Ides of March

That's James being silly from this morning. The morning went well, for the most part. We played cars and read maps. Then he played some soccer by himself while I got ready. He was a bit upset when I asked him to zip his own jacket and put on his mitts (which he successfully does at daycare, but at home- it's Mommy's job!) but he did it reluctantly.

The night, however, was terrible! I just could not get to sleep. Then James was up at 1pm. I got him back into bed, but then still could not get to sleep. When I would sleep it would only be for 20 minute intervals. Finally at 6 I got up to do some work in the hope that I could take a catnap before my class. But now the sun is up, I feel ok. Not sure how long that feeling will last!

Here's how strangers found my blog this week:
12.50% lisa rogers fashion consultant
12.50% recipe trees chain letters
12.50% cheeky little engine with
12.50% james bay neighbourhood
12.50% does anyone have the orange date muffin recipe from company's coming?
12.50% chuck e cheese, kingstonontario
12.50% advantages of having shoppingmall in our neighbour
12.50% corner gas theme song

Sadly, I think only the muffin searcher may have found my blog useful!Edited to add:I posted this on Thurs Mar 1

Meltwater

What is it with Wednesday morning? Last week, I attributed the meltdown to him heading to the daycare after he just woke up with no breakfast or anything. But today. He was up early. We had a snuggle. He got dressed, ate his breakfast, played a few games on the computer and then just as we were about to leave, the meltdown occured. Well, at least it was at home instead of with the brand new teacher on her first day on her own at the daycare like last week!
I don't really know what the meltdown was about, other than it was time to go to the daycare, but he certainly was behaving badly and he lost his computer priveledges for tonight. Funny to be grounding my child from the computer and he's only 4! A couple of weeks ago, the punishment would have been taking away one of his trains. But punishments must evolve with the child!
Wednesday is the only day I have a morning class, so maybe he picks up on the fact that I am more in a rush? But Friday morning I take him in early to go to RMC and there isn't a problem at all.
So the walk to daycare was a quiet one! and grumpy.

Hopefully, the evening will be better :) Myron is working tonight. I bought James some of the bread he likes, so we'll probably have pasta and cheese with bread tonight. We'll watch Raymond and play rousing games of soccer and read books, as well as talk about the problem from this morning.

Fridge

We were amused to find this arrangement on our fridge this morning.

James' cold has cleared up a lot. My head still hurts.

At work, yesterday, I was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was able to leave work 1/2 hour earlier than the week before reading week. That means the students have more of a grip. It was a good class yesterday. My Mon and Wed classes are the brightest. Tuesday and Thurs have more issues. Today I have to have a talk with a student about Academic dishonesty. I have no concrete proof that he is cheating but I have some basis to believe he is. So I need to talk to him about it. Those are always difficult conversations, so we'll see. I've aleady had one academic dishonesty talk with him already this term, so after this I'll have to decide how I want to proceed.

James' latest fads are playing some funny kids games on the computer and watching 'Raymond' on the tv. The funny thing with watching Raymond is if some of the characters aren't on the screen- like Robert and Amy- he asks me where they are. And I have to come up with things like 'out shopping'. He also noticed they don't show the kids much. For a family with 3 kids, they don't seem to spend a lot of time with them!

Cold #2

James' eye cleared up by Sun night, but he still has a head cold and I have it too. The cold is making him get up in the night, therefore also making me get up in the night, so I'm pretty tired.

I came into work today after a week away, expecting my TAs would have left me a lot of the work they did over the week, but there wasn't that much in my mailbox. And I came in early to deal with it. I guess I'll have to find other things to deal with.

My new job at RMC is gearing up. I am dealing with a conference registration and spend about 1/2 hour of my day running scripts in this new language I learned last week.

My new francis frangipane book is very good. The last chapter I read was talking about how prayer is creative, how it creates the pathways for things to happen. A very good chapter.

