hope for my children

I got a call today from my younger daughter's teacher.

You know the feeling, no matter that you know you've done nothing wrong, you feel like you're on trial. I should have known better. The last time she called me was to tell me that she thought my daughter was smarter than she was showing. The teacher told me she was going to push her harder and see what happens. It worked.

Today she told me something that I've known for a long time: my daughter is really very smart. I have been concerned for quite some time that my little girl has a reading disorder, but her teacher has completely laid that fear to rest. My girl is not only a good reader, but she is reading well above her grade level.

What this teacher really called to tell me is that she has discovered that my girl is not a visual learner, but an auditory, kinesthetic learner. What this means is that writing and reading aren't her strong learning skills, but learning through listening and physically doing are. She sees things either in minute detail or as big picture and has a challenge transferring one to the other.

OK, now you are wondering why I'm regaling you with the praises of my genius daughter. The reason is this: no matter how much we don't want to live vicariously through our children, subconsciously, I think that we all do.

This 3rd party praise of my daughter made me feel like I'd done my job as a mom. It helped to relieve a lot of the anxiety that I didn't realize that I had about the school establishment recognizing what I'd always known: my daughter, who doesn't get as high marks as her older sister, is incredibly smart! She simply learns in different ways that, historically, haven't been rewarded by schools. Because of this, I have feared that she would become discouraged by the lack of affirmation by her teachers and then quit trying to excel.

I love the fact that the educational system is beginning to really understand different types of intelligences. This gives me reason to hope that all children will be able to feel free to explore whatever form of learning is best for them.

Memories

The musical Cats is coming to Saskatoon which got me thinking; what are some of my favorite memories?

When my younger daughter was about 1 year old, she had a huge fear of things going down holes. It all started when she put the end of a roll of toilet paper inthe toilet and flushed. Whe she couldn't stop the paper from going down, she panicked. From that moment on, anything that went down a hole was FLUSHED!!!!!!!!!!!

It culminated when she was helping me put laundry down the laundry chute and didn't heed my warning to stay away form the hole and fell head first down the chute! Thankfully, quite a bit of clothing had preceeded her so she had a soft landing. From that moment on, she helped load the laundry from a distance which started from well behind me!

More evidence against 'random' evolution!?!

I routinely get emails from friends who are passing on misinformation yet with the best of intentions. In the future, I may even get this piece of info from a friend, and Had I not seen it both in my local news web page and on the NASA web site (check out the link on this blog), I may not have believed it.

There is a comet going around our solar system in reverse. That may sound odd to you, like it did to me, but it is true. at first I wondered, "How can a comet go in reverse?" I had images of a comet chasing its tail, then couldn't imagine how a God of order would let that happen. But then again, I am only human with a very finite limit on the imagination of an infinite
God.

The way this thing works is like this: everything that we see in our solar system revolves around the sun in a counter clockwise direction. This comet, on the other hand, is going around in a clockwise direction.

The article from the news website is here in full.


Backward green comet named Lulin makes one-time only visit toward the sun
CP
Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press
Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:41:00 CST
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WASHINGTON - An odd, greenish backward-flying comet is zipping by Earth this month, as it takes its only trip toward the sun from the farthest edges of the solar system.
The comet is called Lulin, and there's a chance it can be seen with the naked eye - far from city lights, astronomers say. But you'll most likely need a telescope, or at least binoculars, to spot it. The best opportunity is just before dawn one-third of the way up the southern sky. It should be near Saturn and two bright stars, Spica and Regula.
On Monday at 10:43 p.m. EST, it will be 61 million kilometres from Earth, the closest it will ever get, according to Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near Earth Object program.
The story behind the comet is more intriguing than its appearance - the greenish tinge may be hard for many to discern. The colour comes from a type of carbon and cyanogen, a poisonous gas.
Lulin was discovered by a Chinese teenager two years ago. It still has many of its original gases - gases that are usually stripped away as comets near the sun. Unlike most comets viewable from Earth, this one hasn't been this close to the sun before, Yeomans said.
While all the planets and most of the other objects in the solar system circle the sun counterclockwise, Lulin circles clockwise, said NASA astronomer Stephen Edberg. And thanks to an optical illusion, from Earth it appears as if the comet's tail is in the front as the comet approaches Earth and the sun.
"It essentially is going backwards through the solar system," he said.
It came from the outskirts of the solar system, 29 trillion kilometres away. Once it's made the journey around the sun, Lulin will gain enough speed to escape the solar system, Edberg said.
"If you are interested in comets, make sure you see it," he said. "If you are interested in comets, make sure you see it," he said. "But it's not going to be a real great blast for the general public."

I guess that my statement here is more of a question. Does it make sense (is it rational) that this one comet opposes every scientific mind and flies in reverse direction around our solar system? The spinning of 2 planets in differing directions than the others has been explained here http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/qa_plan.html#spinning but there is no explianation explination for reverse orbit! God is completely creative, unexplainable and unpredictable.

