I am such a jellyfish! I have no spine for consistency. Even though I know that something is going to work, I still vacillate back and forth and then go back to the safe side of the issue. I like safe. I think that safe will work better than unconventional. Not always, though, is that the case.
Safe, in this instance, is a formal math program. Unconventional is learning math via living math. I have discovered that mixing up the two is the best way to teach math to all three of my children. I use the math book as my guide, then I use the living math approach to flesh it all out for the child, to make it more understandable and, yes, fun ( I know, learning is not supposed to be fun but I can't help myself.)
This is how it is all supposed to work out but I just can't seem to stick with it. It is easier to just stick with the math program. Just do the next thing. I like that. Easy and safe is a good thing. But easy and safe does not always work. Sometimes, for learning to take place, you have to try new unchartered territories and plug in the hard work.
Math has always been easy for Rocky. He is good at computational skills. He can add and subtract very well. His multiplication facts are coming along qutie well also. He is having problems with the abstract part of math, though. We are stuck on fractions right now. Rocky can't seem to understand what a half and a quarter is. He knows what it means to fold something in half but when you ask him what is a half of 9, he doesn't even know how to figure that out. He doesn't understand that 1/2 is half of a whole or that 2/4 is the same as 1/2. I have been at a loss as to how to explain this. The light came on this weekend and I realized that he needs more living math in this area. So I hauled out my books and have an arsenal of activities and games to help Rocky become more familiar with fractions.
While I was looking at all of my books, I realized that I had fallen down on the job with Missy as well. We were doing more math things by the book now rather than taking the living math approach with her. I have been convicted by this and will return to living math for Missy as well.
Doing math this way is more work for me as I need to scope the activities out and, in some instances, make the games and activities. In the long run, though, it works out better this way as my children are learning to do math in a logical and common sense manner rather than in a robotic manner as the textbooks teach.
Now I just have to figure out how to teach long division to Mia with the living math approach. I don't even know if that is possible.
Book #44--American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. I combined two books together for this post because I don't have much to say about this book. I decided to combine a post so it looks like I have more to say than I actually do. American Wife is good for learnng how to skim read. That is about it. I did not like this book at all. It was over 500 pages of skimming. This book did not have to be this long. She could have said what she wanted to in a much shorter book.
Book #45--The Film Club by David Gilmour. Thank goodness I read this book after the above clinker. This book is the opposite of American Wife in every possible way. This book is tiny and only has about 250 pages. This book has a purpose (education comes in many different forms.) This book gives you the warm fuzzies. I loved this book!
David Gilmour agrees to let his 15 yr. son quit school on the following conditions: he does not do drugs and he has to watch three films a week with his dad. That's it. The book is a commentary on the movies that they watch and how they intertwine with Jesse's real life. The language is rough but if you can skim over that part (skimming a few words is easier than skimming 500 pages) you will find a gem amongst the pages.
This book got me so excited about watching movies again that I actually watched Crimes and Misdemeanors on the weekend. I dislike Woody Allen very much, so much that I have never watched any of his movies. After reading Gilmour's critique of this movie and other Allen movies, I decided to bite the bullet. I was shocked to discover that I really liked this movie. It was quite deep. Who knew?
I have been reading the Greek Myths to my kids for a very long time, right along with the fairy tales. Actually, my kids are probably more familiar with the myths than they are the fairy tales. Now that I am reading more of the classics, I see many references to the myths and their characters. Mia loves the Greek myths. I have been reading the myths to her since she was in Grade 1. I have a schedule of sorts of which book I read in which grade. I have kept this schedlue with the other two as well. We read a different book each year to help them become familiar with the gods and other characters.
This year I have 3 different readings going on at the same time because I have 3 children to teach, all in different grades. We only read the myths one day a week but that reading can become very long with reading passages from 3 different books.
We are reading Age of Fable by Bullfinch for Mia. We were supposed to read the first part of this book last year but I dropped the Greek ball, so to speak, and we didn't read the myths that year. So we are catching up this year. I love this book! Bullfinch writes about the well-known myths and also gives space to the not-so-well-known characters and their trials. Mia is enjoying this book as well.
I was reading Mary Pope Osborne's Greek Mythology to Rocky earlier this school year. We finished it last week and we are now starting The Wonder Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This is a step up for Rocky and I don't think he likes it very much but we will persevere.
