Bathroom reno has officially started!

I forgot to take before pictures of our ugly master bathroom before they started demolishing it.  But Rick took this one.

Here's what the sink area in the 'dressing room' looked like.

Now it looks like this:

I am really excited!  How I hated those ugly plastic, gray corner shelves.  They were full of pill bottles, etc.  I wanted something I could shut a door on.  I hated those ugly lights above the sinks.  And the medicine cabinet in the middle of the wall o mirror was annoyingly shallow but long so it would knock over things like the the freestanding towel rack or any tall bottles that might be there on the counter.

I don't have before pictures of the other elements of this remodel.

Here's what our walk in closet looks like sans shelves and one wall and everything that was stashed in it.  It looks much bigger!

We are going to have built in bookshelves on the other side of the wall (bedroom side) on the left. the closet will be narrower but longer. We are going to go to California Closet or some such place and get built in shelves, etc to make the closet more usable.  It was just a big area with one shelf and a hanging bar going around the periphery, so not a good use of space.

The guys didn't demo this yet.  This is the broken tub that we never liked.  It took forever to fill, ate up all the hot water, was incredibly noisy (like you could hear the jets all over the house) and it leaked and ruined our newly redone powder room below it.  We are getting rid of it.  We are just going to have a regular tub and then a nice steam shower instead.

Here's where our forever running toilet was.  No matter how many times Rick would run to Home Depot and get new parts, within a few weeks/months it would begin to run again.  Good bye, good riddance!

We are also getting rid of the shower.  But my phone died and I am too lazy now to go and get the photo off of it.  Besides, the workmen will be here in 15 minutes and I need to run and get dressed!

Planning My Masters!

Oh boy.  I am excited!  Catholic Distance University just came out with the list of classes coming up from now through next summer!  So I just tentatively planned how I would proceed.

First I have to get through my current summer courses, Intro to Theology and Graduate Research Skills.  These are prerequisites to even starting the Masters program.  Then I have core courses to get through before I decide on my specialization and thesis.

Fall 2016
Graduate Writing Skills (another prerequisite)
Revelation and Faith

Winter 2017
Theology of the Sacraments
Philosophy for Theology

Spring 2017
Introduction to Christology (I am really excited about this one!)
Theology of the Church

Summer 2017
Fundamentals of Moral Theology

So, if all goes according to plan, I should be able to begin specializing (Sacred Scripture is what I'd like to do) in the Fall of 2017.

Quote for our times

This quote from Tertullian really struck me as applicable to our times.  Well, maybe not literally, but the idea behind it.

It's strange how the same man who can barely bring himself to lift his tunic in public, even when the call of nature urges him, takes it off in the circus, as if he longed to expose himself in front of everybody.  Or how a father who carefully protects and guards his virgin daughter's ears from every  bad word, takes her to the theater himself, exposing her to all its vile words and attitudes.  Or how someone who, if he comes across a fighter brawling in the streets, has him arrested or rebukes him severely, goes to the arena and encourages much more serious combats.  Or how someone who is horrified to see the body of someone who has died a natural death comes to the amphitheater and looks down with approval on bodies all mangled and torn and smeared with their own blood.

But actually it's not so strange.  Inconsistencies like those are just what we might expect from people who confuse the nature of good and evil as their feelings change and their judgments change along with them.

Bring Heyer to the Screen!

This is going to be my new cause to fight for!  And I've got Elizabeth Scalia on my side!

I think we should start an on line petition!

Journaling the Day - 6/2

Woke up around 6.  Fed pets.  I think I am going to have to start making Tillie's dog food.  I am going to be one of those people that cooks for their pets.

Morning reading:  Deuteronomy- rules about what to do with a captive woman you've fallen in love with and St. Ambrose on how to avoid using bad language.

Drove chicken to parish.  Listened to Johnson on the way there and back.  Came home and read wikipedia article on him to get some further context.

Worked on Latin 1 quizzes.  Woke kids.  Cleaned kitchen.

Gave B her history final to take.

Made phone calls. I am so irritated with our AHG parish.  I was kind of snappish to the secretary.  Need to go to confession.  But they demand that only pastor can sign but he's out of town and they are the ones that scheduled the mass a week early, so they plan on depriving 4 girls of their awards because of their rigid rules and arbitrary scheduling?  I am sure at my parish the secretary would be able to sign off for the pastor.  It says right on the form pastor or designee.  Sheesh.  I really am not doing this next year!  You really need to be a member of the parish to do it well.

