Monthly Archives: November 2011

Things I love about our new school

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I’m going to open this with a very important disclosure: I miss our old school. I miss it terribly. I miss the people I got to know, the PPO, being on the Governing Board, volunteering, a lot of the great kids, and some of the rules. One of the rules I miss is the healthy food guideline. Our old school was pretty strict on insisting on no junk and our current school is much more lenient. In the end it doesn’t matter I suppose because it doesn’t change what I pack for my own kids (sandwiches, cheese, yogurt, vegetables, fruit) but it does mean I sometimes have to listen to complaints about what everyone else brings from home. Meh. If everyone jumps off a bridge, etc etc.

So anyway yes, I miss the school back home quite a lot and I still check in regularly for new pictures and I took a peek to see who had replaced me as PPO secretary and Vice-Chair of the Governing Board. However, it’s not all doom and gloom. There are some AMAZING things about the new school. For instance:

1. Art taught by a trained art teacher. Instead of just doing some basic artwork with the homeroom teacher, they’re taught by someone who teaches nothing but art, period. At Breanna’s level it’s just stuff in the classroom with her regular teacher because they’re still really young but Hayley has a teacher who graduated with an art degree and not only teaches them new techniques but also teaches art theory and history to them so they understand what and why they’re doing something. I really love that.

2. Music! They have a regular music program as part of their curriculum and each of them gets taught music twice a week. There was no music at the old school and I was always kind of sad about that. It makes me happy to know that they’re learning some age-appropriate music theory and about various instruments.

3. Violin. Seriously. Hayley is taking violin at the school right now. Once a week she goes to violin for one period of her day and every second week she has an extra lunch hour of violin. By the new year, if the kids taking it are still enjoying it they can continue with a bit more practice and will get to start bringing their instruments home to practice. I find this very exciting that something that can cost a fortune to study is being offered for free in the school. Hayley is enjoying it tremendously.

4. Choir. Do you sense a theme? Lots of creativity in this school! Hayley has joined the school choir and practices once a week as part of their music program and today she had her first performance at the school for their in-school Remembrance Day assembly. She told me she did really well and Hayley loves to sing so when she brought the permission slip home I didn’t even hesitate before signing her up. Dressed in black and white for choir:

Hayley dressed for choir in black and white.

5. No homework. No joke! Breanna’s only homework is to read two books with us and keep a reading log. I read with her every morning after breakfast and fill the reading log out and that’s it. That’s something we’d be doing anyway so it’s barely even work. Hayley also has a reading log to hand in once every two weeks and it’s not much work either because Hayley reads a lot all on her own anyway. She’s also had one presentation project to prepare but it didn’t take much time and last year she did presentations once a month on a variety of topics so it wasn’t too tough for her to do.

Other than that, there’s just no homework. No sheets of math to do or verbs to study. They get their work done in class. If they ever goofed off too much and didn’t finish up I think they’d have some extra catch-up to do but that’s it and it hasn’t happened yet. I don’t mind important homework but I hate obligatory busy-work and so I’m loving this school’s approach. It gives kids more time to be, you know, kids.

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Speaking of school, I’d like to take a moment to do the bragging Mom thing. The school had their parent-teacher night on Wednesday and although I couldn’t attend, George went and brought back excellent reports. Breanna’s doing very well, meeting all the expected targets for her grade and age and although she’s a bit shy sometimes she’s adjusted super well.

As for Hayley, she was described as being well above average in her class, very intelligent, and having a lot of talent for different subjects. There was one shock that came out on parent-teacher night about her. A few weeks ago one of her teachers spoke to George about the fact that Hayley is a bit too chatty in class and talks to her friends sometimes instead of paying attention. This isn’t news as this has been something we’ve heard before so we spoke to her about how important it is to really be there and listen and save chatting for outside.

The shock was when the same teacher told George on Wednesday that last week Hayley came up to her – without any prodding or suggestions from us – and said, “Miss, I know that sometimes I talk to much when I should be listening or doing my school work. I just want you to know that I’m going to work on not doing that.”

It blew me away, that was such a grown up thing to do and I had no idea until George told me. I told her I was very proud of her!

So thus far everything is going quite well with both girls in the new school and I’m fully expecting excellent report cards in a couple of weeks.

Picking out talent

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I’ve watched a lot of American Idol over the years but other than the season with Carrie Underwood, George never really got into it at all. One thing I always found with that show was that I often managed to pick either the final winner or someone who got down to the last two or three. The talent always seemed to be a bit skewed.

