRI... think of TIHMILY and now, replace INRI with I Never Regretted It. This gives us a whole new perspective to this love story. Christ didn't regret it and through scriptures and saints has left the message that if it were needed again, he would do it again. Thank Heaven that it was a once, for many, act. God loved us that much. Wow.... great isn't it?

I'm wanting to take my life for Christ today and looking at him and saying TIHMILY. I want to make the right choices. I know there are times I don't and that I will fail, but If I keep picking myself back up, going to confession and trying harder, Christ's INRI and my TIHMILY could create a complete change in me, and hopefully others!

May God's Will be done- AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM! (To the Greater Glory of God!)

Long time, no post!

Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad! Waste Wazi!

Rejoice! Christ our Savior is born!

Greetings all. Well, this attempt to blog again has obviously failed miserably as here it is, 26 days after the last post that I am posting again. I have kept very busy, so if I need an excuse, I'll give you a long one!

I was coordinating both our school Christmas program and our church Christmas program, which meant many practices and many hours of practicing myself, as I was accompanist for both events! The school event took a little more work, as I recorded CD's of myself playing the piano for every song for the program and then proceeded to produce 25 copies of this CD so that all of the teachers at school had a classroom copy for their kids to use in the classroom, when practicing! These events both happened successfully and life went on.

Also in my life, my dad has a tumor on his kidney, right next to his adrenal gland. This took us to Sioux Falls to a specialist on December 6th. We have been waiting two weeks for the results of these tests and found out that the hospital LOST the tests... SO... now after the first of the year, we need to go back and RE-take the tests... oh for the sake of Pete, whomever Pete is!

Oh let's not forget that I am the Country Boy and we do have a ranch to run. I have been out there helping with watering, sorting, feeding, etc... the usual duties of the KBA Ranch.

Add on top of this getting ready for Christmas, trying to keep up with my faith life and other things and trying to post, its been nearly impossible!

Now that I am on break and preparations and execution of Midnight Mass are both over, I can relax. What do I do to relax you might ask? Well, I decided today to build a kneeler! Why would I need to build a kneeler? Well, i've always wanted a home kneeler, so now I have one! I made this puppy out of 2x6 boards, so i could literally stand or sit on it and not worry! it is what one would call HEAVY DUTY! I'm not certain if there is a market for an inexpensive but solid-made kneeler, but i'd be willing to make one if someone wanted it! I can give you the plans if you want to make your own. Should I be marketing this stuff??

Well, anyways, here's a picture of the Kneeler. Let me know what y'all think!
Oh- and a small moment... reflecting upon the feast of St. Stephen, which was yesterday:

From a sermon by St. Fulgentius of Ruspe:
" Our King, despite his exalted magesty, came into humility for our sakel yet he did not come empty-handed. He brought his soldiers a great ift that not only enriched them buy also made them unconquerable in battle, for it was the gift of Love, which was to bring men to share in his devinity.... And so the love that brought Christ from heaven to earth raised Stephen from earth to Heaven; shown first in the king, it later shone forth in His soldier. Love was Stephen's ewapon by which he gained every battle... Strengthened by the power of his love, he overcame the raging cruelty of Saul and won his persecutor on earth as his companion in heaven. In his holy and tireless love he longed to gain by prayer those whom he could not convert by admonition. My brothers and sisters, Christ made love the stairway that would enable all Christians to climb to Heaven. Hold fast to it, therefore in all sincerity, give one another practical proff of it, and by your progress in it, make your ascent together."

Amen, so be it.

OH the weather outside is frightful....

.... but the GE electric heat panels are so delightful......

OK so that didn't quite go the way its supposed to... BUT it is snowing here finally, and I think it will stay! This does mean that my nice shortcut to school is now to be avoided (due to deep snow on non-highway roads) but it does mean that the days of cancelled school are coming soon!

Today is/was our staff christmas party at school. Its 3:00-6:00 in Watertown. Watertown is about an hour and a half drive for me on clear roads and clear weather. Today, i could make it a 2-3 hour trip. I'm not about to risk that and risk getting stormed in! It is snowing again here, and we are expected to get upwards of 8 inches. This is okay. It is time for snow to be here. Advent starts tomorrow, and without snow, it wouldn't seem right.

I am currently listening to a talk by Fr. Andrew Dickinson, Parochial Vicar of St. Mary's Church in Aberdeen, SD and chaplain to the Aquinas Newman Center, also in Aberdeen. He is talking about salvation and I loved the analogy he used. He said that Catholics don't simply paint over sins and call it good, God calls us to grind it down, sometimes remove bad parts, and replace it all with good solid metal. This is a man's analogy of sin and forgiveness! I love it! Makes me think of my window on my jeep that currently doesnt' work.... its like sin... it needs something replaced in order to make it whole again. Sin is this to us- it is something that pulls us away from God and when we replace the broken, then we are whole again!

Anyways, back off the serious and on to the wonderful! i can smell my chili cooking (I'm told I make wonderful chili!) and I am listening to this talk. Dishes and laundry are calling, and thats wonderful! i'm going to continue to listen to these talks and keep on working. I may even get a moment to hook up my radio equipment and get another talk going for Windy Hill Radio!

Until next time: I'm praying for yah. We're all in this together!


And since we've no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

"If this Jesus is anything like you, I want to meet Him!"

I have been listening to a homily by Fr. Larry Richards of the Diocese of Erie, PA.

He was talking in this particular homily about a Christian in the concentration camps of WWII. This christian was caring for another cell mate that wasn't Christian. One day, the non-christian was beaten and thrown back into the cell and it was obvious that he wasn't going to make it through the night. The Christian noticed this and talked to the other prisoner about Heaven. The non-christian prisoner said to the christian, "If this Jesus is anything like you, I want to meet Him!"

I have decided to ask myself, "If Jesus Christ were anything like me, would people want to meet Him?"

I need to live my life more for Christ. People may be looking for Him in me.

May He increase and I decrease. Amen, so be it.

Feast of Christ the King

This weekend, the Holy Mother Church celebrates the Feast of Christ the King. I do find it very ironic, that in this weekend's readings (2 Sam 5:1-3, Coll 1:12-30 and Luke 23:35-43) that we still do not focus on Jesus as the "GREAT KING," but rather as the suffering one. We look at our first reading which mentions David as King, and we know that Jesus being of the line of David through Joseph is important. The 2nd reading from Collossians talks about Jesus being the first born of the dead and being the Head of the Body, which is the church. And it ends with the line about how "he reconciled all things for him, making peace through the blood of the cross...." amazing. Jesus, although he is our victorious King, he was also our suffering king. This made evident in our Gospel, where we are taken back into a Good Friday scene, where the people are sneering and jeering at Jesus saying "He calls himself a King.... if he is from heaven, let him save himself!"

Jesus had the final joke on them- he did save himself, and the rest of us as well! Although we can't focus on Christ as victorious, we have to focus on His suffering, because it is through this suffering that He was able to unite Himself to His Father in Heaven. We too can unite our sufferings with Christ's and become closer to our Father in Heaven.

This feast of Christ the King, let us remember that Christ is Victorious, but yet that he was humble. Let us follow that example as well.

Amen, so be it.