Drove tests out to the teacher's house.  Made complicated plans for these stupid religious awards.  Drove home through heavy, construction-caused traffic.

S got his new harmonica in the mail.  Promptly taught himself Puff the Magic Dragon and played it for our little guest.

Starting goofing off.  Still thinking about getting a funny dvd set for Father's day.  Was thinking Blackadder.  Was looking around at the series and stumbled on the one about Samuel Johnson!!!

Took a nap.

More emails about religious awards that I have no idea about.

Ordered pizza for dinner.

See his cute little teeth?  Brand new!

Babysitting this little cutie.  Tried to feed him but he's not interested.  Really crawling around and trying to stand and walk a lot.  Had to take him with me to drop B at her rehearsal.  J said he'd pick her up at 9.  Dylan fell asleep on the way home and is still sleeping in his carseat now perched on the family room couch.

Update:

W called S and suggested he come to World Youth Day with him.  Now S is begging please, please, please?

S, not learning from his past experience with harmonicas, has already taken this harmonica apart and readjusted the slide.  However, this time he did fix it!  The slide was sticking and making a tapping noise whenever he used it.

Picked up Vivianne at 9:30 or so; her class ended early.  I took the baby with me since he was so restless.  He screamed the whole way there and back.  R came home and watched basketball.  I just think it is wrong to have basketball in the summer.  Basketball season should not overlap with baseball seasons.  I like my sports, like my kids when they were little liked their dinner, clearly defined and not touching each other.

Journaling the Day 6/1

Happy first of June!

Poor R worked very late last night.  He had a brief to finish and then he had to get up early this a.m. to take a train to Wilmington DE to meet with (new?) clients.  He's already gone.  Looks like it will be another late night too.

Fed pets - Tillie is still off her food.  Worried about that dog.
Read from Deuteronomy and Church Fathers.  Dt cracked me up.  Moses is telling the Israelites - go ahead and kill all the male enemies and take their children and women for spoils, but don't cut down any fruit trees!

Worked a bit more on the Latin syllabus.  Meeting Rosario this a.m. to go over things.

Drove to the meeting.  Met for almost 3 hours.  Pretty productive but there is lots to do!

Came home.  B was studying, slightly better than yesterday, she's not as pale.  S was also studying.  He asked me to quiz him so I did.

Ate leftovers for lunch.

Off and on dealing with religious awards issues that are cropping up in my email.  Sheesh, am I NOT doing this again next year.

Took B to her voice lessons.  Tried to read Aquinas Catechism in car but got too drowsy in the heat.

Came home.  S has resolved his own harmonica issue!  He called Suzuki's customer service and they told him to send it in for them to repair, takes 1 to 3 weeks.  And with his own money he bought a cheaper, smaller harmonica to play.

S was in a let's get this history test over with mood.  I thought he should review more.  He insisted so he took it.  And then immediately regretted it.  He kept saying, I didn't very well on that history final.

Meanwhile B has been studying and studying but going very, very slowly with everything.

Took S to piano lessons.  Went on a nice walk while he was there.  Weather was warm but dry and there was a nice breeze.  Nice summery day.  Came home.  Made two types of mac and cheese for dinner.  One white cheddar with leftover chicken and one just regular old box of mac n cheese.

B dragged herself to me and asked if I'd help her study.  So we started up but while I was checking something on my laptop I noticed I got an email from the research prof saying I had 0 points because I had missed an assignment deadline.  Gulp!  I thought it was due on the weekend!  I looked and looked and couldn't see where it said the deadline was.  Shoot.  Fortunately, I had written up most of the assignment last weekend, so I just tweaked it a bit and then submitted it.  Boy was that a confidence shaker.  This always happens.  I think I am on top of things and then I am not!  I think that is my ADD issue (one of them).

Started baking chicken for homeless shelter (I bake chicken for 16 every first Thursday of the month).  Realized I had no aluminium roasting pans to carry in the chicken in to the church tomorrow morning.  Ran to store to get that and a few other things, like ice cream.  Came home.  Everyone loved me because I brought various flavors of Ben and Jerry's.

Rick came home.  Turns out he drove to Delaware and back because the rush hour traffic this a.m. was so bad he wasn't going to make it to the train on time.  He was exhausted and kept dozing but then we started watching that new quiz show 500 questions, which we have quickly become addicted to.  Wound up not getting into bed until about 11:30.  Crazy foolish!