Since the American season of The X Factor started George and I have been watching although I miss some of the performances because I’m still on my way home. We watch it together each week and have been enjoying it tremendously. The talent on that show is huge and although I definitely have my number one favourite singer, there are so many people that are amazing that the winner could be just about anyone at this point.

I’m pretty partial to Melanie Amaro, Rachel Crowe, Astro, The Stereo Hoggs, Stacy Francis, and well, yeah. I like a lot of people. They’re all so mind-blowingly good. Astro in particular bowls me over with how much stage presence he has and how much he already sounds like an established rapper.

However, my choice for who I would like to see win comes down to someone who has an incredible voice but also sings in ways that make me believe I would put her album on my iPod. She’s only 14 years old but she has so much vocal control and personality on stage, and if I were voting I’d be voting for Drew Ryniewicz.

She sounds like a cross between the lead singer of The Cranberries and Sarah McLachlan. I would buy her CD in a heartbeat, she’s amazing.

Are you watching? Who’s your favourite?

Halfway there

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Although it’s only Tuesday night I’m already halfway through my week which is strange. I keep thinking that it must be Wednesday. It’s because we all have a day off on Friday and that’s something that I’m not used to as an ex-Montrealer. Friday, which is the 11th, is Remembrance Day. In the province of Quebec it’s not considered a holiday. We always did the minute of silence at 11 am but that was pretty much it. Kids had school, people worked, and you hoped that you’d remember to stop at 11 and, well, remember.

Here in Nova Scotia and everywhere else across the country it’s a bigger deal. It’s considered a bank holiday and as a result many companies are indeed closed that day so I won’t be at work. All the schools are closed; any Remembrance Day services in the schools are on the 10th because the kids will be at home on Friday.

I like it. I mean, I like it for all the obvious reasons like having a short work week and a longer weekend, but it’s more than that. I like that a day meant to celebrate all of those who have served in wars and to remember their sacrifices is a day that doesn’t require us to cram all of that gratitude into 60 seconds of silence.

I do plan on sleeping in on Friday but I’ll definitely be up in time to pay proper respects.

Complicated eating

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Anyone who knows me even reasonably well knows that I love to eat. I adore food, and lots of it. On my first day of training the instructor asked us what was meant to be an uncomplicated “get to know each other” question by having us say what our favorite food is. Stumped, I said, “well, almost all of it.” After the laughter stopped I clarified by saying I don’t have a favorite because I love (good and authentic) Chinese food, Mexican food, Italian food, seafood, and the list goes on.

One of the complications with my current schedule is that it runs through a couple of meal times. I eat my breakfast at home at 10 am and I can’t really eat it any earlier than that or else I’ll be rooting through my bag for a snack by the time I’m on the bus. I get to work right around what is normally considered lunch time, I have a really early supper time, and then I’m usually starving once I get home.

The solution for me is to pack a ridiculous amount of food each day. I feel like a goof with my bag full of things to eat but it beats hitting the over priced and unhealthy nearby fast food places.

As I said I eat my breakfast at home which is almost always two pieces of toast with peanut butter. Prior to that I drink my coffee around 7:45 while getting the kids fed before school. I pack some form of sandwich for my lunch (usually cold cuts, but today I had leftover pork tenderloin in my sandwich, yum) which I eat after I arrive at work while reading in the lunch room. At some point, usually a half hour in to my shift I pop one of those microwavable Campbell’s soup in a cup things in to heat up and I can then drink that at my desk while I work (I’m partial to the garden tomato flavor). I have to have that or a yogurt at that point because one sandwich just isn’t enough. That usually gets me through to my break at which point I have a yogurt or granola bar.

I usually bring leftovers for my supper, only buying something if there weren’t any leftovers to be had. Today was one of my favorites. On Saturday night we had tacos and there was plenty that didn’t get finished up. I take a container with meat to reheat, a container with chopped lettuce and tomatoes, a container of grated cheese, and a little container with sour cream. After heating the meat in the microwave, I toss in the rest of the ingredients and break up a couple of hard taco shells over the whole thing, mix it up and eat a taco salad.

It’s stupidly delicious. It’s embarrassing how much I’m looking forward to having the last of it tomorrow.

I don’t normally eat anything on my last break, especially since I discovered the amazing massage chair in our lounge (I mean I knew it was there, I just didn’t know how incredibly well it works) which I tend to use at that time. That’s fine but I’m usually really hungry when I get home, at which point I make the kids’ lunches and then root through the kitchen for something to eat.