Missy has stepped into the ranks of mythology reading with the Usborne book on Greek Myths. I like this book as a beginner book. The stories are short and the pictures are quite colorful. I was a bit surprised (I don't really know why, though) when we started reading the book and Missy proceeded tell me of various other myths that she apparently picked up from listening to her brother and sister's reading. I am learning how much she has picked up from being a fly on the wall while I am teaching her siblings. You think they aren't paying attention but they are all ears and are soaking it all up like a sponge. When Missy finishes the Usborne book then we will move on to Aesop.
When I started this year's reading challenge--Reading 52 Books in 52 Weeks--I had visions of grandeur. I started dreaming of all of the books that I would read--fluff, classics, non-fiction, Christian classics, autobiographies, etc. Oh, the list was full of thought-provoking literary works. Then reality set in and the vision went Poof!
I quickly realized that if I were to read all of the literary greats that were on my list, I wouldn't get to Book 52 by the end of December. The reason being that most classics take a bit more reading power than modern fiction. They also take up more time. Every time I would have a classic in my hand, frustration settled in because it took more time than the allotted week to finish one of these beauties. It didn't take me long to ascertain that fluff books can be easily read in a week. Hence, contemporary fiction appeared more often than the literary greats of the past.
Don't get me wrong. There are some real gems in amongst contemporary fiction. I have read some very well-written books this year. There are quite a few books that are on my "I have read' list, that will be my favourite books of all time. The thing is, though, that the purpose of this challenge was to read those books that I have wanted to read for eons but have never read. They weren't read this year, either, because they would take longer to read than a week.
Here comes my decision: I have decided that next year, starting in Jan. I will not do another Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks Book Challenge. Nor will I do a Seasonal Book Challenge. The same with Reading Books that Start with the Letter S Book Challenge (there isn't such a challenge, at least not to my knowledge, but give it time.)
Oh, yeah, my decision. Well, the decision is that I am going to do my own, personal challenge all by myself. This challenge will be to read the books on AO's Yr. 7 book list (MIa will be doing this list in two years so I need to be prepared) as well as the books in my basement that have never been read. Books like The Count of Monte Cristo, Moll Flanders, Blink, The Great Gatsby. Oh, I am getting dizzy just thinking about them. I need to get these books read. I have wasted too much time. I am sure that I will continue to read the fluff books (I have a list just full of them) but I just don't want to read only of that genre. I want more variety and I think the only way to attain that variety is to take away the element of pressure. That is what I will be doing at the beginning of January.
I received a Get Well card earlier this week from the wife of my dad's ex-boss. I was touched that she took the time to send me her best wishes. What touched me most was the passage that she wrote out on the back of the card. The passage was written by John Ruskin. It took my breath away
In our whole life melody, the music is broken off here and there by rests and we think we have come to the end of time. God sends a time of forced leisure, a time of sickness and disappointed plans and makes a sudden pause in the hymns of our lives and we lament that our voice must be silent and our part missing in the music which ever goes up to the ear of our Creator. Not without design does God write the music of our lives. Be it ours to learn the time and not be dismayed at the rests. If we look up, God will beat the time for us. -- John Ruskin
I have been pondering some things lately. Things that have caused me to wonder why--why are people like this. Most people would tell me to forget about it, it's not worth stewing about, but I can't forget it because I am afraid that if I don't figure out the meaning of all of this, my feelings will turn to bitterness. I don't need that right now.
I have decided to write this all out to help me figure it out. I hesitate to do this as I don't want my words and thoughts to be construed as criticism. I am purely trying to figure out why this is happening. I guess this where I confess that I have been guilty of the same behaviour so I have no business casting stones. I just want to understand why so I can turn things around for me, although I think the experience that I have had in the last two months have caused a change already.
Okay, getting on to my thoughts. I have been a bit taken aback by the lack of support from my church during my cancer situation. Sure, I have received prayer support. People are quite willing to tell me that they have been praying for me but that has been the extent of their contact with me. Three women from my church have called me to ask how I have been doing and how my surgery went. No one else has called. Now, when I say support I mean emotional support--calling me to see how things went. I got very little of that. Actually, my Pastor never contacted me either until two and a half weeks after my sugery.. I went to church on Sunday and the older women talked to me and asked me how I was doing but the younger ones ignored me. They didn't even talk to me.
