Gifts from God

* Reading in bed with my children at night before bed.

* Boxes of photographs of my grandparents, the better to remember them before sickness and weakness came. Old school-teacher photos, dapper suits, newspaper articles, perfectly curled vintage hair, smiles around the table as we perused the past.

* 4 other English teachers giving me ideas of how to make reading and writing more doable for my sophomores.

* pre-written prayers that sometimes say an idea better than I could, and often say an idea I hadn't realized I needed to think.


That last part is the challenge for me during worship: with a clear mind!

St. Peter the Aleut

Do you have a special way of remembering this teenage saint?

I asked this question last year and got no reply.

Last year in Sunday school, we enjoyed whale-shaped crackers and dried berries in memory of this young Alaskan man. I think that as the month passes, the best I can do this year is ask St. Peter to intercede for my teenage students.