I feel like all I do all day is eat, but it’s working so far.

What do you like to take to work for your meals?

Yoga Sunday

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Today we were planning to have some of George’s family over for supper so after brunch he and his sister took the kids out and ran some errands and did a bit of visiting. This left me all alone and I had just finished reading a book so I decided to fill my time with some yoga instead. I spent 45 minutes just doing whatever I felt like, not bothering with DVDs of YouTube videos, just running through sequences and poses including my rapidly improving Natarajasana or Dancer’s Pose.

Natarajasana

(Yes, I know, legwarmers. I wear them without apology for yoga but promise to not wear them out in public a la 80s.)

It turned out though, that what I left like doing was mostly inversions, and I have to tell you that if you learn to throw yourself upside down and balance you’ll feel strong enough to do just about anything. First off I discovered that my Full Wheel pose has improved.

Full wheel

I haven’t even tried it in ages but I’ve been working on other poses that involve a bit of back bending and apparently my spine is gaining some flexibility. Seeing how well I can do this now compared to my early attempts has me wanting to do it more and more to really nail it down.

Then after playing with some fun variations of Side Crow pose…

Side Crow variation

… I practiced Fallen Angel. It looks insane and impressive but if you can do Side Crow you can learn to do Fallen Angel. This is the first time I’ve ever gotten my legs this straight and it felt amazing.

Fallen Angel

After finishing all my poses and routines I spent some time lying flat on my back in Savasana and marveling over how strong and relaxed I feel after doing yoga. I know that going in but it still takes my by surprise to experience just how powerful it is.

As a result I had plenty of energy to do a quick vacuum in the living room, made some fresh carrot-apple-celery-ginger juice for myself and my sister-in-law (who has now gotten me so eager to get a Vitamix that I could just about cry over how expensive there are, but ohhhh I want one!), shared cooking duties with George, and had a lovely evening.

I think it’s going to kick off my week quite nicely!

Impromptu Saturday plans

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One thing that I love about living in a house instead of our old apartment is that it’s much more conducive to entertaining. In our old place we used to have people over for birthday parties and once in a blue moon we’d have one person over for supper, but that was about it. We’ve already entertained more here in the past five months than we did in five years.

Something that I’ve always loved is impromptu plans. I loved having nothing in particular to do and then suddenly being invited over for dinner and laughs with good friends. This weekend George’s sister is in town and we picked her up from the airport with the intention of just hanging out, having some tacos, and maybe having a couple of people over for a couple of hours.

Instead we ended up having a houseful of people, including two kids for Hayley and Breanna to play with, we all ate supper, and nearly cried from laughing so hard at all the joking around that was going on. Had I planned ahead I probably would have been mildly stressed (not too much, but a little bit I’m sure), but since it was all an impromptu afternoon and evening it just ended up being a good time without any worrying.

The rest of my weekend involves a little more of the same; some brunch with my family tomorrow morning, relaxing in the early afternoon (maybe some yoga?), introducing my sister-in-law to the carrot-apple-celery-ginger juice, and then having some people over for a good old Sunday night roasted something or other dinner.

That works for me as far as weekend plans go.

Learning to read

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I still remember back when Hayley first started to learn to read back in 2008. It was so exciting to hear her putting those words together and making the connections of the sounds.

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(And wow, is she ever small in that picture!)

Breanna doesn’t quite read fully yet but she’s starting to recognize words and as a result of that combined with some memorization, she’s just about there. Every Monday morning each kid in her class picks a small basket of books for the week. From that basket she picks two books to bring home to read.

Since I’m not home to do reading at bedtime I read to her every morning before school and fill out her reading log for her. Sometimes, though, she reads to me. She got a book called Hedgehog is Hungry on Thursday, practiced it a few times at school, then read it to me this morning when we finished doing breakfast and getting ready.

I love listening to her read to me.

If you’re curious, Hayley does all her reading at night. She reads chapters in her books or flips through a handful of her old favorite storybooks. Therefore, her thing in the morning is that she gets ready for school and as long as she’s all done in time she can play on the computer for about ten minutes.

Growing up is sad sometimes because you kind of want them to stay little, but learning to read is pretty exciting.

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Waterfront lunch

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Yesterday when I got to work I was about 50 minutes early, as I usually am. I got off the bus and decided I didn’t really feel like going in just yet so I decided to walk a block down and check out some shops (window shopping only, alas). Once I was done browsing around a cute little store I felt a bit hungry; I normally bring a lunch with me to eat before my shift starts but I didn’t want to go sit in the lunch room to eat it.