I have been wondering why this is. As usual I initially thought that they are angry with me because I haven't been going to church regularly this past year. I have had a rough year and I needed time to sort things out, so I pulled out of my church obligations and have only been attending church once or twice a month. So I thought that these women might be upset that I wasn't holding up my part of the church. But for six years before, I went to church every week and was involved in many programs so I hope they weren't begrudging me a bad year. On further thought, I don't think that is the reason for their avoidance.
I was talking to a dear friend yesterday. Her father died two weeks ago and she said she has experienced the same thing in her church. No one has acknowledged her father's death. We were comparing notes and trying to figure out why this happens. I noted that the women who did contact me were older women. Our thoughts on this was that the older women have experienced more in their lives and that experience has given them empathy to understand what is going on in other's lives.
The younger women have busy lives. They have families to take care of, jobs to attend to and life is buzzing around them. They don't have time to contact those that are hurting, other than praying for them. Please don't misunderstand me, prayer is important but tangible support is just as important (when I say tangible I mean human contact.) I think another reason for the avoidance is that they just don't know what to say. How do you talk to a person whose life just was turned upside down by life's happenings. How can these women possibly know what I have been going through if they haven't been through it? How can they know the depth of emotion if it has never visited them before?
I have been thinking lots about this as I was like this as well. When I heard that people were going through a rough time, I would either a) avoid them or b) tell them that I was praying for them but then go on my merry way. My reasons for doing this was because I had no emotional knowledge of what it was like to experience these kinds of situations. I had no idea of the depth of emotion one goes through during these times. I know now. I have been convicted by this throughout my own situation. God has given me empathy for those who are being tossed around by life's waves. I pray that that empathy will not fade as time goes on.
I recently read the book Tha Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale. This book was pure fluff but I came away from it with a great idea. The main character in the book would always make three pies once a week. The first pie was for her own family. The other two pies were to be given away to someone who needed some encouragement, someone who needed to know that they were being thought of and prayed for. Becky (the character) would ask God to bring someone to mind who needed a pie. Every week God would bring people to her thoughts who needed her kindness. I really liked that idea. So I made two pies yesterday, one for my family and the other for my friend. I think that I will make that idea a part of my life.
It has helped to write this all out. The thoughts were making my brain hurt. It has helped to crowd out the bitterness in thinking why these things are happening and to recognize that I am guilty of the same things. The time for thinking and pondering is over, now it is time for action, for doing.
Latest news on the cancer front: my pathology report came back last week and the cancer is officially gone. 
We are so relieved and thankful here on the Prairie. My stitches came out as well. I am now able to walk minus the Granny Grunt Shuffle. My range of motion has increased quite a bit as well. Even though I have been discouraged by how quickly recovery has been, according to those who are wiser in the ways of surgery, I am healing very nicely.
We were sideswiped, though, with some unexpected news. At the beginning of this whole situation, the surgeon told me very emphatically that I would not need further treatment after the surgery. He told me this a few times. I relayed this information on to my children. The surgery became our goal as to getting back to life as we once knew it. This was our focus: get through surgery then we can put this all behind us.
It seems that they have moved the goal posts on us. I am now being referred to the cancer clinic in Regina to see if I do indeed need further treatment. Before you start telling your computer screen that this is all just routine (as many people have told me the past few days,) let me assure you that I am aware of this. I understand why they are doing this and I appreciate it. Even though I do not relish seeing another doctor ( who will probably not have the same sparkling personality as my 'good doctor.') I am relieved that follow up will be done.
I am not the one who is having a problem with all of this; it is my children. Right now, when they need the game plan to stay exactly the way that it was relayed to them, they feel a bit shellshocked because this whole thing is not over. There are more drs, maybe more tests, more everything. They don't want more. They want over. They need over. They thirst for over.
Rocky is especially having a hard time with all of this. He overheard me talking to the surgeon's receptionist about the referral. When I told him that I would have to see another doctor, his first question to me, accompanied with a look of dread was, "Is the cancer back?" I assured him that it was not. I told him that the doctor just wants to see if I will need medicine to make sure that the cancer does not come back. Again, the look of dread, but this time fear was mingled in with it. "Will you lose your hair?" I told him that I didn't think they would use that kind of medicine.
The floodgates were opened then and the tears flowed. It broke my heart. I cried along with him. I held him tight and prayed that God would give me the words to comfort his heart. The words didn't come. I don;t think they exist.