Eye

Today James woke up with bloodshot eyes with some goop. Probably something to do with the new cold he just came down with, but I wanted to get him checked out to be clear for the daycare. So my plan was to clean in the morning and then we would go to Harveys and the walk in clinic in the afternoon. Myron was working today.
I was cleaning in the kitchen this morning (while James was making messes in other rooms!). We went to Harveys for lunch- we each had half a hotdog and some fries. Then we went to the walk in clinic and it was PACKED! So we didn't go, because I didn't feel it was serious enough for him to risk getting more sick! If his eyes are not better tomorrow we'll have another go at the clinic.
Kim's coming by in a few mins (hopefully Myron will be home by then!) and we are going to her Church for a special service but we are heading by Rona first to try to get something to defeat the dastardly mice!

Mice on crack

Just when I thought all the mice had died of starvation, I was awoken at 5:45am by a mouse running in my attic sounding like it had swallowed a fan. It sounded like a giant mosquitoe. I also found a piece of bread outside my house and lots of mouse droppings so I see they are eating. This also led me to locate their entrance (the one that seems to be accessible in the winter anyway) to our house. So, I'm trying to figure out what to leave at the entrance. There's a lot of icicles dripping in the area so I need a trap or something that won't be affected by water dripping on it!

My work is way less stressful this week. You can tell because I've been able to blog everyday!

I am learning a new language for my new job. The language of SFTP. Indeed. My boss apparently thinks I speak this fluently, but I just took a crash course in it yesterday and taught myself everything i need to know for this job. (it's not that much, it's just I knew nothing before!)

James and I had fun getting haircuts (I meant to take a pic but forgot) and then we had the pasta and cheese. Then we played cars. He saw the movie cars at the daycare and so he named 2 of his cars after characters in the movie. One of them was called "Light Mean McQueen" which I thought was a strange name, but after a while I figured out he was saying "Lightning McQueen". A bit of a difference!

Tonight Myron is working late again. I'm making "Tropical chicken" for dinner. James has pioneer club after. Then after I put him to bed, I get to watch 'Survivor'. I love that show.
Tomorrow I'm at RMC.
It has just started snowing!!!

Teeth

The wisdom teeth thing would happen here in Kingston (my mom asked). Pity Myron's mouth.

Last night wasn't a very good night. I woke at 1 and then James was up at 2. He hasn't been up at night in a long time. It took me a long time to get back to sleep after that. But I had a great dream, I'll have to write down soon.

Myron is working late tonight in preparation for his grill session tomorrow. James and I are getting haircuts after I pick him up at daycare. I haven't figured out dinner yet, but james and I both like pasta with cheese (no sauce, just cheese!) so that's an option.

I talked with James about school last night and he was a bit emotional about it. I'd like him to go to the l'ecole cathedral (is that your school marlene?) because is seems nice and small (we'll visit in a few weeks) and our neighbours go there so they could help him on the bus, but he seems partial to Rideau (which is also closer to our house) only because his friend rebecca goes there. It's a bigger school though. It would be French immersion either way. We'll visit both and see what he thinks after, I guess.

I also wanted to mention an amazing post I read yesterday by Rick. You can read the whole thing here
but this is an excerpt:

As best I can tell, Jesus wasn’t big on “rules and answers”. Jesus never shamed people for being who they are. That’s what makes people sick in the first place. Jesus did not attempt to teach people how “bad” they were, if anything he attempted to show people how "good" or "valuable" they are. He did not condemn people for their poor choices; choosing evil over good. I certainly don’t think that he taught people how bad and flawed they are; he attempted to help people regain their self-respect, humanity, integrity, honor and dignity. Those don’t come through the right sound-bite answers and rigid rule systems. It comes through acceptance, love, and an experience of the sacred usually after all the answers and rigid systems have stopped working and one has slapped bottom. Then we discover the Sacred One in our midst; the Lover of our souls; our Creator; the God of grace.

Perhaps we need to give-up the rules, codes, and "right" answers that keep us locked from a true, direct experience of God. Instead of hiding from our shame, perhaps we can learn to accept it and embrace it. Any maybe, once we have a authentic experience of God, we'll love God, ourselves and others.

Jesus didn’t need rules or sound-bites; the right leadership book or the right prayer book; Mozart or mainstream music; a mohawk, goatee, or a guru-- he just loved God.

Aug 31

Apparently Aug 31 is the date set for breaking myron's lower jaw. The dentist wants him to have his wisdom teeth out first though. That would be soon, because it has to be done at least 4 months before the surgery.

