….this year I’m spending a lot of time with kindergarten children
Kindergarten
Day one, tears, fears, babes
clinging to mom, rules unknown
Is it home time, yet?
***
Day ten, learning rules
sitting, singing, playing, loud
friendships develop
****
Month two, confident
centre of attention, look
at me, look at me
***
December, learning
wants more, no longer afraid
I am exhausted
***
For the weekly writing challenge go to: http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/challenge-haiku/
…..my week so far
Basketball
Last week, after a flurry of tryouts, we chose the girls’ basketball team. We had to go from 40 girls to 12 when choosing the team. Every morning since we’ve had early morning practices starting at 7:45. Tomorrow is the tournament. Yikes! I know that the season has been short but we literally didn’t get any information about the season until people started to ask when and where the teams would play. My friend, L swears that we’re going to win but I know for a fact that some schools have been practising for over a month compared to our seven days. Anyway wish us luck. If we win, however, it means more early morning practises and another tournament.
Shingles
No, not the ones on my roof. I’m talking about the painful kind that affects adults who’ve had chicken pox when they were children and no, I’m not the one who is suffering with it. Shingles is an infection of a band of nerves and results in a rash along that band. The pain can be moderate or severe. In my husband’s case, unfortunately his pain is severe and feels like stabbing pains under the skin. This is my husband’s second bout with this horrible infection. He’s on some antiviral medication that should help with the healing process but he’s already at day 10 and only today is he starting to feel somewhat better. There is a shot to prevent shingles but it costs about $200. for one dose. If K could take it, he says he’d pay $1000.00 to be pain free but because his immune system was compromised by his cancer he doesn’t qualify for the treatment. If you want more information about shingles click here.
Supper
My brother-in-law from Calgary called on Sunday and told us he was going to be in town on Tuesday on business. He wanted to get together and grab some dinner before he checked into his hotel. Not knowing how well K would be feeling we left it open as to where we would dine. I also didn’t know if I’d be having dinner because I already had made plans to have dinner downtown with a group of friends from work.
It turned out that my dinner was cancelled so when I got home I was able to join them. GS literally arrived a few minutes after I walked through the door and at that moment in time K wasn’t feeling too bad. So we got back into my car and drove over to the Junction to catch up with what was going on in GS’s life while we enjoyed a light dinner at the Indie Ale House. The evening went well but I could see that K was starting to fade so we had to call it an early night. I sure hope these shingles are gone before Christmas.
Shopping
Now I know that I told you that I didn’t need to shop for a long time but I can’t resist a great sale and I mean great. The doors were only open to family and friends and as a friend I couldn’t turn around and invite some of my friends. I did, however, buy some great gifts for my family and, well, I just couldn’t pass up a good deal, I picked up a few things for myself. How can you say no to $100. sweaters for $15. 00 and designer blue jeans for $15.00.
Tune in tomorrow to see how we performed at the tournament.
Cheers!
…..winter has come upon us quickly this year
Usually winter approaches us gradually but this year the temperatures dropped below freezing overnight and we were totally unprepared for the icy temperatures. One day the ground was still soft and mushy and the next it was like a block of ice. So much for getting my tulip bulbs planted this year. Maybe we’ll have a bit of a warm spell like they had in Calgary this week.
Ode to Winter
Cold winds bite the skin,
dampness chills you to the core
Warmth awaits indoors
****
Frostbite nibbles cheeks,
and shows little mercy to
ears, fingers and toes
****
Clouds of CO2
emerge in foggy pillows
with each breath taken
****
Old man Winter blows
upon unsuspecting towns
frigid and ruthless
****
For more Haiku check out the Daily Post Challenge at:
….. a Haiku challenge
Today in art class I introduced Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s art. The children are creating their own landscapes in the Hundertwasser style and are loving the assignment. I’m looking forward to seeing their final works of art. This was my inspiration for todays Haiku.