The tears have been ongoing all weekend. The clarifying questions have been alternated with requests to play cards wtih me or just to cuddle. He just needs to be with his Mama, in case she disappears.
I keep hearing people tell me that this is all routine. How do you explain routine to an 8 yr. old boy? In his world there is nothing routine about cancer. Actually, there is nothing routine about it in my world either.
A neighbour phoned me the other night to inquire about my surgery. She asked me if I had been doing school with the kids during the whole cancer thing. I told her that we weren't doing the full schedule but we were doing a lighter version of it.
There was silence.
I knew what she was thinking. How are those kids going to learn on a lighter version of school? I considered telling her what I considered 'lite school' but I decided I didn't need to defend myself to anyone. I knew that, even though the kids weren't getting every subject, they were getting the ones that mattered.
I think if I had listed all of the things that we do for school now, she would have ended her silence on her own. Now, we don't cover everything every day. If I am having a rough day (recovering from surgery has taken longer than I had initially anticpated. Doesn't it always?) then we may skip school altogether. But most days we have been covering math, reading, latin, Shakespeare (the real thing,) poetry, Greek Mythology and many other read alouds. I think we have done very well... considering.
When I first read The Well Trained Mind and came to the section on outlining, I quickly came to the conclusion that this was one area that we would skip over entirely. I have a deep loathing for outlining. I don't really know why. It just doesn't make sense to me. Maybe it requires too many brain cells for me to make sense of it. I'm not sure. I do know that when I was in college, I would always write my paper first then fill out the required outline afterwards. I could never do it the other way around. I guess I made up the outline mentally and was not able to carry that out on paper. Because of that, I consider outlining a bunch of gobbledy-gook.
The WTM encourages middle-schoolers to start outlining sections of their reading, preferably non-fiction. In this way they are analyzing how the pros do it and are learning for their own use. For some reason, I am having major difficulties with this. I just can't seem to figure out the supporting statements for each main idea. I know that this can be rectified by practise on my part but it is a bit daunting when I think I need to teach this to me kids.
I was a bit relieved, when reading WTM again recently, to see that for 10 yr. olds the first step in learning how to outline is just gathering the main idea in every paragraph. I can do this. I have been having Mia using Story of the World for this first step. She has been doing very well with this. Next year, we will have to move to the next step and that is when my angst will be thrust into full throttle.
Another easy baby step to teach outlining was suggested by a fellow elist member. When reading our stories (I will probably use the models from CW Homer) I will point out the beginning, middle and ending of the story. We will then show this in a simple outline:
I. Introduction
what happened first
II. Body (middle)
what was the core of the story
III. Conclusion (end)
how did the story end
Well, I can handle that. That is enough for us to handle for this year. I will worry about the next step next year. The procrastinator in me likes these baby steps. 
I read this post at Holy Experience the other day. It struck a chord with me. A deep chord. Since our little life bump last month, we have been letting things slide quite a bit. I guess it is understandable considering the potential 'huge-ness' of the situation but now that the worst is over, it is time to pick ourselves up and brush off the dust from bad habits. The problem was where to start? There were so many things that we had let go by the wayside, how do we gather everything back? Ann's post gave me some ideas of how to do just that.
Ann's post is about a day well lived and how to know if you have, indeed, done just that. She has 7 areas or rungs of a ladder, if you will, that, if you have these 7 areas present in your day, then you have lived the day well. I really like this idea. I also like her 7 rungs. I am going to shamelessly take these rungs and apply them to our own family so that we can get back into the game of life.
Here are the 7 rungs of a well-lived day:
1) Listening: did we start our day with listening to Jesus today? Did we spend time with Him and His Word? Did we take His Word and place them deep in our heart to have armor for the day?
2) Love: did we love Jesus by loving others? Were we kind to those around us or did we snap back with impatience?
3) Labor: Who did we serve today? A good day consists of hard work. What kind of work did we do today?
4) Loveliness: What did we see, what did we hear, what did we read that brought beauty to our souls?
5) Literature: What did we discover in good books today?
6) Language: How did we speak today?
7) Logic: How did we scaffold into new ideas and understanding today?
Ann goes into more detail with these rungs so I encourage you to pop over there and read the entire post.
