Power of music April 30, 2009

I sing in a choir and I love it! I don’t care if it seems like a nerdy hobby to have. I absolutely adore it and wouldn’t dream of giving it up. I stopped when both my kids were very little and went back to it when they were old enough to stay at home with their Dad. We sing popular music in different languages and harmonies. But, there is nothing like singing a song in English that has a familiar type of melody and harmony. It makes me get goosebumps or tears when I am singing. One of those songs is “I shall not live in vain” based on an Emily Dickinson poem. It is absolutely gorgeous.

The musical aspect of the choir is really important to me, but so are the people. One of my favourite friends is in the choir and her hubby is the prima donna, I mean leader, of the choir. We make good music and friendships. In fact, when we go out after a concert, we sing in the restaurants. Last Sunday we had a concert and after we went out for pizza. My childhood friend was here and he was blown away by all of us sitting around the table singing. It really is a little peculiar and certainly something to see. He loved it though and hid his embarrassment well behind his camera. Have you ever tried that? I recommend it.

Music can fulfill all kinds of purposes obviously. Right now I am listening to Norah Jones and that really just fits the “feel-good” factor. It makes me sit and work in a really relaxed atmosphere. I also really can get into Michael Bublé and songs like Home. Granted this music is maybe a bit sappy or shlocky, but it takes me to a good place and I think that is what it is supposed to do.

My heroes… April 28, 2009

Well now it is official.
My brother finished the London Marathon and the results of the race are posted above. I am so proud of him and this accomplishment. He is an inspiration – training for the marathon and triathlons.

Another person who falls under the heading above is the friend I was telling you about in the Spring Break post. He has had more than his share of stuff to deal during his life and he is such a blessing. I mean that he can always see the bright side of life and the people in it. He is extremely supportive and approaches life with such grace.

I cannot fail to mention my husband in this category. Again, he is a person who has come face to face with serious issues and rather than cry, he decided to find a way to work around his limitations. He is always looking for a challenge.

I am so lucky to know these guys and I strive to be more like them – determined, graceful and courageous!

Spring Break April 27, 2009

We have just come back from Spring Break and I was lucky to have a childhood friend visit us. It was such fun showing him the beautiful beaches on the coast. We spent a day at the beach and hiked down to one where we were the only ones there for most of the time. That was amazing! We spent my birthday on a schooner in the bay and it was also fabulous. There were about 24 other people on the ship and they were really friendly. They helped take care of Lu on one of the beaches and were interested in helping Chichi when she was swimming with the fish. On the last day we went to a waterfall and then drove home. The kids were going crazy in the car on the way home because we drove straight there. The four hour drive was fine for the first two hours and horrible for the last 2 hours. When we got back we showed my friend what we do on the weekends and he really enjoyed “living our life”. I took him to see our choir sing last night and we went out after to eat pizza. As is the custom, everyone sat around the table and sang – that was hilarious.
I really appreciated having my friend here. I have known him since we were in grade nine. Obviously a lot has happened since then, but over the years we have not lost touch. And the interesting thing is that we did not just get caught up again after finding each other on facebook or myspace!
He is a very special person and I really enjoyed talking to him over the last few days. There was not a moment that we didn’t have something to say. That is true friendship!

What is the importance of April 21st… April 21, 2009

Well, today is a holiday here and we asked our students to look up the reason behind the holiday. Since I knew that everyone would be able to do research and tell us what the holiday signified, I decided to talk about what it means to me personally.
It is my father’s birthday. That may not seem all that significant in itself to you, but my birthday is just 2 days after my father’s birthday. I have always felt it is very special that my birthday and my father’s are so close together. I have always been close to my Dad and as I was growing up I was always told that I looked a lot like him. To me that always seemed a little weird – why did I have to look like a man? But now as an adult I can perceive that these similarities are actually very special.
I live very far away from my Mom and Dad, but I still try to be close to them. I think about them every day and they are the real guides in my life. That is something that never changes regardless of our age. For all these reasons, April 21st is a special day for me.
Happy Birthday Dad…

