a tribute to my friend, Grace, dying and her husband, Lee, who is still here

a poem:

Here She Comes

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says, "There, she is gone."

"Gone where?"

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side, and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, "There, she is gone!" there are other eyes watching her coming, and there are other voices ready to take up the glad shout,

"Here she comes!"

And that is dying.

- Henry van Dyke (1852– 1933) American author, educator, and clergyman

So where have I been? or W. H. I. B.

The days are becoming cooler....maybe colder already. I have not written since early summer when the days had reached their longest and nights were short. Now we are approaching the shortest day of the year and I am writing report cards again. These are yearly cycles.....

Spring!
Days get longer,
Report cards are complete and handed out,

Summer is upon us
Ah, lovely summer with long days and warm weather,
Book reading - lazy days - family days - lazy days with my main man,....
Long days - family reunions - reuniting with dear cousins - with old friends

Fall is close,
Getting restless for new activities
Days get cooler

New class of students?...what grade am I teaching this year, anyway?!?
New students arriving

Days are still a mixture of summer memories: warmth - family - friends - road trips

New students and a new grade!
No.....half a new grade and half of an old one
Keep old students?
No, most are ready to move on to new teachers, new adventures

New students in my class. Who are they?
Some I know from older siblings who I've taught.
Some I have seen before in the school

A new challenge? Yes!
A new grade, actually a split grade with 4s and 5s. Yes!
Interesting new people? YES!!

Bring it on!!!!

The next week of summer

My brain has been having a wonderful rest and rejuvenation. Of course, I haven't talked to a brain surgeon or a brain specialist but I do feel more relaxed and I'm getting quite a bit of energy back!

Last Monday, we had a house guest, I looked after two very cute grandkids, and two other cute little grandkids stopped in to visit with their parents. It was a wonderful, happy, noisy time of connection! Then two of the grand-ones and myself went to visit Anna (daughter), had a little snack, went for a swim, stopped for a moment in a playground, then headed home. As we turned onto Main St., near our house, I decided we would stop into a bakery for some apricot loaf (yumm!!) We then stopped for gas and went through the car wash with the multi-coloured drops soap that gets sprinkled all over the windows. (wow!)

Then we headed for home. I still had energy but the little kids were very tired! Haa! Ahaah!!

Aaah, summer.

Summer and space

I have requested space for myself this summer. I realized after an intense year of teaching, I need a bit of a brain-space break. I say intense year because I love the job and intense because of the variety of characters that I teach and the fact that they are all such individual and interesting people, and some are just simply intense young people! These are Grade 4 students...9 and 10 year olds.

So I've requested a couple of weeks of just being with myself and resting and doing whatever I feel inclined to do. This includes playing the violin, bike riding, going to the library, reading newspapers and my current book, going for walks, talking with God, visiting my family when I choose and relaxing in the evening with my main man, George.

For me, taking this time is harder than it appears. For one, I have 4 grandchildren whom I love! Sometimes my sense of doing things for others clicks in and I begin to feel obliged to DO. Then I am reminded to lean back and take this time. This is why I have time to write this blog!

I was just reading my current book, "A Circle of Quiet" by Madeleine L'Engle. She wrote about loving becoming 50. "To be half a century plus is wonderfully exciting, because I haven't lost any of my past, and am free to stand on the rock of all the the past has taught me as I look towards the future."

Here's to the future! It's early afternoon and I think I might go out for a bike ride and pick up some milk and mail a letter!!
:D

Life

So what is going on these days? Life. I have just read Laura's blog and Michal's also. They are excellent writers with intriguing ideas and thoughts! So, in contrast to my two intellectual daughters, I am not going to say too much. ......especially because it's Friday evening after a crazy elementary school Sports Day and then a dinner out with my main man (George).

I hope your days are lovely, and, if you are struggling or suffering in any way, you will find a place of tranquility.

Let me know if I can pray for you.

Me.

Report cards

It's report card time again. So I am blogging instead.....no I am just putting in a word or two to create anticipation of the "After Report Card Time"!!!
I had better get to work !!>>.......... . . ,

Dating with the Main Man

Dating you say?

yes

Haven't you been married for 38 years?

Of course!

So what is this about?

Well, partly in honour of the passing of an old friend, Bob Ball, and because we like the idea, we have decided to book a "date night" for most Friday evenings. We (George and I) usually meet up at home after a busy Friday and head out to a local pub, enjoy a pint of something and relax over a nice dinner.

We both look forward to it and it's a great way to connect after a busy week. It's also a lovely way to transition into the weekend.

Try it!

Life after the allergy affair...

I have survived an allergy outbreak! Life continues....! Surprised? No. Life always continues even though we think it will never be the same.
Thank God when life continues!!!!

What has happened since? The trees are turning a beautiful gold and orange. Rain has fallen heavily because, after all, we are in Vancouver, BC!!! Then the sun comes out and we have gold illuminated in the trees. Gold has fallen on the paths and sidewalks! The first snow has appeared in the distance on the local mountains.

Oh, did I mention? The little princesses and bunnies, bumblebees and lambs have come trick-or-treating. Candy has been given out and more candy has come in the door. Happy faces of children are in my classroom.

Whoah! Happy faces of children who ate Halloween candy for breakfast!! Argghh! Did they have anything healthy with their breakfast candy? They look at me as if I didn't know that what tastes good MUST be healthy!! One boy said hopefully, "I had an apple."

So life is settling slowly in the classroom in this post Hallowe'en season.