It never rains but it pours.

One of my favorite sayings is "You ever have one of those lives (days)?"

Well, let me tell you, the past several have been, well let's just say, interesting. It started with my afternoon class and 2 of my students start to leave class about 1/2 hour early without any explanation. As they were getting ready, I voiced my opposition to their actions and was told that they needed to get ready for a special church service that night. It turns out that a priest had flown in from their home country and would be giving mass in their home language. Needless to say, I let them go and get ready for this wonderful event.

Imagine, we take so for granted the ability to worship, first - openly and without persecution, second- with a fairly large group of like-minded people, third- those who don't believe the same keep their mouths shut (for the most part), and finally, and totally not least - we worship in or mother tongue (for the most part). My students generally have not had any of the aforementioned blessings that we take so for granted here in Canada.

After those 2 ss had gone, a third student who is from their home country filled me in on a few stories that, though they will give me nightmares for months, I am glad that she told me. The first of these is how her brother was attending a state sanctioned worship service which the locals didn't like. Someone had a car bomb outside and everyone in the church was killed.

Now don't get me wrong, I think that this is atrocious: knowing that your brother was killed, just because of where he chose to worship is nothing that anyone should have to go through. But once I heard the next account, that one seemed very tame.

A friend of hers was outside of their church holding her son by the hand when someone came along and stole him. "They took him to their house and put the baby in the oven and cooked him. After that, when he was done being cooked, they laid him on a plate and put tomatoes and vegetables around him and took him to his mother and told her to eat him."

I can hardly type this without feeling the need to alternately gag and go hug my girls.

Because there were other ss in the room who did not understand what this woman was telling me, I had to interpret for them slowly, using gestures and simpler language so that they could understand why I had that terrible look on my face.

Later, I thought back to reading in Revelation :


Rev 6:8 And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.
Rev 6:9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.
Rev 6:10 They cried out with a loud voice, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"
Rev 6:11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

This toddler, this baby is going to be one of those martyrs who will be crying for justice. And our Lord will have to say that the numbers of the martyrs have not yet been completed. I cried so hard...

Later yesterday evening, our family went to a Saskatoon Blades game which was sponsored by Youth For Christ. Several VERY cool things happened. 1) I found out that an international adoption I'd been praying for had finally been completed. The Dad is now waiting for his son to get through the immigration process. WOO HOO! 2) about 1/2 dozen of my students or former students are cleaners at CUC at night. It was great to see them in their work environment and for them to see my family in a casual setting like that. 3) and again not the least, the Blades kicked Red Deer's BUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not as cool was the account of one of my former ss who had to quit class to work. At first, he seemed very upbeat and like life is all good. A few minutes later he admitted that he had had a very tough time recently including a car accident and a few injuries while welding. He really wanted to come back to school, but he knew that he couldn't because he needs to make money to send home to his parents who are still refugees and to his wife who is in a different country yet, also as a refugee. This beautiful, joyful young man has the weight of the world on his shoulders.

To add to that he told me that some very nice people had given him a Bible in his own language. I was very happy until I heard that it was some very nice witnesses for God Jehovah. Oy. How do you tell someone with very limited English that he's being sucked in to a belief system that, if he understood that language, he'd never follow. I know that this young man is a Baptist, and believes fully in those teachings, so I also knew that he needed to be told that what these very nice folks were telling him was against what he actually believes. Once I got into that a bit, he did tell me that their bible did seem to have some wrong information in it. I told him that his perception is right and that he should please talk to one of the young men form his country who are very well versed (hee hee) in the Bible and could help him to figure out truth from lies. After that I praised God that my friend had done what I have been told to do for many years. He'd hidden enough of God's truth in his heart that a counterfeit stood out as the rip off that it is!

That brings us to today. Didn't I say that it is pouring???

One of my daughters got up this morning not feeling well. I recognised her symptoms and knew that she needed to get to a doctor for a prescription to help her out. When the girls and I got back form the city, my Dearly Beloved told me that our 5 1/2 month old puppy had been attacked. By the time we got home, whatever had done it seemed to be gone, and the puppy seemed generally OK, but has a few puncture marks in his shoulder and neck.

In the ensuing investigation, as they say, we found that he had, in fact, been attacked by a Great Horned Owl. Evidence of this was that the darned owl was still in our tree out in front of our house. Well, let me tell you that my eldest was petrified to even have the puppy go outside to go pee. Finally, she and I took the pup outside as we hung around. After about 10 minutes, I figured that it would be safe to take pup for a short walk on a very short leash.

I was wrong.

We got about 2 houses away when the owl swooped down and attacked the puppy again. He was about 2 feet away! and the bird had the nerve to attack then and there. This time, there was only one puncture mark and we scared the owl away - at least for now. It's probably up in our tree again though, but I' can't see - it's dark.