Growing up… April 18, 2009

I remember when Chichi was a baby and I had just come back from my Mat Leave and one of my colleagues was commenting that soon she would be studying at our school. I thought that day would take such a long time to arrive. Well, it didn’t. She is now out of pre-school and my son is entering. We had to schedule the day for him to come and take the pre-test. (I hope he passes and is accepted!) Actually, there is no way he will not pass. I guess in the worst-case scenario he will be asked to wait a year. (That won’t happen though, at least I don’t think it will.) I was asked to fill out a form describing his habits and personality. That was pretty interesting because he is a talkative, social, sweet boy. He loves his sister to such an extent that he wants to do everything she does. He plays with her and her friends and seems to treat them as if they were his friends. He made friends at his own school and talks about Dudu a lot. I don’t know him, but this Dudu character must be quite something! So it will be interesting to see how Lu manages in the Montessori classroom since it is so different from what he is used to. I remember the day that Chichi did her test as if it were yesterday. She had on these really cute red capris and a matching light blue cross-over top with flowers on it that my mom had given her. (All her cute clothes were given by grandma!) She was also wearing the giraffe backpack that she had received from her grandpa and she just looked so ready to start school. I remember watching her leave and getting all teared up when she went off to do her test class. I was so full of pride and expectations for her as was her father. I am sure it will be the same for Lu, except for the fact that we as parents are so much more relaxed with the second child. I always thought I would be a relaxed parent, but I am not. I have no idea how to be more relaxed either, if you want to know the truth. It comes down to the idea of caring I think. There is always going to be something going on with them that I care about, be it something I want to follow because I am very interested or because I am very concerned. I think it is somewhat of a teeter-totter: sometimes you’re up, sometimes you’re down. It reminds me of Go Dog Go. “The blue dog is up, the red dog is down”. There is no purple dog in the middle.

Insomnia April 17, 2009

I woke up the other night when my son was calling me to help him go to the bathroom. Once I had taken him to do the deed, I could not get back to sleep. I tried several fool-proof methods to get back to sleep and after an hour with no success, I gave up. So I went down to watch TV. American Beauty was on and I got sucked into watching it again. It is very weird. The first time I watched it I walked away thinking – man, those people in that film are FREAKS! When I watched it this time I could see myself in some of the characters at some points. Mid-life crisis? Mommy guilt? Whatever category it falls under, it made me go up and hug my kids. I kissed them and whispered to them how much I love them. My son that day had told me not to be mad at my daughter. He told me to be nice to her. I was pretty taken aback by that and the fact that he is so able to articulate his feelings. Like I may have said before he narrates his life and is constantly talking. But that level of communication is something I never experienced with my daughter. She just does not open up like that about her feelings. Anyway, after listening to him and talking to my daughter, we are working on caring for each other more. I am trying to convince them that listening to me and doing what I want them to do is a way of showing caring. I am a slow learner with this whole motherhood thing and I think I will be working on teaching my kids how to be caring for the rest of my life. I am not sure that I am the best example for showing caring, but I want to try. I think it is something important to be taught in the home and by the child’s parents.

Long-awaited news about Easter… April 16, 2009

I may be going out on a limb here, but I think it is time to write about Easter. The kids and I were home alone and so we went over to our friends’ house on Good Friday. The kids dyed eggs and we ate grilled fish on the barbie. As with all good gatherings in this part of the world, it started a little after noon and wound up around 9pm. The kids were waiting for the other family to go home and so was I. When one of the hosts fell asleep in his chair at the table, we all made a mass exodus!

The next day we played all morning with the 15 eggs Chichi and Lu had dyed . It was so funny because some of the eggs were a little crushed and so the dog wanted to get in on the action too! We started out with both kids hiding the eggs for me to find. After a while we all took turns hiding for the other two. The funniest thing was when Lu was hiding his eggs. He would put all 15 in a low flower pot and when we came to find them he would lead us right to them. It was hilarious. He was squealing and going on, all excited about the egg hunt. Chiara was increasingly tricky with her hiding spots and used her climbing skills to get up high enough to make it more difficult for me. That was a fun way to pass the time. I was not sure what we were going to do with all those cooked eggs. I had thought of egg salad sandwhiches or something like that, but at the end of the day, I did not have to worry about what to do with the eggs. When we got back from going out with a friend for pizza on Saturday night we found a mass of egg carnage on our varanda. The dog ate all 15 eggs in their shells. I was sure he was going to be sick as a dog the next day, but he wasn’t. I have no idea where that expression comes from.

