November

My mum and I have considered forgetting that this November happened. It was a rough month. Dad went into the hospital on November 4th with some concerning symptoms. After tests and other tests, he had surgery later that week. The following week, before they let him go home, they did an angiogram to see if there were any issues with his heart. They discovered clogged arteries and the need for bypass surgery.

Because their local hospital couldn't do the surgery, Dad had to be flown to Toronto (Mum went with him). Thanks to the generosity of my church and some of the members, I was able to fly out to see him and to help Mum through this time. Hotels were hard to find and very expensive (there was a popular singer in town both weekends). I called upon my friends and church family and we were able to get a place in the dorm of a seminary close to the hospital. 

Surgery was November 19th and everything went well. I spent the day updating the family and making sure Mum was okay and finding us food. In fact, that was pretty much my job for the week. By the end of my week in Toronto, I knew our section of the hospital fairly well, could find several coffee shops in the area, and had found two grocery stores so we didn't need to eat at the hospital food court all the time. I also found a dollar store and a drug store so I could run some errands for both parents.

I went home on November 25th. Mum and Dad were flown back home on November 27th, where Dad went back to the local hospital for follow up and such. He was discharged on November 29th. Of the entire month, there were 4 days when Dad was not in the hospital.

Once I was home, I crashed and slept a lot for the rest of the week (with some responsibilities in there and some catching up). I went into December feeling two weeks behind and needing to make up work meetings and a history class. I also haven't started decorating for Christmas.

It was a rough month, but I found that there were so many things to be thankful for:

1. That Dad had gone into the hospital with other symptoms and they discovered the heart problems; otherwise, it may have been discovered in a much worse way.
2. That my parents live in Ontario which meant that the surgery was done at Toronto General, the third best hospital in the world.
3. For excellent medical staff before, during, and after surgery.
4. For the friends who helped me look for, and were able to find, accommodations for Mum and me that weren't expensive.
5. For the people who ensured that I could fly down and be with my family (not only did the church help, but people from the church offered to help).
6. For the people who helped with other travel expenses so I could take care of Mum in Toronto without it breaking either of our budgets.
7. For so many people, even friends of friends and their churches, who prayed for us.
8. That my parents were sent home air ambulance rather than commercial, which was talked about.
9. For my job, both the flexibility and the higher ups who told me to take all the time I needed and we would work things out if I couldn't get my meeting finished in time (and "in time" was two weeks after they were supposed to be done).
10. That Dad is home and doing well.

With all that to be thankful for, perhaps I won't try to forget November after all.

Remembrance Day

I have a sweet nephew in the navy (he's very tall now and claims to be an adult but I think of him as little guy who I held the day he was born and as he got older was willing to accept hugs but not kisses from his auntie and was hesitant about going to a musical with me but then loved it). 

One of my church babies is joining the reserves (he insists that he's 18 but I still remember that little guy running down the hall at church and posing for pictures with Star Wars characters at the symphony and learning to read with a book about castles and knights).

I wish they were never in the military because I want to keep them safe. I'm proud of them for choosing the military to keep everyone else safe.

Wednesday Mornings

With the arrival of fall came the start of the women's study at church. There are over 100 women registered for the morning sessions, which had given me around 72 children to care for. It's a bit crowded in places, but I managed to fit everyone in.

My older boys are unsupervised this year; they have been told that if they behave properly, I will not need to find an adult to watch them. If there is trouble, they will have an adult in the room with them. We're two weeks in and they're doing okay!

The rest of the groups are running normally. The older girls (a group that suddenly includes the older 10 and 11 year old girls with the junior high -- high school girls attend the study) are on their own as always and doing well. I may need to find a little more time to spend with them as they are a slightly younger group. The other three groups have some older teens supervising them, and I spend some time with them as well. The oldest ones get trivia games; the littles get story time; and the middles get a story and then trivia. It's a lot of fun.

Next week is a fellowship week. The ladies bring food and spend the first hour or so in fellowship and brunch and the second hour with a guest speaker or in a special prayer time. My kids spend an hour working and then have game, craft, and play time. It's a lot of fun (even though it leaves me extra tired!).

I really, really love spending this time with my homeschool groups. There's always a lot of laughter and it's just fun for everyone.

Sunday School

A new year of Sunday School started last week. Things seemed to have gone well for the first two weeks; there were a couple changes to be made (some of the 4-year-olds weren't quite ready for Sunday School after all, so I moved some people around and fit in everyone on the wait list), but overall it went smoothly.