It's gotten warm here - well 2 degrees. Nice.

A.J. was over last night. He wanted to play with one of James' trains that James had put away before A.J. came. A.J. asked me if I could have it. I told him he had to ask James because it was James' train. He asked James and James said no. A.J. came back to me and asked me for the train. I said, what did James say. He said James said No, can you get it for me. And I thought it was funny, because obviously this was not the answer he wanted to hear from James, so he took another route. I tried to explain to A.J. that sometimes in life the answer is not what we want to hear. I'm not sure how much he got out of my philosophical bent. But eventually James wore down and got the train for A.J.

Consult

Today Myron has a meeting with the guy in TO who wants to break his jaw. He will spend 6 or 7 hours travelling for a 1/2 hour appt.. Well, that's what he gets for wanting that guy to break his jaw!

Today it is reading week here, so my students have all gone away and I am playing catch up, making sure everything is in order with the marks and online copies of their reports and making worksheets for the rest of the term.

As I was writing this post I got a package in the mail. 3 books - "This day we fight!Breaking the bondage of a passive spirit" by Francis Frangipane, "Journal of the unknown prophet" by Wendy Alec and "The Missional Leader" by Alex J. Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk and a CD by James Blunt. I'm looking forward to the reads (when I get time!) and the listen (which will occur in a few minutes)

A.J. is coming by after dinner so that should be fun for James. Not sure why he is coming as Gerald talked to Myron to arrange this, and Myron will not be here!

James' energy level seems to have ramped up this last week. I am not sure the cause but it takes a lot more to wear him out and he has period in the day where he just has to run!

James Bay

My boss laughed at me for closing my door, but he understood.

Yesterday, Myron was working. I spent the morning cleaning and tried to involve James, though he did make some extra messes, he was pretty happy. In the afternoon we went out to the park. We met a 3 year old named Nathaniel being taken out by his older brother (I'd guess 11-12 y.o). Nathaniel didn't really listen to his brother at all.

After that it started to snow. Around dinner time a guy smoking a cigarette came to the door and asked if he could shovel our drive. Now, we don't shovel the drive because we don't have a car, so we pile all of the snow in our drive from the sidewalk and the pathways we make! We'll probably reshovel the pathways before Church this morning as it snowed in the night too. Maybe take the sled to Church today.

Yesterday evening, James was doing his LeapPad and looking at a map of Canada. He found "James Bay". He thought this was great! "James Bay" "James Bay". I heard a lot of that last night.

Open door policy

In my office at RMC, up until today, I always kept my door open when I was in. But today, I have snapped. If I leave my door open all the freezing air from outside comes in my office. And though I weathered it last year, this year, I'm done. The door is closed so my heating vent can actually heat my office. I like having an open door so that visitors feel welcome to come in. But since when do I get visitors (other than my boss?) So the imaginary visitors may feel less welcome, but I am warm!
YaY!

Some funny James tidbits:
When he was making Valentines cards, he wanted to make me one, so asked me to spell my name "A" (because he calls me Aphra), I started. and he said "no, no , your ORIGINAL name" (Apparently, my original name is Mom)

When he plays with his train now it sounds like a book. He'll say ""Watch out!", Thomas shouted." instead of just Watch out!

He knows all of the name of the planets, thanks to some leap pad sampler he got that has stuff for all age ranges. The page he likes is for 8-10 year olds. It has this 'space race' on it and he would do it and get most of them wrong, but when he got one right, he would learn it. That's pretty determined learning!

I've got to try to find a school for him. The daycare doesn't think I should send him to the school closest to us as it wouldn't be enough of a challenge for him, so I'm going to try to get him into the French school downtown. But it's Catholic, and we're not, so I'm not sure if they'll let him in. I have to find out!

I'm never quite sure if Bob's comments are supposed to be sarcastic or funny. But they seem funny to me.

shelter

If I could find my camera, I'd take a picture of all the snow. I would have also taken a picture of the CAA tow truck towing the CAA battery assist van.

I took James to daycare on his new sled. Not sure how many other kids will be at the daycare today! But James was really looking forward to giving out his valentines! They had lollipops on them.

My class was all there this morning, but then they live across the road so they don't have much in the way of excuses!