We went back out to our friends house the next day for another Easter meal after the Easter bunny came to our house. My husband had suggested painting the floor to make a bunny trail to the kids’ Easter eggs. I talked to a couple of friends and they suggested using flour instead to make it. I did. It was nice. It worked. The kids loved it, but… our floors are very light. I had to use quite a bit of flour to get any effect. If you can manage to picture this in your mind, you can imagine the state of the place after everyone had run around in the flour with their chocolate Easter eggs. I think I may not do the bunny trail in flour again!

Young love or older “sibs” as role models… April 7, 2009

I took Lu to the final futsal (indoor soccer) game at our school last Friday. We were seated next to one of my colleagues and she was intrigued with how Lu was in what appeared to be a catatonic state. She tried to get him to talk to her and he was having none of it. In fact, he barely moved until three-quarters of the way through the second period. Well, she asked him who his girlfriend was, which is a bit of an odd question to ask a 2 year-old, but she wanted to provoke him into answering. He answered: “Yaiya” To which she said: “Yaiya? Isn’t she your sister?” He shook his head yes and then she said something like: “Oh okay.” And then to me she said: “They normally say their mom.” I thought that was cute, but I was not offended that I am not my son’s girlfriend. For the longest time Chichi said she was going to marry him, so it’s good that he feels the same way about her. In fact he loves her so much that he wants to do everything she does. When I say everything I am not exaggerating that much. For example, she takes 3 bags or backpacks to school. One for snack, one for lunch and one to hold everything. He started doing the exact same thing – taking a larger backpack with 2 smaller ones inside. However, his teacher put the kaibosh on that because it was too heavy for her to carry. He has started to put his clothes out to wear the next day like she does the night before and just as she does, he changes his mind about them in the morning. He also wants to eat, drink, slurp and chew everything she does, when she does – even if he is not hungry, thirsty or in the mood for ice cream or gum. The other night he took the copying a little too far and could not hold all that food in his little stomach, if you know what I mean. I wasn’t there but I was trying to recreate the scene because my husband has an extremely weak stomach himself. I dare not try to imagine how that one was resolved!

It really is cute to see how they interact with each other when they do it nicely. She helps him to do things and she will take him to his Sunday school class and guide him here or there. He always plays with her and her friends when we are at the club and they seem to be happy to play with him too. He is a huge fan of High School Musical too and asks for it to be played in the car when we dare put on other music. (He has not committed all the words of every song on the latest CD to memory like she has, but it may come soon.) Now if we could just get her to make him eat salad and tomatoes…

The coolest thing ever… April 7, 2009

I was joking around in my class the other day telling my students that my blog is a model for them. It was so hilarious when I said that because one of my students immediately pooh-poohed my comment. She thought I was being conceited and taking advantage of being the teacher. You have to work really hard to pull one over on them because they constantly are checking you. For example, if you plan what may be an excellent lesson, but do not have clear instructions, they will tell you. If you don’t plan an excellent lesson and don’t have clear instructions, they will tell you. Do you see where I am going with this? What I meant to say about my blog is that I always try to have my audience in mind. I know who reads it and what I can say. I try not to rant, rave and clear up petty disagreements here. Just because I don’t write about them doesn’t mean they don’t happen, they just don’t get recorded here. So I started a blog with them in class and then they themselves started their own blogs. The most amazing things have come out of these blogs. My students are writing about all kinds of different topics and reading each other’s writing. (Right now they are on a kick where they are all posting polls – but that’s another story.) They are also reading my blog and enjoying it! I think that part is fantastic. I originally started the blog for my family and to have a record for my own kids, but I love how my students are the ones who are constantly commenting and visiting the blog. This inspires me to come up with a better blog schedule and to write more for them. Isn’t that the coolest?

E-mail subject lines that shouldn’t be… April 6, 2009

Have you ever stopped to think about the subject lines in E-mail messages? If so, have you every thought about the ones you never want to read? If not, let me give you an example. My father sent me a message the other day with the subject line: “Head injuries”. I am the kind of person that regularly has low blood pressure, in fact throughout both of my pregnancies my blood pressure was totally normal. Well, let me tell you that all that changed when I read the subject line above. I made high blood pressure history with that subject line.

There are other more obvious subject line no-nos, such as:

you’re fired

I’m pregnant

I want a divorce

and of course You won the Irish Lottery
and my all-time favourite Nice to meet you (from the lovely man in Nigeria who will send you the milllion dollars he can no longer keep if you will just send him ALL your banking details.)