I have been thinking about how to tie accountabiliy into these rungs. Since cancer sauntered into our lives, we haven't been having many meals together, especially since my surgery. I still can't sit on a chair, so meals at the table have gone by the wayside. I was thinking, though, that the key to all of this is to get back to the table and let this be the setting for our discussions about how our day went according to the 7 rungs. This could be the foundation for some really good discussions. This is something that we have been missing as of late.
I am comforted by these 7 rungs. All is not lost. We just need to keep climbing the ladder.
Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Candians! My family celebrated Thanksgiving with extended famly yesterday. I wasn't able to go as I knew my leg could not handle being up and around for any extended period of time. So I stayed home and did some school planning. The kids and I will celebrate today.
I thought, considering all that has happened to our family as of late, it would be helpful to have a 'thankful' list in honour of this day.
My Gratitude List
I am thankful for:
1) my beloved who works very hard to put food on the table, clothes on our back and books on our shelves. Due to his hard work, I am able to stay home and be with our children. I consider this a privilege.
2) Mia, my little drama queen. She is growing up so very fast, it is making me blink furiously. Her sense of humour and profound way of thinking makes it a joy to have conversations with her.
3) Rocky, our resident clown. His sense of humour is a breath of fresh air. It amazes me how quick he can throw out the one liners. Also, his sweet spirit makes my heart sing on many occasions.
4) Missy, ah Missy!....my complicated, sweet Missy. She keeps my on my toes with all of her thoughts and actions. As she blazes her own trail, she may get burned a few times along the way but I know that she will be just fine.
5) books. Books comfort me, inspire me, soothe me, strengthen me, teach me. Books are the foundation of me.
6) music. Music does the same things for me that books do. Music lifts me up and holds me together.
7) sunsets. There is no better place to see a sunset than on the Prairies. They take your breath away. They remind you every day that there is a God and all is right with the world because He is in control.
8) tea. I know, silly item. I am new to the fragrance of tea. I have discovered, though, that tea forces you to slow down. It makes you sit and just be. Tea is the foundation of simplicity. Of all things simple, there has to be tea.
9) nights. After everyone is in bed, I snuggle up with a book and a cup of tea while music plays softly is the background. This is my time to regroup. This is my time to contemplate, forgive and rethink. It is my time to be thankful for all of the days happenings--good and bad.
10) cancer. The apparance of cancer in my life has, thankfully, been a brief yet a profound one. This little, life-sucking disease has taught me many life lessons in a small period of time and for this I am thankful. One of the things it has taught me is that the simplest things in life are the richest. Things like a giggle, a cup of tea, a game of cards, a shared cookie. Oh, I love the simple things.
Even though He is not on the list, it is a given that He is the umbrella that covers all of these things. Without Christ, there would be no Beloved, no children, no sunsets, no simple things, no life lessons. Thank you, Lord, for all that you have brought into my life.
I can usually handle a great deal when it comes to literature. I can handle graphic details of the intimate variety as well as of the violent kind. Those things usually don't bother me. I guess you could say that I am desensitized to these sorts of things, a fact I am not proud of. While I was reading The Reliable Wife by Robert Goolick, I realized that I am not as desensitized as I originally thought. In fact, I had a hard time getting through this book because of the base, intimate details that were found plastered throughout the pages. If i twasn't for the fact that the interesting storyline kept me going, I wouldn't have finished the story. This, though, was a great story. I was hooked from the beginning.
The Reliable Wife is set in Wisconsin in the early 1900's. The story is about Ralph Truitt, who advertises for a wife. The wife he chooses, sight unseen, turns out to be a woman of many secrets. One of those secrets is that she comes to Wisconsin with the intent to kill him.
This story is full of secrets. They seem to pop up just when you think you should give up on the book. The secrets are ingeniously placed to keep you reading. Not only is this book about secrets but it is about forgiveness and that, even amongst the most darkest and basest of situations, you can find beauty. Beauty is present anywhere, you just have to look.
The Reliable Wife was a bit too heavy on detail but it was also lush with excellent writing and an amazing story.
I have to catch up with my book recording, I am woefully behind. It's amazing how much you can read when stitches hamper your body's movement.
Racing Odysseus is my kind of book. It is all about the Great Books, a liberal arts education and proving other people (including yourself) wrong. Roger Martin is a 61 yr. old college president. He has been in the throes of academia all of his life. But his experience is mainly in the administrative side of education.