I went and got some groceries on the way home. The store was pretty dead. Then I trudged through the mounds of snow home and I'll leave again in a couple hours to pick up the Jamester. Just need to trudge through some more work first.

I found walking up princess st. was easy because the buildings sheltered you just right.

Last night I had a dream about one of my students who had to drop out last year because he was fighting cancer. He's back this year. I haven't told him I know if his diagnosis and history though. I try to take care of him more than the other students though. He was in my class this morning.

James and I will be shoveling snow after daycare and then having garlic bread and soup for dinner. Myron is studying tonight for his grill session tomorrow.

leaking

Jo (from England)'s comment on my last post about the penguin wrapped in masking tape to get a balloon down HAS to be my funniest comment ever. Luckily my ceilings are not that high!

My work has gotten out of hand again.

I only slept a few hours last night.

In the evening our ceiling leaked. I have no idea why. It is too cold for anything to be melting! I went in the attic and could not fins a source for the leak. All I got out of it was itchy eyes. Maybe that made me not able to sleep.

The night before I woke up to pray for Mark and Brenda. They said at Rustle on Sun there were complications in the pregnancy.

Keeping up

James got a helium balloon today, which turned out to be quite a dangerous gift as it kept getting stuck on the ceiling and James used all manner of ingenious ways to get it down.

I was so tired today, I would have taken a nap if I could have gotten one. Myron was working all day and James was pretty needy so that was not going to happen.

James and I danced to 'Raffi' after dinner (I had the same record when I was a kid) for 1/2 hour and that was enough for me, but James continued for 3 times through. For someone who does at least an hour or two of cardio (walking) a day, I thought I would be in better shape!

I have heaps of stuff to do for work as well as here at home. It's hard to know where to start.

Wind Chill

Tomorrow the wind chill is supposed to take us to -27. I don't mind being out in the cold as long as I'm moving. Don't like standing still. What I don't like about winter is the immobility. I can't bike and if there's a lot of snow, walking takes a long time. Takes more time out of the day that I like, but I don't really feel the cold. It hasn't felt cold yet to me, but we'll see how I make out with the wind on the causeway tomorrow. I'm at RMC tomorrow.

How to help the struggling

I have tried a number of new tactics this term in my course, to try to get the students to learn the material. However, my tactics so far have only worked on the best students. The struggling ones still seem unreachable. Though if they are struggling in my course they probably are in other ones as well and are so washed over, they can't reach lifelines anymore.

I am not on top of my work yet, but I am close to finishing my marking. Myron is at work tonight studying for his grill session. I have a long list of work to do myself.

James is funny about trying new things. The kids website where he likes to do mazes on, I have been introducing him to other things. He is normally hesitant about the new things, but then after he doesn't want to do anything else!

I had a really good talk with Kim yesterday about something that happened in her past that she is starting to deal with. I am so proud of how far she has come :)

But my brain is too full of work to post anymore!

hockey

After Church today there was a hockey game (Rustle vs. Next). I didn't stayt for the game because it was cold outside for people not running with sticks and I've got heaps of work!
But I watched James do the warm up while Myron was eating his lunch. James loved it. Not sure how he'll do in the game when there are rules and such, but he loved hitting the ball around with people, even if he was the only little kid out there at the time I was watching. Maybe he'll move from being a soccer fanatic to hockey. Who knows?
Thanks for putting this all on Al!

stop

Yes, I have had enough of the snow. James and I were outside for 2 hours shoveling and really making no headway because we seemed to be working against a snowstorm. James didn't really shovel much and actually loved the whole winter play in the snow thing. But me? Not a fan. For me, I just see lack of mobility. How do we get the boy to Church/daycare? Because the stroller or wagon won't go well through this. Guess we'll have to look into a sled!
Here's James as a wolf:


Digging his nest:

My life is swampy

I have heaps of work in a pile.
Today AJ was over and I spent the time while James and AJ were playing trying to clean up my dishes and do laundry, so the place is sort of decent.
We are now going out to shovel snow.
Myron is at work. He played his game until 3am. I woke about 2 and couldn't get back to sleep until 4.
Posting now as blogger is supposed to go down in 2 minutes :)