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Michael T. Barrett
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Sep
30
Last night I attended my third Faith Formation class, where we are studying The First and Second Letters of Saint Paul to the Corinthians.
I know my wife is tired of hearing me say it, but I really like that class.
Our group is small, never more than a dozen people so far, and we discuss one chapter each week. We are using the Ignatius Study Bible for the class, and the footnotes in that think are tremendous. Each chapter has 8 questions at the end, and we spend the entire class discussing those questions.
I never thought that a Wednesday night Bible class could be as fun and rewarding as this one is, but I look forward to it every week.
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” – 1 Corinthians 3:16
Tonight we had our RCIA class, where we enjoyed listening to a history of our little church as well as a guided tour, which was really nice and relaxing this week.
The weekend will soon be upon us, which means I have to make sure my honey-do list is up to date.
Have a great evening!
Sep
29
What is this world coming to?
By the very definition, a monastery is one of spiritual calm and contemplation. Inhabited by monks who eschew the outside world in its entirety, monasteries are places of quiet servitude. It’s not without certain irony that a proposed monastery in Wyoming – near Yellowstone National Park – is being met with opposition by ranchers who view the monks as a threat to their way of life.
Ranchers are afraid the monks will threaten their way of life? What is their way of life? Heathenism?
Sep
28
Is Homeschooling Becoming “Mainstream”?
Category: Life, Our Nation | Comments Off | 196 words | Print
I didn’t need to read this article from MSNBC to know that homeschooling is becoming more popular. All you have to do is talk to people to know they are dissatisfied with the current state of the public school system.
Whether they choose to homeschool for any of the reasons listed or not, homeschooling makes sense.
Though such students represent an estimated 3 percent of the population, evidence suggests that home-schooling is a growing trend in America. While most say faith is their primary motivation, others choose this path for a variety of reasons that include dissatisfaction with the local school system, caring for special-needs kids, safety concerns, flexibility to travel and the chance to spend more time with their children.
Our oldest is 12, and he is reading at a college freshman level. Our youngest, who is 9, reads at an 11th grade level. They play baseball, they birdwatch, they are members of the local camera club, but most of all, they don’t have any of the social stigmas, behavior imbalances, or dangers that kids in the public schools have.
Homeschooling, it’s not what you think it is.
Sep
27
We had a nice visit this weekend with my sister. We spent the afternoons kicking back, and then I was put to work cooking. Yeah, it was nice to have good home cooked meals again.
We’ve been eating at home, but we’ve been making easy dinners while we moved, but now that we’re getting settled, it sure is good to break out the pots and pans and cook some good belly filling, rib-sticking food!
I’m still working on a few things around here, and we’re waiting for the heating and a/c guys to come back out and fix a couple things, but other than that, we should be set here at the new house.
Mowing the lawn is actually easier here than at our old house. At our old house, rocks seemed to surface in the lawn weekly. I mowed all two-acres here last week and never hit a rock. Oh the simple things in life…
Now that we’re getting settled again, I will have a couple weeks before I have to start moving my mother’s furniture and boxes, so I should be back on a regular writing schedule again.
I am not sure what I will write about first, but I am thinking of a piece on our statewide elections, and why more people should think about voting Libertarian this time around, no matter what their party affiliation. We’ll see.
Sep
26
Sunday Silence
Category: Our Nation | Comments Off | 7 words | Print
Sep
25
After 24 days with two to three loads per day, we have finally fnished moving everything to the new house! WooHoo! And just in time too!
My sister arrived from Kentucky last night for a quick “weekend vacation”, so we are taking some time off from unpacking to spend the weekend with her.
Enjoy your weekend, and I will be back Monday.
Sep
24
Wow. That’s all I can say at this point.
There was a lot of miscommunication and lost communication this past week. Some people need to just take a chill pill and realize in this age of technology when some things break down there are going to be times when you cannot get in touch with someone.
I won’t go into it too much right now, but needless to say, I will never consider beginning work on a project without a deposit ever again!
Because of the move, I have been “out of touch” for various reasons. Although I have been online via Twitter and Facebook almost constantly all week, for some reason a client of mine couldn’t “get in touch” with me.