Life is going along at a relatively calm speed for Roger when he finds out he has cancer. It is an agressive form of melanoma. It is life threatening. Of course, this changes Roger's entire perspective of life. After he wins his battle, he decides that he needs to do something different, at least for awhile. He decides to take a sabbatical from being a college president and go back to school as a freshman. The college he enrolls at is St. John's college in Annapolis, Md.
St. John's is an interesting college. The Great Books are their curriculum. That's it. There are no textbooks, just the Great Books, even for math and science. The students learn the material by discussing. They discuss with tutors and each other. This school is quite unique in this day and age, even amongst other liberal arts colleges.
Martin tells about the seminars he has with the other students and tutors as they discuss the various Great Books. Martin is able to relate to many of these books with his life experiences, before and after cancer. He also gets on the student bandwagon, so to speak, by trying out for the rowing club. These experiences are also fodder for teaching Roger about life.
I have been finding out this year that my favourite genre of book is the memoir. Many great insights of life have popped up through the memoirs that I have been reading. Racing Odysseus is no exception.
MIssy has been having difficulty finding her own niche in the world. Being the youngest, she can easily see the gifts of her siblings but cannot yet see her own. Often I have heard these words, "Mia is good at reading and putting on plays. Rocky is good at math and being funny, but what am I good at?" Having your mother tell you in what areas you shine just doesn't cut it. It's not the same thing as actually knowing it.
MIssy is very good at dancing. She has a natural rhythm that does her well for dancing and gymnastics. I have thought many a time of putting her in dance lessons but they are a bit too costly for us to maintain on a regular basis. Gymnastics is a possibility but I don't think she really likes doing it, not as much as dancing. I have told her that she is good in these areas but when she isn't actually doing them, it is hard for her to see it.
Another area that Missy shines is art. She loves to make creations out of anything that is available. She is always going in the craft cupboard and making things with markers, paint, clay, playdough. You name it, she is using it. She loves crafting.
This year Missy is finally old enough to participate in the art classes offered by our local art gallery. I wasn't too sure if she would be interested seeing that this would be an independent venture. She is used to doing things with her siblings. I asked for her input and I was met with loud cheers. Her first art class was last week. I walked her to the door, gave her a kiss and let her go her own way. I waited for that hour, wondering how she was doing, if she was enjoying herself, if she was able to keep quiet long enough to let the teacher talk. When you aren't used to a class setting, well, all sorts of things could happen.
When the hour was up, I made my way to her class. Everyone else had left. Missy was still seated at her chair, working on her creation. Creation is the right word. Missy sculpted an elephant out of clay using a pop bottle as the base. Now, I am used to my children's art work being of unrecognizable things. I usually don't know what they are until my child enlightens me. There was no need for enlightenment here. This creation looked like an elephant. Like a beautiful elephant. Missy had put feathers in around the elephant's head like the circus elephants. She also had a necklace full of beads around her neck and she had gems positioned ever so carefully on her body. She was a beautiful elephant. She was an elephant who was made with care and creativity.
I asked Missy how she liked her first art class. I had to step out of the way so I wouldn't drown from all of the gushing. To say that she adored her first class is an understatement. All she talks about is what happened in her first class. I think, finally, Missy has found her niche, all because of an elephant.
Rocky has had a rough summer. He has had many difficult run-ins with bees. He was stung twice in one day about a month ago. This has left a bitter (and fearful) taste in his mouth. It didn't help any that we had lots of hornets buzzing around our back door a few weeks ago. Rocky refused to leave the house in fear of being stung again. He is relieved for colder weather and a recent snowfall that has graced us with its presence. Every time he goes outside I can hear him repeat this little mantra, "It is cold outside, the bees are dead. It is cold outside, the bees are dead." He needs to say this little verse a few times before he ventures out in the cold.
One day this week, we were having our Morning Time. One day a week we read a nature story. This particular day the story was on -- you guessed it -- bees! When I read the title out loud, I heard an audible gasp coming from Rocky. I glanced his way and saw his eyes bulging out.
"Rocky, this is a story. The bees are not alive here. They cannot hurt you."
His reply was, "I don't care. I don't even want to read about them."
"But maybe if you read about them and get to know them better, then that knowledge will lessen your fear."
