I Will Be Out of Town for Several Days - Blogging Will Be Mimimal or Nonexistent
My family and I are heading up to Norwalk, Ohio for a few days to check out the housing situation, Catholic schools, and the 2 Catholic parishes. We are considering making a move to a less expensive part of the country (the cost of living in the Charlottesville, VA area has gotten out of control) so that we (1) can afford for my wife to stay home with the kids and (2) have more affordable Catholic schools available to us.
But before I pick up and move my family halfway across the country I want to make sure that the parishes and schools where we are thinking about relocating to are faithful to the Magisterium. Keep us in your prayers as we travel today and next week. Pray for us that we can discern whether a move to this location is the right one for us.
Thanks and have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend.
P.S. May we remember the fallen of our Nation as we enjoy our long weekend.
posted by Pro Ecclesia 9:34 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
hmmm. Good luck in his travels or good luck finding a faithful parish? ;)
Have a safe and fruitful trip, Jay.
Good luck to you.
We really need to have ALL schools good for ALL kids.
The quality of our schools in this country vary tremendously....
sad very sad
I would like to see us as Americans support our schools more financially so they can be better for our kids.
It's also very sad that the cost of living isn't more evenly distributed throughout our country somehow. Sigh......
To think that folk's feel they have to up and move to have their kids in a good school, afford to have one parent home, and move away from extended family possibly, (also good for kids to grow up with).
Please look at your local area again maybe with fresh perspective, instead of running away, is there something that you can make happen to help change your situation?
When our kids were small, we had to make alot of concessions, but we did it. No new cars, and we definitely didn't keep up with or near the Jones. We worked opposite shifts so one of us was home at all times with the kids. It wasn't fun in that we didn't see much of each other but we accomplished our goal to be home with the kids. No vacations of any great distance, but we had fun weekends away as a family which now are wonderful memories.
I think I understand what you're trying to do, but maybe try to look at the true basics and values of what's really important here. The school should be sticking to the basic teachings, not misinterpreting or following another path, to make it so it's not a good school. What about the kids that stay there? We as a society should be aware that all children effect our communities, as they grow up and become adults.
The money that you have spent on taking your whole family to a new area, that must have been alot of bucks, especially with gas prices as expensive as they are.
We're just different people. I'm not a throw away person, I've always tried to work with my community to improve it, and I think I have made an important difference. If you don't think that you can afford to have one parent home, incorporate your family, work opposite shifts, buy less, don't live in such an expensive home, or drive an expensive car. These are the things that I would change, not my community. What lessons are you teaching or showing your kids? That you can move away from issues or problems rather than to face them.
I'm glad that new and shiny isn't important to me.
Anonymous
throw away community,
I think you miss my point. There's nothing wrong with my community. I love my town; otherwise, I wouldn't bother being mayor of it.
However, there are various reasons why I view a move for my family as necessary:
(1) the mid-Atlantic, especially in the Charlottesville, VA area, has become a very expensive place to live,
(2) we live in a town that is 45 minutes from the larger population centers of Charlottesville and Richmond, so shopping involves an out-of-town trip - and there's no "running down to the store" after we get home from work,
(3) we commute 45 minutes each way to work in Charlottesville every day - once you add in the time it takes to drop kids off at daycare, we're on the road 2.5 hours going to and from work,
(4) we are Catholic converts, so it is very important to my wife and me that our kids get a Catholic education since we are in the process of "learning" how to be Catholics ourselves - therefore affordability of education for what we hope will be a lot of kids is very important to us,
(5) I have absolutely no desire to tag-team with my wife regarding work arrangements - my kids deserve to have both parents sitting down to a meal with them at night,
(6) my wife has family in the area to which we are moving, including a young cousin who is around the same age as my boys - currently, my boys have no family living near them that is close to them in age,
(7) we already do things to save money - get by with older vehicles, rarely go out to eat, don't take a lot of fancy vacations (although we are taking the kids to visit family in England this September) - and it's still hard to make ends meet.
In short, we're not "running away" from or "throwing away" our community. People move for a variety of reasons - mostly because it is in the best interests of their families. I've worked with my community and tried to improve it - in fact, I have improved it in tangible ways, such as obtaining over 3/4 of a million dollars in grant money over the past 3 years for various community development projects. As I said, there's nothing wrong with my community that is causing me to leave other than cost of living in this part of the country.
As for the lessons I'm teaching my kids, they are learning about making sacrifices for the good of your family - even when that means moving to a strange and unfamiliar place. Nothing "new and shiny" about that - that's a tradition that goes back to the days of Abraham.
I don't know what things you imagined that I'm "running away" from, but I think you better guess again. Our move is NOT some sort of "white flight" or anything like that.
Okay okay, I didn't mean to upset you but I still feel the choice to not go on vacations, high end cars and homes is a valid choice.
I still maintain that we didn't go on vacations for years, rented for longer than we wanted to, etc. etc. You've obviously made your choice. By that I mean you seem to want it all. Even many years later, we could only afford to go on one vacation a year, which was usually visiting a relative, while many friends were going on several vacations a year. ( You've taken your family to check out this new place in Ohio, and this fall plan on going to Europe?)
Good luck to you. By the way working different shifts so we could be home with the kids isn't considered a tag team. I would have loved for all of us to sit down together as a family, but we only were able to do it one sometimes two days a week. This was a very special family time, that the kids really looked forward to, all of us did. In this time, the reality of any home life having a sit down dinner with all of the family together just doesn't happen anymore. You're thinking back about Leave it to Beaver or some such. We both had 2 jobs for a while to make ends meet. Our kids are well adjusted young adults now in their 20's and loved how we were able to attend all of their school plays, concerts, games and lessons. Made time for their friends, our home was always grand central station, where all the kids hung out. We enjoyed our time with our kids tremendously. We also had my mom live with us for the last 9 years of her life which was wonderful too. Our kids got to spend quality time with grandma and it was a wonderful special relationship. I just see you choosing for the wrong reasons and think how sad that is.
It's interesting that there are so many differences within the same catholic religion that make you want to choose one area over another. I thought there would be more similarity even with the reform
I truly wish you luck in working it out, but it sure is expensive to do it your way if you can afford it.
You didn't upset me. You just don't know the details of my situation, and therefore know very little about the pros and cons of a move for my family in this particular situation.
You're making a lot of assumptions based on very little, if any, knowledge about my current financial situation, issues regarding my extended family (such as the extended family in the area to which we're moving), potential employment opportunities for my wife should she decide to go back to work, how much money we'll save on gasoline and wear and tear on vehicles because I'll be homebasing rather than commuting (an opportunity my company will not afford me if I stay where I am), how much money we'll save by getting a smaller mortgage, etc.
Believe me ... I don't "want it all", nor am I likely to get "it all". We know we have some serious financial sacrifices ahead of us. It's not easy to make it on one salary. If it becomes clear we need additional income in the future, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it - one thing's for sure, if my wife needs to go back to work in the place where we're moving she won't have to commute 45 minutes each way to get there.
I appreciate your concern for my family's situation, but I think it is a little misguided in this particular instance.
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