Whether it was the fact we had no telephone jacks in the house, my wonky PC, my wonky iPhone, my wonky e-mail issues, or the fact that I have no cell service at all while we are the old house, it’s been tricking keeping in touch with people throughout the week so I made sure I was available via Twitter and Facebook.
Imagine my surprise when I was finally able to check e-mail last night to find that I was accused of not returning calls I never received and I was told that I missed a deadline although I had actually communicated the dates for a project well ahead of time.
I have never been in this situation before. I’ve never had a client “terminate their agreement” with one hour to spare. What’s up with that? By the time they sent the cancellation notice, I had already spent several hours researching their business model, outlining their needs, and working on the basic template design for their site. Things were coming together and Thursday was the magic day.
I sent an email to the client on Tuesday, assuring them things would come together by Thursday evening and since the evening wasn’t quite over yet, I figured everything was good. In fact, I was just getting ready to log into their account to install WordPress when I received their e-mail. They actually terminated their agreement before the evening was over. Who does this?
Thank God I received their termination e-mail before I logged in to their account, huh?
It’s all good though. Throughout the course of this week I have learned a lot about the people I communicate with on Twitter, on Facebook, via e-mail, and in person. It’s the people I’ve never met face to face on Twitter and/or Facebook, that never seem to let me down.
What is it with people and this me, me, me, now, now, now, attitude? What happened to respect and consideration? What happened to patience?
You’d think people who knew me in person would be a little more understanding and realize maybe, just maybe, something was up when I didn’t respond.
Oh well, I will write it off as wasted time, and move on. Like I said, it’s the last time I take on any project, from anyone, without a deposit.
Sep
23
Between taking care of business and running loads from the old house, I am completely exhausted.
I was lucky today, however, because my wife had to run a couple errands and I got to sit here at the house and organize and get some things done.
I ran the restore on my iPhone earlier today, and it didn’t seem to make much difference, so I sort of started over with a clean slate. I am in the process of installing all the apps I had on the phone, as getting things “back to normal”.
I should be connected “full time” again in the morning, which is awesome.
I also got my e-mail working tonight too. I had a lingering issue with email getting lost somewhere on the Internet, but it seems everything is all coming together at once tonight.
We have landline phone. We have working e-mail. I’m in the process of getting the iPhone back to full capacity (so to speak). AND… The best news. Tomorrow morning/afternoon we will make the last run over to the old house to make sure we got everything. How cool is that?
Twenty-Four days in, and we’re finally going to be done. Hallelujah!
Sep
22
My iPhone is acting wonky. I’m not sure if it’s all the apps I have installed, the fact I am almost out of room with diskspace, or the fact I may have done something in testing the apps I am developing, but it’s just not working the way it used to.
I have a backup from a few days ago, before it started acting this way, and I may just restore everything. If I was smart I would do a fresh install, so I could clear out all the garbage and start over fresh.
I am not getting calls on my iPhone. I have a Google Voice number and when someone calls it, my phone is not ringing. When I call the phone’s actual number, it’s not ringing. I have been able to send a couple text messages, but other than that, I haven’t had any communication with my iPhone, and that sucks.
We still have no phone jacks in the house for the landline, although I will be running a line myself in the next day or so. I suppose it’s going to be interesting until I can get the phone restored.
Maybe tomorrow night. I have a couple things I need to get done, and run a few more loads from the old house.
If you’re trying to call, and I don’t answer, it’s because my phone is not ringing. At least I didn’t have to worry about my phone ringing while I was at Faith Formation tonight.
Sep
21
In all the hubbub with the move, I forgot to mention that I am attending a Faith Formation class at our church, and I am having a blast.
We’re studying The First and Second letters of Saint Paul to the Corinthians. We’re studying one chapter per week, and even though the second class isn’t until tomorrow night, I am already looking forward to it.
Paul is one of my favorite people. I am amazed by the journey his life took, his missionary journeys and the way he endured his imprisonment and ultimate death.
My spiritual journey has taken me 45 years and several thousand miles, and I’ll never be able to fill Paul’s shoes, but I value every step I have taken because it led me right to God’s grace.
Now I am off for the night to read a little bit, pray a little bit, and then rest, because I’ve only got three days after today and I should be done moving.