We Are Called

Advent goes well with a couple of our virtues for this month, patience and prayerfulness. We all know that looking forward to Christmas takes some patience. I even heard one family talk about how to determine who gets to light the Advent candles also required patience.

At school, we are taking this time of preparation and working hard to prepare for the celebration of our Lord's birth. We will have our all school penance service on Dec. 9 during the day. Although we usually associate fasting and almsgiving with Lent, we are still talking about these practices and hoping that we can catch each other doing these things. We call these nominations, Advent Light moments. When we see people doing this, anyone can fill out a form. It has been a bright part of my day to randomly pick some of these to share.

Here are a few: Mr. Nguyen always makes sure we understand what we are learning and has the best way of explaining complicated lessons. Emily asked a friend to join in an activity. Gavin is amazing in house and helps others and says kind things. John is optimistic. Mrs. Russel helped us prepare for reconciliation. Hudson is always smiling and saying nice things. Alec helped his peers during MTSS and was super joyful about it. Merin helped Ivy with the soap and water when she couldn't reach it. And the list goes on...

I know that these are busy times for our families, but finding a way to prepare with some quiet and active practices will only make our celebrations more joyful! Be assured of my prayers.

We are Called!

Kathy Rhodes

It has been a tradition at SHOJ to have a collection to show appreciation for the staff at SHOJ during the holidays. This was designed to ease your stress of shopping and to ensure that all are supported with a cash gift. Teachers are given names of families that donate (no amounts) and it usually ends up being a very generous gift of a few hundred dollars. Here is the payment form for families to complete for the Christmas Fund: https://web4u.forms-db.com/view.php?id=1096273

Thanks so much for the wonderful pies. Everyone enjoyed them! We have the best parents!

Registration with our unique charity link: https://smile.amazon.com/ch/48-0625990

We have 1 student positive and 2 quarantined with covid this week.

I want to continue to remind you, that in addition to covid, the cold and flu season is upon us. We continue to see a variety of symptoms circulating around the school. I appreciate your prudence in keeping sick children home and me aware of all health scenarios. It is always important to be practicing healthy lifestyle choices, but especially during the fall and winter months and with the increased travel and gatherings during the holidays, when viruses and other illnesses are more prevalent and easily spread.

Healthy habits include, but are not limited to:

-Frequent hand washing

-Avoid touching your nose, mouth and eyes

-Avoid sharing cups, devices, utensils and pencils

-Daily exercise

-Get at least 8-10 hours of sleep each night

-Get 8 cups of water each day (please send your children with a refillable water bottle to school)

-Do what you can to reduce added stress

-Add more protein, fruits and veggies to your diet and avoid excess sugar

As part of our newly formed wellness committee, we are going to begin a bimonthly healthy recipe to share in the newsletter. To make it manageable and practical for our busy schedules, each recipe should be somewhat healthy and balanced nutritionally, easy and quick to prepare and not involve too many or hard to find ingredients. Seasonal recipes would be a great idea to encourage use of produce that is fresh and in season! If you have a recipe that you would like to be featured in the newsletter, please email mary.hungerford@shoj.org.

We also plan to start a walking club and have a 100-mile club, more details to come on this after the Christmas break!

Dec. 14 Christmas Program K-5. This program will be streamed from the church. K-2 dress like angels and 3-5 like shepherds - or holiday attire is always an option.

April 20 Confirmation

Email: kathy.rhodes@shoj.org
Website: school.SHOJ.com
Location: 21801 Johnson Drive, Shawnee, KS, USA
Phone: 9134225520
Facebook: facebook.com/SacredHeartCatholicSchool