Random Happenings

A beach sweep, the Stigmata, a birthday, a nature journal, an exciting discovery (for us students), and an upcoming conference:

Last Saturday, as I had mentioned in my last entry, we participated in the Great Lakes Beach Sweep by removing litter from 3 miles of the shoreline of Lake Michigan. We found countless cigarette butts, which takes about 25 years to decompose, and the filters cannot keep all the toxic materials from going into the environment. We also found balloons, a broken fishing pole, lots of Styrofoam, and some wood with nails in them. Fortunately this beach sweep is an annual event so the litter was not nearly as bad as it could be.

Here is a video of what we did:

Saturday was also the Feast of the Stigmata, as in St. Francis' Stigmata. St. Francis had a deep devotion for the crucified Christ. When he was in contemplation on Mt. Alverna, he received the five wounds of the crucified Christ.

While I was growing up I had no idea that I was born on such a major feast day! We had a celebration for my birthday in the afternoon. One of the gifts I received was a board game that Sr. Regina Rose and Sr. Leslie made. It is called Religious Life: A Convent Game. It is so hilarious to play, with various convent scenarios. You begin with lots of property and money, and to win the game you have to get rid of all your money and property while going through the stages of formation!

We also had snacks and I was sooo excited to see hummus and Dr. Pepper...two of my favorites! They even gave me a Packers cake. Tsk. Tsk. No, actually they are my 2nd favorite team!

Now I am once again doing school work. For my science curriculum and methods course, we are keeping a nature journal, so today I took a picture of one of our trees:





I love it because some workers just trimmed it and now it looks like a gigantic bonsai tree! I used the Arbor Day Foundation's "What Tree is That?" (Online Edition- Tree Identification Guide), and identified this tree as a White Ash (Fraxinus americana).

I also found a great website while I was studying for a Spanish test: quizlet.com. After I am done making a flashcard, a Spanish-speaking person reads the word! There are also games that you can play with the words. I like the "Speller" and the "Space Race." You can study other subjects using quizlet.com as well, and it is free.

This Saturday, we are going to a Franciscan prayer conference. I am looking forward to it and I will let you all know about it in my next entry!