Mother's day + other news in the world...

Good morning.  happy mother's day!

Here, it's rainy, so we did not get to go out to do anything other than a movie.  It was just another "regular" day.  I have grading to do.  Todd has work at his office. I will get out of having to make dinner.  haha! 

Since the last blog post... the big news out in the world: 

Pope Francis died.  He was a kind man - one who valued social justice and looking out for people who were marginalized and vulnerable.  He openly condemned the immigration policy of our new administration.  He was criticized for being too liberal by some.  What we remember is his compassion towards others.

A new Pope was appointed: an American -- this is the first time that there's an American Pope.  Isabella asked me who was more powerful:  our president or the Pope?  We looked it up - there are about 3.4 million Americans.  There are 1.4 billion Catholics that the new Pope has "influence" over.  I don't know that there's an easy answer to this question since the Pope cannot change direct laws??  

The process is so fascinating - conducting a conclave of the world's Cardinals. They come together to pray over and to vote on the new religious leader.  (And it's held in a beautiful place - the Sistine Chapel.)  From the AP News Source:  

Its name, literally “with a key,” was used in the 13th century to describe the process of locking up the cardinals until the election is completed. It must begin no more than 20 days after the death or resignation of a pope. The electors are sequestered from all outsiders for the duration; the last three popes were chosen within days. 

If you're a cardinal over 80 - you can't vote.  Their votes are all in secrecy -- I heard where they even have to disguise their handwriting when casting their daily votes?  A chimney is installed in the chapel roof by fire-fighters. (how do they remove the roof tile to vent the chimney?!) 

After each vote, the ballots are burned with cartridges (that create different colors of smoke) signaling to those waiting anxiously outside of the chapel if there is a new Pope or not.  

After each round of voting in the Sistine Chapel, the ballots are burned in a special furnace to indicate the outcome to the outside world. 

If no pope is chosen, the ballots are mixed with cartridges containing potassium perchlorate, anthracene (a component of coal tar), and sulfur to produce black smoke.  But if there is a winner, the burning ballots are mixed with potassium chlorate, lactose and chloroform resin to produce the white smoke. Bells also are rung to further signal there is a new pope. 

The press reported this as a "short" conclave, but that the last 3 Popes were selected within 2-3 days.

The new Pope is the first American to be elected. Born in Chicago - Robert Francis Prevost - chose the name Pope Leo XIV in honor of the previous Pope Leo who was committed to social issues and workers' rights.  It will be interesting to see how his leadership will either continue what Pope Francis had put into place... or change it.  

Here at home - we celebrated Isabella's 12th adoption day.  We got her a gift of something  that she really wanted ("polish pop" nail-related) and we took her out to dinner. 

She also asked that we have a game night when we got home from dinner.  We stayed up really really late, but both kids seemed to have a bit of fun - Isabella especially.

Easter was that same weekend.  (The Easter bunny came and we watched church online.  It was pretty low-key.) 

The dogs got a basket too -- Saffy loved her "tough chewer" carrot.... which is still holding up 2 weeks later, thankfully.

Our church did a thing:  we contacted a company and then coordinated with the city to bring a big purple dumpster to our back parking lot in order to allow the community to recycle glass.  There was a thing in the paper about it. (Lots of people were excited because the city stopped recycling glass due to it mixing up / contaminating the other products.

This company will make brown glass and fiberglass insulation out of what they collect!)  The timing was in honor of Earth Day -- but we talk about "Creation Care" in our church -- taking care of God's creation.

(this is our green team)

We have had a bit of end-of-year stuff this past week.  My after-school AIAS club had their final meeting.  The next day I hosted a meeting for my architecture advisory committee -- with members of the community there, architects, retired professor and a student who presented an independent capstone project -- his parents and a grandparent (who used to be a neighbor) were also there. It was a big "event" where there's networking, light food, presentations from me and others, etc.  It's a lot to coordinate. Always glad when it's over!  

There was an advisory committee meeting Wednesday for the architecture teachers I zoom with. (I only had to prepare 1 slide to present, but that was not a big deal.)  That same evening, Mercer had his end-of-season baseball banquet, but we did not go.  We told him we were supporting him... we just didn't approve of how coach treated him and refused to go to support the program.   (since we didn't get a photo of him there, we got one of him all dressed up for the banquet instead. He picked out his clothes!)

My final grades were due at KSU that evening too (well, really 12 noon the next day, but since I work during the day I had to get them done).   I survived my 1st semester of teaching college.  Whew. It was SO MUCH.   I held office hours a couple of days before grades were due and then cut out the lights to the lecture room one last time.

The next evening was Isabella's end-of-year concert.  The band played some song and the orchestra played others.  They took turns.  She did well - from what we could tell (there were some other euphoniums (or euphonia?)  in the band, so they all kind of blended together.) I went to a murder mystery later that evening and then pretty much collapsed on Friday! 

There was something pretty much EVERY night!  whew.

 

Todd and had a going-away event for someone at our church this past weekend AND a graduation party for a KSU student who works with him that just graduated.  

The apartment complex where he lived had a phenomenal event space in the back... photo was really for documenting part of that without looking strange! (so got Todd playing a game that was mounted to the wall)  The kids would not have enjoyed it, so I'm glad we went on our own!

I spent 30 hours grading the previous weekend for KSU (I had a "helper" grading - Saffy is such a lap dog!!!) 

So, this weekend (now) - I didn't grade at all!  - plus it was mother's day weekend, so... decided to knock out a quick blog post before all my grades are due for MHS later this week and get too busy!

I believe the next blog post will be after school is DONE... and we're officially in summer.  2 more weeks!!