I could see, by looking at Rocky's eyes, that he had just experienced an 'ah-ha' moment.
"I know! I will listen to the story and find out all about the bees. I will search for their weaknesses and then will be able to destroy them!" I thought that sentence reeked a bit of Super Heroes, but if it gets the kids to listen, who am I to criticize?
Rocky was very disappointed to find out that the story did not help him find any weakness. Well, if you were a KingBird, then you would be their weakness. But, alas, we are only mere humans so we will just have to rely on Raid next summer as our plan of attack.
I have been under the assumption that once our little cancer drama was over that we would be able to go back to our school routine and live life as we once did. I had the illusion that we would be able to pick up where we left off and go our merry little way. I am beginning to see that I have been sadly mistaken about this one.
Even though the cancer is gone, I am still feeling the effects of what this past month has done to me and my family. I am still feeling battered and bruised. More importantly, my kids are still feeling all of this, too. Even though my body is healed, our souls are not. At least, not yet.
I have been thinking about what we are going to do school-wise. We cannot go back to the way things were. We just aren't ready for that. I think that we are going to continue on with how we have been learning for the past month. We will continue this way until Christmas, then we will evaluate and see where we will go next. I think this is the wisest thing that I can do right now.
We have been doing school in a casual way the last month and it has been nurturing to our souls. The last week, we have been doing school in my bedroom. It has been so comforting to me and the kids. We have been doing lots of reading (a book on giants, Shakespeare, Greek Mythology, Understood Betsy, the Ramona books, Poetry, Plutarch and nature stories) and a smattering of the other things. I like doing school in my bedroom. I like cuddling up wth my kids on our queen-sized bed for the morning and just reading. That has been very comforting to me. It is making the emotional bruises begin to fade. I just want to spend our learning time in this way for awhile yet. I am not ready to let go of this. I don't think my kids are, either. They are still reeling from the intensity of the last few weeks and they need time to breathe. Just breathe. Cuddling with their mom with a good book will allow them to breathe deeply for awhile.
Having made this decision, I feel stronger already. I am relieved.
Okay, I am caught up with my book posts. Whew!
I am not a big Shannon Hale fan. I read her Austenland book in August and I wasn't very impressed with it. It just seemed a bit too shallow for me. I couldn't really understand why she wrote it. It was just too predictable for me. So when I started reading about her newest book, The Actor and the Housewife, I was of the thought plan that I would pass on this one. Then I started reading about it on Melissa Wiley's blog. Well, Melissa's words started niggling at me and I was intrigued enough to think about getting it. A few weeks ago, I was at the library and, lo and behold, I saw it on the shelf. So I deemed it providence and snatched it up.
In starting the book, I thought I was right in staving off reading it, but as the pages whittled by, i started to change my tune. This book has more depth than the aforementioned book. There are still problems with the storyline but, all in all, I really liked it.
Becky Jacks is a 7 month pregnant Mormon housewife who meets Felix Callhan, a popular actor. The two start out of the gate with witty conversation. This chance meeting evolves into an unusual friendship that spans 11 years. This book examines whether a married woman can have a deep friendship with a man. As I said before, some parts of the book are not realistic but, after all, this is fiction, realism is not a pre-requisite.
The one thing that I appreciate about the book was that it does not end predictably. Yay! I am so tired of predictability. I like the ending. I know many readers of this book did not like it, but i am a reader who reads to a different drum and thought the ending was just how it should be.
I have debated about whether putting a spoiler in this post but I think I am going to go ahead and do it because something happens in this book that I was not prepared for and it really blew me out of the ballpark. In fact, it changed the book for me in a way. I wished that I had been forewarned about this particular something. So here goes the warning: if you have had a recent bout with cancer, be prepared in reading this book. That is all of the warning that I will give.
Next book: Racing Odysseus.
I stumbled upon the new series of Rhys Bowen's last spring and enjoyed it a great deal. It was a fluff book in the simplest of terms but it was fun fluff. I inadvertently found the next book in the series a few weeks ago at the library and knew that this was a perfect book for my hospital stay. Hence, the reading of A Royal Pain.
This book is set in England in the 1930's. The main character is Georgiana "Georgie" Rannoch, 34th in line to the royal throne. She has the inside scoop to the Queen herself. Georgie, though, does not live a life of royalty. Georgie is feeling the effects of the Depression and has found a job to support herself. She keeps her employment to herself, though, as this isn't good advertisement for the royal family. Her job and her royal connections give her fodder for mysteries to solve.
