no words

What a week it has been!  I'm glad it started off with a holiday.

On Tuesday, the daughter of one of the sweetest people ever to work at my sons' school passed away.  Pneumonia.  A was 28, but had some physical disabilities, still lived at home, and was her parents' only child.  She must have inherited her mom's sweet and gentle spirit.  The wake was Friday night, and I went to the funeral home for the Rosary.  I watched the video of pictures they had playing in the back.  So many pictures.  All with smiles.  The second-to-last picture was A making a snow angel.  And the last picture was the snow angel itself.  There were no words to say to her parents.  All I could do was offer a hug.  Or two.  Nothing can make it better.

I wish I could have gone to the funeral today.  I heard that the good Monsignor did find the right words.  He usually does.  Parents should not have to bury their children.  That is one of the most cruel things in this broken world that we live in.

On Wednesday, we started a Bible Study at church.  I am so psyched about this.  It is an 11 week study of the Book of James.  James takes up 5 pages in my Bible.  It is packed with "Pearls of Wisdom", it appears.  The first one, "Count it all as joy, my brethren, for the testing of our faith produces steadfastness."  Or something along those lines.   That has partly contributed to the lack of blog posts.  I've been busy with Bible Study homework.  I have done a few of these before and I know two things - (1) If you do the homework, you get SO much more out of the course and (2) You cannot wait until the last minute to do the homework.  Some of it takes prayer and reflection.

There was also a beautiful full moon on Wednesday.  I attempted to take pictures of it.  Varied results.

Thursday, I showed up at school to see an ambulance in the front.  Certainly not an every day occurrence, but sadly, not that uncommon, either.  I said a silent prayer, but did not feel the need to jump out of my car, run in, and see what was going on.  Turns out it was our principal.  He was out the previous week with "health issues" and apparently is still having "health issues".  He had laid (layed/lain?) down on the floor of his office and couldn't get back up.  He is my age - 40 something.  But stress can kill ya, and his job is full of stress.  So not worth it.  The people that are heaping the stress on, will have you replaced inside of a week, and probably won't even bother to show up to your funeral.  He is nice guy, a genuine good person.

Some of us had a chuckle over the note that was sent home to the students.  "Mr. X was  hospitalized today, but we don't feel that it is anything serious."  Really?  So why was he hospitalized?  Was he faking?  Or maybe I'm being nit-picky.  I hope that it  isn't serious.  I hope that he is back at work very soon, because he is the anchor of sanity, the only check on some who want things run their way.  But he needs to take care of himself first. 

And that concludes this week of ups and downs.  I hope that you didn't get too hopeful when you read the title and think that it meant that this post would have no words!