Christine Ansorge is a Catholic.

Saturday, I was confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church. The experience was one of the most beautiful and powerful experiences of my life. The only thing I might compare it to would be my wedding, which makes sense as they are both sacraments.
I don't feel up to discussing the confirmation and my first Eucharist. Some things must be treasured in one's heart.
What I do need to discuss is the daunting task of living out my new life. Once again a parallel to my wedding, you wake up the next day and all the weight of living out this commitment makes the struggle of committing seem inconsequential.
There are lots of ways for something to be daunting. You can be denied necessary resources to complete a task, such as the struggle the Israelites faced when they were told to make bricks without straw. You can be uncertain of your ability to complete the particular task you have been assigned, such as a physicist asked to perform in a drama.
I don't feel either kind of daunted. I feel like a child with musical ability who has been given a serious instrument. On the one hand, I am delighted--at last a real instrument that will produce real music. On the other hand, I am daunted--my abilities are not this developed. But the balance of the feeling is delight. I have years to practice and the practice is delight.
Thank you, Mother Church for accepting me.

The Dominoe Affect

It doesn't only go in one direction. After more spills and disasters than I care to recall or recount, I gave up and called Stanley Steemer to come and clean our carpets. The experience was amazing. We went out to do errands and visit the library and returned to beautiful carpets nice and clean.
Little by little we've been working from the carpet up to restore order and beauty to our chaotic and well-used existence. What a relief. Thanks, Stanley Steemer, for getting us started.

Telemarketing

I've been working publicity for the local Heifer International Living Gift Market. Overall, it's been a very rewarding experience. We've raised 700 dollars so far, and the event doesn't take place until October. Putting together a press kit to send to local media outlets was a fascinating learning experience, and we have at least one magazine working on an article about our event. But the most interesting job I've taken on so far has been telemarketing the event to area churches.
It sounded so simple at first. The Change for Kids Challenge is such a high-quality experience for families and children, that I was sure all I needed to do was get the word out. Turns out, it's not that easy. I'm gradually finding a phone script that gets a yes to more information more than it gets a no. It only took me about 200 calls to get it right.
My current challenge is figuring out how to improve the response rate once I get the information in the hands of the churches. At the moment my total call back success rate stands at one, and they were angry with Heifer. The good news is that I was able to help them move closer to their very noble goal of helping a village in Mexico by improving their connection with Heifer. No one has signed up for the Change for Kids Challenge because of my efforts.
I'm going to keep at it though. I'm learning the ins and outs of publicity from the ground up, and that's got to pay off somewhere in my life, somehow. Feeding the hungry is worth doing a little tough grunt work.

If I thought soap was evil...

Pancake mix is evil's evil twin. With the soap once you got it up the floor was clean. With pancake mix, it just feels like a never ending saga of implacable crusty stuff. I've got two hours into cleaning it up, and I'm still not done.

Yesterday was such a good day until...

We started with pancakes for breakfast.
Hit the pool for the first lesson.
Hit the library for our weekly visit.
Hit the pool for our second lesson.
Hit the library for a leatherbound set of Harvard Classics for five bucks post cash machine visit.
Had lunch.
Made calls for Heifer.
Worked on the school classroom
Moved the endless mulch.
Sat down for a little mom time.
Discovered half a bag of pancake mix spread all over the kitchen and 1/2 bath/laundry room and used for various scientific experiments.
Fun day.

Hope today's better.

Vi's Everything but the Kitchen Sink Potato Salad

5 lbs. small redskin potatoes that have been quarter or eigthed depending on the size of the potatoes then boiled until they are soft.
A large bag of matchstick carrots
one head of cauliflower chopped
one bunch of broccoli chopped
one can wax beans
one can green beans
1/2 of a small jar of sweet gherkins
8 or 9 Heinz dill pickles (They aren't much for an eating pickle, but they have the right texture for salads.)
9 boiled eggs, chopped
2 cups mayo
1-2 TBSP ketchup
1-2 TBSP mustard
1-2 TBSP of a good brown mustard with coarse grains

Use a gigantic bowl to mix this up. I use a Tupperware cake keeper turned upside down.
Enjoy.

Soap is Evil

Ok, not in general, but today, it was evil. My son got hold of the dish soap, yeah, we buy it at Sam's Club, and had a grand time using it as paint all over the tile and hardwood floors. I discovered this when I tried to walk through the hallway to the kitchen and discovered I was in a friction-free zone. It took me an hour or so to get it all wiped up, washed up, sucked up, and scrubbed up. Parts of my floors are very, very, very clean.

Decor, Once More

It's that time of year again. The basement must be cleaned and organized and redecorated for school. For the past two years, I've been satisfied with the way the room is set up, but this year seems like a good time to change it up. Don't tell the kids, but I've been looking at some very cute Cottage Bear Accessories that will turn our basement classroom into a cozy woodland cottage. I haven't committed yet, but I'm very tempted.
The other possibility would be to go all out with the ancient civilizations theme, but we'll be moving through them so rapidly I'm not sure I could keep up. I like to have decor settled for the year. I'm not a new bulletin board every month sort of a teacher.
In any case, I've got to buckle down and get all of last year's drek and material sorted and organized and put away. All my new curriculum has arrived and is anxiously waiting to take over the shelf space. I have to do something with my office as well. I'm afraid that it's been overtaken by Heifer and Harriet, and there is little to no room for school.
That said, I must quit blogging and get to it.