Journaling the day - 5/31

Thankfully didn't wake until 6 a.m.  Alleluia!

Fed pets
Made coffee
Read from Deuteronomy, Church Fathers, Lumen Fedei.  I must read more from my assigned reading and also work on my research assignment this week.  That's due Sunday by midnight.  I was taking a break yesterday since I had a 3 page essay due this past Sunday.

Did load of laundry

Posted in on going class discussion for Theo course.  I am so used to skimming when I am on line, that I have to stop myself and force myself to read every word posted in these discussions.  Theology is deep stuff that takes precision in thought.  I find I am really lazy about this and need to discipline myself.

Must take Dylan to his drs appt.  Need to leave by 8 a.m.

Took Dylan - turns out the clinic's fridge had been on the fritz over the weekend so they didn't know if vaccines were good so he didn't get a shot.  That's the second time this has happened with their vaccines.  They need a new fridge.

Came home. Vivianne made us scrambled eggs and French toast.

Showered and listened to this interesting podcast on CM and physical education.

Social Worker from St. L came over and took V. out shopping for food and baby items.

B has been super droopy and surprisingly isn't really focusing on her history exam.  She won't study with us though, yet she keeps complaining that she can't concentrate.

S and I went to Panera and studied some there until 1:30 or so.

Wrote up cover letter for AHG thing and drove everything over the the parish to have priest sign off on religious awards stuff.  Now that Rick got audible working in my car, I am listening to Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell.  Oh my, I love that early 18th century language.  I am so weird.  I love it when the narrator reads off long quotes in Latin.  Johnson wrote in Latin in his own diary!

Tried to find a someone to repair S.'s harmonica.  Looks like the closest person is in Montclair NJ.  I tried looking up Washington Folklore society, bluegrass musicians, etc.  No luck.  He is soooo bummed.  So then I came up with the idea that we'd buy him another harmonica for his half-birthday.  His birthday is 12/22 and it is always swallowed up by Christmas, so we always say we owe him a half-birthday celebration to make up for the fact.  Well his half-birthday is 6/22 so as an early present we'd replace the harmonica.  Then he could use the broken harmonica to really explore how they work so that in the future he could repair it.

I did find out in my searches around the internet on harmonicas that they are having a big harmonica gathering/workshop in Edinburgh Scotland this summer.  Seriously, I would love to go.  S can go to the workshop and Rick and I can explore Scotland.  I think it's a great idea!

Poor B is really under the weather or something.  My usually attentive student just can't pull herself together to study well at all.  I don't know if it is her time of the month or what.  She's got rehearsal tonight as well.

Helped S study some more before I had to stop and make dinner.  I modified my old white enchilada chicken casserole to be vegetarian.  I replaced the chicken with a can of drained black beans, about 1/3 of a bag of frozen corn and a couple of small/medium zucchini grated up.  I thought it was pretty good.  Sean gave it a 6.5 on a scale of 1 to 10.  Vivianne helped me cook it.  Little Dylan is starting to crawl around and get into things and he's too busy to eat, but he's also very small for his age.  I think he is going to be a small wiry type.  Anyway, she's trying to get food into him but he isn't interested.

Ran B to her rehearsal, listening to Johnson on the way there and back.

Studied more with S.  Whew, finally through the whole study guide.  So the plan is that he's going to review in the morning and then take the test in the afternoon.  I will have to run the tests to the teacher's house directly as it is due tomorrow.  I cancelled B's math tutor for tomorrow too.  She's been so draggy lately, I just want her to focus on history and get that over with.  She'll be doing math all summer so missing this time isn't going to change things much.

W called and it turns out that he is going to World Youth Day in Poland!  His friend, the seminarian, put W's Back Bay Mobile Soup Kitchen down as an organization so they have a bunch of people traveling together.  W is going to try to pay for everything himself.  I think he is really excited.  He is very tired though.  He gave a really successful concert on Saturday and he's been busy getting another performance ready.  He's on a real high about it all but I think he needs to sleep more.

J said he'd p/u B at 9.  I know they just came out with a report and everyone is tut tutting that more older children living at home is a bad thing, but actually it is a great thing!  Because when you are older, adult children are very helpful to have around!  I can see why the Amish just build on extensions to their houses.  The more adults around the easier the load is for everyone.