It was a beautiful sunny day, the temperature was quite nice, and I was bundled up enough that I thought, “you know, one of the reasons I love living here is being near the water, but what’s the point of being near it if I never go SEE it?” And so I continued walking straight down to the waterfront, plopped myself down on a bench, and ate my lunch while looking out at the harbour.

Halifax Harbour

Now our lunch room is perfectly lovely, as far as lunch rooms go, and I can sort of see a bit of the water in between buildings if I look out the window. However I’m sorry, the lunch room’s got nothing on a bench down at the waterfront.

That was the most relaxed lunch I’ve had in ages and I still had enough time to take my time getting back to where I needed to be. I think I might have to do that again soon.

Making time to make space

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Ever since starting to work I’ve been finding it just about impossible to fit in the amount of yoga that I used to do. Back in the not-so-distant past I would usually do it in the evening after getting the kids off to bed and it wasn’t unusual for me to do a full hour. These days I get home too late to get started with a yoga routine (although I sometimes do a quick before-bed gentle routine right in bed) and I don’t really have the time to do an hour every morning because I’m busy tidying up the house and getting ready for work.

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However, if I convince myself that no, I really don’t need to wash my hair today (my hair is pretty dry, it’s really only necessary to wash it every second day) and that I can just hop in and out of the shower then I can find the time to get in 20 minutes or even half an hour. The time that I don’t have to devote to blowdrying my stupidly thick and overly long hair is time that I can devote to getting my Om on instead.

This morning I was showered, dressed in yoga gear, and back down in the living room by 9:30 and I generally don’t eat my breakfast until 10 (otherwise I’d be starving by the time I actually get to work!). That gave me half an hour to roll out my mat and run through some routines. I did a round of Sun Salutations, a balance sequence, a de-stressing routine, and topped it off with a strength building routine. The only thing I forgot to do – and I just remembered now – was to end it all with a Savasana but maybe I’ll throw one in before I get changed into work clothes.

I’ve had to let a lot of things slide since starting my job but this is one of those things that I just can’t ignore. I did let too many days pass without yoga at first and the side effects of that were quick and obvious. My legs started aching, as did my hips. The latter is probably due to sitting. My shoulders began tightening up because of my unintentional hunching (I try to catch myself doing it and straighten back up) and then not opening them up with yoga. The biggest thing was feeling a sense of anxiety start to creep back in and that was definitely what kicked me in the ass to get me back on track again.

I may not be able to do an hour a day six days a week anymore but I can do what I can during the week and then do something longer and more intense on the weekends. It’s important enough to me and to my overall well-being that I can’t afford not doing it. As long as I can carve out even five or ten minutes and do something most days I’ll be fine.

Namaste! 🙂

Fright Night

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Today is the first day of NaBloPoMo, a tradition I enjoy wherein I (along with other participants) will post to my blog daily throughout the month of November. I’ve found it harder to keep up with stuff online since I started working but I want to at least give it a try.

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With yesterday being Halloween and my work shift being into the evening hours I was saddened to think I would miss taking the kids out trick-or-treating. Luckily for me I have an awesome manager who understands what it’s like to try to juggle work, family, and life and so she told me I could come in for an earlier shift as long as I put in my full eight hours. I was home in time to shovel a sandwich down my throat and get the kids dressed up for collecting loot. Hayley decided to be a devil and Breanna wanted to be a bee so badly that I was very happy to find a black and yellow striped t-shirt to go with her wings and bee hat.

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It turns out that our new neighborhood is awesome. There are a lot of families so there were plenty of kids out trick-or-treating and almost every house was lit up with candy to give out. In fact, so many people were giving out treats that after only going up and down two streets both kids had overflowing bags (and they each had two bags so that’s saying a lot). Both Hayley and Breanna saw some kids from their classes too so they were happy about that.

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After those two streets we dumped out the bags and drove over to George’s cousin’s house so the kids could see some of their family and I ended up taking them up and down his street too – more for the fun and less for the candy.

After coming home we had so much candy and so many mini chip bags that it’s pretty much ridiculous. No one could eat that much and survive so it will be carefully stored out of sight to be doled out in small amounts. Eventually I figure we’ll have to just toss most of it or we’ll never live through the sugar rush and crash cycle.

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It was really weird to be going out for Halloween without our friends back home but we had a good time. I am so grateful that I got to be there to take them out and spend the evening with them.

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How was your Halloween?

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