I am really enjoying this series. It is just a cute little mystery to take one's mind off of one's scars. The next, and latest, book in the series is A Royal Flush. I will be searching that one out very soon.
I am afraid that there are going to be a few book posts this week as I have not done anything but read this past week.
When I first heard about Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, I knew that this was not a book that I would enjoy reading. I am not a sci-fi book lover. I am not into fantasy books either. I didn't really know what category Hunger Games fell into but I was pretty sure it would be a genre that I didn't like. After reading quite a few blog posts with glowing reviews, I decided to just try it. The worst that could happen was that I would take it back to the library after the first 30 pages.
I was totally shocked to find out that I could not put this book down. I was hooked from the beginning. The shock comes from the idea that this is not a book that I would ordinarily read as it is set in the future. Way in the future. North America has been destroyed and has been replaced with a country that is separated into 13 districts. Every year, based on a lottery, each district has to give up two of their teenagers for a sporting event called the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is an event that promotes the survival of the fittest. The object of the game is to kill all of your opponents and be the last one to survive.
Katniss and Peeta are the recipients of the Hunger Games for District 12. This book tells of their adventures from the winning of the lottery to the last final moments of the Games.
This book is quite intriguing. There is alot of guesswork involved in reading this book. You are continually trying to figure out who is being sincere or who is playing mind games so they can win the prize. Hunger Games is the first of a series. The next book of the series, Catching Fire, was released last month. I have already put a hold on this book at the library. I am eagerly awaiting its arrival.
A month ago I was told that I had cancer. Now, in 4 very short weeks, the drama is over. The cancer is (hopefully) gone. It is interesting to me that your whole world can tip over and then be set back on its axis in such a short period of time. This past month has been a surreal experience of an emontional roller coaser ride. I was given a short synopsis of what most people deal with in 6 months to a year and even longer. My brief glimpse into the world of cancer has given me many life lessons. I have learned how cancer affects family members, friends and even strangers. I have also learned how cancer can change the very fibre of your being. Yep! I learned this after only a month.
I had my surgery last Tuesday to remove my cancerous growth. There were a few bumps along the way. One of them was that the hospital told me that my surgery would only be day surgery. I told them that my surgeon had told me otherwise but they insisted that they were right. Luckily, I showed up with an overnight bag, just in case. My surgeon came to see me before the surgery and told me that I would be staying overnight. Yay for the overnight bag! I also had made arrangements for my kids to stay with their grandparents for a few days so I didn't have to worry about that, either. But at this point in the game, stability is very important. The last month has been wrought with changes and surprises, I didn't really need yet another surprise when we were getting into the homestretch. Stability is my friend these days and I am very protective of it.
Anyway, the surgery went very well. I had very little pain. I had discomfort but no pain. There wasn't even any need to use pain medication (darn it!) I came out of the anesthesia quite well. By 3:00 in the afternoon, I was very perky (which is unusual for me, okay, so maybe the anesthesia did have an effect on me.)
Five days have passed and I am very pleased with how things are going. I have a reputation for doing things too soon but, this time, I am very conscious about not rushing things. I am now able to walk minus the Granny Grunt shuffle. My incision is starting to tighten up so I am still having difficulty in walking upright but I am able to camoflauge that quite well. I am still having difficulty sitting in a chair as the chair presses against my incision but I am confident that in a few days I will have this mastered as well.
The only difficulty I am having with this whole scenario is my incision. Even though the surgeon told me that the incision would be big, even though I know that the scar will lessen as time marches on, the breath was still knocked out of me when I actually saw the incision. The term 'Frankenstein's monster' has set up residence in my brain and will not move out. That incision is the most hideous thing I have ever seen. I haven't cried much during this whole ordeal but the tears flowed freely after I saw the beginnings of my scar. I think the scar just placed this situation from surreal into the world of reality. It was jarring for me.
I was lamenting the appearance of my scar on my elist. (I have been so thankful for these ladies, for their prayers and their words of encouragement.) and a very wise woman commented that I should view this scar as my 'victory scar.' She said that I should use this scar as a visible reminder of God's grace and mercy to me and my family. This whole situation could have been so much worse, but for the grace of God, all I have is a scar. My victory scar.