8-Year-Old Logic

How exactly does one explain what I am doing this next year to three 8 year olds?? I'm trying to figure that out myself. The girls I watch have known for a couple of weeks now that I am leaving and moving somewhere new very soon. Up until now they have been asking pretty simple questions like "Where are you moving to?" or "What will you be doing at your new job?" or "How far away will you be?" And those I can answer with little confusion, and I can even pull up a map to show them where exactly I'll be. But today, a whole new flood of questions came my way.

We were cooped up inside most of the day because of the lovely 98 degree weather and heat index of about 115, and I guess their minds were racing. It started because we were talking about chocolate (I don't remember why) and Maddy brought up the chocolate that I brought them from my most recent trip to Erie less than two weeks ago. I had stopped by Romolo Chocolates (website) to get my fix and had bought each of my girls a chocolate soccer ball sucker. Maddy fell in love and today asked me if we could go and get some more. Trying to explain to an 8 year old that this place is two hours away and only accessible by a very busy thruway that her parents would probably not be happy with me taking her on is not an easy thing to do. And then the floodgates opened.

"Is it where you will be living?"
"Yes."
"Can you mail some to me?"
".........possibly."
"Will you have time while you are down there?"
"Now and then."
"What will you be doing when you are there?"
"A lot of different things."
"Explain!"

I cannot describe to you the look on all three of their faces (I watch twin girls, the third is their friend that comes over most days) when I told them where I will be living, and who I will be living with. I wish I had a camera or my phone on me at that moment.

"Do you have a house down there?"
"Sort of. It's not mine, but I'll be living in a big house. Bigger than your house."
"No way!"
"Yes way!"
"What is it?"
"A monastery."
(Cue confusion)
"......what's that??"
"A place where nuns live. Do you know what a nun is?"

Their friend did, and hearing her try to describe to the other two what a nun is was so mind blowing I don't even know how she did it. I did my best, and I can't even remember how I explained it. But they asked what religion I am and what religion the nuns are and now they think if you are Catholic you are a nun. So if you ask them, I'm becoming a nun, and I'm living in a church.

Then they asked where I will be working, and since I don't know the exact place(s) yet, I kind of gave them an idea of the different options I have. When they found out I have a chance to work with kids they decided they are going to ask their parents to move down there. Good luck with that.

I have a feeling this is only the beginning of the questions. I think I need some more practice explaining things in 8-year-old-eese. Is there a handbook for this? I can only use the excuse "ask your parents" so much before they climb on me like monkeys and demand an answer! Maybe I'll perfect it in the next four weeks. I can only hope.

My monkeys are pictured below with me in the pool, our new home for this heat wave that doesn't seem to want to go away. Madison is on the left and Elizabeth is on the right. 

What to Pack or What Not to Pack...That Is the Question

With only five weeks left until the move, I thought I should get started on some packing. I have done this every year for the past four years before the move back into the college dorm, or at least I attempt to begin early. It hasn't always ended the way I planned for it to, and we'll see if this year is any different. But since I'd like to spend my last week home hanging out with family that I won't get to see very much in the next year, I should probably get going on this packing...thing.

The nice thing about this move is that I don't have to pack up my entire life. No furnishing a kitchen or a living room. No bringing my entire bedroom with me. My plan, and I stress that idea, my plan is to pack only a select few things: my two suitcases full of clothes, my duffle bag full of toiletries, one large Rubbermaid bin full of little trinkets and photographs and extra things to make my room feel a little more like home, and then my bicycle and inline skates for recreation purposes. This should actually fit in my little PT Cruiser rather nicely. It can fit a lot more in it than people give it credit for. Yay for hatchbacks!

I'm really looking forward to this adventure, although the two little girls I watch would rather I not leave. Every day Maddy asks if I can just find a job here or continue to babysit them, and every time the local news stations announce a new job opening, she tells me to apply for it. Too cute, and heartbreaking also. Maybe they will just have to visit me!

40 days...6 weeks....and WHAT am I thinking??

When most people ask someone who has recently graduated from college what their plans are for the immediate future, the usual answers include, "applying for jobs" or "going on to graduate school" or something of the sort. Now, if you were to ask me that question, the answer would go a little something like this:
"I'm going to be living in a monastery in Erie, PA with the Sisters of Saint Benedict"
Not exactly what you'd expect to come out of a 22 year old's mouth, huh? Well, it's nothing I thought I'd say either. Not one year ago, not six months ago. But, here I am, preparing to move in just over a month.

I will be a participant in something called the Benedicta Riepp Program. It is named for Sister Benedicta Riepp, the first Benedictine woman foundress in the United States. Participation in this program includes living in community with the Sisters for one year, communal prayer three times daily in addition to personal  spiritual development, study of the Rule of Benedict and Benedictine tradition, and serving within a community ministry four days out of the week. It is a program for women who are in a major transitioning stage of their life and would like some personal time to work on themselves, their spiritual development, and their person as a whole.

So, you may ask me what exactly am I thinking??? Am I crazy? And, the one I get from everyone, are you becoming a nun?
My answers: Being a recent graduate from college, this is the biggest transitory stage of my life so far, and a scary one at that, so a little help and guidance with this is greatly welcomed and appreciated. No, I am perfectly sane. And no, I am not becoming a nun.

I guess I don't fit the "stereotype" of someone people would picture as a participant in this program, or so  people have told me. I am a young woman in an age where women are told they can do anything they would like to, and I choose to do this. And that's just it, I chose to take this on, with no pressure from anyone. Ok, let's continue. I talk too much. I have three tattoos, and I have three piercings in one ear and five in the other. Apparently this disqualifies me?? But if the Sisters are accepting of me as they have been for the past 2 1/2 years, then that is all I have to worry about.

Actually, I have been asking myself why I'm doing this a lot lately. As the date creeps closer, the question gets more and more intense. But I know it is just nerves. I love these women. I have great respect for all of them and what they are doing for the community. And I am grateful that they are allowing me to be a part of it, even for such a short amount of time. I am truly looking forward to it, and while I know it will not be smooth sailing and a fairy tale each and every day, I know I will grow so much as an individual spiritually and will learn things I never thought I would and in ways I never imagined.

So thank you, Sisters, for your guidance over the past couple of years, and for the very special opportunity you are allowing me to take. I know I will be so grateful when the year has ended.