Dear Homeschooling Friends,

You know that retreat I went on last weekend? It was really great, but now it feels like it happened millions of years ago! It’s amazing how quickly we forget all our ambitions, resolutions, and long-term plans. You know what I mean. Do you even remember your New Year’s resolutions this year? But, even though I have a cold now (sniff, sniff), and I’ve taken two big tests since I got home on Sunday, I will *attempt* to remember those blissful days during the retreat.

Actually, the retreat was hard. Two and a half days of silence is hard. Spending every wakeful moment trying to remain prayerful is hard. Taking a real look at your life is hard…. We’re not used to being silent, not used to doing "nothing". Anyway, that’s kind of the goal of this Catholic retreat: put into a situation like this you have the best chance to pray, reassess your position, and make one or two resolutions for the next year. It’s hard-core stuff. ;-)

We had meditations (given by a priest), the sacraments of mass and confession, talks, spiritual reading, rosary, and then time between these things to read, pray in the chapel, or walk around the beautiful grounds. Yeah, I forgot to mention that the conference center where we had our retreat is just beautiful. There is a beautiful mansion (we didn’t stay there—we got the small courthouse), pine trees all around, a lake, geese and two swans, absolute quiet… really beautiful. My favorite part of the retreat was just wandering around outside.

A retreat is a great thing, totally worthwhile. Now, getting back into the "real" world is the next challenge. :-)

Sorry if I bored you! Until I get the chance to write more, have fun in apricot--

Ben Kniaz