13 Hours of Rain

Here is the update on my Embracing 40 Goals... 1.  Learn to play the piano.  My daughter's lessons are becoming more challenging, to the point that my husband has taken over monitoring her lessons. However, I am still doing my best to learn her key pieces. We are both learning about chord progressions. 2.  Learn to read and write either Hindi or Urdu.  Maybe I need to give up on this goal... I'd like to learn but motivation is lacking. So sad. I even speak less of the language with my children since they are in school most of the time. When they arrive home, I find it hard to speak complex Hindi/Urdu with them. 3.  Travel the world with you two kids and your Daddy.  I still dream of taking a trip in 2020. Though, I become more terrified as the date approaches, especially about travelling in the country of my ethnicity. India is such a difficult place to negotiate. It will stretch our families in ways unimaginable. I believe it will be one of thos...

It has been two decades since I snapped on downhill skis and plunged down a slope, all the while praying to God for divine safety. I was in my twenties then and much more adept than now. Yesterday, our family returned from our first skiing adventure. Your Daddy and I thought it was time to introduce you two to another winter sport. We live in Canada, after all. And to thrive in our almost half-a-year winter, embracing some winter sports is essential. By God's grace, we came home with nothing worse than sore bodies. Because of my 20 year skiing void, I enrolled myself in refresher lessons. I was the lone student in my instructor's class. My instructor was less than half my age. But he was kind, encouraging and hopeful in my skills. He progressed me from the bunny hill to the rope tow to the t-bar to the chair lift. In the end, he guided me down the green run, teaching me along the way and always cheering me on. He led me down the hill, pausing when things became difficult. I...

Today was "Semester Turn-Around Day", the one day that high school teachers get to wrap up the last minute flurry of Semester 1 and print out the course outlines for a new batch of students. One of my classes has thirty-five Gr. 10 students eager (???) to learn about the Foundations of Mathematics . I dragged in five more desks to extend my rows. My room will be jammed packed and my marking will probably go out-of-control. And in the face of impending cuts to school divisions because of sparse provincial coffers, I wonder how our teaching and learning will change. Will we be asked to do more with less, again ? I was speaking to a good friend of mine and her husband. We spoke of how the winds of prosperity are dying down in our province. Money is tight in the public sector. Hospitals are understaffed. Classrooms are overcrowded. And employees are burning out. Yet many people are still spending cash like they possess an unlimited bank account. Our society reacts to frug...

I have 1.25 hours to squeak this entry in before the arrival of 2018 in our prairie time zone. My posts were meager this year, which I sense will be the trend over the next while. I even failed to record all the prayers/verses we attempted to memorize during the latter part of this year. For the record, our Fall was spent on memorizing the Peace Pray of Saint Francis and Colossians 3:12-14 . I wish I could say we know each verse inside-out and backwards. But we don't. We are more familiar with the theme of each passage. 2017 promised to be a year at the cusp of something inspiring. But as I glance over the past 12 months, I survived instead of thrived. The biggest focus of this past year was re-entering my previous life as a teacher. However, many aspects have changed since my last full-time teaching assignment. Two children. New community. New school. New curriculum. New colleagues. New technology. And as I encountered the new, I felt old. I love to teach. That has not cha...

There is a danger in aspiring for the perfect, balanced life. For me, the perfect life is to teach mathematics with exceptional ability and maintain an beautifully organized home with all its nooks and crannies dusted. We own no financial debt and our savings are on track. My children have a fully engaged mother who spends quality time with them through various creative and intellectual pursuits. My daughter and son read fluently, spell with expertise, write with heed to grammar and know all their multiplication facts to 20 by the end of Grade 4. They never cry during piano practice. And they get along with each other like peas and carrots! Everyone is safe and happy and healthy. In that place of utopia, my husband has a devoted wife who creates romantic moments for him that are thoughtful and exhilarating. My meals are creative and delicious every day. All my relationships are well maintained and meaningful. Everyone who knows me as a friend, knows that I care because I am present wi...

Apparently, we are just a bunch of control-freaks. As an educator, I am asked to be flexible in my content delivery because students want control on when they receive their information and how they desire to interact with it (therefore, if some kid wakes up at 4 a.m., my classroom should be virtually accessible somehow). Zoom out, and our society is constantly trying to customize its experience, everything from ordering your McDonald's meal from the digital kiosk (to make your Big Mac "unique") to personalizing your cellphone with its case, settings, ring tone and screen saver. Millennials who are getting married and popping out children are pressured to make sure their events "epic" and "Instagram-worthy". Weddings have to standout from the girl next door (how dare we have the same photographer). The birthing experience has to be picturesque, serene and perfect. And the spelling of a kid's name should snag a domain. Forget "Jane" when ...

" You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it useful again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the light of the world -- like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see. Don't hide your light under a basket! Instead, put in on a stand and let it shine for all. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. " Matthew 5:13-16 It is dark outside. Spiritually dark. Morality is more and more socially constructed. The gold standard presented in ancient texts is viewed as... well... ancient. Our secular society, steeped in relativism, is a place of hypocrisy. The other day I was perusing the aisles of Children's Place , a popular story for infant and elementary aged children. I was trying to find t-shirts for my daughter. Here are some of the sayings: "On Fleek: a state of complete flawlessness. The q...