Where did the time go?

Less than a month until Christmas!  It's time to start panicking.  Christimas should be fun, right?  Not about buying the right gift, decorating, stressing. 

I'm back to work since my last post.  I teach twenty-one SK/Grade 1 students.  And I LOVE my job.  The kids have lots of baggage (hard to believe of 4,5 and 6 year olds but it's very true), but have risen above their life circumstances to be kind, caring, loving little people.  I'm very lucky.  Also, I feel that I am actually teaching this year, not just managing behaviours.  So that's a bonus.  There are two runners in the class, that I try to corral a little so that they don't leave the building.  So far, so good. 

I also have a beautiful little dog now that I didn't have in early August.  Her name is Faith and she is a miniature Schnauzer.  Which reminds me...guess I'd better take her out for a walk.

How's that for ordinary?

Sundays.

This ordinary girl goes to church on Sundays.  What isn't ordinary is that my husband and I attend different churches:  He's Roman Catholic and I belong to the United Church.  Mom came with me today.  A little girl was baptized and she was SO adorable.  She danced and hummed to the hymns and tried to play with the water in the baptismal font.  I love the questions that our minister asked the parents and the congregation as part of the service.  Not only do we reaffirm our faith, but we make a commitment and a promise to pray for the little girl and her family and to support her in her faith.  Unfortunately, her family doesn't come regularly.  In fact, I've never seen them before.  How do we support someone we don't know? 

I'm still cleaning and freezing blueberries.  I made a blueberry cheesecake for a family get-together down on St. Joe's Island.  The cake was practically inhaled.  I should have made two!

How's that for an ordinary day?

Seeing Blue

On this, my second day of being an ordinary girl, I went blueberry picking with my husband and two friends.  We drove for almost 3 hours to get to our favourite blueberry patch (Wawa Ontario).  We picked for about half an hour, sat out and ate lunch during a wicked rain, thunder and lightning storm, and then picked for a few more hours.  We got over 20 litres. Ate supper in Batchewana on the way back. We've been picking over the berries, freezing and packaging them ever since. We'll need to finish tomorrow....I'm getting sleepy. 

How's that for an ordinary day?

Am I an ordinary girl?

First, I'm not really a girl anymore!!  I've earned the 'ma'am' designation from strangers.  I think I live an ordinary life, but does anyone? 

This was my day:  I babysat my almost 23-month old grandson for most of the day.  I took him for a long stroller ride so I could do some shopping.  We hit three stores.  While he slept, I mowed the lawn.  When he woke up we played in the basement, where it is a lot cooler.  Then we played outside by filling the pool and wading in it and then by running under the sprinkler.  Fun.  He then decided to play in the dirt from the flower beds which, when added to the wet on him, made a muddy mess.  Since he was a mess already, I decided to go to the corner store where we bought and shared a popsicle.  So now we added sticky to the muddy mess.  But he was happy.  Finally, we went to the garden to pick and eat raspberries.  Which means we added red juice to the muddy, sticky mess.  When Jodi, his mom, came home, she gave him a bath right away. 

As a babysitter, I'm wondering how I rank.  I certainly don't get points for cleanliness, but he was happy and well-fed.  That has to count for something!

I also did some house-worky stuff like laundry, and picked and froze some beans and raspberries. Steve barbecued supper.  And we made plans to go blueberry picking tomorrow. 

How's that for ordinary?