Outside today the wind was blowing and golden leaves were twittering on the branches before they fall. My students were twittering like those leaves but most were not falling. They are funny. They certainly need a good run out in the wind. Maybe tomorrow will bring sun and we can spend an extended time running outside, swinging over the large ponds that have formed under the school ground swings.

Fall seems to be the last celebration of colour and, maybe, movement before the winter sleep.

returning to work after 3 days

I was not feeling too bad physically on day 4. (It's now day 6.) I was feeling bad about my class of 29 students who had 3 substitute teachers (supply teachers) in 3 days. So I went to school on Day 4.

I met my class in the hall before the bell. One boy came to me right away and told me very intently how he was going to listen to the sub very carefully and very well next time a one came. He was so intent I knew things had not gone well with him. I knew he was one of the ones who had created problems over the last three days. Nevertheless, I believed the conviction in his voice when he told me he would do better in the future. I had already been informed about who had not shown proper respect by listening, cooperating, and helping the substitute teachers.

After three one-to-one conversation with the guilty, we had a class meeting. I explained how uncomfortable I was with my hives and had a lot of empathetic responses, especially from students who had suffered with them before. I apologized about to them about there being different subs each day and told how I had tried to have the second stay for two days. Then we talked about how they should respond to the situation if it came up again. I told them how they should give respect to the sub just as they give me respect when I am talking. (They had been listening intently to me and each other.)

Finally, they wrote their decisions in their journals. "If a sub comes again, I will....". I was very impressed with their writing. Several of the students, that caused the most fuss, were very candid in their writing, expressing how they would do things differently next time. One person said having 3 subs in 3 days made her feel "disy." She was sitting beside and in front of three others who were quite disruptive.

I was impressed by their writing, their honesty, and by their expressed determinations. I am very proud of them, too. Well done, people!

As for my hives, they barely bothered me but I was exhausted by 1:30 pm and still had to teach until 3:00. We managed/ I managed.

It was a good day.

Main man

 

For those of you who don't know my main man.....here he is. My partner, friend and lover....George.

Summer of 08, Battleford, Saskatchewan and thereabout...

While on our summer prairie trek, in the heat of the afternoon, a grasshopper attached itself to the hood of our car and traveled from Battleford.....all the way to just east of Edmonton, Alberta. We thought it had adopted us until it suddenly left.

Outside Battleford we were in search of the first winter home that George stayed in when he was three years old. We discovered the little town of Progue which was a "hop, skip and a jump" from the Woytuks farm.

We found the farm which had been sold and resold several times since then. Searching the nearby area we came on the old homestead of one of the older sons of the family.

Golden and Field....

We stayed overnight in Golden, BC, near the Kicking Horse River. The construction of this bridge was very facinating.
The original train station is still there at Field, BC. This is a very small town inYoho National Park. The town was built on a slope. Many of the homes were converted into Bed and Breakfast establishments.

This is our first overnight on our road trip to Saskatoon. The campground is on Lilloette Lake, just past Pemberton.

The new Elton John....or is it George Tk?

Our grandson likes to play on the keyboard like Papa! He also loves pushing buttons. So....what will he do when he grows up. Maybe music will play a part in his life.

:D


 

 

lost camera but great trip....

I seem to have lost my camera along the way in Alberta. That is three cameras over the years that were either stolen or lost. That's all then, eh?
I'll get some of George's pictures (which we both took) and include them very soon!!

From Jerico Beach to Saskatoon

Hi all, George and I are in Saskatoon..... Saskatchewan.


More later..with pictures.

Jerico Beach in the evening

These pictures follow the pictures in the post below. It was a lovely evening at the beach in Vancouver.
 
 
 
 

Summer....early August at the beach

 
 
 
 

summer holidays....yip! yip! Yip!!

Greetings, summer holidays!!!

I've finished all the decluttering and organizing of my classroom for this early summer. I won't return until late August!!!

I'm even decluttering around our home. .....looking for papers, sorting papers!

In between I seem to be drawn to exercise....conversing with my main man, George.......enjoying our family....and...Facebook..?...

Arghh! I do enjoy a good Facebook game with cousins. ....Scrabulous with family and friends....Word Twist with friends and more friends. .....Word Paths with cousins....emailing...getting poked....relating back and forth.

Someone told me that it would be addicting and absorbing. Well, it can be. It also is a place where I keep track of birthdays of friends....contact family members and friends...

Balance is what we need. Some of this and some of that. Time for me now to

"STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER! TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF THE KEYBOARD AND MOUSE AND STEP AWAY!!"

Sure, I will in a moment. I just have to check my emails one more time. Hey the sun is shining outside. Coffee is ready (real coffee...not cyber stuff).

See yah.

(lucky not too many people read this blog page. they might think I'm rather crazy!!)

along the highway.....

Sometime in the middle of June, George and I headed off to Kelowna to visit and care for his mom. She needed help paying bills and taxes. She asked for help with shopping. We go fairly often to help her out.

Is it an annoyance? No. I love the drive. It takes 4 and a bit hours in fair and good weather. We drive through the Coquahala Highway or along the TransCanada Highway for a while before heading north. George and I either talk, read, listen to music or just take turns napping.

On this particular trip, I was exhausted. (I had written and submitted all my report cards to the admin for final checks and signatures. We had had the most busy life the week of report card writing which added to my weariness.) I quickly fell asleep and had slumbered for about 1/2 hour when....George woke me up. I woke to his pointing down the highway....the was a rainbow with an end right on our route. Water was splashing off the road so that the mist that surrounded the base of the rainbow was golden in colour. Beautiful!! I struggled to get my phone out of my pocket and each second meant a gradual dying of the brilliance, but I think I got a lot of the image.......