7 Quick Takes about conferences, goals and plans

I may or may not have seven things to talk about.  We shall see.

1.  I signed up for the Catholic Writer's Conference though calling myself a writer is a stretch.  I attended a few chat room discussions and was very impressed.  As always, there was more that I wanted to participate in but couldn't.  There are also a few workshops I've been following through the week which are also interesting.  It's a matter of finding time to do the suggested exercises and following through.  Wait, that sounds like something I've heard before!  sigh, so many possibilities!

2. One of my goals for 2014 was to have a successful parish mission.  And we did.  The parishioners loved the priest, Fr. Kenan Peters, C.P.  Many told me how much his talks impacted their life and they feel spiritually renewed.  The other comment was in regard to confession.  Fr. Peters heard confessions every day for between two and four hours each day.  People were amazed at how wonderful he was as a confessor.  Of course, they wanted him to stay longer and promise to come back.  I am thrilled that it all worked out so well.

3.  This weekend going to see Son of God is on the schedule for Sunday.  We are looking forward to going with my RCIA candidate and her fiance.  By "my" I mean the person I am teaching, catechizing, so she can join the Church at Easter!

4.  Working for the Church and keeping my faith and spiritual life it very difficult at times.  The last few weeks have been on of those times,  I've done some work on taking care of it but it is lingering.  The other day I felt a tugging come over me about the need for lay ministers,both paid and unpaid, to be ministered to and supported.  I've felt this before and I wonder if it's time to move on it.

5.  How is your Lent going?  Mine has been mixed.  Certain things are moving along well, others I've yet to embrace fully.

6.  I'm presenting a webinar next week so last night I practiced.  As part of the practice I recorded myself.  The mic I have is not very good so I sounded very lispy.  So I tried it without the mic but then I sounded far away.  My husband suggested I hold the mic further away from my mouth which may solve the problem but then I'd have to literally hold it which means I would not be able to use my hands for anything else.  What else, well turning presentation pages for one but also gesturing.  Yes, in my world my hands move when I talk even if you can't see me :)

7.  Last week my husband took and passed his comps.  He was told he passed the test last Friday while he was at school.  I told our daughter to text her brother with the news so she sent this text:  "Dad passed." He sent back "You should not send a text like that, it's sounds bad."  Her reply, "you know what I mean."  She then asked me, "Does he really think that if dad or anyone else died I'd send him a text about it?" She did have a point, but so did he.  I laughed thinking of all the times we assume people know the context of what we are talking about but don't.  Would it be easier if we could read each other's minds?

Click on over to Conversion Diary for more quick takes.