Hundertwasser, art
where lollipop trees abound
whimsical and fun
Bold and colourful
Slanted homes and onion roofs
swaying in the wind
Image courtesy of http://www.inspirationgreen.com/hundertwasser.html
To see more examples of haiku or if you want to challenge yourself go to http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/challenge-haiku/
…..funny how I get the same satisfaction from organizing my space as I do from shopping
Yesterday I wrote that I might attend another craft show today but when I woke up it was bitter cold and there was a fresh layer of snow on the ground. It seemed like a perfect day to stay indoors and work on organizing my clothes.
I got an early start to the day. After a quick breakfast I checked my emails and then closed my laptop. I find I’m spending way too much time on the computer lately. I set a goal to clean out my closet and purge, purge, purge. I stripped all the beds and gathered up all the laundry around the house and from my husband’s car (i discovered that there was bedding still in the back of his car that he brought back from the cottage but didn’t bring into the house).
While the washer and dryer were going full tilt I started to go through all my clothes. I put away the summer clothes, took out the winter clothes and discarded clothing that didn’t fit anymore or I hadn’t worn in years. I folded and organized my 37 scarves (yes 37, not including the 4 I’m giving away or my woollen scarves), I packed three garbage bags with clothes and loaded them into my car and dropped them off at the Good Will store.
I vacuumed, did four loads of laundry, made chicken stock, returned two bags of bottles, cleaned the bird cage, cleaned the kitchen and managed to organize half of my bedroom. Now that the clothes are put away I can start organizing all my paperwork….ugh! A job for next weekend….maybe.
Now that my closet is organized I can see that I don’t need to go shopping for quite awhile. I also discovered some Christmas gifts that I had bought in the summer and had forgotten about. I put all the gifts in one of the blanket boxes at the end of my bed where I’ll be able to find them when I’m ready to wrap them. I’m usually a last minute wrapper but maybe this year I can get a head start on that as well.
I packed my gym bag and will place it in the car so that I have no more excuses for not going to the gym. I haven’t been in months, despite the fact that I’ve been paying for it every month. I need to leave school earlier and get a workout in before dinner. I have one more medical appointment tomorrow right after school and then I’m planning on stopping at the gym. I’ve packed my lunch for tomorrow and will be leaving extra early to get to basketball practice by 7:45. Our tournament is this Thursday.
Did I say I didn’t need to do any shopping for awhile? Hmmm! I forgot that I’m going to a special clothing sale on Tuesday after school. Maybe I’ll find some more gifts for the family.
Cheers!
…..cold temperatures and a dusting of snow today (yesterday)…..hit published….looked like it went through…..discovered this morning that it hadn’t…..sigh…..by the way we got another covering of snow last night
An image of what’s to come in the next few months. Brrrr!!!!!!!!!
What a perfect day to do a little Christmas shopping and check out the Winter Arts Fest at Neilson Park Creative Centre. I met a great artist who makes beautiful jewellery with glass imbedded with copper, a retired principal who creates gorgeous wooden boards and boxes made from different types of coloured wood and an author who wrote a novel about Toronto’s history.
I also ran into my former art teacher, LZ, whose classes I took for a couple of years at Neilson Park Creative Centre. She told me she’s been thinking about me lately and hopes I’ll come back to one of her classes in January. She says she’s including collage and more printmaking lessons to the class. She must have been channelling my thoughts of late because I’ve wanted to do more of both, especially collage.
An earlier attempt at collage.
Printing on Gelli plates.
After doing some shopping at the craft show I headed over to the mall which is close by. The kitchen store had some great sales and I picked up some small items for stocking stuffers. I then went to one of my favourite stores and treated myself to a couple of new tops.
What’s up for tomorrow? Well I keep saying I’m going to reorganize my bedroom but there’s an interesting arts and craft show at my old alma mater in Guelph that I might check out. It all depends on whether someone is willing to go with me. I’m all about living in the moment.