I'm teaching my children The Pilgrim's Progress this year. Someone gave me a curriculum that breaks it up nicely into sections to read to them with worksheets already prepared. Each chapter also includes vocabulary, very useful since it's in the original 17th Century English. The children have enjoyed learning about having a surly carriage and deriding people. 

It's a bit of a change. For the past several years I've written my own curriculum. Even when I reused material, I was always updating, changing, and trying to improve it. Having it all here in front of me is nice. To prepare, I just have to read it over, go over the Scripture verses, and go through the worksheet pages. There's still work, but much less of it.

Also, I love The Pilgrim's Progress and I'm delighted to be sharing it with the kids.

As You Wish

I was first introduced to the movie The Princess Bride at a World Vision 30-Hour Famine gathering. A rather large group of high schoolers from various churches would gather every year at two churches (they were side-by-side) to do the famine and have fun together. One year, around 1990, The Princess Bride was our late-night movie. I loved it from the start and have watched it many, many times since then. As such, I was pleased to stumble upon As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes (aka Westley, the farm boy who became the Dread Pirate Roberts).

The book was an interesting and entertaining look into the making of the movie, starting with the day Elwes first heard he was being considered for the role of Westly. As he is the author, most of the story is his experiences, but Elwes also provides the backgrounds of many of the major (and minor) players in the making of the movie. I particularly enjoyed learning about Andre the Giant's life. There are also text boxes throughout giving the perspectives of various actors, Rob Reiner (the director) and William Goldman (the author) on different aspects of the making of the movie.

The book almost ends sadly because the movie was not marketed well and did not have great box office success. People who watched it loved it, but it was hard to get people to watch it. Then everything changed when the movie came out on video. Suddenly everyone was watching it and quoting from it, including strangers on the street, waitresses, Pope John Paul II, and President Clinton and his daughter. From box office disappointment to cult classic that is still loved today, 37 years later.

If you enjoyed The Princess Bride, I definitely recommend As You Wish as a companion to the movie. Learning about how it was made in no way detracts from the movie; in fact, I found that it adds to it as I read about the work that went into preparing for the sword fight, the challenges along the way, and the absolute fun they had making it.

Fall is Here!

Yes, okay, not technically for a couple more weeks, but I am tentatively rejoicing in the coming of fall. Tentatively because it was around 31 degrees on Sunday and that is just too hot for September (or for any season). I am not a fan of summer and heat, so I've been waiting for fall since June.

(Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy summer. There were some very nice parts: vacation, rest, reading, catching up on stuff, more rest and reading; it's just that I don't like the heat.)

There are some out there who think that if you complain about the heat in summer, you can't complain about the cold in winter. That, of course, in nonsense. It is perfectly possible to dislike -30 as much as you dislike +30.

And I know that both summer and winter are necessary parts of life. I accept that. I just don't love them (but winter is still better because it's possible to keep adding layers to stay warm, but you can remove all the layers in summer and still be hot).

Spring is nice. I like the new green everywhere and flowers blooming and no more heavy clothing. The only drawback (for me) is that spring can be muddy and messy. And short: spring always seems too short to enjoy properly.

But fall...now that 's a lovely season. It's cooler and the leaves change colour and it feels good outside. It's time for my favourite sweater-jacket (the blue one with the bluebirds) and it's getting to be soup time. It's a lovely time of year and I'm so glad it's here.

Trying New Recipes

In my quest to be more healthy, I've been trying new recipes. Happily, the internet is full of recipes that claim to be some combination of healthy, cheap, and easy. Although sometimes we have differing definitions of "easy" and anything that requires fish is not going to be cheap! At any rate, it's been fun trying new foods with various degrees of success.

The Stuffed Peppers were pretty good, but next time I'm either going to use fresh chopped tomatoes with some Italian seasoning instead of the canned ones or I'll get the canned ones that are seasoned. And rather than order peppers in my regular online grocery order, I'll go to the store and buy them so I can make sure they are big enough!

The Modern Tuna Casserole was a bust. It wasn't terrible and I didn't mind eating it, but lacked flavour. I guess I could fix it by adding more spices of some sort.

Caramelized Beef with Rice was good, but I think if I make it again, I'll cut back on some of the seasoning.

Saucy Tomato Pork Chops were good and I'd make them again, but I have two other pork chop recipes that I still want to try!

This week was a very "chicken" week because chicken breasts were on sale. I had Chicken Strawberry Spinach Salad (very good); Chicken Stir-Fry (also good, although I changed up the veggies a bit); and Pineapple BBQ Baked Chicken Foil Packets (such perfectly moist chicken; it was amazing).

This week's meals were very good, but I think I'm going to take a little break from chicken next week and try some other sources of proteins!