Warning and welcome!

Warning! This is NOT your little sisters blog! If you're looking for the latest review of the Anthropologie catalogue, or a linky party or even an instagram photo you are in the wrong place. What I've got is the popcorn-for-dinner, teenage-daughter-as-a-different-species, homeschooling, hospicing kind of life and that's exactly what I intend to write about. So sit down on a sticky chair, pull up a cup of tea that you've rewarmed in the microwave 3 times and have a laugh at the Further Adventures of Cassie Canuck; homeschool edition.



Monday, September 10, 2012

Not "THE" but "A"

On the second week of home schooling the curriculum gave to me "calendar time."  Calendar time is not as easy as saying the days of the week.  Ohhhhhh noooooooooo!  Suggested activities for calendar time include counting the days we've been in school, skip counting by 10s (in kindy?  really?) Writing all kinds of sentences, singing songs, reviewing months, checking weather etc, etc.  If I did all the things listed on the 3 pages I'D be exhausted before we even began lessons never mind the kids.

So today we got the day of the week down then  T checked weather in both Ohio and Kamloops on my ipad.  Compare and contrast.  Eventually I'll make N a cute little weather wheel.  For now he just looked out the window.  We wrote some sentences that resulted in T having a major meltdown.  I told him that he could be a guest writer here to improve his writing skills. 

Eventually I'd like to add the cute little calendar things like telling them that according to the people who make up silly calendar stuff, yesterday was teddy bear day.  They'll love that Wednesday is chocolate milkshake day as well as being video game day. 

When they're older we'll do "on this day in history."  Obviously no research needed on what tomorrows entry would be in fact the new calendar calls it "Patriot Day."  .  But September 11 in our family has it's own personal history as well.  Something significant happened to our family not on THE September 11th but on A September 11th.

I wasn't here the day the world stopped turning (cue Alan Jackson song).  I mean that I wasn't here in the U.S. but nor was I home.  I was in stuck-in-the-middle-of-nowhere South Korea.  I had spotty Internet, a huge time difference, no foreigners around and lots of chaos because until that moment I didn't know that New York City HAD Twin Towers.  It was a week before I'd make it to the foreign church in a large city an hour away.  The first opportunity I had to talk about the events in English.  When I returned home to Canada 3 weeks later everybody was sick of talking about it.  I will always feel that I missed out on something.  There is something to be said about walking in to the hair salon,  seeing what's on the TV there, and being able to discuss.  There's something about standing in line at a grocery store and reading a headline.  Then having the lady behind you say "isn't that a shame?"  That proves to me that sometimes grief is a collective experience.  I guess that's why we have grief support groups.

On September 11th of the NEXT year I was back in Korea.  This time in the large city with the foreign church.  I went to dinner with friends and we reminisced.  Or more like "clung" to each other.  Foreigners spend a long time clinging to each other no matter what the circumstances.

Ahhhhhhh but on September 11 of the year after that my life changed dramatically.  On September 11, 2003 I got engaged.  To the first man I'd ever talked on the phone to.  To the first man I'd ever kissed.  To a man I'd never met in person before that day.  D and I had met on line only 6 weeks before.  Until then I'd never talked to a boy on the phone, never had a boyfriend.  Not for any religious reasons just because I hadn't found anyone I was interested in.   My mom used to joke that even though the best china  was left on the shelf, it occasionally got down to be dusted.  D flew from St. Louis to Vancouver and my parents and I were there to meet the plane.  He kissed me hello and hours later asked me to marry him.  6 weeks after that we were married.  A year after that we were awaiting the birth of baby T. 

I didn't get to publicly mourn THE September 11th, but I sure got to celebrate on A September 11th. 

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