GraceWatch

My life this summer has been taken up by two major events (yes, besides my bunny-infested garden). The first, obviously, is the impending arrival of our new baby, which has lately precipitated a whole domino chain of furniture moving. Specifically, we're moving our office -- which had been in our room -- into B's room, and B into the girls' room, and all of their bedroom toys into a new playroom where our dining room used to be, which is now in our living room -- you get the idea. I just have to say that I really resent Ikea engineers for creating a loft that requires the use of a teensy tiny hex key that you have to remove every quarter-turn because they placed the bolt too close to two boards.

The other major event in my life this summer has been the new faith-formation program that we're launching at three of our local parishes. I'm on the committee that has been planning this launch, so there have been lots of meetings, memos, and planning documents to go over. I have also helped with publicity by creating the video and the posters you see below. They were well-received, but I can't begin to account for the amount of time they sucked out of my life, especially the problem-plagued video. Buy me a beer or two and I'll tell you my tale of woe. (Which is saying something, since I don't drink beer. I just might need one by the end of my story, though.)

We've been rolling out the various components of GIFT (that's Growing In Faith Together -- cute, huh?) for the past two weeks, starting with the new, parent-centered second grade sacrament preparation (which M is going through for her first Reconciliation), and continuing on with our new catechist formation program -- and then today was the launch of the GIFT Community Gatherings, which is a two and a half hour deal that includes a meal, some table activities, a short "animation talk" on a faith topic, some small group work, and then a half-hour period for families to work on their "home commitments" -- what they're going to do for the rest of the month. Our priest sidled up to me during lunch and said, "This must be kind of like giving birth, after all those years of planning, huh?" Not that either of us would literally know, of course, but I thought it was a gunny confluence.

So here is the video, followed by some of my posters, which we've been rotating on the doors at the three churches since August. (Some of them even went in strategic places in the bathrooms.) Click on them to enlarge.