Cheers!
…this week at Sue Llewellyn’s blog the challenge is lines
….I knew that some of my students knew about my blog but it still surprised me to hear this question
I needed a break from using paint. Most of the older students are pretty good at cleaning at the end of art class but some of the younger children, especially the boys, have a hard time with the cleaning concept. Two days ago I snapped and told my students that we were done with paint for awhile. When we go back I think I may limit the number of students who paint and have the rest of the students work with another medium. In other words, I’ll have two separate projects on the go.
Yesterday I introduced line drawing using pencil and then finishing if off with a fine tip Sharpie. I place a number of objects on their tables to arrange into an interesting still life.
I demonstrated how to draw what they see without lifting the pencil off the paper. We used rough copy paper to practise and then when they felt comfortable the students produced a final copy that was trimmed and then mounted on black construction paper. The following examples were done by grade 3s.
So what’s next? Maybe I’ll use oil or chalk pastels. At least there won’t be any brushes to clean.
Cheers!
….the contrast between the grey skies and remaining flora is stunning
…..the joys of spontaneity
I really didn’t have much in the way of plans for the weekend. The only thing that I really needed to do was buy new tires for my car. So early Saturday morning I dropped the car off at the Tire Centre at Costco and walked home. It turned out to be a beautiful day and the walk was invigorating. I made an unexpected stop at the library and successfully signed out the next book for our book club meeting in December. So far I’d logged in 5 kilometres of walking and it didn’t stop there.
When I got home I changed into my running shoes and joined my husband, my daughter, G, her dog, Lucy and our dog, Frances for a walk to Sam Smith Park. I brought along the camera and found lots of wonderful things to photograph. Again, I played around with the macro setting and got close and personal with some plant materials.
Not only did I walk another 5 kilometres but some of that distance was covered with running. I didn’t want to get too far behind the family who were always a few steps ahead of me. The distance would get longer every time I stopped to take pictures so I found myself running to catch up. Near the end of the trail I found the group sitting on the rocks waiting for me. As you can see, Lucy has fully recovered from her surgery.
Later in the day, my other daughter called and wanted to meet and go to Ikea. We planned to rendezvous at Costco when I picked up the car but when I got to the tire centre the car wasn’t ready. I quickly called my husband to pick me and the girls up and drop us off at Ikea. This part of the day wasn’t so wonderful for K but the rest of us had a great time. Since it was already late in the day, we decided to have dinner together after our shopping adventure at Ikea. Again K picked us up and took me back to Costco to get the car and then we each had a job to do to get dinner organized. A and I were assigned to get the salad and wine and K, G and J were in charge of getting the pizza.
The day ended with a lovely unplanned dinner with all the girls. G’s husband was at a conference in North Carolina and our son of course is still in Rotterdam. We sent him a quick message to see if he still wants to participate in our Secret Santa draw but I haven’t heard back from him yet. Next week we’re getting together again for a planned meal where we will draw names to see who we will buy gifts for this Christmas. I didn’t think I’d like the Secret Santa concept but we’ve done it for a couple of years now and it certainly takes some of the stress off of buying gifts at Christmas.
Yesterday we got an unexpected phone call from old friends who live in Calgary. They were in town and wanted to get together before they go back on Wednesday. Today was the best time for all of us so we met at the house and then drove over to the Roncesvalle area and had a nice lunch at Hey’s. We had a long leisurely lunch and got caught up on what’s been happening in our lives. My husband and L have been friends since grade school and we all went to university together. We were at each other’s weddings and the births of our children. We literally had to drive L and L to the hospital when their first child wanted to enter the world in the middle of the night. As luck would have it, their car wouldn’t start at that crucial moment in time.
What a great weekend; fantastic weather on Saturday, walking 10 k in one day, an unplanned dinner with family and an unexpected visit from old friends. What more could you ask for? I hope your weekend had some special moments as well.
Cheers!