My daughter is convinced that her puppy needs to be litter trained now, and is totally set against her dog ever going outside again. Well, at least until the owl is gone. The good news is that a couple of our nephews are conservation officers and on e of them told us that in order to protect our dog, we ARE allowed to shoot at it with a pellet gun since that won't kill it, just scare it.

I think that this may be close to our first course of action for tomorrow. Even Jesus said that it was OK to do a good work on the Sabbath - or am I pushing that one a little too far???

Oh, and the owl you see in the photo with the blog, is the one in our tree waiting for his supper.

What to do in this new year

Well, I was told over the Christmas break that I am obviously a poor English teacher because my grammar and perhaps other English teachery type things are not perfect on this blog. The reasoning was that if you were to publish something on the web, it should be free from errors because people might jugde you for it. Well,change that has caused me to think of things that are really important for me to concentrate on for this new year - things I want to change during this new year.

The first thing that I want to change is the impression that English teachers have perfect English skills. Like the misunderstanding that those who have attended a Bible school have suddenly gotten all of life's spiritual battles licked. So, my first change is to perceptions of perfection - I'm not...

The second thing I'll is another very difficult thing for me - I need to loose weight. A significant ammout, in fact. There is no longer a choice ofr me to deny or hide the fact; I have to become more healthy and that is a tough thing for me to admit.

I have watched someone I love and look up to yo-yo diet for most of my life. This has given me a deep dislike for dieting of any sort. The type of dieting that I've witnessed, according to my Dr., this is actually a type of bulimia, and is totally more distressing for the body than being overweight for an extended period of time. Now, having said that, I also know that being significantly over weight is very sistressing for a body. It has affected my back, joints and lung power. I can't climb the stairs to my classroom without having my heartrate skyrocket and sucking for breath - ok, that might be my cold right now, but still....

I'm sure that changing more things would be really good too, but I also need to wory about putting too much stress and expectation on myself. I guess that that's one of my other changes. I need to reduce my own stress levels, as well help my family reduce their own stress levels. Just like yo-yo dieting and extended wieght gain, stress is very bad for a person. Unfortunately, many of my own bad habits are rubbingoff on my kids. The last thing I know that I need to change is not only for myself, but for my family too.

Best Christmas ever

This may sound strange, but I was at a funeral today, and all I could think of was that Louise was going to have the best Christmas she's ever dreamed of.

Louise Hildebrand died on Monday night. We had a very long power outage and I guess that it was too much for her 82 year old heart. To tell you the truth, I only know her age because of the eulogy. If you'd have known her, you never would have guessed that she was any more than, maybe, her mid 60s. She was as young at heart, and almost as active, now as she was Oh, (was that 20 years ago?) when I first met her. My guess is that she's having the best time ever! I can almost hear her laugh.

Now, on a totally different topic...

Over the past month since I posted last, I have been having a really hard time emotionally. Now, don't get me wrong, there was no 'depths of despair' kind of thing, but I was never totally ever happy, relaxed or at peace. This is what I affectionately call treading water, just below sea level. I'm not drowning, I'm just not on top of things either. If I relax, or if I don't pay attention to what's going on, I could very easily drown.

Yet it is on top of all of this that I've added to my teaching hours to 'maximize' my hours. This basically means that I am now officially full time.

I'm so not ready for Christmas that it's not funny.

I can't keep my mind on much of anything these days. It doesn't bode well for my new class...

As my hubby has pointed out to one of our friends, teaching is the one place where I'm not actually stressed. I'm less stressed in front of a class than I am at home, at a party, or even doing hair. I thrive on giving people the skills that they need to make a good life for themselves and their families here in Canada.

I guess that maybe I need to keep on focusing on the good stuff and let the bad stuff just fade away. OK- so I'm an eternal optemist- or I'm delusional... You pick.

The stresses of Christmas

Did you know that the body, more specifically your brain, cannot differentiate between good and bad stress (excitement)? So many of us end up feeling drained by the end of our Christmas holidays that we'd really do better with a vacation after our vacation.

Does that sound as confusing to you as it does to me? I think that this year, I need to put a bit of perspective on things.

The spouse of a colleague has just had cancer surgery - the doctors are hoping they've got it all. My family is healthy and whole.

Our 12 year old dog has just been put down a month ago. But we have a new puppy who is soooooo cute! He just brings along a whole new slew of stresses.

Do I really need that really expensive gift? No. I have just received a $15,000 or so home renovation. I'd really like my family to each write me a letter telling me all of the reasons they love me. I can scrapbook it later to preserve the love and joy for times when I feel lonely, unlovable and useless.

On a totally different note:

I have been encouraged (read hounded) to do a collaborative prayer journal with someone. The way I like to work is to have specific prayer requests to bring to God and pray for some one's healing either physically, emotionally or spiritually. I won't attempt to promise results that you'd want to see, but I will promise that God will hear it from a heart who longs to see His good and perfect will done here on earth.

I will pray for a stress manageable Christmas season in which we, as followers of Jesus, focus on the love that we have for our family, friends and the One who gave us the greatest gift of all: Himself.