Happy Sunday SMS Families!
We hope everyone had a great weekend, a bit of a mixed bag as far as weather goes, but looks like it is going to cool off, so we will go ahead and end "shorts" season until the spring.
The Preschool-2nd grade had a great field trip to "R" Farm on Tuesday. Although this year was the first time I have ever been, our younger grades have been doing this trip for years, as someone reminded me when they sent a picture of one of my daughters on the trip in 2016. Back when my girls were doing things like this, and so many more awesome traditions at SMS, I didn't always think about how blessed we actually were. Being able to go this week, definitely gave me some perspective, and I couldn't help but feel blessed that my girls got to be a part of it. Thanks to everyone who helped organize this day this week, and over the years.
Last week we read from the Book of Genesis, and more specifically about Adam and Eve. We talked about how when we sin we are choosing our own will over God's will. We also talked more about accountability, and instead of blaming others when we make mistakes, to own up to our mistakes, ask for forgiveness, and learn from the mistakes we make.
Please remember there will be no Ripley bus service tomorrow at all. If any of our Ripley bus riders would be helped out by a ride in the morning, I usually pick students up at the Marathon in Aberdeen around 7:30-7:35. There also will be no Georgetown bus at all. Again, we will have room for some Georgetown bus riders on the SMS bus. If you reached out to me, I will leave the Homeplace at 7:10, and will return there around 3:05.
Thanks to all who helped with the impromptu pumpkin fundraiser we had last week. We still have a little coming in, but we have raised between $500 and $1,000 to go toward our SRO fund. Every little bit helps! Special thanks to Laura Ernst and Dick Zurbuch for providing the pumpkins!
We have a couple fundraisers in progress to help our 7/8 grade trip to Washington DC. We are very excited about this opportunity that our students are going to have to tour the Capitol for an entire week with an experienced touring company, as well as our friends from St. Bernadette and St. Thomas More. If you did not read the story from the summer, the plan is for our 7th/8th grade students to go every other year. If you can help our 7th and 8th graders out at all, they would be appreciative! Friday, they raked a local yard and received their first donation, along with some extremely generous donations from members of the community who saw it on Facebook. I will post the flyers at the end of this newsletter in case you haven't seen them yet.
Our 5th-8th grades will be carving pumpkins this week for the Ripley Pumpkin Glow. If possible please send in milk cartons this week, as our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade will be working on a related project. Thank you!
We will have "preview" of the Ignatius book fair on Thursday the 16th and Friday the 17th between 8:30-2:30 in the school library. Parents or family members are welcome to come and look, and students will have times to look as well. Students will be able purchase from the book fair Monday-Wednesday, October 20-22, during the school day. To check out the books that will be available, you can go to this site.
You have done a great job contributing to the "Baby Bottle Campaign" for the Pregnancy Resource center. Currently, we have a tie for first place between the third grade and kindergarten! More importantly, we are going to be able to make a nice donation to the Pregnancy Resource Center, just by collecting spare change. We will collect until the end of the month.
Looking ahead at this week:
Tuesday- There is a meeting for our 2nd grade families who have a child making their First Confession this year. The meeting is at 6:00 at the school in room 201 (religion room)
Friday- The SMS Halloween Party- Special thanks to Mrs. Moon, Ms. Cox, and Mrs. Hubbard for working so hard to make this a fun time for our children. Thanks also to everyone who signed up to contribute items for the party!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend, we will see you tomorrow!
